When we think of our lesbian pioneers, women like Ellen DeGeneres and Billie Jean King presumably come to mind. But we at The Huffington Post wanted to teach you a little somethin' somethin' about your history in honor of October's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) history month. Below, feast your eyes on a group of undaunted ladies who helped paved the way for women and their women-loving ways, and check out the video above for HuffPost Live's full conversation on lesbian history from the ancient times to now.
Born on the Greek island of Lesbos around 615 B.C., this
poet wrote of her yearning for women. Her name and place of birth have become synonymous with women who love women.
Queen Christina of Sweden
This member of Sweden's royal family was crowned queen in 1644, though she renounced the throne a decade later. Queen Christina,
widely considered to be a lesbian by her biographers, was played by Greta Garbo in the aptly titled 1933 film "Queen Christina."
As one of the pioneering
leaders of the women's suffrage movement, Jane Addams -- a never confirmed but
rumored lesbian -- founded the Hull House in Chicago in 1889 and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom in 1915. If that wasn't enough, she won the
Nobel Peace Prize in 1931.
One of the most significant lesbian-themed novels in history is Rita Mae Brown's
Rubyfruit Jungle, published in 1973. The activist,
New York Times best-selling author and
feminist icon -- who says she was kicked out of the National Organization for Women --
fought to get the women's movement to
accept lesbians.
Hailed as being one of the longest-serving and most fearless activists in the lesbian community, Gittings
founded the New York chapter of The Daughters of Bilitis, picketed the White House in the '60s and counseled gay people who were discriminated by the government. She died in 2007.
Del Martin & Phyllis Lyon
Join the conversation! What lesbian pioneers come to mind for you?
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Clarification: An earlier version of this story did not make clear that Barbara Gittings died in 2007 or that Barbara Jordan was not born in 1972.
