Famous Disabled LGBT People

Posted on: December 23rd, 2011 by History Month

Here is a list of famous LGBT people who have a disability. Disability History Month takes place every year from November 22 – December 21. To add to this list, contact us at website@lgbthistorymonth.org.uk

Lord Byron
Poet and bisexual. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Byron He was born with a deformity of his foot which affected him all his life.

Edith Cooper
The aestheticist poet and writer, who wrote as Michael Field with her partner Katherine Bradley. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Field . She had ill health all her life and was increasingly disabled by rheumatism.

Edith Craig
Lesbian, feminist, theatre director and costume designer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Craig
Though wikipedia does not tell you this her early career as a concert pianist was prevented by chronic rheumatism in her finger joints. (Michael Elliman and Frederic Roll, the Pink Plaque Guide to London, GMP, 1986, p50).

Leonardo Da Vinci
Famous renaissance artist who painted La Giocanda (The Mona Lisa) and The Last Supper. Suffered from epilepsy.

Ronald Firbank
Novelist. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Firbank He had poor health and lung disease (presumably consumption) all his life.

Stephen Fry

UK National treasure. One of Britain’s most famous gays has made a TV programme about his bi-polar condition.

Eva Gore-Booth
Feminist, suffragist and poet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Gore-Booth Had tuberculosis and illness throughout adult life.

Frida Kahlo

Mexican painter, born 1907. Kahlo was partially disabled and rendered with a life of health problems in a traffic accident during her youth. Her self-portraits graphically demonstrate her pain.

Edward Lear
Writer artist and poet. Had epilepsy, chronic bronchitis and asthma. Later in life was visually impaired. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Lear

Michelangelo Buonarotti

The famous Renaissance artist, creator of David and painter of The Sistine Chapel suffered from epilepsy.

Marcel Proust
Novelist. Asthmatic and his life constrained by illness most of his life. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Proust