By: Nicole Slone
October is LGBTQ+ History Month. This article celebrates the lives and achievements of 5 LGBTQ+ identifying icons who changed history.
Christine Jorgensen
(May 30, 1926- May 3, 1989)
Christine’s birth name was George William Jorgensen, Jr. Ever since she was young, she knew she was different. As a child, Christine felt shy and out of place. She gravitated towards more feminine things, and enjoyed playing with dolls. She often suffered from bullying at school due to her feminine tendencies. When she was of age, she decided to enlist in the U.S. Army. Christine served for 14 months during WW2, until she was honorably discharged in December 1946. After her service, she determined that she was unsatisfied with her life, so she decided to search for answers. After reading the book The Male Hormone she started taking estrogen. In 1950, she traveled to Denmark to pursue her dreams of sexual reassignment surgery. Fortunately, Dr. Christian Hamburger agreed to do what was then an experimental procedure, for free. Dr. Hamburger was the first medical professional to diagnose Christine as transsexual instead of homosexual. When she returned to America her story quickly reached the press. On December 1, 1952, she made the front page of the New York Daily News. Christine became the first American to gain fame and recognition for being transgender. Her story helped to inspire and redefine views on gender identity.
Audre Lorde
( February 18, 1934 – November 17, 1992)
Audre Lorde has famously described herself as a “black, lesbian, feminist, mother, poet, warrior.” Lorde was born in New York City, where her love for poetry bloomed early. She attended Hunter College and worked hard in order to support herself through school. In 1961, she went on to get a master’s degree in library science from Columbia University. After graduating, she worked as a librarian in the New York public schools during the 1960s. Throughout her career, Lorde has published a plethora of literary works ranging from poems to essays. Most of her work was centered around issues of race, gender and sexuality. Some of her most well-known collections include: Coal, The Black Unicorn, The Cancer Journals, and Zami: A New Spelling of My Name. Her poetry was her weapon. She used her talent of the written word to raise awareness, inspire, and fight for equal rights. In 1979, she gave a poignant speech at the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. In the 1980s, she founded the Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press. Which is an organization dedicated to amplify the writing of Black feminists.
Check out the link below to read some of Lorde’s powerful poetry.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/audre-lorde#tab-poems
Toto Koopman
(28 October 1908 – 27 August 1991)
Toto Koopman was a bisexual woman who lived an incredibly dynamic life. Koopman was born on the Indonesian island of Java to Indonesian and Dutch parents. She attended a prestigious boarding school in the Netherlands, where she excelled in language and mastered 5 before she graduated. She moved to Paris in 1928 at the age of 19. She had no problem embracing her mixed race heritage. She became the earliest known Vogue cover model and was also an in-house model for Coco Chanel. She celebrated sexual freedom and was known to keep open relationships. In 1939, Koopman fell in love with an Italian Resistance leader. She worked alongside him, spying on the Italian Fascist Party for the Allies during World War Two. In 1944, she was discovered, then imprisoned in the Ravensbrück concentration camp. During her time at the camp, she used her language skills to convince a guard that she was a nurse. She worked at the hospital and smuggled food into the sick whenever she could. Fortunately, she was able to escape when the camp was liberated. Soon after her traumatic experience, she met her long-time partner Erica Brausen. Together, they opened the Hanover Gallery in London. The art gallery became famous for showcasing artists like Francis Bacon, Alberto Giacometti, and Marcel Duchamp.
Barbara Gittings
(July 31, 1932 – February 18, 2007)
Barbara Gittings was born in Vienna, but she returned to the United States with her family when she was young. She first became interested in homosexuality as a teenager; and would secretly read lesbian romance novels. Gittings went on to attend university to study theater, but she longed to learn more about homosexuality. She would search libraries, but she never found exactly what she was looking for. Regarding her searches, Gittings told the publication American Libraries “I had to find bits and pieces under headings like ‘sexual perversion’ and ‘sexual aberration’ in books on abnormal psychology… I kept thinking, ‘It’s me they’re writing about, but it doesn’t feel like me at all.’ ” Inspired by her own personal feelings and research, she dedicated most of her life to activism. In the late 1950s, she founded the New York chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis. Which was the first national organization for lesbians. During the 1960s, she took part in many gay rights demonstrations, including one at the White House. By the 1970s, she helped lobby the American Psychiatric Association to change its stance on homosexuality. In 1973, the association rescinded its definition of homosexuality as a mental disorder. Throughout her life, Gittings dedicated her time to make information about the LGBTQ community more widely available in libraries. Thanks to Gittings LGBTQ literature was able to reach a larger audience.
“I’ve had the satisfaction of working with other gay people all across the country to get the bigots off our back, to oil the closet hinges, to change prejudiced hearts and minds, and to show that gay love is good for us and for the rest of the world too.” – Barbra Gittings
Gladys Bentley
(August 12, 1907 – January 18, 1960)
Gladys Bentley was born in Philadelphia and moved to New York as a teenager. During that time, the Harlem Renaissance was in full swing. She wrote about feeling attracted to women and being comfortable in men’s clothes from an early age. Around 1925, Bentley found herself being absorbed into a vibrant, artistic, and intellectual community. Eventually, she started singing in popular nightclubs. When she performed, she was often advertised by event promoters as a “male impersonator.” She would perform in her signature white top hat and tuxedo. She sang loud, raunchy, provocative, songs during her act. It is reported that she had no issues with openly flirting with women in the audience. By the late 1930s, the Harlem Renaissance was fading out of style. After her time in Harlem, Bentley moved to California. She continued recording music, touring and performing in upscale clubs and bars. Bentley wrote her life story in an article for Ebony magazine, entitled “I Am A Woman Again” in 1952. In that article, she spoke out about being a glamorous and exuberant performer who internally struggled with her sexuality and sense of self. She wrote, “For many years, I lived in a personal hell…Like a great number of lost souls, I inhabited that half-shadow no man’s land which exists between the boundaries of the two sexes.”
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Sources
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/obituaries/gladys-bentley-overlooked.html
https://www.advocate.com/women/2017/10/03/20-game-changing-queer-women-history#media-gallery-media-3
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/christine-jorgensen
https://www.biography.com/writer/audre-lorde
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