Here and queer: The stories of LGBTQ+ history month

Born in Denmark in 1805 Hans Christian Anderson is most known for his classic fairy tales like “The Little Mermaid” and “Thumbelina”. When he was fourteen he pursued a career in acting, and later graduated from a secondary school in Slagelse, Denmark. After his graduation, he continued acting and wrote plays and storybooks. He created three volumes of stories for children, which included mo...

Robina Asti was assigned male at birth and born in 1921. She was born in New York City, and when she was 17, she dropped out of high school to join the US Navy. She became a pilot, and worked her way up to become a lieutenant commander. After being discharged, she briefly opened a restaurant before becoming the vice president of a mutual fund firm. She married Evangeline Diaz-Perez, and in 1976 with ...

Ninia Baehr and Genora Dancel were the first plaintiffs in a major equality lawsuit in America. Dancel was the first female broadcast engineer at Hawaii Public Television, and she fell in love with her boss’s daughter, Baehr. After Dancel proposed, the couple applied for a marriage license, but it was denied instantly. They accepted they could not get married, until Baehr needed medical help and...

Victor Blackwell was born in 1981 in Baltimore, Maryland. After graduating high school as class president, he studied broadcast journalism in college at Howard University and later interned for his local news station. He then went on to complete many reporting jobs at local news stations, and after he moved to Florida, he became the first Black person to serve as WPBF 25 (Jacksonville’s News Station...

Born in Massachusetts in 1895, Robert Cutler was originally a writer. After graduating from Harvard College, he wrote two novels. He soon joined the army in WW1, and after the war, went to Harvard Law School. After serving on a council for the Mayor of Boston, he joined the army again in WW2. There, Cutler served as a colonel and received the Distinguished Service Medal and the Legion of Merit. After ...

Sue Bird was born in 1980, and developed a love for sports early on in her childhood. She started playing basketball in sixth grade. She continued playing basketball in high school, and went on to win the national title, along with the New York State Championship and New York State Player of the Year. She then went to University of Connecticut, but tore her ACL in her freshman year. She recovered, and went ...