14 Historic LGBTQ+ Icons We Didn't Know (And Now We Won't Forget)
![14 Historic LGBTQ+ Icons We Didn't Know (And Now We Won't Forget)](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/5/1/5/854515_320x180.jpg)
Despite what many people think, LGBTQ individuals have existed for all of human history. Due to persecution, many queer icons of their time had to lie low. It’s not like in the 16th century Spain people could keep a record of all the transgender people doing awesome things, like Eleno de Céspedes whose legacy of being an accomplished surgeon only remains because he was tried by the Spanish Inquisition for being a trans man.
That being said, a lot of queer history is assumed. Historians have to read between the lines since coming out wasn’t an option for a lot of people. Additionally, people didn’t have the same ability to talk about their experiences (and language is always evolving) so we may add labels like “trans” or “intersex” to the modern context that may not be representative of their actual experiences.
With that being said, here are some LGBTQ trailblazers to add your Pride trivia.
Karl Ulrichs
![Lawyer CRACKED.COM Karl Ulrichs Ulrichs was a German legal advisor who was dismissed on the basis of his sexuality. In 1867, he was the first openly gay man to speak out in defense of homosexuality to the Congress of German Jurists. His 1870 book Araxes: a Call to Free the Nature Penal Law laid groundwork for future LGB literature, saying Sexual orientation is... established by nature. Legislators have no right to persecute.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/5/1/4/854514.jpg)
Source: Legacy Project Chicago
Jackie Shane
![Singer CRACKED.GOM Jackie Shane The Black trans R&B singer had a Canadian hit with her 1963 cover of Any Other Way which included the lyric: Tell her that I'm happy/tell her that I'm gay. Her anthology was released in 2017 and received a Grammy nomination.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/5/0/4/854504.jpg)
Source: New York Times
Wu Zao
![Poet CRACKED.COM Wu Zao One of the great poets of the Ching Dynasty, Wu Zao's poems were popular even during her lifetime. Her poetry included blatantly erotic poems she had written to women.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/7/8/854378.jpg)
Source: Legacy Project Chicago
Alla Nazimova
![Actor & Screenwriter CRACKED.COM Alla Nazimova The Hollywood silent film star starred in Oscar Wilde's Salomé, which was rumored to have an entirely gay/bisexual cast and crew. Her home was a haven for the lesbian and bisexual community, which she called her sewing circle.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/6/4/854364.jpg)
Source: Legacy Project Chicago
David Kato
![LGBT Activist CRACKED.COM David Kato Considered by some the father of the Ugandan LGBT rights movement, Kato was a founding member of Integrity Uganda, which provided support to victims of anti-gay hate. Не became the first gay man to speak out in the Uganda press, distressed by the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which was fueled by US missionaries and called for the execution of gay people.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/7/7/854377.jpg)
Source: NY Times
Sylvester
![Singer, Activist CRACKED.COM Sylvester The genderqueer singer is best known for his disco hit You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real). Before his radio single, he was in the Black drag queen group Disquotays and the hippie art trope Cockettes.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/6/6/854366.jpg)
Source: The Guardian
Lesbia Harford
![Poet, Activist CRACKED.COM Lesbia Harford LESBIA VENNER HARFORD DIED 5-7-1927 R.I.P The bisexual woman was one of the first women at Melbourne University to receive a law degree but chose to worked at a clothing factory, where she became Vice President of the Clothing Workers Union. She was an adamant supporter of women liberation through workers' rights and open relationships. She campaigned with IWW, even during WWI when the union was banned.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/5/1/0/854510.jpg)
Source: Making Queer History
Barbara Gittings
![LGBT Activist CRACKED.COM Barbara Gittings In the 1950s, Gittings started a NY chapter of the lesbian organization Daughters of Bilitis. Within her lifetime of activism, she was essential to getting the APA to stop classifying homosexuality as a disorder and made huge strides in the ongoing battle to end workplace discrimination against LGBTQ people.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/6/7/854367.jpg)
Source: LGBT 50
Sylvia Rivera
![LGBT Activist CRACKED.COM Sylvia Rivera Rivera was an active participant in the Stonewall Riots. Along with her good friend Marsha P. Johnson, she started Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) which provided housing and food for trans people in need. At only 19, she became a mother to many residents.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/6/5/854365.jpg)
Source: Women's History
Princess Seraphina
![Drag Queen CRACKED.COM Princess Seraphina John Cooper was a messenger for molly houses, which the BBC describes as the equivalent of gay bars in 18th century England. His persona Princess Seraphina is considered England's first drag queen and an integral part of Cooper's life. In 1732, Princess Seraphina was a victim of theft of clothes and went to court, where she seems to have been accepted by neighbors, even though sodomy was a hanging offense at the time.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/6/2/854362.jpg)
Source: BBC and New Histories
Bayard Rustin
![Civil Rights Leader CRACKED.COM Bayard Rustin The organizer behind the 1963 March on Washington, Rustin was a master strategist behind the scenes of the civil rights movement and a mentor to Martin Luther King.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/4/3/854343.jpg)
Source: Making Gay History
Coccinelle
![Entertainer & Tran Activist CRACKED.COM Coccinelle - LOS VICIOSOS Jacqueline-Charlotte Dufresnoy was an international celebrity and a renowned club singer. In 1960, her marriage was the first transgender union officially acknowledged by the French government, legalizing marriage equality for trans people in the country.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/4/4/854344.jpg)
Source: Legacy Project Chicago
Eleno de Céspedes
![Surgeon CRACKED.COM Eleno de Céspedes Eleno was born into slavery in 1545. Eleno married a man as a young teen. After giving birth, Eleno discovered that he was intersex. Не went on to fight in the Spanish army and become a successful surgeon with a long-term marriage to a wife. Не was punished during the Spanish Inquisition for blurring lines of sexuality and gender conformity.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/4/5/854345.jpg)
Source: Making Queer History
Lucy Hicks Anderson
![Brothel Owner CRACKED.COM Lucy Hicks Anderson Born in Kentucky in 1886, the Black woman was jailed when it was discovered that she was trans and sent to jail for being married to a man.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/4/2/854342.jpg)
Source: Legacy Project Chicago