IWD 2025: 12 incredible LGBTQ+ women from history who completely rewrote the rules
Audre Lorde, writer feminist, poet and civil-rights activist, during her 1983 residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. (Robert Alexander/Getty)
This year, the theme of International Women’s Day (IWD 2025) is “Accelerate Action,” with the non-profit behind the day’s creation writing that this year emphasises the “importance of taking swift and decisive steps to achieve gender equality.”
In light of that, we decided to look at 12 LGBTQ+ women from history who took bold, brave steps to live their lives as they wanted to, refusing to let prejudice or misogyny prevent them from being themselves.
From 17th century sword-slingers to 20th century movie stars and activists, here are some of our favourite queer trailblazers.
1. Julie d’Aubigny (1670 – 1707)
Where to start with Julie? Better known as Mademoiselle Maupin or La Maupin, this 17th century sword-slinger and opera singer became involved with a young woman, whose parents later put her in a convent.
In order to get her lover back, she entered the convent, stole the body of a dead nun, placed it in her lover’s bed and set the room on fire so that they could escape together.
What a woman.
2. The Ladies of Llangollen (1739 – 1829, 1755 – 1831)
The Ladies of Llangollen, Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, were two upper-class Irish women who lived together in Llangollen, Wales, and whose relationship scandalised and fascinated their contemporaries.
Some consider Butler and Ponsonby’s relationship to be a Boston marriage, or a romantic relationship between two women who chose to live together and have “marriage-like relationships”.
3. Anne Lister (1791 – 1840)
Anne Lister was a landowner, diarist, mountaineer and traveller who kept diaries which chronicled her life, including her lesbian relationships.
However, the LGBTQ+ info was written in code, derived from a combination of algebra and Ancient Greek.
She had an affair with a wealthy heiress called Ann Walker, who she later married (without legal recognition), provoking uproar in polite society.
4. Jane Addams (1860 – 1935)
Jane Addams was a pioneering figure in the American suffrage movement. Also an activist, social worker, public philosopher and author, she was involved with several women throughout her lifetime.
Most significantly, Addams was in a relationship with Mary Rozet Smith, and according to historian Lilian Faderman, she addressed Mary as “My Ever Dear”, “Darling” and “Dearest One” in letters.
The couple were together for 40 years and wrote to each other constantly when apart. “I miss you dreadfully and am yours ‘til death,” read one letter from Addams to Smith.
5. Virginia Woolf (1882 – 1941)
Writer Virginia Woolf’s bisexuality is pretty hard to argue with. She had a relationship with fellow writer Vita Sackville-West (we’ll get to her later) in the early ‘20s.
In a letter to Vita, Virginia described telling her sister Nessa about their affair, where she wrote: “I told Nessa the story of our passion in a chemist’s shop the other day. ‘But do you really like going to bed with women’ she said – taking her change. ‘And how’d you do it?’ and so she bought her pills to take abroad, talking as loud as a parrot.”
6. Eleanor Roosevelt (1884 – 1962)
Eleanor Roosevelt was known to have been allowed to have an affair by her straying husband – and she chose reporter Lorena ‘Hick’ Hickock.
Following Eleanor’s death, a series of letters were unearthed. Although most were destroyed by the Roosevelt family, one letter read: “I want to put my arms around you & kiss you at the corner of your mouth.”
In another 1933 letter, Eleanor wrote: “I want to put my arms around you. I ache to hold you close… Your ring is a great comfort to me. I look at it and think she does love me, or I wouldn’t be wearing it.”
7. Mercedes de Acosta (1893 – 1968)
An American poet, playwright and novelist, Mercedes de Acosta wasn’t famed for her writing, rather for her many lesbian affairs with Hollywood stars.
She’s possibly best-known for her long-term romance with Greta Garbo, and was also involved with Russian ballerina Tamara Karsavina.
8. Alla Nazimova (1879 – 1945)
Alla Nazimova, an actress, was credited with coming up with the phrase ‘sewing circle’ as a code name for her and her fellow lesbian or bisexual Hollywood actresses.
She openly had relationships with women, and her Sunset Boulevard mansion was believed to be the home of some pretty exciting parties.
9. Audre Lorde (1934 – 1992)
African-American writer Audre Lorde was also a civil rights activist who famously said: “Those of us who stand outside the circle of this society’s definition of acceptable women; those of us who have been forged in the crucibles of difference – those of us who are poor, who are lesbians, who are Black, who are older – know that survival is not an academic skill.
“It is learning how to take our differences and make them strengths. For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.
“They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change. And this fact is only threatening to those women who still define the master’s house as their only source of support.”
10. Ruth Ellis (1899 – 2000)
Ruth Ellis was an African-American woman and LGBTQ+ rights activist who came out when she was just 16.
In the 1920s, she met her partner of 30 years, Ceciline ‘Babe’ Franklin, and their Detroit home became a refuge for African-American LGBTQ+ people.
11. Marion Barbara ‘Joe’ Carstairs (1900 – 193)
A wealthy British power boat racer, Marion Barbara ‘Joe’ Carstairs often dressed as a man, had tattoos and loved adventure and speed.
She was openly gay and had many affairs with women, including Dolly Wilde (Oscar Wilde’s niece), Greta Garbo, Tallulah Bankhead and Marlene Dietrich.
12. Gladys Bentley (1907 – 1960)
Gladys Bentley was an American blues singer, pianist and entertainer during the Harlem Renaissance, and is a significant figure for the LGBTQ+ community and African-Americans.
She dressed in men’s clothes when she performed, backed up by a chorus line of drag queens, played piano and sang in a deep, growling voice while flirting with women in the audience. Gladys Bentley, and all of the other women on this list, helped move things forward for women’s and LGBTQ+ rights just by being so unapologetically themselves, at a time when women were expected to conform to men’s expectations.
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