14 May 1928 issue of German lesbian periodical Die Freundin ("Girlfriend")

Christopher Street, in Manhattan, was at the center of New York City's gay rights movement in the late 1970s

Tombstone of Leonard Matlovich, discharged from the United States Air Force in the 1970s after coming out as gay.

Ian McKellen, English stage and screen actor. McKellen is gay and a prominent campaigner for LGBT rights.

The Warren Cup, a Roman skyphos (drinking cup) featuring two representations of homoerotic sexual acts. It was most likely commissioned from Greek craftsmen between 1–20 CE.

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900), Irish playwright, novelist, poet, and author of short stories. Known for his barbed wit, he was one of the most successful playwrights of late Victorian London, and one of the best-known personalities of his day.

Protesters and supporters of same-sex marriage in California, outside San Francisco City Hall in June 2008.

2006 demonstration against the United States military's " don't ask, don't tell" policy, in front of the Armed Forces Recruiting Center in New York City's Times Square.

U.S. president Jimmy Carter with Andy Warhol in 1977. Warhol was famous worldwide for his work as a painter, an avant-garde filmmaker, a record producer, an author and a public figure. He was one of the first major U.S. artists to be open about being gay.

Bust of Elagabalus, Roman Emperor of the Severan dynasty who reigned from 218 to 222. Elagabalus' sexual orientation and gender identity are the source of much controversy and debate. He married and divorced five women but also married two men. He is characterized by modern writers as transgender.

Torchwood/ Doctor Who star John Barrowman (saluting, in the style of his TV character), and partner Scott Gill (left), on a parade float at Pride London in 2007. Barrowman and Gill entered a civil partnership in December 2006.

Street sign in Philadelphia's gay village, incorporating the colors of the gay pride flag.

T-shirt reading "If your marriage needs protecting you need a therapist not an amendment", at a demonstration following the upholding of California Proposition 8 (2008) in Strauss v. Horton. Image: 30 May 2009, Fresno, California, USA

Sisters Sistah, Dana Van Iquity, and Kitty Catalyst, of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, working on a memorial quilt for fallen members of their order. (San Francisco, USA)

Pro and anti- Proposition 8 protesters rally as the California Supreme Court holds a session to determine the definition of marriage. Proposition 8 is a constitutional initiative that restricted the definition of marriage in California as that of between a man and a woman.

The Transgender Pride flag was designed by Monica Helms, and was first shown at a pride parade in Phoenix, Arizona (USA) in 2000.

Lesbian and gay students kissing in front of anti-homosexuality protesters at Oberlin College (Oberlin, Ohio, USA) in May 2000. Several hundred Oberlin College students turned out to rally against the protesters. The protesters—from Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas—also protested the General Conference of the United Methodist Church while in Ohio.

Wilhelm von Gloeden (1856–1931) was a German photographer living on Sicily in the late 19th century. He specialized in pastoral nude photography of the local youths, selling his prints to tourists such as Oscar Wilde. Caino (1902) is among his most famous works—an homage to the painting Young Male Nude Seated beside the Sea (1832) by Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin. Later photographers such as Cecil Beaton and Bruce Weber were influenced by von Gloeden's aesthetic.

This 1908 painting by German artist Paul Höcker depicts Nino Cesarini, the Italian lover of Baron Jacques d'Adelswärd-Fersen. Fersen had fled from France after a sex scandal and built a mansion on Capri, Villa Lysis, where he lived together with Cesarini. The two edited a short-lived literary magazine together, Akademos, which was partly a discreet defense of homosexual love. A romanticized account of their relationship is given by Roger Peyrefitte in his 1959 novel L'Exilé de Capri ("The Exile of Capri").

The Swimming Hole (1884–85) is a painting by Thomas Eakins. It is perhaps the most famous work by Eakins and considered a masterpiece of American painting. In this work, Eakins took advantage of an exception to the generally prudish Victorian attitude to nudity: swimming naked was widely accepted, and for males was seen as normal, even in public spaces. Eakins was the first American artist to portray swimming in the nude. By the 1970s some American writers were beginning to see Eakins' work, and specifically The Swimming Hole, as having homoerotic overtones. However, Eakins' (homo-)sexuality has never been conclusively determined.

Boy with a Basket of Fruit (1593–94) is a painting by Caravaggio. The model was his friend and lover, the Sicilian painter Mario Minniti, about 16 years old at the time. At one level the painting is designed to demonstrate the artist's ability to depict everything realistically, from the boy's skin to the folds of the robe to the weave of the basket. A closer look however reveals that, as in another painting by him from that time ( Basket of Fruit), the peaches have spots and the leaves are diseased, perhaps a comment by the artist on the closeness of beauty and decay in life.

The Tomb of the Diver in the former Greek colony of Paestum, Italy is known for its well-preserved frescos showing an ancient Greek symposium. These frescos appear to be the only surviving examples of Greek painting from the Orientalizing, Archaic, or Classical periods. Among thousands of Greek tombs known from this time (roughly 700–400 BC), only this one features human subjects. Two of the men (on the right) are depicted sharing a loving embrace.

Helmut Kolle was a German modernist painter who emigrated to France where he lived together with art collector Wilhelm Uhde for the rest of his life (which was unfortunately cut short by heart disease). Kolle's paintings almost exclusively feature males—at the start of his career rather effeminate-looking boys, sometime later muscular men, particularly sailors, toreros, and soldiers, usually in poses that are rarely overtly homosexual but certainly suggestive, at least to gay viewers. In this painting from about 1927 a torero puts his hand softly on the shoulder of a picador.

Drag queen performer onstage at Motor City Pride 2011, an LGBT pride event held annually at Hart Plaza in Detroit, Michigan. A drag queen is a man who dresses, and often acts, like a caricature woman often for the purpose of entertaining. There are many kinds of drag artists and they vary greatly, from professionals who have starred in films to people who just try it once. Drag queens also vary by class and culture and can vary even within the same cities. There are drag artists of all genders and sexualities who do drag for various reasons or purposes.

Ellen DeGeneres (right), with her wife Portia de Rossi (left), at a ceremony for DeGeneres to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Ellen DeGeneres (born 26 January 1958) is an American stand-up comedian, television host, actress, and former television music competition judge. After DeGeneres came out publicly as a lesbian in an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1997, her character Ellen Morgan on Ellen also came out to a therapist played by Winfrey. The series went on to explore various LGBT issues including the coming out process. Portia de Rossi (born 31 January 1973) is an Australian-American actress, model and philanthropist, best known for her roles as lawyer Nelle Porter on the television series Ally McBeal and Lindsay Fünke on the sitcom Arrested Development.

Wanda Sykes (born March 7, 1964) being interviewed at the 21st GLAAD Media Awards in 2010. Sykes is an openly lesbian American writer, comedian, actress, and voice artist. She earned the 1999 Emmy Award for her writing on The Chris Rock Show. In 2004, Entertainment Weekly named Sykes as one of the 25 funniest people in America.