Remembering historical figures that have contributed to social change for LGBT+ History Month 2025

This year the organisers chose five LGBT+ people who have created social change from across the centuries. Causes they progressed included change for women, the environment, housing, nuclear disarmament, preserving heritage, abolition of the slave trade, and immigration, among others.

Asim Mirzargar considers the life of Charlie Kiss

Since it’s LGBT+ History Month, I had the opportunity to learn more about Charlie Kiss and reflect on his remarkable life, which I’d like to share with everyone.

Charlie’s story is particularly relevant to the work we do in the organization because of his own personal struggles with mental health, which he openly connected to his experience with gender identity and his challenging background. As he put it in an interview: ‘My mental illness was connected to a crisis over gender identity and an insecure background.’

Charlie was an anti-nuclear activist and the first openly transgender man to stand for UK Parliament. Throughout his life, he fought for LGBTQ+ rights, social justice, and a nuclear-free world, making a lasting impact on both the trans community and broader social movements. Before transitioning, Charlie was already deeply engaged in activism as a lesbian advocating for women’s rights and gender equality, which laid the groundwork for his later efforts in championing LGBTQ+ rights. After transition, he remained a committed feminist. He despised sexism and believed in equality.

His courage and commitment to living authentically, regardless of the challenges he faced, have made him a truly inspiring figure. Charlie’s life reminds us that what’s worth fighting for is not solely defined by our personal experiences or social identities, but by universal human rights values that can ultimately improve life for everyone. His example teaches us that we don’t have to be confined by society’s expectations of how people “should” behave or contribute. Everyone should be able to define themselves, hold onto their values, and engage in the world in ways that align with their true selves, regardless of gender. His experience demonstrates that living authentically and staying true to one’s values is a powerful way to challenge societal norms and create meaningful change.

Matina Marougka reflects on Annie Kenney

As we are approaching the end of LGBT+ History month, I wanted to share some insights on a very inspirational figure of LGBTQ+ rights. Annie Kenney was one of the key people in the Suffragette movement, also supporting the run of the East End London branch of the Women’s Political and Social Union. Her activism (that lasted for over a decade) had a  tremendous positive impact, although it appears she was not as recognised as other Suffragettes from middle-class families. Some justice was done to that with a statue erected few years back outside Oldham Town Hall.

Annie, very bravely, stood up to Winston Churchill, when he was an MP for Oldham, by interrupting a Manchester rally and asked him, and a colleague from the Liberal party, whether they believed women should have the right to vote. This, and an alleged accusation that she spat on a police officer, led to her being imprisoned. This was one of the 13 times she found herself behind bars, some in Holloway prison in London, where many Suffragettes spent short sentences on numerous occasions. I learnt that actually she chose imprisonment at one time, instead of the “choice” she was given to leave activism for 1 year! She went on hunger strikes few times and campaigned against force feeding tactics, something that then led to establishing the Cat and Mouse policy – she was the first woman to be released early due to her hunger strike.

Annie was such an inspirational and courageous woman, fighting for the rights that many of us, in western countries, take for granted. I was very impressed to read that she once commented on the unfairness and harshness in the sentences women receive, for very minor offences, compared to men, who could be treated more leniently for more serious offences. In her “Right to Rebel” speech to defend herself at court at one time, she spoke about the injustice of Suffragettes being imprisoned for damaging property, when there was a case at the time where a man guilty of a sexual assault received only a small fine.

Having worked with women in the Criminal Justice system for a number of years, this really spoke to me. We still continue to talk about such injustices, trying to influence sentencing and advocating for women-specific approaches within the different criminal justice agencies. There is still a lot of ground to cover and many injustices to fight for, over 100 years after Annie’s speech, and we should continue to do so as women, LGBTQ+ individuals and allies, mental health staff.