CONTACTStaffCAREER OPPORTUNITIESADVERTISE WITH USPRIVACY POLICYPRIVACY PREFERENCESTERMS OF USELEGAL NOTICE
© 2024 Pride Publishing Inc.
All Rights reserved
All Rights reserved
Scroll To Top
By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Private Policy and Terms of Use.
13 LGBTQ+ scientists you should know
shutterstock creative
It's LGBTQ+ STEM Day, so we're celebrating the queer pioneers who have expanded our knowledge across the years.
From the first woman in space to the man who discovered gravity, here are some of the major LGBTQ+ scientists you should know.
Support The Advocate’s journalism. Find out how you can contribute here.
Carolyn Bertozzi
JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP via Getty Images
Carolyn Bertozzi, a lesbian who's a chemistry professor at Stanford University in California, shared the Nobel Prize for chemistry with Morten Meldal, a professor at the University of Copenhagen, and Scripps Research professor and 1968 Stanford alum K. Barry Sharpless in 2022. Their prize was for "the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry," the Nobel organization announced back then.
Bertozzi's research group "profiles changes in cell surface glycosylation associated with cancer, inflammation and bacterial infection, and uses this information to develop new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, most recently in the area of immuno-oncology," the Stanford website explains.
Sally Ride (1951-2012)
Alan C. Heison/Shutterstock
Ride was a physicist and the first American woman in space. She was part of the first class at NASA to include women, and went on two missions to space on the Challenger shuttle. Ride was married to astronaut Steve Hawley for five years in the 1980s, and had a woman partner for the last 27 years of her life, Tam O'Shaughnessy, which was revealed in her obituary after he death in 2012.
Bruce Voeller (1934-1994)
Peter Keegan/Authenticated News/Getty Images
Voeller was a biologist and gay rights activist who coined the term acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), which replaced the previous stigmatizing term gay-related immune deficiency disorder. Voeller took a hiatus from his career as a researcher to focus on his advocacy work and co-found the National Gay Task Force in 1973, serving as its executive director for its first five years.
Rachel Carson (1907-1964)
Rosemarie Mosteller/Shutterstock
Carson, a marine biologist and conservationist, is credited with starting the environmental protection movement. Her 1962 book, Silent Spring, changed how pesticides were used and regulated, also inspiring a grassroots political movement that would eventually lead to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Carson wrote around 900 letters over 12 years to Dorothy Freeman, and though she destroyed most before her death, surviving letters obtained by Freeman's family suggest a romantic relationship between the two.
Alan Turing (1912-1954)
Lars-Goran Heden/Shutterstock
The father of theoretical computer science also played a pivotal part in defeating the Axis powers in World War II, intercepting and cracking messages that led to several victories. Turing was prosecuted and convicted in 1952 under a British law that criminalized male homosexual acts as “gross indecency.” Turing chose chemical castration over prison, and died by cyanide poisoning two years later. He was officially pardoned 59 years after his death.
Mark Harrington (1959-)
Najlah Feanny/Corbis via Getty Images
Harrington was the head of ACT UP's Science Club, a group of researchers who were not formally trained but whose dedication to learning about virology and immunology helped the scientific community understand HIV and AIDs. As an HIV-positive out gay man, Harrington's personal experiences helped highlight what more needed to be done to treat the virus.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
Spiroview Inc via Shutterstock
Though best known for his philosophical works, Bacon is one of the founders of the scientific method and is considered the father of empiricism. He was one of the first to attempt to preserve meat by freezing it, though his experiment in the snow led to his death by pneumonia just days later. He had 75 attendants in his home, dozens of whom were known as "gentleman waiters" that Bacon adorned with lavish gifts. He was particularly fond of one, Henry Godrick or Goodrick, though debate still remains over the nature of his relationships.
Alan Hart (1890–1962)
AFP Contributor via Getty Images
Hart saved countless lives through his pioneering use of X-ray technology to identify tuberculosis cases, which is still used as the gold standard today. He had a hysterectomy in 1917, becoming one of the first transgender people to undergo gender reassignment surgery. He married his wife, Edna, in 1925 and the two remained together until his death in 1962 from heart failure.
George Washington Carver (1864-1943)
Everett Collection via Shutterstock
Carver was born into slavery in 1864. 30 years later, he would become the first Black person in the U.S. to earn a bachelor of science degree. Not only the inventor of peanut butter, Carver's crop rotation and other farming techniques became a solution to soil depletion. Carver is another figure whose sexuality is heavily debated, though he is largely believed to have been bisexual due to his close relationship with his research assistant, Austin W. Curtis Jr., with whom he shared the revenue from his 1943 biography.
Florence Nightingale (1820-1910)
Everett Collection via Shutterstock
Known as the founder of modern nursing, Nightingale trained and managed British nurses caring for soldiers in the Crimean War. She laid the foundation for the modern profession with her establishment of the nursing school at St. Thomas' Hospital in London. While it was never confirmed by Nightingale that she was in fact a lesbian, she refused marriage proposals from men and made it known she preferred the company of women.
Walter Westman (1945-1991)
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Westman was an ecologist who helped write amendments to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, which would become the Clean Water Act in 1972. He also founded the National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists, now called Out to Innovate, and served as its director until 1988 when he resigned to focus on AIDs activism. He died a few years later due to the virus.
Svante Paabo
Sebastian Willnow/picture alliance via Getty Images
Geneticist Svante Paabo, a bisexual Swedish man now working in Germany, received the 2022 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine "for his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution," according to the Nobel Prize organizers.
Paabo "pioneered the now-booming field of ancient DNA research," Science magazine notes. His work in sequencing the DNA of early beings "has offered insights into the genetic evolution of modern humans, including a better understanding of disease risks," according to the magazine. He has been a director at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, since 1997. He wrote about his bisexuality in a memoir, Neanderthal Man: In Search of Lost Genomes, in 2014.
Isaac Newton (1643–1727)
shutterstock creative
Newton is best known for formulating the theory of gravity and his laws of motion, but what not everyone knows is that he has long been speculated to be gay and/or asexual. Newton never married, and is believed to have died a virgin. He was close friends with Swiss mathematician Nicolas Fatio de Duillier until their correspondence suddenly ceased in 1693, when Newton had a nervous breakdown shortly after his friends tried to set him up with a woman.
Latest Stories
Discover the LGBTQ+ paradise of San Juan, Puerto Rico
November 29 2024 9:30 AM
Which trans beauty will steal the spotlight at Miss International Queen – USA?
November 23 2024 10:39 AM
KUST. unveils 'Thong 01' just in time to stuff for the holidays
November 20 2024 5:45 PM
Naughty holiday cheer as Santa's Secret lands in West Chelsea
November 15 2024 2:25 PM
BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! opens new Gallery Café in London
November 06 2024 4:45 PM
Escape to laid-back luxury at this elevated rainforest resort
October 23 2024 5:00 AM
Out and About with Sasheer Zamata
October 03 2024 3:08 PM
Thirsty pics from last URGE Miami 2023
August 28 2024 3:19 PM
Breckenridge, Colorado’s 10-Mile Pride is an unexpected haven of queer joy
June 30 2024 10:36 PM
11 of Sarah Paulson's Best Performances (So Far)
June 17 2024 3:21 PM
Pines Play lifestyle brand celebrates Fire Island just in time for Pride
June 16 2024 8:30 AM
35+ sizzling pics from Provincetown Pride 2024
June 11 2024 1:17 PM
Top 10 Pride destinations for Millennials
June 11 2024 11:41 AM
Check out these 5 ways to celebrate (and survive) Pride with the kids
June 05 2024 11:00 AM
LGBTQ+ Airbnb travelers rate their top 10 cities
June 05 2024 9:45 AM
Top 10 surprise Pride destinations
May 30 2024 11:30 AM
More Than 50 of Our Favorite LGBTQ+ Moms
May 12 2024 11:44 AM
Get ready for a sizzling summer at Fire Island Pines in 2024
May 03 2024 9:00 AM
Scarlet fever: exploring our fascination, revulsion with blood
March 28 2024 6:45 PM
Trending stories
Recommended Stories for You
Ryan Adamczeski
Ryan is a reporter at The Advocate, and a graduate of New York University Tisch's Department of Dramatic Writing, with a focus in television writing and comedy. She first became a published author at the age of 15 with her YA novel "Someone Else's Stars," and is now a member of GALECA, the LGBTQ+ society of entertainment critics, and the IRE, the society of Investigative Reporters and Editors. In her free time, Ryan likes watching New York Rangers hockey, listening to the Beach Boys, and practicing witchcraft.
Ryan is a reporter at The Advocate, and a graduate of New York University Tisch's Department of Dramatic Writing, with a focus in television writing and comedy. She first became a published author at the age of 15 with her YA novel "Someone Else's Stars," and is now a member of GALECA, the LGBTQ+ society of entertainment critics, and the IRE, the society of Investigative Reporters and Editors. In her free time, Ryan likes watching New York Rangers hockey, listening to the Beach Boys, and practicing witchcraft.