Lesbians, Gay men, Bisexuals and Transgender (LGBT) people are: black, white, all races and mixed heritages; daughters, sons, aunts, mothers, sisters, brothers, fathers and uncles; friends, colleagues, employers, workers, unwaged and customers; students and teachers; differently-abled; Jewish, Hindu, Sikh, Muslim, Christian, gentile, of all religions and none; old and young; women and men; from every political slant; famous and not famous; living and dead…

They surround you today.

And they form a vast and exciting part of your past.

Achilles (fictional hero); Akhenaten (pharaoh); Edward Albee (playwright); Alexander the Great (general, imperialist); Anselm (saint); Marie Antoinette (queen); Apollo (god); Aristotle (philosopher); Artemis (goddess); Anthony Asquith (director); W. H. Auden (poet); Francis Bacon (artist); Sir Francis Bacon (scientist); Tallulah Bankhead (actress); Samuel Barber (composer); James Barrie (writer); Simone de Beauvoir (writer); Leonard Bernstein (musician); William Blake (poet, artist); Anthony Blunt (art historian, critic, Soviet spy); Dirk Bogarde (actor, writer); Benjamin Britten (composer); Guy Burgess (journalist, double agent); Lord Byron (poet); Julius Caesar (emperor); Calamity Jane (outlaw); Caligula (emperor); Calvin (theologian); Truman Capote (writer); Caravaggio (artist); Catullus (poet); Cervantes (novelist); Montgomery Clift (actor); Jean Cocteau (writer); Aaron Copland (composer); Noël Coward (actor, playwright, composer); Quentin Crisp (writer, actor, wit); George Cukor (director); Salvador Dali (artist); David (king, smote Goliath); James Dean (actor); Emily Dickinson (poet); Marlene Dietrich (actress); Christian Dior (fashion designer); Disraeli (politician); Domitian (emperor); Donatello (sculptor); Daphne Du Maurier (writer); Isadora Duncan (dancer); Edward II (king); Eisenstein (film pioneer); Erasmus (philosopher); Euripides (dramatist); Fabergé (jeweller); Justin Fashanu (footballer); Anne Frank (diarist); Flaubert (novelist); E.M. Forster (writer); Foucault (philosopher); Yuri Gagarin (cosmonaut); Vasco da Gama (explorer); Greta Garbo (actress); Jean Genet (writer); George Gershwin (composer); Gilgamesh (ancient Iraqi king); Gluck (composer); Gogol (writer); Robert Graves (writer); Frederick the Great (Prussian king); John Gielgud (actor); Cary Grant (actor); Goethe (writer); Alec Guinness (actor); Hadrian (emperor); Hadrian IV (pope); Radcliff Hall (novelist); Handel (composer); Hannibal (general); Larry Hart (songwriter); Henri III (French king); Henry IV (Spanish king); Herschel (astronomer); Robin Hood (outlaw, leader of merry men); J. Edgar Hoover (US president); Gerard Manley Hopkins (poet); Horace (poet); Horus (Egyptian god); A.E. Housman (poet); Rock Hudson (actor); Hui (Chinese emperor); Christopher Isherwood (writer); Ivan IV (Tsar); Henry James (novelist); James I (monarch); Derek Jarman (director, artist, activist); Jing (Chinese emperor); Joan of Arc (soldier, saint); John XII (pope); John XXII (pope); Jasper Johns (painter); Juan II (Spanish king); Julian of Norwich (mystic); Julius II (pope); Julius III (pope); Juvenal (poet); Kalashnikov (inventor); Jack Kerouac (novelist); John Maynard Keynes (economist); Kierkegaard (philosopher); Charles Kinsey (researcher); Calvin Klein (fashion designer); D.H. Lawrence (writer); T.E. Lawrence (writer, soldier); John Lennon (singer-songwriter); Leo X (pope); Leonardo da Vinci (artist, musician, scientist, engineer); Lichtenstein (painter); Abraham Lincoln (US president); Lorca (poet, dramatist); Louis XIII (French king); Louis XVIII (French king); Ludwig II (Bavarian king); Machiavelli (philosopher); Thomas Mann (novelist); Marcus Aurelius (emperor); Mark Antony (general); Christopher Marlowe (dramatist); Somerset Maugham (writer); Herman Melville (novelist, poet); Freddie Mercury (musician and performer); Michelangelo (artist, sculptor, poet); Montgomery (general); Mussorgsky (composer); Napoleon (emperor); Nehru (statesman); Nero (emperor); Isaac Newton (mathematician, scientist, alchemist); Florence Nightingale (nurse); Nijinsky (dancer); Ivor Novello (actor, playwright, composer, songwriter); Nietzsche (philosopher); Rudolf Nureyev (dancer); Abu Nuwas (poet); Octavian (emperor); Laurence Olivier (actor); Joe Orton (playwright); Ovid (poet); Wilfred Owen (poet); Parmenides (philosopher); Pasolini (director); Paul II (pope); Paul VI (pope); Pepi II (pharaoh); Peter the Great (tsar); River Phoenix (actor); William Pitt the Younger (prime minister); Pius XII (pope); Plato (philosopher); Plautus (dramatist); Plutarch (biographer); Edgar Allan Poe (writer); Cole Porter (composer); Poulenc (composer); Robert Baden Powell (scout founder); Proust (novelist); Ptolemy IV (Egyptian king); Ptolemy VI (Egyptian king); Ptolemy VII (Egyptian king); Sir Walter Raleigh (explorer); Raphael (painter); Terence Rattigan (dramatist); Michael Redgrave (actor); Cecil Rhodes (statesman); Richard I (King); Rimski-Korsakov (composer); Christine Rossetti (poet); Running Eagle (American Indian female warrior); Saint-Saëns (composer); Sappho (poet); Siegfried Sassoon (poet); John Schlesinger (director); Franz Schubert (composer); Seneca (philosopher); Shaka (leader of the Zulu Nation); William Shakespeare (writer); Sixtus IV (pope); Socrates (philosopher); Tchaikovsky (composer); Tiberius (emperor); Michael Tippett (composer); Titus (emperor); Tolstoy (writer); Trajan (emperor); Alan Turing (mathematician); Mark Twain (writer); Rudolph Valentino (actor); Verlaine (poet); Versace (fashion designer); Vespasian (Emperor); Virgil (writer); Visconti (director); Voltaire (philosopher); Andy Warhol (artist); George Washington (US president); Walt Whitman (poet); Wei Wen (Chinese emperor); Oscar Wilde (writer and one-off); Thornton Wilder (writer); Wilhelm II (kaiser); Kenneth Williams (actor, comedian, writer, raconteur); Tennessee Williams, (dramatist); William III (king); Ludwig Wittgenstein (mathematician, philosopher); Virginia Woolf (writer); Zeno (philosopher)… to name a very few!

Want to know more?

www.lgbthistorymonth.org.uk

LGBT HISTORY MONTH: FEBRUARY

Adrian Gillan