Author Archives: lgbtqrepresent

#SylviaRivera (July 2, 1951 – February 19, 2002): Born and raised in #NewYorkCity, Rivera was of #PuertoRican and #Venezuelan descent. Abandoned by her father and then orphaned by her mother, she was raised by her grandmother who disapproved of Rivera’s truth. When she was nearly 11, she began a life on the streets, working as aContinue reading “Sylvia Rivera”

#JamesBarry (c. 1789 – July 25, 1865): Not much is known about Barry’s childhood except that he was born in #CountyCork to #Catholic parents who struggled against anti-Catholic sentiment in Anglo-Saxon Protestant-run Ireland. Though wanting to train as a tutor, jobs were few and far between. Through family connections, Barry was able to enter theContinue reading “James Barry”

#BarbaraGittings (July 31, 1932 – February 18, 2007): Born in #Vienna, where her father served as a U.S. diplomat, Gittings was raised #Catholic and considered becoming a nun. After the outbreak of WWII, her family settled in Delaware, where she remembered first hearing the word “homosexual” by a teacher who rejected her from the #NationalHonorSocietyContinue reading “Barbara Gittings”

Born in Pittsburgh in 1927, #CarlettBrownAngianlee was a U.S. Navy veteran who may have been the first African American to undergo gender affirmation surgery. Joining the Navy in 1950, she admitted that this was to receive medical treatment for nasal and anal bleeding. While in the Navy, she was diagnosed with a “serious mental illness”Continue reading “Carlett Brown Angianlee”

Born in Kentucky in 1886, Lucy Hicks Anderson was assigned male at birth but maintained from an early age that she was female and named herself “Lucy.” Taking advice from doctors, Anderson’s parents supported her gender identity, allowing her to wear dresses and identify as she felt most comfortable at a time when “transgender” wasContinue reading “Lucy Hicks Anderson”

#RavenDavis (1975 – ): Born in #Toronto, Davis is a multimedia Indigenous artist, activist, and community organizer of the #Anishinaabe/#Ojibway Nation in #Manitoba. Working with themes of culture, colonization, sexuality, gender, and racial justice, Davis is also a dancer, singer, and drummer. A parent of three, Davis is two-spirited and uses gender-neutral pronouns. Sitting onContinue reading “Raven Davis”

#AudreLorde (February 18, 1934 – November 17, 1992): Born in New York City to parents from Barbados and the Grenadines, Lorde dropped the “y” from the name her parents gave her when she was a child, claiming that she enjoyed the symmetry of the name she would become famous with. A writer, feminist, womanist, librarian, andContinue reading “Audre Lorde”

#BessieSmith (April 15, 1894 – September 26, 1937): Smith was a #blues singer well known throughout the United States during the #JazzAge and given the nickname the #EmpressOfTheBlues. Born and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Smith and siblings suffered and struggled after the death of their parents (Smith’s father died when she was an infant andContinue reading “Bessie Smith”