As today is #transdayofvisibility here are some of the amazing trans women we’ve featured so far on Illustrated Women in History! Please message with suggestions if you think anyone should be featured on Illustrated Women in History! Laverne Cox is an American emmy-nominated actress and the first trans woman of color to have a leading …
Danica Roem is an American journalist and politician of the Democratic Party from Northern Virginia. In the 2017 elections, she was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates. She will become the first openly transgender person to both be elected to a U.S. state’s legislature and serve her term. Roem was born in Prince William …
Edith “Edie” Windsor was an LGBT rights activist and technology manager at IBM. She became an gay rights icon in 2013 when she sued the federal government to recognise her same-sex marriage which successfully overturned Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, giving same-sex married couples federal recognition for the first time. Windsor was born …
This weeks Illustrated Women in History was submitted by Katharina Röser @katharinaroeser. Christina, Queen of Sweden is remembered for her unconventional lifestyle, masculine dressing and behaviour and her lavish sponsorship of the arts and her influence on European culture. When Christina was born, she was initially proclaimed to be the son her parents desired but after …
This weeks Illustrated Women in History was submitted by Rose Robbins. Highsmith was born in 1921, and both her parents were artists and her mother told her once that she’d tried to abort her by drinking turpentine. Highsmith cultivated a love of books from a young age, and in 1950 her first novel Strangers on …
Lorraine Hansberry was an American playwright, civil rights activist and writer. Her groundbreaking play, A Raisin In The Sun was the first to be performed on Broadway written by a black woman and performed by a black cast. Hansberry was born in 1930 in Chicago, Illinois to politically active parents. Eight years later, after her …
Mabel Hampton was an African-American lesbian activist, a dancer during the Harlem Renaissance, a founding member of the Lesbian Herstory Archive and a philanthropist for both black and LGBT organisations. Hampton was born in 1902 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She was brought up by her grandmother following the death of her mother at the age …
Ruth Ellis was an African-American LGBT civil rights activist who became the oldest known American lesbian when reaching the age of 101. Ellis was born in 1899 in Springfield, Illinois. Her parents had been born in the last years of slavery, and her father would become the first African-American mail carrier in Illinois. Ellis and …
Gladys Bentley was an American blues singer, pianist, entertainer and lesbian icon during the Harlem Renaissance. She became one of the best known and financially successful black women in the U.S. during the 1920s and 1930s for the pioneering way she dealt with gender, sexuality, class and race in her act. Bentley was born in …
This weeks Illustrated Woman in History was illustrated by Zowie Murphy and written by Hollie Peck. Lesley Gore (Lesley Sue Goldstein) May 2, 1946 – February 16, 2015 When it comes to girl power, Lesley Gore was way ahead of her time. She was a singer-songwriter, actress, feminist and LGBT activist. She is perhaps best …