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Sappho
(c. 630 – c. 570 BC)
Sappho was an Archaic Greek poet from the island of Lesbos. Sappho is known for her lyric poetry, written to be sung while accompanied by music.
Sappho was a prolific poet, probably composing around 10,000 lines; today, only about 650 survive. She was best-known in antiquity for her love poetry to and about other women; other themes in the surviving fragments of her work include family and religion.
Charlotte d'Éon de Beaumont or Charles d'Éon de Beaumont
(5 October 1728 – 21 May 1810)
Usually known as the Chevalière d'Éon or the Chevalier d'Éon, d'Éon de Beaumont was a French diplomat, spy, and soldier. From 1777, d'Éon lived as a woman and was officially recognized as a woman by King Louis XVI
The Public Universal Friend
(November 29, 1752 – July 1, 1819)
The Public Universal Friend was an American preacher born in Cumberland, Rhode Island, to Quaker parents. After suffering a severe illness in 1776, the Friend claimed to have died and been reanimated as a genderless evangelist named the Public Universal Friend, and afterward shunned both birth name and gendered pronouns.
Lady Eleanor Butler and Sara Ponsonby
(11 May 1739 – 2 June 1829) and (11 May 1739 – 2 June 1829)
The "Ladies of Llangollen", Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, were two upper-class Irish women who lived together as a couple for over 50 years. Their relationship scandalised and fascinated their contemporaries. The pair moved to a Gothic house in Llangollen, North Wales, in 1780 after leaving Ireland to escape the social pressures of conventional marriages.
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (Lord Byron)
(22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824)
Lord Byron was a bisexual British poet and peer. He is one of the major figures of the Romantic movement, and is regarded as being among the greatest of British poets.
Anne Lister
(3 April 1791 – 22 September 1840)
Anne Lister was an English landowner, who became famous after her death for revelations about her many affairs with women recorded in her diary. Because of this, she was dubbed "the first modern lesbian"
Anne Drysdale and Caroline Newcombe
(1792-1853) and (1812-1874)
Anne Drysdale and Caroline Elizabeth Newcomb were life long partners, squatters and business partners in Victoria in the mid to late 1800s.
Ellen Maguire, The Great Eastern
(1816 - 1869)
Not much is known about Elle Maguire apart from what is recorded of her court trials, but here we present her extraordinary and ultimately tragic story of transgender/gender non conforming brothel owner Ellen Maguire, aka The Great Eastern.
Lola Montenz
(17 February 1821 – 17 January 1861)
Eliza Rosanna Gilbert, Countess of Landsfeld, better known by the stage name Lola Montez, was an Irish dancer and actress who became famous as a Spanish dancer, courtesan, and mistress of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, who made her Gräfin von Landsfeld (Countess of Landsfeld).
Edward De Lacy Evans
(c. 1830 – 25 August 1901)
Edward de Lacy Evans, an Australian miner who identified as a man for over 22 years and was married 3 times. He was later admitted to insane asylums in attempts to "cure" his convictions.
Dr Henry Slade
(1835–1905)
Henry Slade was a famous fraudulent medium who lived and practiced in both Europe and North America. Slade was best known for his "slate writing" method, where he would purportedly produce message written by spirits on slates.
Less well know was that Slade was assigned female at birth.
Captain Moonlite and James Nesbitt
(1842 – 1880) and (1858 – 1879)
Captain Moonlite and James Nesbitt were bushrangers and lovers. When Nesbitt was killed and Moonlite imprisioned, Moonlite wrote impassioned letters from his death cell asking to be buried next to Nesbitt and wore a ring made of James' hair to the gallows. A beautiful, tragic love story between two men.
Fanny and Stella, aka Thomas Ernest Boulton and Frederick William Park
(1847–1904) and (1846-1881)
Thomas Ernest Boulton (aka Stella) and Frederick William Park (aka Fanny) were Victorian cross-dressers from the United Kingdom. Both were homosexual men from upper-middle-class families, both enjoyed wearing women's clothes and both enjoyed taking part in theatrical performances—playing the women's roles when they did so.
Harriet Elphinstone-Dick and Alice Moon
(1852–1902) and (1855 - 1894)
Harriet Elphinstone-Dick, was an early English and Australian swimming champion, and physical fitness teacher. With her partner, Alice Moon, they migrated to Australia and opened the first gym for women in Australia, located in Melbourne.
Jack Jorgenson
(1851- 1893)
Jack Jorgenson was assigned female at birth but wore male attire all his life. Born in Germany, he lived and worked in Australia. He was hardworking and a lady's man.
Oscar Wilde
(16 October 1854 - 30 November 1900)
Oscar Wilde was an Irish author, poet, and playwright who became one of the most popular and influential playwrights in London in the early 1890s.
He was also the object of notorious civil and criminal suits involving homosexuality and ending in his imprisonment from 1895–97.
Dr Lilian Cooper and Josephine Bedford
(11 August 1861 - 18 August 1947) and (1861 – 22 December 1955)
Dr Lilian Coope was a British-born medical practitioner in Queensland, Australia. Mary Josephine Bedford was a British born philanthropist in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia,
On completing her education at the London School of Medicine for Women, in 1892, Cooper sailed for Brisbane with her lifelong love, Mary Josephine Bedford. In June 1891, Cooper applied for registration with the Medical Board of Queensland, becoming the first woman doctor registered in Queensland and the second in Australia.
Dora Ohlfsen-Bagge and Countess Hélène de Kuegelgen
(22 August 1869 – 7 February 1948) and (1 January 1879 - 7 February 1948)
Dora Ohlfsen-Bagge was a Ballarat born Australian sculptor and art medallist. She met her lifelong partner, Hélène de Kuegelgen, around 1896 and they lived together for the next 40 plus years.
William 'Bill' Edwards
(1874–1956)
William 'Bill' Edwards, assigned female at birth, was a barman, pony trainer and bookmaker. Edwards has been described as "Australia's first transgender celebrity"
Ethel May (Monte) Punshon
(8 November 1882 – 4 April 1989)
Monte Punshon was an Australian artist and teacher who was born in Ballarat. She kept scrapbooks on LGBTIQA+ people and came out publicly as a lesbian at 100 years of age.