Impact Of Being Assigned Female At Birth

Background:

I was assigned female at birth and use she/her/hers pronouns but am totally cool with others using they/them pronouns for me. I do not typically feel any deep connection to my gender identity (but do not generally feel a deeper connection to any other gender identity so see no real reason to choose a different gender identity.) I don't typically feel like a woman or feel like I really belong in many women centered spaces since my experiences and interests are often different from others in those spaces. 

These are all things that contribute to the reason I am who I am

But generally don't impact my day to day.

Impact Of The Supreme Court

As someone who only feels very loosely connected to my gender identity or the gender I was assigned at birth the recent supreme court ruling is hard for me to process. Knowing how many people connect me so strongly to being assigned female at birth that they are willing to potentially take away all my rights to bodily autonomy because I happen to have a womb. 

As people come forward and tell their stories I hear again and again how having a womb limits one's ability to make choices about their own body. People who speak to their doctors about having their tubes tied or having a hysterectomy and are told they are too young to make this choice when they are in their 30's, or that the doctor wants permission from the individuals boyfriend/husband. 

I also hear stories where individuals have a miscarriage and then are sent through the legal system because someone somewhere thinks there was something that could have magically prevented the miscarriage. Or politicians who have no idea how pregnancy works and suggest there is some way to reimplant ectopic pregnancies. (Not scientifically possible)

How does being assigned female at birth impact us now?

In light of the Supreme Court I am having to sit with the impact on me, my body, and my wellbeing of being assigned female at birth even though I don't strongly identify with that fact. 

I now feel like I have to fight for a women's right to choose, for a women's bodily autonomy, because this is no longer just fighting for others this is fighting for myself too.

Just because I currently live in a state that is maintaining a women's right to choose in the worlds of Martin Luther King “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment"

I am having to wrestle with the negative impact of being assigned female at birth in addition to already being focused on the struggles that many trans-women experience as they try to navigate life: Finding housing, Finding jobs, Be safe when they walk down the street.

Looking forward:

I have to be honest and say looking forward looks pretty bleak to me. In addition to the trauma of the current Supreme Court's anti-freedom, anti-female, anti-bodily autonomy ruling it seems likely that we will have to fight to keep so many of the rights we also have, and thought would be guaranteed such as access to contraception, marriage equality, etc. This is so much trauma and pain and fear and hurt that I am not sure what to do with what I am feeling. I don't know what container to put all the emotions that are bubble up into. I'm going to keep fighting because we need to keep fighting but I will not say it will be easy for me.  

Neurodiversity and Pride Spotlight

 

Happy Pride Everyone!!!

Each Friday this month I have highlight a different group within the wider LGBTQA+ family.

Our last Pride Spotlight is highlighting individuals* who are neurodivergent** and LGBTQA+*** 

Neurodiversity needs to be highlighted more often 

*Once again I am also including fictional characters.

** Neurodiversity includes Dyslexia, Autism, ADHD etc. 

***Gender and sexuality can be fluid and labels can be too

Anderson Cooper (Dyslexia/Gay)

Anderson Cooper is an American broadcast journalist and political commentator. He is the primary anchor of the CNN news broadcast show Anderson Cooper 360°.

Ann Bancroft (Dyslexia/Bi)

Ann Bancroft is an American author, teacher, adventurer, and public speaker. She was the first woman to finish a number of expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1995

Erin Ekins (Autistic/Bi)

Erin Ekins is a queer autistic woman who runs the popular blog Queerly Autistic.

Hannah Gadsby (Autistic/Lesbian)

Hannah Gadsby is an Australian comedian, writer, and actress.

Jessica Benham (Autistic/Bi)

Jessica Benham became the first openly bisexual autistic woman to win a seat in an US election

Maya MacGregor (Autistic/Nonbinary)

Maya MacGregor is a writer, singer, and artist. They sing and write in Gàidhlig and in English. The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester is their first young adult novel.

Robert Rauschenberg (Dyslexia/Bi)

Robert Rauschenberg was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combines (1954–1964), artworks which incorporated everyday objects as art materials and blurred the lines between painting and sculpture. 

Sam Sylvester (Autistic/Nonbinary/Ace)

Sam is a nonbinary autistic teen character from the book The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester by Maya MacGregor.

Sheldon Riley (Autistic/Gay)

Sheldon Riley, is an Australian singer. He represented Australia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 with his song "Not the Same"

Wentworth Miller (Autistic/Gay)

Wentworth Miller is an American-British actor, screenwriter and producer known by some for his role as Michael Scofield in the Fox series Prison Break, One the other hand he is known to me and more or less has become my squish*, for playing Leonard Snart / Leo Snart/ Captain Cold in Legends of Tomorrow and for his HRC Speech, his oxford speech, and his Active Minds speech. 

*Note: A squish is an aromantic crush, a desire for a platonic relationship with someone. As opposed to a crush, which is the desire for a romantic relationship. Usually when a person has a squish on someone, they want to get to know them better and form a close friendship with them. 

(And yes I know I'm never likely to meet Wentworth  let alone develop a close friendship with him LOL but I still have a squish on him in part because we share multiple identities in common: LGBTQ+, Mental Health Struggles, and being neurodivergent so listening to his various talks/interviews makes me feel seen)

Experiencing A Long View Of History

 

June is Pride Month so I have been listening to the LGBTQ&A podcast. I started at the beginning and am on track to get through them all this month. (An accomplishment since there are over 220 episodes.) It has been interesting to hear so many people talk about the LGBTQ&A experience. 

Listening to so many interviews also has given me an interesting view of how awareness and understanding of asexuality has changed over the years. The podcast started in August 2016 but the first interview that was focused on asexuality itself (and not just using the word in passing) was not until late 2020. 

There was an interview on August 11 2020 with Brandon Taylor where asexuality was mentioned mainly in terms of Brandon not self-identifying as asexual.  But the first interview with asexuality as the focus (and in the title) was not until Sept 15 2020 over 125 interviews into the podcast. 

This lack of asexual representation does not indicate that the podcast was not talking about diverse experiences in the LGBTQ&A community and had not covered numerous experiences of individuals of diverse backgrounds who were bisexual, trans, drag queens, nonbinary, young, elders, HIV+, experiencing disability, BIPOC, ... (and whose experiences were intersectional.) 

But when asexuality was mentioned it was only mentioned in passing until 4 years into the podcast (and less than 2 years ago)

It was interesting to see how asexuality has slowly gain visibility over the years. (Listening to so many interviews all in a row means I am more aware of how those conversations have changed over time, I am basically listening to a time-lapsed conversation, so I can hear the changes that I probably would not have noticed if I listen to the podcast weekly like it was originally published) 

It is also interesting to see how even now asexuality is one of the letters in the LGBTQA+ that is discussed less.

Now I am listening to the LGBTQ&A podcast just as something fun to do for Pride Month not to see myself and hear others who have my exact experience. But I do think we all need to make sure when we are covering the experiences of a wider community that we are exploring as many experiences as is possible.

I would guess that there are others who are asexual or aromantic who might find the podcast and then get discouraged or feel devalued since asexuality is not talked about much at all. The podcast explores changing understandings of gender, monogamy, identity et al within the LGBTQ+ community so is the perfect place to explore other understands such as understandings around asexuality/aromanticism etc. 

In many ways better language is one of the great things that the ace community brings to the table. Finding language so others can express their experiences and know what they want from themselves and from their relationships. But that language is not helpful if no one hears it and it becomes a tree falling in the woods when not one is there to listen.

Listening to so many interviews has been meaningful because I can find bits of my experiences spread out through out the interviews. 

Listening to so many interviews has been powerful because while I hang in LGBTQ+ spaces I don't necessary fell like I always fit (like I hear so many of the interviews discuss.) 

But listening to so many interviews also means I realize I need to develop my sense of community and that while discussions of asexuality are growing in number many people still do not understand what that can look like. 

It just means places like this blog really are important since I mention asexuality in general and my asexuality in particular pretty frequently as well as other experiences I have.

Pride's Lessons On Embodiment

 

This weekend I ended up at the Chicago Pride Fest (which is separate from the Chicago Pride Parade which is next weekend) and it got me thinking about embodiment. 

The Pride Fest is always a celebration of bodies in all their shapes and sizes. You will see people in minimum clothing. You will also see multiple portrayals of reproductive organs all over the place in art, in giveaways, pretty much everywhere.

I was reminded that I tend to have a more Sherlock Holmes view of my body and see my body as transport. It gets me from one place to another but I don't have strong feelings about it. My body just exists. 

So Pride is always interesting because most pride events really celebrate the human body. There is a great love of the body inside and out, the physical body, and what that physical body can accomplish. I am now thinking about what it would mean to really love my body and not just see it as transport.

We all have different relationship to our bodies. Some of us love our bodies. Some of us are neutral about our bodies. Some of us are negative towards our bodies. And no matter where we fall on that spectrum Pride has something to teach us. 

What would it look like if we were all absolutely in love with our own bodies?

What would it look life if we were all absolutely in love with ourselves inside and out?

Ace and Aro Pride Spotlight

Happy Pride Everyone!!!

Each Friday this month I will highlight a different group within the wider LGBTQA+ family.

This week I'm highlighting a "bakers dozen*" of my Ace and Aro siblings.

*Inside Ace Joke

(I am including historical figures who we don't know for sure since 

The concepts/language was different in the past and they are not around to ask. 

I am also including some asexual characters)

And a bonus a list of Ace and Aro books which just means my to read pile has gotten bigger LOL

Today's spotlights are complied from various places including:

https://www.them.us/story/asexual-aromantic-celebrities-characters

https://sports.yahoo.com/25-celebrities-asexual-proud-081602373.html

Ana Gabriel

In a 2015 interview, the Mexican singer-songwriter came out as asexual.

David Jay

Jay is an asexual activist and founder of the Asexual Visibility and Education Network. In a speech from 2015, he explained to an audience what it means to be asexual.

"The important thing to understand about our community is that we have the same desire for connection as everyone else," Jay explained of aces. "We just don't have a desire to express that connection sexually. And there's a whole community of us out there."

Edward Gorey

A 2018 article in the Atlantic touched upon the author’s sexuality, stating that Gorey explained he was asexual while speaking with Lisa Solod for an interview.

💜💜💜Esperanza “Spooner” Cruz (DC Comics) 💜💜💜

Esperanza “Spooner” Cruz (Lisseth Chavez) is television’s first asexual superhero. Spooner joined the Legends of Tomorrow, a time traveling found family of adventurers, in season 6 when they needed her help (and empathic superpowers) to save their captain from aliens. The following season Spooner confided that she doesn’t get “those types of feelings,” which prompted a teammate to explain the term ace. Spooner, whole face lighting up, responded, “I guess that makes me ace!” Science fiction has so many non-human, un-feeling characters coded as asexual that hot-headed human Spooner feels like a huge turning point. Spooner Cruz is a badass, world saving super ace icon.

Janeane Garofalo

“The reason I say I’m asexual is my libido has always been incredibly low,” Garofalo said in a podcast interview. “I never have been particularly driven by sex... I could take it or leave it.”

Jughead Jones

Archie Comics Created in 1941, the Archie Comics character Jughead served as a comedic juxtaposition to his lust-crazed classmates. While his best friend Archie was always dating, Jughead’s only desire was to eat a hamburger in peace. In Chip Zdarsky's 2015 run, Jughead was confirmed to identify as asexual, with a strong implication of aromantism. Even though The CW's Riverdale made Jughead heterosexual on television, the asexual Jughead of print has been going for 80 years already and will likely outlive us all. An asexual icon of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Marilyn Monroe 

Despite playing sex symbols in films like Some Like It Hot and The Seven Year Itch, Marilyn Monroe may have been ace. In her autobiography My Story (co-written by Ben Hecht), the legendary actress wrote, “Why I was a siren, I hadn’t the faintest idea. There were no thoughts of sex in my head. I didn’t want to be kissed, and I didn’t dream of being seduced by a duke or a movie star. The truth was that with all my lipstick and mascara and precarious curves, I was unsensual as a fossil. But I seemed to affect people quite otherwise.” If Monroe had the terminology, she may have recognized herself in the terms asexual or demisexual. 

Michaela Coel

Michaela Coel is a writer, director, and actress known for creating Chewing Gum and I May Destroy You. In a 2018 interview Coel opened up about identifying with the label aromantic. She explained, “I googled aromanticism and I very much felt like, ‘Oh, that’s me.’” She went on to say, “I am OK being by myself. I like having intimate relationships but I don’t want to change people or want to be changed by anyone.” 

Nikola Tesla

In 1927 Nikola Tesla told a reporter he had “never touched a woman.” While we can only infer Tesla’s lack of sexual and romantic attraction from secondary accounts, many asexuals and aromantics relate strongly to him. His eccentricities and refusal to marry were used against him by colleagues and competitors to undermine his accomplishments. 

Paula Poundstone

Paula Poundstone is another actress-slash-comedian who identifies as asexual. Long rumored to be gay, Poundstone came out as asexual in 2013. “I don’t talk about sex a lot because I don’t actually have sex, and my act is largely autobiographical”, she said onstage at the Royal Oak Music Theatre.

Selah Summers (Fictional Character)

Selah Summers (Lovie Simone), the main character of the 2019 film Selah and the Spades, is an overachiever who secretly runs her elite boarding school’s black market. The film focuses on Selah’s growing connection with new girl Paloma (Celeste O'Connor), and the way this friendship brings out her insecurities and jeopardizes her legacy. Selah was intentionally written as asexual, and on the topic of sex, Selah says, “I don’t think I’m waiting for some right person. I just don’t think I’m interested in the thing itself.” Just as importantly, the film counters stereotypical portrayals of ace folks as robotic, instead depicting Selah as a character of stormy emotions and deeply felt desires. For being a refreshingly complex teen heroine, Selah Summers is an asexual Icon.

Tim Gunn

“I knew what I wasn’t: I wasn’t interested in boys, and I really wasn’t interested in girls,” Gunn wrote in his 2011 book, Gunn’s Golden Rules: Life’s Little Lessons for Making It Work. “For many years, I described myself as asexual, and I still think that’s closest to the truth.”

Yasmin Benoit

Model Yasmin Benoit has spoken openly about her asexuality, and wrote in an essay for Glamour Magazine UK, “I live a perfectly happy and fulfilled life as a Black asexual, aromantic woman. I don't need a partner to complete me – I'm complete just the way I am. That's why I use my platform to fight against asexuality stigma, dispel myths and help empower the ace community.”

What Is Therapy?

 

When it comes to therapy we often have a one size fits all image in our minds. And it looks something like the above picture. Typically two people sitting/on a zoom/on a phone call where one talks about everything happening in their lives and the other person is able to provide context. 

But therapy looks like a lot of different things. I just was "in therapy" even though the therapist does not like the term therapy (and no they did not say what word they preferred LOL) for a grand total of 3 sessions, and now am on a on call basis (if I feel like I would like to chat I can text and set up an appointment)

It makes sense especially since I tend to experience the "therapy placebo effect?" or the classic I have something I think I should work on, and then signing up for therapy makes the issue disappear like it never was there to begin with. So my life is always going pretty well and my therapist (I have tried a few for brief periods of the course of the last decade or so) goes you are doing fine, no reason to continue. 

I was thinking why my experience has been different from the one I hear when pretty much everyone I know (since pretty much everyone I know has gone to therapy, is currently going to therapy, or is in the process of starting therapy.)

Some of this comes back to the question of what is therapy. I think therapy often feels like a mismatch* because I tend to do "therapy" on my own, I do a lot of processing, I do a lot of thinking, I do a lot of journaling. I also find therapy in other contexts. I have found therapy in inspirational talks, and therapy in others talking about their own journeys with therapy. I guess I could say I do therapy vicariously?

Some of this is also because I just have to talk through/write through what I am experiencing. Some of this is I know myself pretty well and any new information is simple more background on the character that is me. Some of  this is often I just need to be reminded I can trust myself, I can take up space, and I can reach out when I am struggling. 

It is also because even when a therapist suggests something that for others would be a big deal, I sit, I process for a few days, then move on. One example is my therapist suggesting I was neurodivergent last week (see my last blog post to see me processing that). Talking to one friend who suggested that that, that is the kind of "breakthrough" that people talk about having in therapy. I realized for me it was more a "oh ok sounds good, I'll use that as a working hypotheses right now" 

Part of this is also because I have taken uncountable numbers of free online courses about therapy or for therapists so I have been introduced to many of the tools that everyone recommends in different situations. I guess for me it is more I want someone to help tell me oh this is a hammer situation, or in this case you need an Allen wrench because you are putting together Ikea furniture. 

In the end the fact that my experience with therapy is different from other people's experience comes down to the fact there are so many types of therapy. I am not sure if I have figured out what type of therapy works the best for me but that is fine. Just means I have more to process/journal about/talk to friends about.

(*I am in no way saying that therapists are not useful, or that everyone can do therapy on their own, I understand how we need more therapists especially ones who are culturally competent and can understand different experiences)

Note: On the Psychology Today Website there are about 70 types of listed. So why do we culturally typically only have one image of what therapy looks like?

Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP)

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Adlerian Therapy

Animal-Assisted Therapy

Applied Behavior Analysis

Art Therapy

Attachment-Based Therapy

Bibliotherapy

Biofeedback

Brain Stimulation Therapy

Christian Counseling

Coaching

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive Processing Therapy

Cognitive Stimulation Therapy

Compassion-Focused Therapy

Culturally Sensitive Therapy

Dance Therapy

Dialectical Behavior Therapy

Eclectic Therapy

Emotionally Focused Therapy

Equine-Assisted Therapy

Existential Therapy

Experiential Therapy

Exposure and Response Prevention

Expressive Arts Therapy

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy

Family Systems Therapy

Feminist Therapy

Forensic Therapy

Gestalt Therapy

Human Givens Therapy

Humanistic Therapy

Hypnotherapy

Imago Relationship Therapy

Integrative Therapy

Internal Family Systems Therapy

Interpersonal Psychotherapy

Jungian Therapy

Marriage and Family Therapy

Mentalization-Based Therapy

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy

Motivational Interviewing

Multicultural Therapy

Music Therapy

Narrative Therapy

Neuro-Linguistic Programming Therapy

Neurofeedback

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)

Person-Centered Therapy

Play Therapy

Positive Psychology

Prolonged Exposure Therapy

Psychoanalytic Therapy

Psychodynamic Therapy

Psychological Testing and Evaluation

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy

Reality Therapy

Relational Therapy

Sandplay Therapy

Schema Therapy

Social Recovery Therapy

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy

Somatic Therapy

Strength-Based Therapy

Structural Family Therapy

The Gottman Method

Therapeutic Intervention

Transpersonal Therapy

Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy

The Process Of Recontextualizing Myself

Recently I have been recontextualizing my life. Rethinking my past experiences and how those experiences have impacted my life in the past, present, and future.  

I am in this process of recontextualizing because I was talking to a therapist last week and they suggested I could be on the spectrum. Which was interesting since I explored that idea last summer when my Wentworth Miller shared his autism diagnose but I did not feel like I could claim that identity/label because:

• I could not check off enough boxes on online self-diagnosis tests.
• I already share two identities/labels with Wentworth (LGBTQ+ and having had mental health challenges) so claiming a third felt like I was a bit greedy/ thinking maybe the reason that being on the spectrum seems like a possibility was just because I wanted to have more in common with Wentworth.
• When I think autism I think of really cool people like Alan Turin, some portrayals of Sherlock Holmes, Wentworth Miller and various fanfiction versions of the Legends of Tomorrow so I really did not think I was cool enough to have autism
• Probably most importantly -- I know that individuals in various communities are wary of others claiming an identity just because it becomes trendy.  

It was still interesting to have a therapist suggest I could be on the spectrum and I found my exploration this time around is different because I feel like maybe I could be cool enough to count. 

After talking it through with my roommate of over a decade I am getting more comfortable with thinking about using neurodivergent/neurodiversity language in relation to myself. At least as a good working hypotheses for the near future. 

There are many traits I have, experiences I have had, and ways of seeing the world that I am realizing are common with the wider neurodivergent/neurodiverse communities. So claiming a possible neurodivergence feels ok, even if it would take a while and a lot more exploration before I would feel comfortable using say the language of having autism because again I don't want to claim an identity/label just because it is trendy or cool.

(And a small rant there is not enough written about the experience of adult women who might be on the spectrum, the check lists/tests are not designed for us (typically designed for young male identified/socialized* individuals). There is not much research done on how it is expressed in adult identified/socialized* women so it is messy and a pain in the neck. Dear researchers Do More Diverse Research Bah Humbug)  

One other thing of note is for women identified/socialized* individuals one trait that makes identification more challenging is "masking." Masking (or camouflaging) is often used to describe the artificial performance of social behaviors that are seen as more socially acceptable in a neurotypical society.  

I see this as a possibility in the way that I take on the interests of the people or characters who I am currently hyper focused on. 

• When it was Lin-Manuel Miranda it was Puerto Rico,
• When it was Pete and Chasten Buttigieg it was politics,
• Now that it is Wentworth Miller/Captain Cold it is Mental health (and now neurodiversity)

Their interests become my interests and I can struggle to understand when an interest is mine vs. when an interest is really someone else's that I am just borrowing. 

Masking in general also could explain why it is harder for me to socialize right now then it was in the before times (before Covid) since I have had two years of limited in person social contact (outside my roommates) and most has been masked grocery store level interactions. So my being social muscle has atrophied. 

*I am saying identified/socialized since while there is limited research around female identified individuals there is super super super limited research (if there is any) when it comes to say trans women, trans men, nonbinary, gender nonconforming … and understanding the different expressions of the spectrum when it comes to gender is complicated, How much is really based on gender? How much is based on socialization? How much is based on gender expectations? … )

Moving Forward As I Am Processing Recontextualizing Myself

• I am currently comfortable claiming a possible neurodivergent/neurodiverse identity because that feels like an umbrella term that covers my experiences even if particular sub-identities don't always feel like they fit right now.
• I am going to continue to process and research neurodivergent/neurodiverse identities both in terms of real life experiences as well as fanfiction/fan interpretation of characters experiences
• While exploring neurodiversity is giving me a good amount of food for thought I don't see it greatly impacting how I live my life other than changing some of my internal language and leaning into a few things I already do.
• Instead of thinking people are just being to peoply right now or I am socialized out, I might think in terms of being over stimulated.
• Right now needing to have my Captain Cold POP figure with me whenever I go out and do stuff especially if I will be dealing with people
• I will work to have the amazing communities  I am part of (such as my faith community) that already openly and freely talk about issues such as mental health or going to therapy, start to add neurodiversity as another topic we speak openly about.
• Having people talk about being neurodivergent/experiences with neurodivergence
• Simply sharing how each of our brains are working/seeing a situation differently. 
• Reminding people what might be an easy task for one person might be a real challenge for someone else.
• I will work harder to speak up/take up space since I realize what ever I am experiencing in a situation is likely being experienced by others too or is an experience that can be uplifted in order to make sure my communities are more radically inclusive of all people. (This means expressing my own views and in no way speaking for or on behalf of anyone else let alone any other communities) 
• For example I am an white accomplice who is part of a Black LGBTQ+ Justice Faith Centered organization which has a wide range of events but is not always crystal clear at communicating on which are open to everyone (including accomplices), which ones are open to everyone (but are assuming mainly only the Black LGBTQ+ community is really going to show up), and which are spaces being created just for the Black LGBTQ+ community. While I can often figure it out, since understanding social cues is not always my strength, I am not always sure I am reading the situation right and would love for some more standardized language, which would be helpful for me, and anyone else who sometimes gets confused by social cues. 

Bisexual and Pansexual Pride Spotlight

Happy Pride Everyone!!!

Each Friday this month I will highlight a different group within the wider LGBTQA+ family.

This week I'm highlighting 30 of our Bisexual and Pansexual siblings.

(Note many of the individuals listed happen to be historical figures

who were known to be in relationships with both genders

Whether of not the would identify as Bi is uncertain) 

Today's spotlights are complied from various places including:

https://bi.org/en/famous

https://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/celeb-bisexuals

Alan Cumming

Alan says: "I’m not here to change people’s minds about whether they believe in bisexuality. All I’m saying is that I think my sexuality and most people’s sexuality is gray. I am married to a man. I have a healthy sexual appetite and a healthy imagination. I also have an attraction to women. I’ve never lost it, actually."

Alice Walker

Amanda Palmer

Amrita Sher-Gil a Hungarian-Indian painter.

Chloe Auliʻi Cravalho is an American actress and singer (Moana)

Azealia Banks is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter.

Bessie Smith, the "Empress of the Blues", was credited with bringing the blues to mainstream music in the 1920s.

Billie Holiday, was an African American jazz singer with a career spanning nearly thirty years.

Brenda Nokuzola Fassie was a South African singer and songwriter.

Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton, was a British fashion, portrait and war photographer, diarist, painter, and interior designer, as well as an Oscar-winning stage and costume designer.

Colette (born Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette) was a French author and woman of letters nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948

Countee Cullen was an American poet, novelist, children's writer, and playwright. He was closely associated with the Harlem Renaissance.
 

Cynthia Bond is a writer, best known as the New York Times Best-Selling author of Ruby (2014).

Dolores del Río (born María de los Dolores Asúnsolo López-Negrete) was a Mexican actor of film, television, and theater.

Eleanor Roosevelt was the longest-serving First Lady alongside her husband, Franklin D. Roosevelt

Emile Alphonse Griffith was a World Champion boxer in the welterweight, junior middleweight, and middleweight classes. Griffith was best known for his widely publicized 1962 title match with Benny “The Kid” Paret.

Emiliano Zapata Salazar was a leading figure in the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1920, the main leader of the peasant revolution in the Mexican state of Morelos, and inspired the agrarian movement called Zapatismo.

Ethel Waters was a singer and actor. She was the first African-American to star on her own television show and the first African-American woman to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy.

Frank Ocean is a singer, songwriter, rapper, record producer, and photographer.

Frida Kahlo, born Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón, is arguably Mexico’s most famous artist. Inspired by the country's popular culture, she employed a naïve folk art style to explore questions of identity, postcolonialism, gender, class, and race in Mexican society.

George Washington Carver was an American agricultural scientist and inventor who left a lasting impact on the agricultural industry as a whole. Carver is credited with creating and developing hundreds of products using peanuts, sweet potatoes, and soybeans.

Giacomo Casanova was an Italian writer, philosopher, and infamous lover whose name conjures up the image of the “ladies’ man”, but in fact, Casanova was bi.

Gillian Leigh Anderson, OBE, is an American-English film, television and theatre actor, and activist.

Gina Alexis Rodriguez is an American actress best known for her role as Jane Villanueva in The CW show Jane The Virgin, for which she won a Golden Globe Award in 2015.

Giorgio Armani is an iconic Italian clothing designer and is credited with pioneering red carpet fashion. Since creating the Giorgio Armani label in 1975, Armani has become a household name.

Jean-Michel Basquiat was an influential American artist of Haitian and Puerto Rican descent. Basquiat first achieved fame as part of SAMO, an informal graffiti duo who wrote enigmatic epigrams in the cultural hotbed of the Lower East Side of Manhattan during the late 1970s, where rap, punk, and street art coalesced into early hip-hop music culture.

Josephine Baker was an American-born singer, dancer, activist, cultural icon, and spy who took Paris by storm in the 1920s and was one of the most popular music hall performers in France.

Keiynan Lonsdale --  Wally West/Kid Flash

"I like to change my hair, I like to take risks with how I dress, I like girls, & I like guys (yes), I like growing, I like learning, I like who I am and I really like who I'm becoming." Instagram 2017

Gertrude "Ma Rainey" Pridgett is known as the "Mother of the Blues" and is one of the earliest blues singers as well as one of the first generation of artists to record their work in that genre.

Pearl Mackie is an actor, dancer, and singer best known for playing Bill Potts in the long-running television series Doctor Who.