Famous gay women in history

Meet the glam guru who refused to give up, even during chemo. It’s impossible to contain the entirety of important queer women from history in one article on the internet, but we’ve selected. These 20 people including Lorraine Hansberry, Lorena Hickok, and Dorothy Arzner all helped push toward wider acceptance of LGBTQ people through their contributions to their fields. Meet some famous faces from history, science, drama, sport, music, politics, and entertainment who identify as LGBT+.

Delving into the history of famous lesbians in the world shows us some of the powerful women who refused to conform to societal norms. The following are the forty most famous and inspiring lesbian celebrities in the world: 1. Jane Lynch. Photographed by Greg Hernandez*derivative work: – Kerαunoςcopia galaxies, CC BY-SA , via Wikimedia Commons. It’s no secret that LGBTQ+ women have been breaking boundaries since the beginning of time.

Unfortunately, patriarchy and homophobia often leave their identities obscured from history. While every March marks Women’s History Month, queer and transgender women have yet to get their flowers. Gelatin Silver Print. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera with a statue. The city of New York claimed the monument will be the "first permanent, public artwork recognizing transgender women in the world.

Here are a few of their stories, represented by objects in the Smithsonian's collections. Entertainer and activist Josephine Baker performed in vaudeville showcases and in Broadway musicals, including Shuffle Along. In , she moved to Paris to perform in a revue. When the show closed, Baker was given her own show and found stardom.

She became the first African American woman to star in a motion picture and to perform with an integrated cast at an American concert hall. At the March on Washington in , Baker was the only woman speaker. In her speech, she honored fellow women civil rights activists. She had relationships with both men and women throughout her lifetime. Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

National Postal Museum Collection. Jane Addams wore many hats in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: suffragist, social worker, activist, Nobel Peace Prize recipient. Notably, Addams founded Chicago's Hull House in , a time when many new immigrants lived and worked in harsh conditions. This settlement house provided health care, day care, education, vocational training, cultural and social activities, and legal aid to the immigrant community, creating a new model for social welfare.

Addams maintained a decades-long relationship with philanthropist Mary Rozet Smith, marked by loving letters.

lgbtq+ women in history

Activist Sylvia Rivera may be best known for her participation in the uprisings around the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City. When police raided the bar, patrons fought back. However, the GAA's leadership often rejected the role trans people, many who were people of color, played in Stonewall. Rivera worked with Marsha P. Johnson never used 'transgender' to describe her gender identity, since the term was popularized after her death in In fact, she often referred to herself as a 'transvestite'—a term many today consider offensive.

While some claim that Johnson would identify as transgender today as opposed to transvestite, I use the prefix 'trans' to describe Marsha, as a more inclusive nomenclature that allows for a more expansive understanding of non-binary gender identities. Astronaut Sally K. Ride wore this in-flight suit during the six-day STS-7 mission aboard Space Shuttle Challenger in June , when she became the first American woman to travel in space.

Later in life, Dr. Ride, also an engineer and physicist, became director of the California Space Institute and a professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego. She was born into the bear and raccoon clans of the Seminole and Muscogee nations and born for the Tsinajinnie clan of the Navajo Nation. She is active in several Native American organizations and continues to document Indigenous community gatherings and acts of activism and sovereignty in northern California.

Gorman Museum. Two Spirit people also use words from their Indigenous languages for gender variance.