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this February we're celebrating LGBT
History Month which observes LGBT
history and looks at the rights and
importance of understanding LGBT
identity at home and in the workplace
okay hi everyone
so my LGBT hero is Wilfred Owen who was
born in 1893 and sadly died on the
battlefield of World War one in 1918 and
I've chosen him because I think the
poets of the First World War are the
ones that really brought the horror and
reality home to us and so beautifully
and graphically and he is a hero in many
senses of the words we all need heroes
and role models to show us what's
possible and to show as it is possible
to live openly as LGBT throughout LGBT
history our role models and heroes are
those who have stood up for what they
believe in he won't compromise who they
are
and who make visible the invisible yeah
my LGBT hero is Glueck she was one of
the most successful artists of the 1920s
and the 1930s and Luke was an LGBT
pioneer in that she presented herself in
a way that we would today describe as
queer and she painted her female lovers
and her queer social circle she was born
Hannah Gluckstein in 1895 and two
friends she was hick but professionally
she was known as look with no pronoun
there's some really interesting
newspaper articles from her one-man
shows that feat of featured photos of
glueck with short cropped hair she's
dressed in expensive tailored menswear
she's got cigarette nonchalantly
dangling from her hand
but the patronizing copy in the
newspaper article below refers to the
artist as mrs. or miss look we have no
way of knowing where the clerk
identified his lesbian or whether she
was trans and in a sense it doesn't
really matter
she's been adopted by both communities
as one of
my LGBT hero is Alan Turing his founding
father of artificial intelligence helped
in the code breaking in World War two at
Bletchley Park
he was chemically castrated for
committing homosexual acts and there is
a law informally named after him as Alan
Turing law where men who committed
homosexual acts and were incriminated
for it are now pardoned by the Queen my
LGBT hero is Zachary Quinton he is the
actor who is known for playing
Spock in the latest series of Star Trek
movies and what impressed me about
Zachary is that he came out in 2011
following the suicide of a colleague who
was gay when he realized that actually
this isn't something that can just be
kept quiet and kept private coming out
as an important thing in making the
statements the world and helping the
world to move forward this whole issue
about the rights of LGBT people what
also impressed me is that Zachary would
have done this in the Hollywood
environment where it wasn't really the
done thing and in doing that he is
standing up taking a risk and making a
statement that hopefully will have a
positive impact on thousands upon
thousands of other people who watch and
respect his work to have the confidence
to come out and be proud to be part of
LGBT community my older beauty hero is a
fictional character and it's actually
the duality between Clark Kent and
Superman and I think a lot of LGBT
people identify with with that duality
especially in the time of them coming
out it's sort of the ethical person
working in a business being themselves
but not being able to show everything
about themselves for the fear of
protecting themselves and others and
Superman is sort of this entity of doing
grateful society and the image of
justice what Clark Kent is the
embodiment of of ethics which is I think
part of the problem part of the duality
between them
this being a fictional story it sort of
ends up in in a good scenario of both of
these identities uniting into one and
Clark Kent and Superman being one at the
end of the story which doesn't
necessarily happen in the world place
today for a lot of people which is why
we need more LGBT people and more
identities fighting for LGBT rights
equality and inclusion my LGBT hero is
Marsha P Johnson she was a black trans
woman living in New York in the 60s and
she's widely credited as the first
person to throw a brick at the Stonewall
Riots the Stonewall riots were
particularly influential in securing
LGBTQ rights in America but also around
the world they really put a spotlight on
LGBT issues and the reason she's my hero
is because she reminds me that in order
to get your rights you sometimes have to
fight it you can't just sit there
passively and hope that they'll come you
have to actually work towards them and
she's a really great indicator of why
you have to do that and how you can do
that so the patient was incredibly
important to me because they are visible
on LGBT issues in the early 90s they
were very vocal around the AIDS epidemic
and just last year they played a huge
part in helping to find a pardon from
the UK government for those who were
prosecuted before the decriminalization
of homosexuality and that's why they're
one of my heroes my hero is Sir Ian
McKellen he's an actor as you well know
Gandalf to other people but for me he
was an activist in the 80s when he was
fighting for section 28 that's when he
came out at a time where you could lose
your career if you came out as a gay man
but he has become a stalwart for the
LGBT community he's fought so many
campaigns for the for the the rights for
men women tried to by people to be who
they are so Ian McKellen here's to you
my hero
so having role models is important for
the LGBT community
since someone was actually fighting for
your rights and your equality and
inclusion with organizations in society
it's important and we should do this
more often we should highlight the
people that actually bring contribution
so you should do the same you should
come out
you should shout out loud who your LGBT
hero needs and use our hashtag LGBT hero
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