Ten LBT Women Worth Celebrating
March 8, 2019In honour of International Women’s Day we’re taking note of ten lesbian, bisexual and transgender women worth celebrating.
1. Barbara Gittings
Gittings played a key role during the gay rights movement. In 1958, she founded the New York chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis and was one of the leaders in changing the psychiatric and psychological professions’ view of homosexuality as a mental illness.
2. Christine Jorgensen
One of the early faces of the trans movement, Jorgensen was a former GI who shared her transition with the public, making the front page of the New York Daily News in the 1950s as the first American woman to under gender reassignment surgery.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. Sappho
Perhaps 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.
7. Tammy Baldwin
Baldwin was the first lesbian (and first openly LGBT+ person) to be elected to the US Senate. Baldwin has since become an outspoken advocate for gun control and has called for a national LGBT Equality Day.
8. Lilly and Lana Wachowski
The Wachowski sisters both came out as trans a few years apart. They changed the movie industry with the 1999 classic “The Matrix” and continue to be pioneers in their field, recently wrapping up the LGBT-themed Sense8 on Netflix.
9. Ellen DeGeneres
The famous comedian bravely came out in 1997 with the now iconic Time Magazine cover, her sitcom character followed shortly. DeGeneres later admitted the decision to come out derailed her career somewhat, however, she’s now a phenomenally successful talk show host and has helped changed the minds of many people about the LGBT+ community. She was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barrack Obama for her work.
10. Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir
Sigurðardóttir was the first openly gay head of government when she became the Prime Minister of Iceland in 2009. In 2002, she and partner Jónína Leósdóttirentered into a civil partnership and in 2010 become one of the first couples to get married after Iceland legalised equal marriage.
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