The Most Awesome LGBTQ Women In History

Cha-U-Kao

This Moulin Rouge entertainer was a muse for artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. The famed lesbian was a female clown, who was confident in her choice to pursue a male-dominated career. She is depicted in a number of Toulouse-Lautrec’s paintings with her various female lovers.

Toulouse-Lautrec was apparently inspired by Cha-U-Kao because she was so open and confident about her sexuality (which is a thing that was taboo for women in the 1890s, especially homosexual women). Basically, Cha-U-Kao lived her life the way she wanted and we’ve got endless respect.

Roberta Cowell

Is there anything more awe-inspiring than a tough-as-heck transgender woman who was both a war pilot and a race driver? Roberta Cowell is everything. She was a British World War II fighter pilot and a Grand Prix race car driver – oh, and she also happened to be one of the first people to undergo sex reassignment surgery.

After Cowell got her surgery, she wasn’t allowed to compete in the Grand Prix (let’s be honest, the guys couldn’t handle that she’d probably crush them), but she kept her spirits up. She won the 1957 Shelsley Walsh Speed Hill Climb and continued racing throughout her lifetime. Basically, if Cowell was still alive, we’d want to be her BFF.