'And as the world we live in seems increasingly strange and ominous, comfort yourself by remembering that only last year a tiny film about black queer kids was the Best Picture at the Oscars. And that this year, an LGBT film where the greatest threat to the characters lives is heartbreak, could do the exact same thing.'

Illustration by Joshua Osborn

Author of A Single Man and Goodbye To Berlin - which would become the Oscar winning film Caberet, 'Homosexual lust they could laugh at, now, and tolerate in a sophisticated way. Homosexual love they put to death by denial.'

Illustration by Sam Russell Walker

'Trans role-models, in art, film and music come few and far between. Sure, they exist, however as a child I had no outlet. I had conflicted feelings. I knew I was different. I felt detached from my body and had no means of articulating that...' 

Illustration by Fernando Monroy 

The Harlem Renaissance Man: 'Black people invented swag! This is an undeniable truth that is not up for debate. With that said, around the world our history along with our impact and influence on culture, commerce and art is usually or completely swept underneath the rug. As an African-American I couldn’t tell you much about my culture if I solely based my knowledge on what I was taught in the American public school system.'

Illustration by Fernando Monroy

The Dandy: "Bunny Roger didn’t so much defy convention as eviscerate it. In his eighty-six years of life he was an aesthete and businessman; a muscular homosexualist and a dandy with a 29-inch waist; a couturier and war hero; avaricious and the greatest giver of parties in the later part of the twentieth century."

Illustration by Fernando Monroy 

"Frank’s films were all so wildly ahead of their time, rooted in their historic moment by the force of his voice singing out in each whip-smart turn of phrase, parsed to perfection. He made sitting in a cinema feel like overhearing a succession of brilliant conversations on a bus."

Illustration by Elena Durey based on the poster by Jamie Reid

Juno Roche on photographer Lola Flash, 'Activism is tough, despite the insidious attempts across social media to denigrate it with accusations of 'snowflakery' smothering free speech, activism - seeking to create a better, kinder world is draining.'

Illustration by Elena Durey.

"The mere fact that someone who lived half a millennium ago was willing to put their reputation — possibly even their life — on the line to outwardly present as a “sodomite” is, to me anyway, inspiring enough."

Illustration by Elena Durey.

"Haring painted with a beat, using the city as a canvas to paint his unique iconography and, like his friend Jean-Michel Basquiat, elevated the idea of street art/graffiti in the process."

Illustration by Elena Durey.

'As my favourite DIY banner put it, “NOT GAY AS IN HAPPY, QUEER AS IN FUCK YOU”. My kind of queer. The kind of queer I think of as my version of Sarah Kane. Dark, aggressive, unhappy but not in the way you might have assumed - someone who knows the pleasure of misery.'

Illustration by Elena Durey.

"At the apex of his fame, George created an iconic image - stubble, sunglasses, badass leather jacket - that led to him being presented as a heterosexual sex symbol. This wasn't quite the real George, who was gradually realising behind closed doors that he was probably - definitely - a gay man."

Illustration by Elena Durey.

"It’s almost impossible to explain what it feels like to grow up gay if you’ve only grown up straight. For me, there was no flashbulb moment, no Big Bang realisation... Your sense of sexual self ebbs and flows with the gossip of the playground. Of course I’m not... but am I?"

Illustration by Fernando Monroy

Harriet Verney writes about her late aunt, fashion icon Isabella Blow. "It was the early naughties and Izzy was at her most exuberant. The outfits were getting more elaborate, bigger, more in danger of getting caught in a closing door and generally wilder.  The hats were getting taller, more intricate and louder while Izzy’s fame was reaching its peak."

Illustration by Fernando Monroy based on an image by Miguel Reveriego

"I don’t know if it explains why I’ve never fallen in love or why I fall in love every single day, but there’s this poem that implanted itself in my brain when I was young, and until I reach the sort of love it describes I don’t think I’ll be satisfied..."

Illustration by Fernando Monroy

Theo Adams is creative director and founder of a collective of performers creating some of the most mind blowing, exhilarating, and moving performances imaginable. 

Illustration by Fernando Monroy based on an image by Nick Knight