The Most Awesome LGBTQ Women In History

You may rarely hear their names touted in history books, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Throughout history, there have been some amazingly awesome, totally tough, world-changing LGBTQ women that are rarely recognized. These women threw lavish parties, invented ground-breaking technology, and generally, didn’t care what anybody else thought.

Alla Nazimova

Alla Nazimova was a mega movie star. In 1917 she signed a MGM contract where she made a whopping $13,000 a week. What do you do with all that money? Throw lavish parties, of course!

Nazimova was known to have some pretty scandalous and intimate encounters with women at her mansion on Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard. She even coined the term “sewing circle” to describe closeted lesbian and bisexual women in Hollywood.

Hannah Snell

If you love smart girls sticking it to the man, then you’re going to flip over Hanna Snell. Snell was a tough-to-the-bone soldier who totally pulled a Mulan to serve in the British Navy.

Snell was abandoned by her husband (who needed him anyway?) and disguised herself as a man to serve in the British Navy from 1745 to 1750. She pulled the ultimate power move when she was asked to find a prostitute for her commanding officer while stationed in Carlisle. She found the prostitute for him but ended up sealing the deal herself, instead. Sweet.