Community contributors
Laverne is an American actress and LGBTQ+ advocate. She rose to prominence playing Sophia Burset on the Netflix series Orange is the New Black and became the first transgender person to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy award in an acting category.
In 2019, she became the first transgender woman to appear on the cover of British Vogue.
Cox has been noted by her peers and many others for being a trailblazer for the transgender community, and has won awards for her activism and awareness spreading. She has had a massive impact on a growing conversation about transgender culture, specifically transgender women, and how being transgender intersects with one's race.
Stephen is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director, narrator and writer. He came to prominence as a member of the comic act Fry and Laurie alongside actor Hugh Laurie, and in recent years is probably best known for narrating the Harry Potter audiobooks.
Stephen came out as gay in the 1980s, and said that growing up gay was very difficult. For many years he has been an advocate and champion for LGBTQIA+ rights.
Marsha was an American gay rights activist and self-identified drag queen. Known as an outspoken advocate for gay rights, she was prominent in the Stonewall Uprising of 1969.
Always sporting a smile, Marsha advocated for homeless LGBTQ+ youth, those affected by HIV and AIDS, and spoke up for gay and transgender rights.
Her body was found in the Hudson River in New York City in 1992. Around the time of Marsha's death, anti-gay violence was at its peak and she was outspoken about the issue, participating in marches and demanding justice for victims. It is strongly believed that she was a victim of murder.
Her death sparked marches and many tributes, and her fight for justice lives on. Parks, monuments and murals have been dedicated in her honour.
Jackie has dedicated her life and 40+ working years to the fight for LGBTQIA+ equality, both as a union member for Unison, and beyond.
Starting in the 1980s as an officer in the Lambeth branch in London, she was closely involved in the formation of one of the first lesbian and gay groups in a British union. She was vital in pushing her union to set up a national Lesbian and Gay Committee.
Within the trade union movement she has campaigned and helped create policy to address discrimination against LGBT+ people in the workplace, and more broadly in society (on homophobia, adoption and pensions).
Ian is an English actor with a career spanning more than sixty years. He is noted for his roles on stage and screen as Shakespeare's Hamlet, Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Magneto in X-Men, among others, and has won numerous awards including a Tony and six Oliver awards and been nominated at the Oscars, Emmys and BAFTAs. He is regarded as a British cultural icon and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1991.
In 1988 he came out as gay on BBC Radio 3 in response to the UK government's Section 28 legislation, which made promoting homosexuality in teaching or in published materials illegal. It caused many LGBT+ organisations to close or self-sensor.
He is a champion for LGBT social movements and is the co-founder of Stonewall, an LGBT rights lobby group. He is also patron of LGBT History Month, Pride London, Oxford Pride, GayGlos, LGBT Foundation and FFLAG.
Freddie, born Farrokh Bulsra, was a British singer and songwriter, famous for being the lead vocalist and pianist of the band Queen, and widely regarded as one of the greatest singers in the history of music, known for his four-octave vocal range.
Freddie had flamboyant stage presence and style, and influenced the queer and LGBT+ community. Known as a very private person, he kept his personal life private, but he had a relationship with Jim Hutton until his death in 1991, and became an icon for LGBT+ folk trying to live and survive authentically in a time of prevalent homophobia.
Freddie died of bronchial pnemonia as a results of AIDS in 1991 - and performed and recorded the music video 'These are the Days of Our Lives' a few months before his death.
His legacy, flamboyancy and lust for life, love and music lives on.
Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, known as Lady Phyll, is an Islington-born political activist known for her work for racial, gender and LGBTQIA+ equality. She is Co-Founder and Chief Executive of UK Black Pride and former executive director of Kaleidoscope Trust. Lady Phyll joined London Metropolitan University in 2024 as the Centre for Equity and Inclusion’s Annual Lecture key note speaker.
Sylvia was an American gay liberation and transgender rights activist, who identified as a drag queen most of her life.
A veteran of the 1969 Stonewall Inn uprising, Sylvia was a tireless advocate for those silenced and disregarded by larger movements. Throughout her life, she fought against the exclusion of transgender people, especially transgender people of color, from the larger movement for gay rights.
Rivera co-founded, with her friend Marsha P. Johnson, the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), a group dedicated to helping homeless young drag queens, gay youth and trans women.
She died in 2002 - and on the day of her death, she still met with Empire State Pride Agenda delegates to advocate for trans rights. A monument dedicated to her and Marsha P. Johnson stands in New York's Greenwich Village.
Alan was an English mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst and computer scientist, influential in the development of computer science, and played a crucial role in solving intercepted messages and cracking the German's 'Enigma machine' in World War Two. This enabled Allies to defeat the Axis powers (led by the Nazis).
A lot of Alan's accomplishments were never recognised due to the Official Secrets Act in the UK.
In 1952, he was prosecuted for homosexual acts and accepted chemical castration as an alternative to prison. Many believe the effects of the inhumane hormonal treatment affected his work and mind. In 1954, he died from cyanide poisoning.
He was posthumously pardoned in 2013, and his legacy in mathematics and computing live on - in grants, buildings, statues, awards and bank notes.
He famously said: "Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine."
Oscar was an Irish author, poet and playwright, famous for writing The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest. He is often thought of as one of the greatest playwrights of the Victorian era.
Unapologetically himself, he was one of the first and most outspoken gay icons. He dressed flamboyantly, included same-gender sexuality in his works, including the poem 'The Love that Dare Not Speak Its Name' and spoke out against politics and society at the time. His most famous work 'Dorian Gray' was even censored and almost banned.
He was imprisoned in 1895 for gross indecency, a criminal offense to describe homosexual acts at the time. He spent three years in prison and was exiled (banished) from the UK. He spent his final years pennilless and alone in France and died of meningitis in 1900. He is buried in the famous Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris and thousands flock to pay their respects each year.
His legacy as a gay icon and activist live on, and his works are often taught in schools around the UK.