Category Archives: Uncategorized

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”

Born in Trieste in 1921, #FioreDeHenriquez studied at the Academia di Belle Arti di Venezia under Arturo Martini and became well-known within her lifetime as a prolific sculptor and painter. Her debut occurred in Florence in 1947 and she had exhibitions throughout Europe and North America from the 1950s well into the 1980s. Though involvedContinue reading “Fiore de Henriquez”

Born in 1890 in Kansas, #AlanLHart was raised in a family that accepted his gender expression from childhood, though he was assigned female at birth. Raised by a blended family with his mother, stepfather, and grandparents, his grandparents’ obituaries even listed Alan as a grandson, despite attitudes of the time (and even some today). EvenContinue reading “Alan L. Hart”

#AlainLeroyLocke (September 13, 1885 – June 9, 1954): Known as the #FatherOfTheHarlemRenaissance and first African American #RhodesScholar, Locke was a writer, philosopher, educator, and patron of the arts. Born and raised in Philadelphia, his family descended from a long line of free African American people in the times of slavery; his father was the firstContinue reading “Alain Locke”

#BrendaLeeMarquezMcCool: 49-years-old, she shielded her gay son at #Pulse once the shooting began. She died saving her son’s life, according to witnesses who said she pushed him and a friend out of harm’s way when the shooting started. He and his friend survived, she (though a survivor of two different types of cancer) did not. In the blinkContinue reading “Brenda Lee Marquez-McCool”

Born in Prussia in 1730, Baron von Steuben had a storied military career that began at a young age when he followed his father to Crimea to fight in the Russian war against the Turks. Rising in the ranks, he fought in the Seven Years’ War and was even given special military training and instructionContinue reading “Baron Von Steuben”