Over the past thirty days of June, AKA Pride Month, I've been sending out posts on my socials. Once per day, I've highlighted a creative--be they writer, poet, composers or artist--who falls somewhere within the LGBTQIA+ spectrum. I did my best to cover several genders, incorporate ethnic diversity, and as wide a range of the spectrum as possible. You can read this post if you want to know more about how I put this stuff together and drew my lines so it was doable. Now, I'm going to give you my complete list for posterity and ease of reading.
1: Angela Morley, a British composer, prolific but slightly forgotten today. From classic British radio to film and television, perhaps Morley's most enduring work is the soundtrack for the classic 1978 animated film Watership Down.
2: J. C. Leyendecker, an illustrator famous in America's interwar period for his commercial illustrations. From the covers of Colliers to famous advertisements for men's apparel, Leyendecker was a major artistic force in his country.
3: Zanele Muholi, a photographic artist who has been using their medium to portray, document and confront the queer experience within the black communities of South Africa and beyond.
4: Yuhki Kamatani, a mangaka and illustrator who is a more recent arrival. While maybe best known for their debut manga Nabari no Ou, perhaps their most notable work is the highly inclusive manga Our Dreams at Dusk.
5: Jeannette Ng, a fantasy author originally from Hong Kong who is just as famous for her novel Under the Pendulum Sun as she is for her acceptance speech for her what-is-now Astounding Award for Best New Writer. She got it renamed with a speech.
6: Masha Gessen, a Russian-American journalist who has been consistently pushing for truth and inclusivity in both countries, no matter the risks.
7: Francis Poulenc, a French composer who was active in the first half of the 20th Century. His body of work is large and varied, from ballet and opera to songs and orchestral pieces.
8: Ethel Smyth, another composer, this time from Britain, and one disregarded in her day due to her gender. She also campaigned actively for women's suffrage during the 1910s, and was eventually awarded a damehood.
9: Cyril Wong, a poet, orator and literary critic who has also stood up and out as a prominent gay rights activist in his native Singapore.
10: Alan Ball, an American screenwriter whose body of work might surprise. From Six Feet Under and American Beauty to True Blood, Ball can be credited with some interesting pieces of fiction.
11: Audre Lorde, another American writer whose work encompassed a large field. I think the best summation of her comes in her own words: "a Black, lesbian, feminist, socialist, poet". Read her full piece, it's amazing.
12: Vikram Seth, a British-Indian author and poet. While he has a number of other works to his name, many will know him for the novel A Suitable Boy. I might also recommend An Equal Music.
13: Juliana Huxtable, a multitalanted individual from America if there ever was one. Writer, artist, composer, DJ, and rights activist for black and LGBTQ communities. Plenty more to say, but I've run out of space.
14: Manuel Puig, a Mexican writer who created inclusive and confrontational fiction at a time when his country wasn't kind to LGBTQ groups. Broadway goers may know him for the original book for Kiss of the Spider Woman.
15: Gabriel J. Martín, an American writer and psychologist who has made their career out of helping, in person or through writing, people suffering from the pressures created by intolerance of LGBTQ groups.
16: Ocean Vuong, a Vietnamese-American poet, essayist, and novellist. His debut novel is the episelatory semi-autobiographical On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous. Warning, it gets harsh.
17: Ambrosia Tønnesen, a Norwegian sculptor regarded as a pioneer in her field in Norway as rather than a hobby, she made a living from her busts and figurines.
18: Abdellah Taïa, a Mocorran writer and filmmaker who has created relatable and unambiguous queer characters for the Arab world, a feat in and of itself even today.
19: Maddy Thorson, a game designer and writer from Canada who is best known for her work on the platformer Celeste, inspired by her own experiences coming out as a trans woman.
20: F. W. Murnau, one of the defining directors that codified--at least in pop culture--both German Expressionist cinema and later horror. His best known creation--Nosferatu.
21: Rune Naito, perhaps not well known today, but a pioneer in Japanese art in the later 20th Century. He both contributed to the gay magazine Bakazoku, and is credited as a pioneer of the kawaii art style.
22: Lesya Ukrainka, one of the best-known writers on Ukraine's literary tradition, famous for her poetry and also known for her activism on behalf of women and of Ukrainian independence from Russia.
23: Alla Nazimova, a Russian expat probably best known in pop culture as the definitive Salome in the 1922 silent film. She was also a well-regarded pseudonymous screenwriter and producer of early adaptations of Trotsky and Ibsen.
24: Joe Orton, a British playwright who had a short and controversial period of fame before his untimely death. His work included biting black comedy and openly gay characters prior to the decriminalisation of homosexuality in the UK.
25: R. O. Kwon, "a recent name at last" I hear some of you cry. Originally from South Korea, Kown has made her mark as a writer to watch with just two novels: The Incendiaries and Exhibit.
26: Murathan Mungen, a Turkish writer who has worked on stage plays, short stories and poems alongside branching into music. He is also something of a figurehead for the Turkish gay rights movement.
27: Nibedita Sen, born in Kolkata, and a writer who has won multiple major awards for her speculative fiction, focusing on short stories and anthologies.
28: Akwaeke Emezi, another recent writer, this time from Nigeria. She has written across numerous genres, but is perhaps best known at the moment for The Death of Vivek Oji.
29: Ngāhuia Te Awekōtuku, a writer probably better known in her local academia than in the mainstream West. A scholar of Maori culture and an activist for lesbian rights in Aotearoa (New Zealand).
30: Ryan Sallans, another academic, this time from America. Sallans has built his career on writing, speaking, and advocating for LGBTQ rights.
Now, among the honourable mentions and potential candidates, there were...a lot. Frankly too many. I wanted to limit myself strictly to those for whom definitive evidence beyond their work was included. That's why I didn't include Shakespeare last time, and why I didn't include two female poets who might otherwise qualify--Emily Dickinson and Wu Zao. There were also plenty of others that seem to be included on lists of LGBTQIA+ figures, but didn't have any substantial commentary or reliably cited evidence. I know that may seem restrictive and pedantic, but I'm of the opinion that we should be true to history unless it's deviating in a number of other ways (looking at you, Our Flag Means Death, don't get me started on its complete abandonment of history)
In these times, when queer rights are once more under vicious attack--intentional or not--from exclusionary and discriminatory laws and governments, it's important to remember these people. Creatives old and new who stood outside the Western heterosexual norm that's been enforced for over two centuries. Our past is littered with both triumph and tragedy, and there's still a road to travel to reach acceptance and tolerance being the widespread norm rather than what they sometimes are, legally-enclosed exceptions. I hope you find inspiration in at least some of these people I've highlighted.
As for next year? Well, if I'm still around, who knows? Maybe some mythological role models for people across the spectrum. See you then!
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