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Top 5 queer heroes to mark LGBT+ History Month 2021

Words by Smiley Team

It’s been 16 years since Schools OUT UK, an LGBT+ education charity, first launched its annual awareness month in February to inform people about queer culture throughout history. This year, the organisation is celebrating LGBT+ History Month by telling the incredible stories of five queer heroes.

As Schools OUT UK spokesperson Andrew Dobbin puts it, they are “Champions of the intellect and the soul. Five icons everyone should know.”

 

A very feminist footballer

Scoring nearly 1,000 goals in her footballing career, Lily Parr was a pioneer of the women’s game. She played football while women’s football captured the international imagination and combatted the negative lash back against it. She is also an important icon for tackling transphobia. Trans footballer Nathalie Washington said: “As campaign lead for Football v Transphobia, I look back on the ban on women players and it looks just as antiquated as I hope the restrictions on trans people competing will one day appear.” So Parr’s legacy lives on with many female players, like the London Lesbian Kickabouts, inspired to play because of her.

 

The power of the pen

A prolific Black writer, public speaker and activist, Maya Angelou overcame great adversity to fight for civil rights in the US. Olivette Cole Wilson works for the BAME LGBT+ community project in northeast London, Haringey Vanguard. She said: “I’m really excited that Maya Angelou is going to be the 2021 icon for LGBT+ History Month. I think it’s really important for children to be who they want to be… and I think her work is really inspirational for them.”

 

The joining of two struggles

Co-founder of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners, Mark Ashton was another hero who faced significant challenges in the struggle for LGBT+ rights. Teaming up with the miners in the ‘80s, his campaign group stood up to homophobic abuse all while supporting the struggle of a Welsh community to protect their jobs and wellbeing. Co-founder of the movement Mike Jackson explained: “The miners were in desperate struggle and we went to support them in their struggle. Because unless everybody’s free, nobody’s free.”

 

A sporting success

Another of Schools OUT UK's heroes for this year, Mark Weston was a trans olympian who underwent surgery to transition physically to becoming a man in the 1930s. His story inspires modern-day generations of trans people, such as 22-year-old transgender man Eric, who said: “I read his story as a teenager and I think it had a very profound effect on me. So much of trans history has been erased or lost… so seeing these stories and preserving these stories seems especially important.”

 

The first medical transition

Working as a physician in the early to mid 20th century, Michael Dillon was the first trans man to undergo phalloplasty to gain a penis. Working in a laboratory in Gloucester, he came across the hormone, testosterone, remarking upon its transformative effects. He was living as a woman at the time but dressed in a masculine way. After taking the hormone and undergoing plastic surgery he physically transitioned to the gender that he identified with.

For more information about Schools OUT UK click here.

This article aligns with the following UN SDGs

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