LGBTQIA Resources Workshop: Figures in History

Here is a list of prominent queers in history who have advocated for political change regarding the LGBTQIA community that they live within. This section is organized by century.  The individuals are listed below each century in ascending order by year. Linked names or organizations lead to books in Penn Libraries catalog that discuss these individuals or organizations.​

19th Century

Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, Walt Whitman, Edward Carpenter, Oscar Wilde

20th Century

• Writers: Virginia Woolf, Willa Cather, Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, E.M. Forster, Radclyffe Hall, Djuna Barnes, Bayard Rustin, James Baldwin, Kate Bornstein,Truman Capote, Allen Ginsberg, Gore Vidal
• Musicians: Ma Rainey, Lucille Bogan, Bessie Smith
• Activists: Tommi Mecca, Barney Frank, Barbara Gittings, Edie Windsor, Tammy Baldwin, Sally Mursi​, Yasmene Jabar , Fatemeh Javeheri, Pinky Sikder, Demet Demir, Rachel Maddow, Henry Gerber, etc. 

21st Century

• Athletes: Caitlyn Jenner

In this box you will be able to see important works that Penn Libraries has that catalog LGBTQIA History during various decades and centuries. See below for important works that catalog LGBTQQIA History.

Here are a few books that highlight important people in the LGBTQIA community in the present and past of America, and other countries and cultures.