Famous lesbians, gay women and gender fluid people you really should know

Master of None actor Lena Waithe said, at the Essence Black Women in Hollywood Awards in 2018, "Being born gay, black and female is not a revolutionary act. Being proud to be a gay, black female is."

Singer Hayley Kiyoko literally has a song called 'Girls Like Girls', was part of the reason last year was dubbed 20GAYTEEN on Twitter, and is even referred to by her fans as "lesbian Jesus".

At a recent pride summit, she said, "I didn’t want a label at all, but once I released my music, there was this outpour of support for the fact that I did like girls. I learned that by embracing my label as a lesbian, I was helping normalise that for so many other people."

Samira Wiley, who played Poussey Washington in OITNB has spoken about being outed by a cast member. "I saw it in print, and I cried. I cried a lot," she went on to say. "I tried to get it taken down. Look, I had a journey, I was not always a super open-hearted gay gay-mo!

"That’s something that somebody took from me, you know? You should be able to come out on your own terms, so that was probably a little deeper."

Singer and songwriter King Princess (real name: Mikaela Straus) spoke about how she identifies in an Entertainment Weekly cover interview. She said she uses lesbian "sometimes".

"What I love about the time we are living in now is that you can express gender queerness, that you’re gay, that you’re a lesbian, a girl dating girls. Because I am a girl who dates girls and I have been for a long time. So I am a lesbian. But sometimes I feel like a gay man, you know? Just in my spirit. I’m learning how to be comfortable in between," she said.

Kate McKinnon, best known for Saturday Night Live is 98.5 per cent lesbian, apparently. "Talking to Julie Goldman on this filmed interview, Kate said, "I think it's so apparent that I am [a lesbian]. I have not seen a human penis... except on a nude art model. I don't hook up with people I don't really like, and I don't really like any men. I would give myself a 98.5 les rating."

The L Word actor Holland Taylor (and Sarah Paulson's partner) is often referred to as a lesbian, but does she actually identify that way? She told the LGBTQ&A podcast she uses the term gay. And speaking to DIVA magazine in 2020, she said, "I have never concealed who I am. I’m not one to broadcast my private life anyway, but as far as simply being with whoever I’m partners with, of course I’m not going to be hiding in my house. Although in fact, right now we are hiding in our houses, all of us, from the silent enemy that’s all over the globe. But the idea that one would hide in that way still, in some societies, is extremely sad."

Ratched and American Horror Story actor and yep Holland Taylor's partner, Sarah Paulson is another celebrity often referred to as a lesbian. But does she use that term? In 2016, she asked people specifically not to label her as a lesbian. “If my life choices had to be predicated based on what was expected of me from a community on either side, that’s going to make me feel really straitjacketed, and I don’t want to feel that,” she said to New York Times. “What I can say absolutely is that I am in love, and that person happens to be Holland Taylor.”

The L Word actor Katherine Moennig realised she wasn't straight while working on the original series almost 15 years ago. Speaking about why it took her until then to realise, she said, "Now I believe if I was in high school now I would see it more. Back then you didn’t. That shit did not exist."

Comedian and writer/performer of Netflix's Nannette, Hannah Gadsby said in conversation with bisexual author Roxanne Gay that she always gets trolled and called "sir". "It’s so lazy. It’s just the short hair and the height, isn’t it? Someone tagged me in a post on Twitter, and it said, 'Fuckin’ dyke, wearing a hat. There’s no need to wear a hat at night, except to say you’re a lesbian'."

Audre Lorde described herself as a “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet”. She is best known for her books and poetry including Sister Outsider and Zami. She dies in 1992.

Former GBBO presenter Sandi Toksvig recently told PinkNews, "I don’t think there was a particular moment of realisation. I can’t tell you, for example, it was a Tuesday at 4pm. I think it’s a bit like being right or left handed — it takes age and a bit of experience to understand what it means for how you relate to the world. But you don’t suddenly realise you’re left handed. You just are."

Comedian and actor Rosie O'Donnell said publicly that she was gay during a stand up set back in 2002.

Author Radclyffe Hall's 1928 book A Well of Lonliness was censored and banned due to its lesbian content - which surmounted to “she kissed her full on the lips, as a lover.” The campaign to ban the book was led by the Sunday Express whose editor wrote at the time, "In order to prevent the contamination and corruption of English fiction it is the duty of the critic to make it impossible for any other novelist to repeat this outrage."

Canadian YouTuber Gigi Gorgeous uploaded a video to her channel called "I'm a lesbian" back in 2016 during Pride. She'd previously identified as bisexual.

Speaking to Advocate, Sex and the City actor Cynthia Nixon said, "I identify as gay as a political stance. If anybody, prior to my meeting and falling in love with Christine, had asked me about what I think about sexuality, I would have said I think we’re all bisexual."But I had that point of view without ever having felt attracted to a woman.

"I had never met a woman I was attracted to [before Christine]. And maybe if I’d met her when I was 20, I would have fallen in love and only dated women. But maybe if I’d met her at 20, I wouldn’t have responded at all. Who knows?"

The Great British Bake Off presenter talked to Time Out about coming out in 2014. "When I was 28, I made a big deal of ringing [my parents] and being rather grandiose down the phone, saying: 'We need to talk”' in a weird, declamatory way. My mum said, 'Do you want to tell us you’re gay? Or is there something really wrong?' And I thought: You’ve robbed me of my moment, my big moment!

At the Golden Globes in 2013, Jodie Foster did a not-coming-out coming out speech. Kind of... "I hope you're not disappointed that there won't be a big coming-out speech tonight. I already did my coming-out about a thousand years ago," she said.

"Back in the days when a fragile young girl would open up to trusted friends and family and co-workers and then gradually proudly to everyone who knew her, to everyone she actually met. But now apparently every celebrity is expected to expose the details of their private life with a press conference, a fragrance and a reality show. I'm sorry, that's just not me and it never will be."

Ruby Rose, who you probably know from OITNB, is playing Batwoman is a new TV series. Ruby identifies as gender fluid and this is what she said to Entertainment Weekly when some people kicked off about her being cast as a lesbian Batwoman. "I didn’t know that being a gender-fluid woman meant that I couldn’t be a lesbian because I’m not a woman — not considered lesbian enough. That’s when I sort of said, ‘I’m a woman that identifies as a woman. I’m not trans. But if being gender-fluid means that I can’t identify as a woman at any point, then I guess I can’t be that.’

"Maybe I need to make up another term, one that doesn’t step on any toes. One where I can be fluid in my gender, but also a lesbian, because otherwise, I’m not sure what I am.”