It is LGBT History Month and at The World We Want, we are highlighting the work of individuals who are taking the fight for queer rights to a new level.

Jamie Windust

Hailed as one of the most influential people in London by Evening Standard in the storytelling category, Jamie Windust is a non-binary model, public speaker, and writer, spreading awareness about what it means to be non-binary. Just this month, Jamie spoke at TedX Women on the same topic and Jamie’s debut book ‘In Their Shoes: Navigating Non-Binary Life’ is a collection of experiences as a person who does not identify with the stereotypical gender binary.

Travis Alabanza

Travis Alabanza is an English performance artist, theatre-maker, and activist. December 2020 witnessed the release of their monologue, ‘Overflow’ at Bush Theatre, an intense, thought-provoking piece that captures the relationship of transgender women with club bathrooms. Reece Lyons stars in this critically acclaimed monologue with Time Out describing Alabanza’s monologue as ‘forceful’. This piece is especially important because not many mainstream productions shed light on the issues experienced by transgender people.

Olly Alexander

Olly Alexander is a singer-songwriter, actor, and LGBTQ advocate. His portrayal of the character, Ritchie in Channel 4’s new drama ‘It’s A Sin’ received huge praise. It’s A Sin focuses on the issues experienced by gay men in the early 1960s. It also details their experiences with HIV: a new condition in the 60s that no one knew much about. Olly Alexander’s portrayal of Ritchie is raw, vulnerable and it resonated with a lot of people. Following the success of It’s A Sin, HIV testing in London was the highest it had been in years.

Kim Petras

Transgender pop artist Kim Petras is a self-acclaimed pop princess. Originally from Cologne, Germany, Kim Petras was the youngest person ever to undergo gender reassignment surgery. She moved to the USA at an early age and since then, has established herself as a major pop artist internationally. She also advocates for trans rights and in 2020, she partnered with MTV, Logo TV and Trans Lifeline to raise awareness for a new programme for transgender youth. This new artist has over 100 million streams on Spotify. With her fresh sound, Petras is certainly starting a new era for pop music.

Ben Hunte

Ben Hunte is BBC’s first LGBT correspondent, reporting about various LGBT issues on all BBC platforms. He has reported on various stories such as the UK government quietly eliminating the LGBT anti-bullying project in schools, Poland’s LGBT-free zones’, how trans people are being failed by the UK police, and how lesbian, gay, and bisexual people are still under attack in the UK. A recipient of numerous accolades such as Journalist of the Year from the organisation One Young World in 2020, Ben is going above and beyond to bring LGBT issues into the spotlight.

This LGBT History Month, let us play our part in supporting these individuals to take LGBT rights further because LGBT rights are human rights.