Not hiding who they were was just the first thing they did to inspire progress…
“Changing the world” is no easy feat. It means connecting with people in a way that few of us are capable of, and doing it on an enormous scale. These days, social media make “going viral” seem like a piece of cake, because people can share their opinion with a click. A cause can spread like wildfire across the country – and the world – thanks to hashtags, vloggers with millions of followers, and a 24/7 news cycle that never sleeps.
But what was it like before social media? Who were the trailblazing queer figures who were able to effect monumental changes for the LGBTQ+ community without the help of that digital megaphone? Now more than ever, it’s important to remember some of the iconic LGBTQ+ people who have done so much not only for their community but for the world as a whole.
Here are just a few of the LGBTQ+ individuals who have made history for their contributions.
Karl Heinrich Ulrichs
(August 28, 1825–July 14, 1895)
German writer Karl Heinrich Ulrichs grew up in the mid-1800s preferring to wear dresses and feeling like he’d much rather be a girl. In 1862, when he was 37, he told his family and friends that he was an “urning,” which he described as “a female psyche in a male body who is sexually attracted to men.” He began writing under a pseudonym, coining a number of terms to describe different sexual orientations. He eventually started using his real name, which is considered to be the first public “coming out” in modern society. Ulrichs was also the first homosexual to speak out against anti-homosexual laws. He is now considered an icon and pioneer, even being called the “first gay man in world history.”
Oscar Wilde
(October 16, 1854–November 30, 1900)
An Irish poet and playwright, Oscar Wilde is known for his play The Importance of Being Earnest, for his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray – and for the persecution he faced for being gay. In 1895, Wilde sued the father of his lover for libel, but the lawsuit backfired on him and he ended up being charged with “gross indecency” – or homosexuality – and was sentenced to two years’ hard labour. During his trial and in his writing, Wilde eloquently defended his right to his sexuality. He believed in the right to be yourself, writing, “To regret one’s own experiences is to arrest one’s own development. To deny one’s own experiences is to put a lie into the lips of one’s own life. It is no less than a denial of the soul.”
Magnus Hirschfeld
(May 14, 1868–May 14, 1935)
A physician and sexologist from Germany, Magnus Hirschfeld was also an outspoken advocate for sexual minorities. He founded the Scientific Humanitarian Committee, which has since been credited with having carried out the “first advocacy for homosexual and transgender rights.” His 1914 book The Homosexuality of Men and Women attempted to prove that homosexuality existed all over the world regardless of culture and upbringing. Hirschfeld, who was gay himself, believed that proving the existence of high-ranking gay officials would help legitimize homosexuality. He even testified in a high-profile trial that “homosexuality was part of the plan of nature and creation just like normal love.” During a tour of the US in 1931, Hirschfeld developed a system where he categorized 64 possible types of sexual orientations, which today might be similar to what we consider the “spectrum.”
Bayard Rustin
(March 17, 1912–August 24, 1987)
Bayard Rustin was an American civil rights activist who was an adviser to Martin Luther King, Jr., and the main organizer of the March on Washington in 1963, where King gave his historic “I Have A Dream” speech. In 1953, Rustin was arrested for a homosexual act, which led to public attacks on him by some civil-rights leaders and political opponents who claimed he was immoral, which forced him to end his association with King. Prior to his death, he became more vocal about his sexuality and refocused his attention towards gay rights. In a 1987 interview with Village Voice, he said, “I think the gay community has a moral obligation…to do whatever is possible to encourage more and more gays to come out of the closet.”
Alan Turing
(June 23, 1912–June 7, 1954)
British mathematician, logician and cryptographer Alan Turing was responsible for breaking the Nazi Enigma code during World War II, and ultimately his work gave the Allies the edge they needed to win the war in Europe. It also led to the creation of the computer. It is widely said that Turing took his own life on June 7, 1954, two years after being outed as gay. At the time, it was reported that he had died from eating an apple laced with cyanide. He was only 41 years old.
James Baldwin
(August 2, 1924–December 1, 1987)
James Baldwin was an essayist, novelist and playwright whose eloquence and passion on the subject of race in America made him one of the most important literary voices of the 20th century. A writer of exceptionally clear and psychologically penetrating prose, Baldwin addressed race relations with deft complexity and incisive anger. Years before the gay liberation movement, he was also one of the first Black writers to include queer themes in fiction, most notably in Giovanni’s Room (1956), where he wrote with a frankness that was highly controversial at the time. The critically acclaimed work explores the internal struggles of sexuality and the complex representations of homosexuality and bisexuality by following the thoughts and actions of David, an American living in a bohemian neighbourhood of Paris in the 1950s.
Christine Jorgensen
(May 30, 1926–May 3, 1989)
Although she wasn’t the first in the world, Christine Jorgensen was the first person to become widely known for having sex reassignment surgery. After serving in the US Army during World War II, she heard about sex reassignment surgery and travelled to Europe to seek out the operations for herself. Her transition was the subject of a New York Daily News feature story, and she used her newfound platform to become an advocate for transgender people. Her openness helped bring attention to gender identity, and influenced other transgender people to change their names and the sex on their birth certificates. She sparked the notion that gender was not a set binary and inspired more discussion around gender norms.
Harvey Milk
(May 22, 1930–November 27, 1978)
As the first openly gay elected official in the history of California, Harvey Milk made history when he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors as a city supervisor in 1978. His speeches were high energy and flamboyant, which attracted a lot of media attention and support from San Francisco’s gay community. Milk served as a city official for only 11 months before he was assassinated, along with the mayor of San Francisco, by a former co-worker. He has since been called “the most famous and most significantly open LGBT official ever elected in the United States” and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.
Barbara Gittings
(July 31, 1932–February 18, 2007)
Barbara Gittings was a prominent American activist for LGBT equality from the 1950s until her death in 2007. She brought attention to a wide range of different causes that affected the LGBT community, from picketing against the US government’s ban on the employment of gay people to fighting to get the American Psychiatric Association to drop homosexuality as a mental illness. Because of her devotion to promoting positive literature about homosexuality in libraries, the American Library Association created the Barbara Gittings Award, an annual award for the best gay or lesbian novel. As well, GLAAD named an activist award after her.
Sylvia Rivera
(July 2, 1951–February 19, 2002)
Sylvia Rivera was one of the most radical gay and transgender activists of the 1960s and ’70s. Rivera, who identified as a drag queen for most of her life and later as a transgender person, fought against the exclusion of transgender people, especially transgender people of colour, from the larger movement for gay rights. She was close friends with Marsha P. Johnson, and the pair co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), a group dedicated to helping homeless young drag queens, gay youth and trans women. She was also one of the most prominent figures from the Stonewall riots in 1969. (Click here to read our June 2025 cover story for more on Rivera and Johnson.)
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