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LGBT History Project

6 historical people and their affiliation with LGBT history

About this special section

Echo Magazine is one of 30 U.S. publications serving an LGBT readership presenting "We Are America: How members of the LGBT community helped create the U.S.A."

It's the annual LGBT History Project coordinated by the Philadelphia Gay News and this year it's believed to be the largest gay history project of its kind.

"Throughout our nation's 235-year history, historians have kept LGBT people and issues in the closet," project coordinator and Philadelphia Gay News publisher Mark Segal said. "We intend to break that closet door down forever."

In this section:

  • Baron Von Steuben, a gay man, was Gen. George Washington's chief of staff and trainer of the colony's revolutionary army.
  • George Washington, in all probability, was the first American leader to offer domestic partner support for a same-sex couple.
  • Horatio Alger Jr. wrote stories that may have served as an outlet for his own desires and frustrations.
  • Edmonia Lewis was a sculptor who defined life by her own independence.
  • Katharine Lee Bates, a lesbian, wrote one of America's most beloved patriotic songs, "America the Beautiful."
  • Katherine Lee Bates

    America's beauty inspired poet to write nation's 'other national anthem.'

    • Horatio Alger Jr.

      The writer's 'rags to riches' plots may have revealed something about his desires.

      • George Washington

        The father of our country was an ally to gays during the Revolutionary War.

        • Friedrich Von Steuben

          A gay man is credited as the father of the U.S. military.

          • Edmonia Lewis

            A mixed-race lesbian is credited with sculptures depicting freedom and independence.

            • Abraham Lincoln

              Historians speculate on the Civil War president's relationships with other men.