Five Influential Lesbians From History You Should Know

1. Sappho

History’s original lesbian. Hailing from the Isle of Lesbos, the Ancient Greek poet whose surviving work from 600 BC is still read and admired today. She wrote of her yearning for women and continues to be a symbol for lesbian love.

2. Jane Addams

While never a confirmed lesbian she was heavily rumoured to be. Jane Addams was one of the leaders of the women’s suffrage movement, she founded the Hull House in Chicago in 1889 and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom in 1915. She also won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931.

3. Rita Mae Brown

Author of the enormously successful and significant Rubyfruit Jungle in 1973, she was also an activist and feminist icon, fighting for the women’s movement to accept lesbians.

4. Barbara Gittings

A leading advocate for lesbian rights, among many public battles and campaigns she successfully led the movement to change the American Psychiatric Association’s listing of homosexuality as a mental pathology.

5. Sally Ride

As the first American woman in space Sally Ride became a household name in the 1980s and a hero to millions of girls and women everywhere. Recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Ride was also heavily involved in the STEAM-for-girls science education movement. While she only publically came out after her death Ride was in a long-term relationship with a woman for over 27 years.