1st February, 2023 in Society & Culture

10 LGBTQ+ history icons you may not have heard of

June marks the beginning of Pride month, a month-long celebration and recognition of the LGBTQ+ community, the history and future of gay rights and relevant civil rights movements. To commemorate this, we’re highlighting some people throughout history that may not be as well known but are still crucial parts of LGBTQ+ history.

Stormé DeLarverie (1920-2014)

Dubbed the ‘Rosa Parks of the gay community’, Stormé DeLarverie is widely regarded as the woman who started the fight back against the police during the Stonewall raid of 1969, an event that helped define a change in LGBT+ rights activism.

James Baldwin (1924-1987)

In his teen years, American novelist James Baldwin began to feel smothered for being both African-American and gay in a racist and homophobic America. Baldwin escaped to France where he wrote essays critiquing race, sexuality and class structures. He brought to light the challenges and complexities black and LGBT+ people had to face at the time.

Marsha P Johnson (1945-1992)

Marsha P Johnson was a gay liberation activist and an African-American transgender woman. Known as an outspoken advocate for gay rights, Marsha was one of the prominent figures in the Stonewall uprising in 1969. She co-founded the gay and transvestite advocacy organization S.T.A.R. alongside close friend Sylvia Rivera.

Mark Ashton (1960-1987)

Mark Ashton was an Irish gay rights activist who co-founded the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners Movement with close friend Mike Jackson. The support group collected donations at the 1984 Lesbian and Gay Pride march in London for the miners on strike, and the story was later immortalised in the 2014 film Pride.

Barbara Gittings (1932-2007)

Barbara Gittings was a prominent American LGBT+ activist and was involved in promoting positive literature about homosexuality in libraries. She was part of the movement to get the American Psychiatric Association to drop homosexuality as a mental illness in 1972.

Colette (1873-1954)

The French author and legend Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, better known as Colette, lived openly as a bisexual woman, and had relationships with many prominent queer women, including Napoleon’s niece Missy. Police were called to the Moulin Rouge in 1907 when Colette and Missy shared a kiss on the iconic stage. Best known for her novel Gigi, Colette also wrote the Claudine series, which follows the titular character who ends up despising her husband and has an affair with another woman.

Audre Lorde (1932-1992)

Audre Lorde described herself as a ‘black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet.’ Her work has become synonymous with LGBT freedom. Her poetry is well-known in LGBT and black activist circles, and it powerfully calls for racial justice.

Jackie Shane (1940-2019)

Jackie Shane was an American soul and rhythm and blues singer in Toronto in the 1960s. Considered to be a pioneer transgender performer, she soon became the lead vocalist for The Motley Crew, and relocated to Toronto with them in late 1961 before having a successful music career of her own. Throughout her active musical career and for many years thereafter, Shane was written about by nearly all sources as a man who performed in ambiguous clothing that strongly suggested femininity. The few sources that actually sought out her own words on the matter of her own gender identification were more ambiguous, but she appeared to simply dodge questions about her gender altogether.

Gilbert Baker (1951-2017)

Gilbert Baker was an American artist, gay rights activist and designer of the rainbow flag which debuted back in 1978. The flag has become widely associated with LGBT+ rights, and he refused to trademark it saying it was a symbol for everyone.

Pierre Seel (1923-2005)

Pierre Seel was conscripted into the German army, and is said to be the only French person to have openly testified about his experience of being deported due to his homosexuality during World War II. For a long time after his imprisonment, anti-homosexuality laws meant that Seel could not tell his story. After he came out, he was a devout activist and amplified the voices of gay Holocaust survivors.