Queer > Lesbian Archives - Page 6 of 7

Sappho

Sappho, (flourished about 600 B.C.) a Greek poet, native of Lesbos, where she was head of a great poetic school, for poetry in that age and place was cultivated as assiduously and apparently as successfully by women as by men.

Billie Jean King

One of the greatest tennis players of all time and a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient for her advocacy for women in sports and LGBTQ rights, Billie Jean King won 39 Grand Slam titles in her tennis career and led the fight for equal pay in tennis.

Catherine Opie

From Opie’s subcultural roots working out on the margins of society, the photographer is now a well established artist and personality.

Romaine Brooks

The style of Romaine Brooks’ art in many ways defies classification and does not easily fit into one stylistic category. However, she has been most frequently linked to the movements of Aestheticism and Symbolism because of her leaning towards the non-narrative and the romantic and lyrical qualities of her portraits. While Brooks did not embrace the vivid colors of many of her fellow modernists, she nevertheless made the same bold and somewhat simplified expressive gestural lines as her contemporary Fauves and Cubists. Her portraits are unapologetically honest and real in the same way that the likes of much later twentieth century portraitists, including Alice Neel and Lucian Freud took on board.

Pauli Murray

Pauli Murray was breaking barriers from a young age. Held back by what Murray dubbed “Jane Crow,” s/he* was a staunch advocate for the rights of women and people of color and fought tirelessly for civil rights. As a poet, writer, activist, organizer, legal theorist, and priest, Murray was directly involved in, and helped articulate, the intellectual foundations of two of the most important social justice movements of the twentieth century.

Audre Lorde

Poet and author Audre Lorde used her writing to shine light on her experience of the world as a Black lesbian woman and later, as a mother and person suffering from cancer. A prominent member of the women’s and LGBTQ rights movements, her writings called attention to the multifaceted nature of identity and the ways in which people from different walks of life could grow stronger together.

Alberta Hunter

Alberta Hunter was an American jazz and blues singer and songwriter from the 1910s to the late 1950s, who returned to singing in her 80s after 20 years working as a nurse.

Mercedes de Acosta

Mercedes de Acosta was an American poet, playwright, and novelist who wrote almost a dozen plays, only four of which were produced, and she published a novel and three volumes of poetry. She was professionally unsuccessful but is known for her social connections, including her many lesbian relationships with famous Broadway and Hollywood personalities and many friendships with prominent artists of the period.

Mary Applebey

Mary Frances Applebey was an English civil servant and mental health activist. She was an early director of the National Association for Mental Health (NAMH), now called Mind. In 1969, Scientologists joined the the National Council for Mental Hygiene (NCMH) – one of NAMH’s member organisations – and tried to ratify as official policy numerous points concerning the treatment of psychiatric patients. When their identity was discovered they were expelled from the organisation en masse. in what became a notable case in British charity law, the Church of Scientology unsuccessfully sued the NAMH over the matter in the High Court, with Appleby one of the NCMH’s strongest defenders. She was involved with the formation of Christian Aid, a relief and development agency that works to support sustainable development, eradicate poverty, support civil society and provide disaster relief in South America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia. She was also instrumental in implementing the Care in the Community policy of deinstitutionalisation, treating and caring for physically and mentally disabled people in their homes rather than in an institution.

Mary L Bonauto

Mary L. Bonauto is an American lawyer and civil rights advocate who has fought against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. US Representative Barney Frank called her “our Thurgood Marshall.” In 1990, she began working with Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, later re-named GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD). Bonauto worked with the Maine legislature to pass a same-sex marriage law and helped to defend it at the ballot during the 2009 election campaign, narrowly losing. These efforts yielded results wen, in the 2012 election, voters approved the measure, making Maine the first state to allow same-sex marriage via ballot vote. Bonauto is best known for being lead counsel in the case Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, which, in 2004, made Massachusetts the first state where same-sex couples could marry. She also led the first strategic challenges to section three of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
On April 28, 2015 Bonauto was one of three attorneys who argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges, arguingthat state bans on same-sex marriage were unconstitutional. The highly publicized case established that state bans against same-sex marriage are unconstitutional; it is considered one of the most important civil rights cases to come before the U.S. Supreme Court in modern history.