In honour of June as Pride month, it has become time to dive into some LGBTQ+ history by taking a closer look at eight people who have been pioneers in various ways. You might have heard of a few of them, while others might be completely new names. One thing is clear: There have been numerous LGBTQ+ people who have made important contributions in many different areas throughout history. Some have been activists, while others have been trailblazers simply through their way of living, defying societal expectations to be who they are. These people continue to be sources of inspiration to this day, paving the way for contemporaries to follow in their footsteps. To read about these role models, just click the icons. On behalf of the whole News Team, I would like to wish everyone Happy Pride Month!
Queen Nzinga Mbande was the ruler of the Kingdoms of Ndongo and Matamba, located in present-day Angola. Born in 1583, into the ruling family, she received military and political training from childhood. She soon began to show her aptitude for handling political crises in her position as the ambassador for the Portuguese Empire. After the death of her father Kilombo, who was the king, her brother Mbandi Kiluanji assumed the throne. Her brother was set on making life difficult for those he saw as rivals to the throne, including Mbande, whose son he killed. He also forcibly had Mbande and her two other sisters sterilised, so they could never have children again. In 1624, Kiluanji died, paving the way for Queen Mbande to assume the throne. During a time of expanding slave trade, she fought hard, mainly against Portugal, to oppose foreign dominance. She was respected for her intellect and superior military tactics, making use of diplomacy, language skill, and wit to defend her country.
Queen Mbande was a strong leader, who paved the way for the female rulers who succeeded her. She was remarkable not only because of her abilities, but also for the lifestyle she led. While sources vary, some stating that she was in a heterosexual marriage, and others claiming that she had a number of wives, it is clear that she transgressed gender binaries. She dressed in both female and male clothing, and refused to be addressed as anything else than “king” when leading troops to battle. She established an all-female crew of bodyguards for herself, and ordered her male concubines to wear female clothing. Queen Mbande's importance for Angola's history cannot be understated: She is remembered to this day as the Mother of Angola, honoured throughout Africa as an exceptional female role model. Her legacy is apparent in the Angolan capital of Luanda, where a major street is named after her, and a large statue of her, raised to commemorate the 27th anniversary of the country's independence, now stands in a central square.
Liu Xin, more commonly known as Emperor Ai of Han, was a Chinese emperor who ruled the country from 7-1 BCE. Born in 27 BCE, Emperor Ai was the son of Liu Kang, who was the Prince of Dingtao and brother of the then-reigning Emperor Cheng. Emperor Cheng had no children of his own, and thus appointed his nephew to be his heir after being impressed by the then-18-year-old Liu Xin during an official visit. As was customary at the time, Emperor Cheng adopted Liu Xin, who then became regarded as his own son. After his sudden death in 7 BCE, Liu Xin assumed the throne as Emperor Ai. In the beginning, there was optimism about the new emperor, who seemed diligent in his rule. However, this image soon shattered, as tensions within the family, mainly involving the Emperor's grandmother, Princess Dowager Fu, were allowed to take centre stage. Princess Dowager Fu, later titled Empress Dowager Gong of Dingtao, was unsatisfied with her lack of influence, stirring up a considerable amount of drama in attempts to increase her power. Eventually, her quest for power would result in the deaths of 17 members of the rival Feng-family. Emperor Ai himself also played a role in this, siding with his grandmother and punishing officials who did not agree with him.
While all of this is certainly intriguing, Emperor Ai is perhaps most well-known for the close relationship he had with Dong Xian: a man who began his career as a minor official, and ended up as the commander of the armed forces. Historians of the time describe an intimate relationship between the two men, which was not unusual considering the long line of previous male emperors with male companions by their side. Emperor Ai consolidated their relationship by bestowing several titles on Dong, who eventually moved into the palace with his wife. Emperor Ai was known to be the most effusive homosexual emperor during the Han dynasty. Traditional historians referred to the relationship between Emperor Ai and Dong as “the passion of the cut sleeve”, after a story where the Emperor cut off his sleeve instead of disturbing Dong, who was still asleep with his head on the Emperor's sleeve after a nap on the same bed. Needless to say, this story, depicting a loving relationship between two men over 2000 years ago, is an important testament to the timelessness of same-sex relations throughout history.
David Herbert Lawrence, more commonly known simply as D.H. Lawrence, was a famously productive writer and poet from the United Kingdom. Born on the 11th of September 1885, he spent his formative years living between the coal mine and countryside in Eastwood – an experience that would come to feature prominently in his works of literature. At the age of 16, he began to work as as a so called pupil-teacher, obtaining a teaching certificate from the University College of Nottingham a few years later. He then worked as a teacher for a couple of years, before he started writing, at the encouragement of his friend Jessie Chambers, who submitted his first poems to a publisher. This proved successful, and Lawrence could soon publish his first novel, The White Peacock. He was an extremely prolific writer, authoring everything from full length novels and short stories to poems, plays, and travel books. His most well-known works include the largely autobiographical Sons and Lovers, which characters are based on himself and his family members, depicting events from his own life. Other important works include The Rainbow and Women in Love, which were considered utterly scandalous at the time, because of their explicit depictions of sexual experiences and lesbian relationships. Indeed, another of his books, Lady Chatterley's Lover (which included the liberal use of the word “fuck”), was considered so improper that the full unabridged version was not published until 1961, 31 years after his death, and only after the publishers had been tried and acquitted for a possible violation of the Obscene Publications Act.
During the whole of his lifetime, Lawrence frequently suffered from ill health, coming down with pneumonia several times, which almost killed him. These experiences, his extensive traveling, as well as his somewhat turbulent upbringing, heavily influenced his writing. He was married to Frieda von Richthofen, but had a close relationship with William Henry Hocking at some point, suggesting that he was perhaps bisexual. His exploration of themes that were considered taboo attests to his explicit aim of providing his British audience with a more openminded view on sex. While few people appreciated his innovations during his own lifetime, he has since become regarded as one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. He was a firm believer in doing things in his own way, rejecting any attempts by others to regulate his artistic endeavours. Described as ahead of his time in many ways, he continues to be an important source of inspiration for modern readers.
Lili Elbe was a successful painter from Denmark. Born Einar Wegener on the 28th of December 1882, she would later become known as one of the first transgender women to undergo gender confirmation surgery. Moving to Copenhagen in her teens, she studied art at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, where she met her wife, Gerda Gottlieb, who was also a painter. The couple both worked as illustrators, with Elbe most often painting landscapes, while Gottlieb specialised in illustrations for books and magazines. While Elbe had lived most of her life as a man, things changed one day when Gottlieb asked Elbe to pose for one of her paintings, dressed in female attire, because the original model was unable to show up. Subsequently, Elbe started dressing in female clothing more and more often, adopting the name Lili after a suggestion from Anna Larssen, the model whose place she had taken. When it became known that many of Gottlieb's paintings, featuring beautiful female characters, were actually modelled after Elbe, the couple were compelled to leave Denmark. After their move to Paris in 1912, Elbe began living openly as a woman, often presenting herself as Gottlieb's sister-in-law.
As time went on, Elbe became increasingly desperate to live her life fully as a woman, to the extent that she had planned a date to commit suicide, to end her internal turmoil. At the end of the 1920s, she learned about the possibility of having surgeries to permanently change her body from male to female, at the German Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin. As she began her transition, her marriage to Gottlieb was annulled. Elbe underwent a total of four highly experimental surgeries, the last of which sadly involved complications that would result in her death from cardiac arrest in 1931. After her death, a book titled Man Into Woman, a biographical account of her life, was published. It became an immediate success, as it was one of the first books which included the experiences of a transgender person. A fictional version of her life has since been depicted in a book called The Danish Girl, published in 2000, as well as in a movie from 2015 with the same name, attesting to her role as an important figure in LGBTQ+ history to this day.
Rosa Bonheur was a famous realist painter and sculptor from France. She was born in Bordeaux on the 16th of March 1822, into a family of artists. From a young age, she had an interest in drawing and sketching, especially animals. She was described as an “unruly” child, who often got expelled from school. Her father, Oscar-Raymond, was a strict adherent of the Saint-Simonian philosophy, which heavily emphasised total equality between the sexes. Thus, at the age of 13, she began her official training as a painter, under the apprenticeship of her father, who had become the director of the only free art school open for girls. Bonheur started her training by copying drawings from books and sketching plaster models, before moving on to the study of live domesticated animals such as cows and horses. She also studied anatomy and osteology at the local abattoirs in Paris, where her family had moved when she was still a child. Her paintings, most notably Ploughing in the Nivernais and The Horse Fair, earned her great fame, and she was awarded with the French Legion of Honour in 1865. She was especially popular in the United Kingdom, where Queen Victoria was a big fan of her work.
Bonheur's success as a female painter opened the doors to other women who followed in her footsteps. The way she lived her personal life also provided ample inspiration for others. She was more or less openly lesbian, living together with her partner, fellow artist Nathalie Micas, for more than 40 years. In a time where strong, independent women were disparaged, she broke ground by wearing pants, shirts, and ties, refusing to conform to the strict gender binaries perpetuated by society. Indeed, women were forbidden by law to wear pants during this time – a law that was not repealed until 2013! Bonheur thus had to apply for permission from the police to wear pants, which was her preferred attire when studying the animals she painted. She was interested in activities usually reserved for men, such as hunting, and at the same time, she was proud to be a woman, spending her life surrounded by other women, stating that the only males she had time for was the bulls she painted. Unsurprisingly, her refusal to entertain rigid societal norms and her outspokenness about her lesbian practices in a time where these was heavily frowned upon, in addition to her skilful mastery of the art of painting, earned her a place as one of the most prominent artists of the 19th century.
Karl Heinrich Ulrichs was a lawyer, writer, and early champion of gay rights from Germany. Born in Aurich on the 28th of August 1825, he studied law and theology at the Göttingen University, before starting work as an official administrative lawyer at the district court of Hildesheim. Having worked there for a couple of years, he was suddenly fired, after being outed as gay by a colleague. A few years later, he began to publish works under a pseudonym, Numa Numantius, in which he argued that same-sex attraction is inherent and natural. He also coined several terms to describe different sexual orientations, such as “Urning” (“Uranian” in English), which was used to denote homosexual men. He soon began to publish under his real name, possibly being the first person to come out publicly. He spoke out against the anti-homosexuality laws in place at the time, unfortunately to no avail. In the 1860s, he travelled around Germany, ending up in trouble with the law on several occasions for his writings, which were confiscated and banned.
Ultimately, Ulrichs would spend much of his life campaigning for equal rights regardless of sexual orientation. In total, he published twelve volumes in a series named Research on the Riddle of Man-Manly Love. He sought to challenge the established idea of homosexuality as being connected to pedophilia, and wrote a solid defence for the decriminalisation of consensual homosexual acts between adults. While the term “homosexual” was coined during his lifetime, he later rejected this, as he believed that different sexual identities included more than just sexual acts. Today, he is regarded to be a pioneer in what would later become the gay rights movement. His importance is evident in Germany, where streets in several cities such as Hanover and Berlin are named after him. In an ode to his groundbreaking work, the contemporary International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender & Intersex Law Association presents the Karl Heinrich Ulrichs Award for distinguished contributions to the advancement of sexual equality.
Alan Hart was a doctor, radiologist, and writer from the United States. Born Alberta Lucille Hart on the 4th of October 1890, he would later become one of the first trans men to undergo gender confirmation surgery in the US. He grew up on his grandfather's farm, where he was free to present himself as male. At the age of 12, his family moved to Albany, where he was forced to present as female to go to school. He went on to study medicine, obtaining his degree in 1917 from the University of Oregon. During his school years, he often used his chosen name, Robert Allen Bamford Jr., when writing his essays, which did not pose any problems. However, his degree was awarded to him in his female birth name, which made him deeply unhappy. Around this time, he found a doctor who, after an assessment of his mental state, agreed to perform the surgeries needed for him to be able to transition. The surgeries were successful, and he immediately had his name legally changed.
After the transition, Hart interned at the San Francisco Hospital, where a former classmate, who recognised him, outed him as transgender. This badly affected his mental health, and he and his first wife Inez Stark were forced to move. The ensuing situation, with financial insecurity and constant relocations took a toll on his marriage, and the couple divorced in 1925. The same year, he married Edna Ruddick, who he stayed together with for the remainder of his life. In a later newspaper interview, he declared that he had nothing to be ashamed of, and that he was a lot happier now than before his transition. Hart moved on to work as a doctor in a number of locations, also acquiring master's degrees in radiology and public health along the way. Much of his career was devoted to research on tuberculosis. His discovery that tuberculosis could be detected early through the use of x-rays was groundbreaking, and contributed to saving thousands of people's lives, as they could now receive treatment before it was too late. Needless to say, his contributions to the medical field have been immense. Together with his adamance to live his life as he wanted despite societal pressures to the contrary, he remains a big inspiration for people to this day.
Leonor Fini was a renowned painter, illustrator, designer, and author from Argentina. Born in Buenos Aires on the 30th of August 1907, she spent most of her childhood in Italy, where she was expelled from several schools for being “rebellious”. During the first seven years of her life, she often had to disguise herself as a boy, in order to avoid kidnapping attempts orchestrated by her father, who refused to be divorced from her mother. Despite not having any formal artistic training, she was nevertheless familiar with the traditional Renaissance and Mannerist styles, which she had encountered through her frequent visits to libraries and museums. She also spent much of her time at the local morgue, studying and sketching cadavers to learn anatomy. At the age of 17, one of her paintings was exhibited in the city of Trieste, where she had grown up. This exhibition opened the door to a commission for painting dignitaries in Milan, which resulted in her first solo exhibition five years later. Her art style has been considered to be surrealistic, but it did not always conform to the expectations of the genre. Indeed, most of her paintings featured women or androgynous characters, with the explicit aim to challenge and subvert the strict gender roles imposed by society. The characters were often juxtaposed with symbols such as sphinxes, werewolves, and witches, creating a unique style that defied any attempts to be placed in a specific genre.
Fini purported to promote the liberated and autonomous woman, defying stereotypes and avoiding representations of women as being fragile or innocent, opting instead to depict her female characters both in positions of power and in highly sexualised contexts. She painted many portraits and self-portraits, and was herself the subject of many photographs, as well as poems, by others. Apart from being a painter, she was also an avid designer, mainly in the areas of set and costume designs for theatre. She also wrote three novels, and illustrated many works by big authors such as William Shakespeare and Edgar Allan Poe. Fini was openly bisexual, and had a polyamorous relationship. Her lifestyle was considered rather eccentric, not least because of her theatrical way of dressing and love of Persian cats, which she at one point had as many as 23 of. She shared both mealtimes and her bed with these beloved cats, living most of her life in an apartment in Paris. Unfortunately, discussions of her lifestyle and sexuality have tended to divert attention from her artwork, which creativity, originality, and clear feminist message has earned her a place as one of the most important artists of the 20th century.
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