5 Queer Activists From History Who Changed the World for LGBT History Month 2025

This year marks the 20th celebration of LGBT+ History Month, an important event in the LGBTQ+ calendar that shines a light on queer history that has been hidden and erased as a result of Section 28. In 2024, we celebrated five extraordinary queer medical professionals from history, but this year the focus is on the five incredible LGBTQ+ individuals who made their mark as activists and pioneers of social change. So, who are the historical figures for LGBT+ History Month 2025, and what did they do?

Despite being the only working-class woman to hold a senior position in the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), Ann "Annie" Kenney (1879 – 1953) is often overlooked in the women’s suffrage movement. Her interruption of a Manchester rally to ask then Oldham MP Winston Churchill if he believed women had the right to vote was seen as a pivotal moment in the suffragette campaign.

Kenney joined WSPU in 1905. That October, she and Christabel Pankhurst interrupted a political rally by Winston Churchill and Sir Edward Grey, shouting, "Will the Liberal government give votes to women?" and unfurling a Votes for Women banner. Kenney was jailed for three days for ‘causing an obstruction’ and 12 times throughout her time in WSPU, taking part in hunger strikes while imprisoned. Her actions were a catalyst for the group to move towards more radical and direct protest.

Kenney is known for having ‘several close friendships’ with women in the suffragette movement, including a brief tryst with Christabel Pankhurst. She was also a close family friend of Mary Blathwayt, a fellow suffragette, and a frequent visitor of their Bristol home. It’s thought that the two were lovers, while Blathwayt also kept a diary documenting Kenney’s other relationships with women in the city, including who she was thought to share a bed with. Ah, the lesbian drama!

The influence and dedication of Ivor Cummings (1913 – 1992) to the Windrush generation led to him being dubbed its ‘gay father.’ Despite this accolade, Cummings often gets erased from the story of Windrush since he lived his life as an openly gay black man. As well as his incredible work to help the newly arrived “Windrushers,” Cummings was also the first black official in the British Colonial Office.

Cummings joined the Colonial Office in 1941 and helped recruit African nurses for the newly formed NHS after WWII. In 1948, he took charge of securing accommodation and resources for those onboard the Empire Windrush, helping them find new jobs in the UK. His decision to use the old air raid shelter beneath Clapham Common as temporary accommodation led to Brixton becoming the permanent centre for the African Caribbean community in Britain today.

Even though homosexuality was a criminal offence during much of his lifetime, Cummings lived openly and uncensored as a gay man. He socialised in Black queer intellectual circles in the 30s and 40s and was a gay member of ‘the group’ – an assembly of African intellectuals living in London. Cummings also proudly accepted the label of “queer” long before the community reclaimed it in the 1990s.

When he stood for the Green Party in 2015 representing Islington South & Finsbury, Charlie Kiss (1965 – 2022) became the first transgender man to run for parliament in the UK. His work for the party was instrumental in the Green’s adoption of trans-inclusive policies, while he also tirelessly campaigned for better support and NHS funding for trans individuals.

For many years, Kiss identified as a lesbian woman. At 17, he lived in the women-only anti-nuclear protest camps at Greenham Common and joined the other 43 women who broke through the fence on New Year’s Day, 1983, dancing on top of the missile silos. He transitioned in 2002 with the love and support of family and friends and wrote about his gender dysphoria journey from proud lesbian to trans man in his memoir.

In 2015, Kiss won a record eight per cent of the vote when he stood for the Green Party in Islington South & Finsbury, despite not getting elected overall. He continued to fight for trans inclusivity in the Green Party by organising a panel to look at discrimination faced by trans, intersex and non-binary people. Kiss’ legacy of activism continues through a fundraiser set up by his family created to support others in the trans+ community.

Despite her work in the second half of the nineteenth century, the legacy of Octavia Hill (1838 – 1912) is even more profound today. Hill spent her life working to improve working-class living conditions, especially for the inhabitants of London, first by buying neglected properties in the city and overhauling them for tenants, and second by campaigning to preserve open spaces for the urban poor.

Hill fought to save countless green spaces in London from developers and advocated for creating path networks between protected open spaces in and around the city. She’s also credited for the idea of London’s Green Belt, an area of land surrounding the city protected from development. In 1895, Hill teamed up with Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to found the National Trust, which celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2020!

While Hill’s sexuality is unconfirmed, she is thought to have had romantic relationships with women throughout her life – after all, the National Trust is probably the most cottage-core lesbian thing to exist! Hill lived with Dr Sophia Jex-Blake, one of the first women enrolled at university, for a short period, describing their relationship as ‘great companions.’ After a tempestuous ending, Hill lived the rest of her life alongside Harriot York. The two were engaged as ‘companions’ for 30 years, and their ashes were buried together when they died.

The extraordinary memoir by Olaudah Equiano (1745 – 1797) not only brought attention to the horrors of slavery but was instrumental in the efforts of British abolitionists to abolish slavery in the country. Equiano wrote his bestselling novel, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano; or, Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself following his own experiences as a slave.

Born in what is now southern Nigeria, Equiano was enslaved as a child and sold to a Royal Navy officer. He was sold twice more before he bought his freedom in 1766. Equiano quickly became involved in the movement to abolish slavery in Britain, lecturing listeners about the cruelty of British enslavers in Jamaica. He published his autobiography in 1789 with the support of other abolitionists who were collecting evidence on the sufferings of slaves.

Equiano’s sexuality has been much contested. In the first American edition of his memoir, he describes a relationship with Richard Baker, a young white “lad” he meets on the ship. Equiano says they became inseparable, often lying together at night. Many consider the autobiography a window into what life was like as a gay or bisexual African man in the mid-eighteenth century, with abridged versions of the text changing the nature of this relationship.