In our second instalment we will be looking at LGBTQ+ Role Models throughout history and the impact they have had forever upon the world!
The icon for 2021 LGBTQ+ History Month is Maya Angelou, who was an American author, actress, screenwriter, dancer, poet and civil rights activist, best known for her world-renowned memoir, 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings'. Angelou paved the way for Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) women within the literary sphere and uplifted minority voices within society.
Maya Angelou was a voice for those who has been treated lesser in society, on the fight for LGBT equality, Angelou said: “I am aghast and appalled at any people who decide that another group should not have their rights. We’re all each other’s people.”
Although Angelo has not disclosed her own sexuality, she was an avid supporter of the LGBTQ+ community stating, “I am gay,” Maya Angelou told a gathering of an estimated 4,000 predominantly LGBT people celebrating gay and lesbian choruses at the GALA Festival in Tampa, Florida in 1996. She then paused and continued: “I am lesbian. I am black. I am white. I am Native American. I am Christian. I am Jew. I am Muslim.”
She had a profound impact upon the LGBTQ+ community and this year she is being celebrated as one of the icons of LGBTQ+ History month because of her tireless activism. She has time and time again spoken for those who have no voice in society, exclaiming to the world that, “To love someone takes a lot of courage,” she told the New York Times, “so how much more is one challenged when the love is of the same sex and the laws say, ‘I forbid you from loving this person?'”
"Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise."
Dr. Maya Angelou
Click the image below to see a reading of Still I Rise by Maya Angelou, performed by Olivette Cole Wilson.
Along with celebrating Maya Angelou's legacy, we are also celebrating many famous and successful members of the LGBTQ+ community. We commemorate Alan Turing, Jackie Kay, Dusty Springfield, Nicola Adams, James Barry and Yves Saint Laurent!
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