Content warning: this article contains mentions of Nazis and conversion therapy.
It is well known that history tends to be “straight-washed,” and this is no less true in scientific fields. Queer and transgender people’s achievements are often brushed over, or their sexuality is removed from the narrative. STEM fields can be less inclusive than their humanities counterparts, and queer people in science may feel isolated. There are countless queer and transgender scientists who have made crucial advances in multiple branches of science, including but not limited to computer science, medicine, and neuroscience.
James Barry (1789-1865)
James Barry was assigned female at birth, but at age 20, he changed his name and went to medical school (which, at the time, did not accept female students). After passing his medical exams, he went to South Africa, where he worked on improving hygiene and sanitation. He also performed one of the first C-sections in South Africa where both the mother and child survived, and he served as the inspector general of military hospitals in Canada. Following his death, he requested that his body was not to be examined, but these wishes were not respected. Because Barry was alive before terms such as “transgender” were used, we do not know how he would have personally identified, which has caused much debate among historians. However, at no point during his adult life did he return to using his birth name or presenting as a woman, and he continuously referred to himself as a man throughout his life.
Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935)
Magnus Hirschfeld was a German sexologist who created the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, which was a gay rights organization that fought against laws which punished sexual contact between men. Hirschfeld also founded the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute of Sex Research) in 1919. The centre performed research, as well as providing services such as gender affirming surgeries and psychological counselling. In 1933, when Adolf Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany, the Institute was attacked by Nazi supporters and the library was burned to the ground. Hirschfeld was both gay and Jewish and was regularly assaulted. Despite this, his research continued on and was adopted by scientists in the United States.
Alan L. Hart (1890-1962)
Alan Hart was assigned female at birth, but began to present as male while attending college. After receiving his medical degree, he saw a physician and requested a hysterectomy, making him the first known transgender man to undergo gender affirming surgery in the United States. Hart also used synthetic male hormones (once they became available) to lower his voice and grow a beard. His research focused on tuberculosis (TB), and he pioneered new ways to track its spread and diagnose it through x-rays, which was a novel idea at the time. This technique allowed TB to be detected in asymptomatic patients, which saved many people’s lives..
Alfred Kinsey (1894-1956)
Alfred Kinsey was a biologist and sexologist who founded the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University, which has since been renamed the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction. Kinsey is most well-known for creating the Kinsey scale, which ranges from “exclusively heterosexual” to “exclusively homosexual,” with many individuals falling somewhere between those two extremes. Kinsey himself was bisexual, and he was highly influential within the research of sexuality. During his life, Kinsey interviewed over 18,000 individuals on their sexual behaviour, which was recorded in the Kinsey Reports.
Alan Turing (1912-1954)
Alan Turing is likely the most well-known figure on the list, and has the saddest story. Turing was a computer scientist and mathematician who is most well known for decrypting the “unbreakable” German Enigma codes during World War II. It is believed that his codebreaking work shortened the war by two to four years. He also came up with the idea of the Turing machine, which became the basis for all digital computers, and the Turing Test, which relates to artificial intelligence and asks the question: can computers “think”? Turing was arrested on charges of “gross indecency” in 1952 for having a relationship with another man and was forced to undergo chemical castration to reduce his sex drive. In 1954, Turing died of cyanide poisoning, but it is unknown if his death was due to suicide, accident, or murder. He was not given a pardon for his charges until 2013.
Sally Ride (1951-2012)
Sally Ride was an astronaut who worked for NASA and is primarily known for being the first woman from the United States to go into space in 1983. She helped develop a robotic arm for the space shuttle, which she operated multiple times. After leaving NASA, she started the Sally Ride Science company to promote science education. Ride was gay, and her partner, Tam O’Shaughnessy, helped to create the Sally Ride Science company. She was very quiet regarding her personal life, and her sexuality was not publicly known until after her death, likely due to the prejudice she would have faced.
Ben Barres (1954-2017)
Dr. Barres was a neurobiologist whose research focused on glial cells: cells in the brain that are not neurons. He was essential in discovering the role that glial cells play in neural function and brain activity. Barres was also transgender, and came out to his colleagues in 1997. Throughout his career, he pushed for gender equality in the sciences, as he saw first-hand how people treated him before and after his transition.
Lauren Esposito (1982-Present)
Dr. Esposito is a fantastic example of a queer scientist who is actively contributing to the scientific field, as well as engaging in community projects. Her research is concerned with scorpions in the Caribbean, specifically the evolution of scorpions and their venom. She also co-founded 500 Queer Scientists after she realized that there were many queer people who felt unsafe in STEM departments, and that queer people were less likely to remain in STEM fields. She wanted LGBTQ+ people to feel less isolated within their fields and for them to know there are others like them working in STEM.
