I took a break from posting these past two weeks, because producing content that didn’t have anything to do with the current state of the world felt wrong.
Make no mistake, Black Lives Matter is a movement and not a trend. I will continue doing my part as an ally and I hope you all do to. Just because normal posts start flooding your Instagram feeds, don’t forget about everything else happening in the world. Stay informed, and stay active. If you’re interested in ways to help and learn, I am still updating my Things You Can Do list whenever I find something to add.
I know we’ve all fallen down a Wikipedia hole or two, so I’ve got some more to help you make time disappear.
June is pride month and although I’m 98% sure I’m straight, I will forever be an ally of the LBTQ+ community. So here are some queer icons ranging from actors, writers, artists, etc. to give you some inspiration and knowledge.
Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker was a French entertainer, born in the United States, although later she renounced her US citizenship. She was also an activist and French Resistance agent. She was the first person of mixed race to star in a motion picture in 1927. In Paris she became and instant hit with her erotic dancing and for performing practically nude, and she refused to perform in segregated clubs in the US. Also lets not forget her iconic Danse Savauge banana costume, and the fact that she performed with her PET CHEETAH named Chiquita. Although her first marriage was at the age of 13!!! and she was married to multiple men throughout her life, Barker was bisexual. She had romantic relationships with multiple women, including the writer Colette.
Magnus Hirschfeld
Magnus Hirschfeld was a scientist and pioneer of sexology and founded the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee. His radical ideas changed the way that Germans thought of sexuality, and he was targeted by Nazis for being Jewish and gay. They burned most of his research and drove him to exile.
Marsha P. Johnson
Marsha P. Johnson was an LGBTQ activist and drag queen during the 1960s and 1970s, in New York City. Johnson was a founding member of the Gay Liberation Front, a co-founder of Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, and a key figure in the Stonewall riots. Shortly after the 1992 pride parade, Johnson’s body was found in the Hudson River, which police ruled a suicide. Some of Johnson’s friends and local members of the community believe the cops covered up a murder and justice is demanded to this day.
Colette
Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, better known as Colette, was a French author and writer. She is best known for her novella Gigi and the Claudine series. She identified as bisexual and her husband encouraged her ‘lesbian alliances’. Her onstage kiss with actress Mathilde de Morny nearly caused a riot.
Tallulah Bankhead
Tallulah Bankhead was a stage and screen actress, very well known for her thriving sex life with both, men and women. Instead of calling herself bisexual, she preferred the term “ambisextrous”. She was very vocal about the vices she struggled with, but also supported foster children and helped families escape the Spanish Civil War and World War II. She moved to New York around 1917, and her father warned her to avoid alcohol and men, which she later responded to by saying , “He didn’t say anything about women and cocaine.” (Also very irrelevant but Tallulah is my second favorite girls name)
James Baldwin
James Baldwin was a gay civil rights activist, author, and playwright. Some of his books include, If Beale Street Could Talk, The Fire Next Time, and No Name in the Street. His documentary, I Am Not Your Negro, is amazing, and available on Netflix. He helped amplify black voices through his work and was not afraid to tackle important issues, such as gay liberation and civil rights. He continued to fight for equality for Black and LGBTQ people until his death.
Bayard Rustin
Bayard Rustin was a queer activist and speaker who fought for civil rights, socialism, nonviolence, and gay rights. He participated in the first Freedom Ride in 1947 and introduced non-violent protesting to MLK. He later served as an organizer for the March on Washington. Due to criticism over his sexuality, he typically acted as an advisor behind the scenes.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Sister Rosetta Tharpe was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Her unique spiritual and rhythmic gospel recordings were the precursors to rock and roll. She was later referred to as “the original soul sister” and “the Godmother of rock and roll”. She had a romantic relationship with R&B singer Marie Knight when they toured together, but their relationship was kept out of the public eye.
Andy Warhol
A name most people probably know, Andy Warhol was an American artist, film director, and producer. He’s best known for his pop art and for expressing the relationship between artistic expression, advertising, and celebrity culture. He had a very famous art studio in New York called The Factory, where artists and celebrities of different sexualities and races gathered to create. Warhol never held back in expressing his identity as a queer man and one of his first collections was actually turned away for being too openly gay.
Claude Cahun
Claude Cahun was a French photographer, sculptor, and writer. Calhun was best know for their self-portraits, where they took on different personas. Their work always challenged gender rolls, and their self-portraits were known for being highly staged, and they made their work for themselves, not other people. They never had any intentions of becoming famous. During WWII, Calhun was active as a resistance worker and a propagandist.
Audre Lorde
Audre Lorde was a writer, feminist, poet, librarian, womanist, and civil wrights activist. She identified as a lesbian, and her large body of work covered important topics like race, sexuality, feminism, and a Black woman’s role in the world. She was one of the first people to advocate for intersectional feminism.
Gilbert Baker
Gilbert Baker was a gay rights activist, artist, and designer of the rainbow flag, which is an iconic symbol in the LGBTQ community today. Upon creating the flag, Baker refused to trademark it, as he saw it as a symbol for the entire LGBTQ community.
Sally Ride
Sally Ride was an astronaut and physicist, and was the first American women in space! Not only that, but she also remains the youngest astronaut to have traveled to space.
Lile Elbe
Lile Elbe was an English transgender woman, who was one of the first to undergo sex reassignment surgery. Unfortunately, Elbe died from complications involving a uterus transplant. Prior to transitioning, Elbe was married to Gerda Gottlieb and started wearing women’s clothes when she was a stand in model for her wife’s paintings. A fictionalized account of Elbe’s life was portrayed in the book and movie The Danish Girl, which I highly recommend you watch!
Jackie Shane
Jackie Shane was a soul and rhythm and blues singer, considered to be a pioneer transgender performer. Shane is most known for her single Any Other Way, and also appeared on Motley Crew’s album Honkin’ at Midnight.
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Jean-Michel Basquiat was an amazing artist, whose work focused on dichotomies, such as wealth vs poverty and integration vs discrimination. He used social commentary in his paintings to express his experience in the black community, as well as power structures and systems of racism. His girlfriend Suzanne Mallouk described his sexuality as “… not monochromatic. It did not rely on visual stimulation, such as a pretty girl. It was a very rich multi-chromatic sexuality. He was attracted to people for all different reasons. They could be boys, girls, thin, fat, pretty, ugly. It was, I think, driven by intelligence. He was attracted to intelligence more than anything and to pain.”
So here’s a small look into some of the many amazing LGBTQ icons throughout history. There is so many amazing people in this world to know about, and sometimes we just stick to what’s comfortable and what we know, instead of going beyond that. I would love to hear about some of your favorite icons in the comments!