Prominent Queer Writers Throughout History timeline

Walt Whitman was an American poet, author, essayist, and journalist. He wrote well-known works such as Leaves of Grass and Song of Myself. Although he never confirmed his sexuality to the public, those close to him say he was very open about being queer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Whitman

Oscar Wilde was an Irish novelist and poet. He is remembered by his novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. This novel was largely criticized for having homoerotica. He is well-known for his "the love that dare not speak its name" in which he said "it is beautiful, it is fine, it is the noblest form of affection. There is nothing unnatural about it." He is one of the novelists that claim Whitman was queer, stating that they shared a kiss once.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Wilde

Virginia Woolf was an English writer and poet. She is best known for publishing Mrs. Dalloway, A Room of One's Own, and Orlando. She was a member of the Bloomsbury Group, a group of literary figures who encouraged being liberated about sexuality and sensuality. She had a long-term relationship with female poet and writer, Vita Sackville-West.
https://www.ranker.com/list/gay-authors-list-of-famous-lgbt-writers/kron34

Alain Locke was an American writer, philosopher, and educator. He was often referred to as the "Dean" of the Harlem Renaissance. His most well-known publication was The New Negro: An Interpretation, a collection of short fiction, poetry, and essays on African and African-American art and literature. Locke was gay and acted as a mentor to others in the gay community.
https://bookstr.com/list/20-queer-authors-from-history-who-you-need-to-know/

Langston Hughes was an American writer and poet. He was best known for being a leader in the Harlem Renaissance and one of the pioneers of jazz poetry. He is the author of Blessed Assurance, a story about a struggling relationship between a father and his effeminate son. Hughes' sexuality is often debated. He wrote about homosexuality often, and some historians believe that Hughes was asexual.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langston_Hughes

Michael Dillon was a British physician and author. He was the first man known to undergo gender-affirming surgery. He published Self: A Study in Ethics and Endocrinology, a book about the experience of "masculine inverts," people now referred to as transgender men. He argued that medical transitions should be considered as a treatment for gender dysphoria.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Dillon

James Baldwin was an American novelist and prominent figure in the civil rights movement. He published Giovanni's Room, a novel that portrayed homosexuality and bisexuality. It is often referred to as one of the most important queer novels ever written. He was open in writing about his struggles in being a Black gay man and facing both racism and homophobia.
https://www.ranker.com/list/gay-authors-list-of-famous-lgbt-writers/kron34

Truman Capote was an American novelist, short story writer, screenwriter, playwright, and actor is the author that revolutionized crime writing. he published In Cold Blood, one of the most prominent crime novels in history. He has also written Breakfast at Tiffany's, Other Voices, Other Rooms, and A Christmas Memory. Capote was openly gay.
https://www.ranker.com/list/gay-authors-list-of-famous-lgbt-writers/kron34

Jan Morris is a Welsh author, historian, and travel writer. She is best known for her Pax Britannica trilogy, which has been honored by Queen Elizabeth. She is a transgender woman, and detailed her transition in her novel Conundrum, which was one of the first autobiographies to ever describe a gender transition. Morris still writes today, residing in Northern Wales.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Morris

Lorraine Hansberry was an American playwright and writer. She wrote A Raisin in the Sun, the first play written by a Black woman to ever be performed on Broadway. Hansberry was an activist for gay rights and wrote about being attracted to women in her private journal and letters. She has left behind a legacy of powerful activism.
https://bookstr.com/list/20-queer-authors-from-history-who-you-need-to-know/

Lary Kramer was an American playwright and author. He was best known for his activism for AIDS victims. Most of his books and plays are about the AIDS crisis. He wrote The Normal Heart, and co-founded the Gay Men's Health Crisis, and ACT UP.
https://bookstr.com/list/20-queer-authors-from-history-who-you-need-to-know/

Angela Davis is an American activist, educator, and author. She is known for being a leader in the Black Panther movement. She identified herself as a lesbian in 1997. Some of her most famous works in which she writes about the issues that the Black community faces in the U.S. include Women, Race, & Class, Are Prisons Obsolete?, and The Meaning of Freedom and Other Difficult Dialogues.
https://bookstr.com/list/20-queer-authors-from-history-who-you-need-to-know/

Par Parker was an American poet, activist, and writer. She is well-known for her poetry depicting her experience of being a gay Black woman living in the U.S. She was the executive director of the Oakland Feminist Women's Health Center, and was involved in the Black Panther movement. She advocated for LGBTQ+ rights, victims of domestic violence, people of color, women, and the intersections of those groups.
https://bookstr.com/list/20-queer-authors-from-history-who-you-need-to-know/

Kate Bornstein is a gender non-conforming trans author and performance artist. They have published several queer-oriented books, including Hello, Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks, and Other Outlaws, and My New Gender Workbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Achieving World Peace Through Gender Anarchy and Sex Positivity. They still write and advocate for changing the way we view gender as a society.
https://bookstr.com/list/20-queer-authors-from-history-who-you-need-to-know/

Leslie Feinberg was an American author and activist. Feinberg wrote Stone Butch Blues, a memoir about hir experience as a butch lesbian in the U.S. Known for hir gender non-conforming expression, Feinberg adjusted hir pronouns and noted that "I like the gender-neutral pronouns ze/hir because it makes it impossible to hold on to gender/sex/sexuality assumptions about a person."
https://bookstr.com/list/20-queer-authors-from-history-who-you-need-to-know/