Archive for the ‘LGBT History Month 1’ Category

Frida Kahlo

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Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter, known best for her evocative self-portraits. She was a pioneer of various styles and forms, including Mexican tradition, folk art, magical realism, and surrealism. Kahlo is also deemed a feminist artist, for her frank and true expression of the female form.

Kahlo was involved in serious bus accident as a young woman, leaving her in an all-body cast for months. It was at this point that she quit her study of medicine to take up painting. Kahlo was bisexual and had multiple affairs with women outside of her marriage to fellow artist Diego Rivera. She once said of herself: “I was born a bitch. I was born a painter.”

Oscar Wilde

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Born in 1854, Wilde was an Irish poet, playwright and novelist. His most notable works include The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest, both of which live on as two of the most adapted works of modern times. Near the end of his life, Wilde was prosecuted for ‘gross indecency’ and sodomy, under homophobic legislation.

Under cross-examination, Wilde said of his relationship with his lover: ‘It is in this century misunderstood, so much misunderstood that it may be described as “the love that dare not speak its name”… It is beautiful, it is fine, it is the noblest form of affection.’

Dr. Kate Stone

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Dr Kate Stone describes herself as a ‘creative scientist’, who after completing a PhD in physics and micro-electronics at Cambridge, created her groundbreaking start-up, Novalia. At Novalia, Dr Kate and her team combine conductive print and capacitive touch to create smart surfaces that act as sensors and speakers.

Dr Kate is a transwoman and suffered discrimination at the hands of the media in 2013, but that didn’t stop her from doing a phenomenal TED talk that’s been watched by over 600,000 people.