Brave pioneers of the alternative lifestyle: Stunning pictures of lesbian couples show the women who paved the way for modern day tolerance


These are the pictures that document the changing times, from what was in fashion in clothing to what society deemed as appropriate.

Curated by Marie Lyn Bernard, also known as Riese, the pictures show how the community has changed and evolved in more than a century.

The editor-in-chief of Autostraddle took it upon herself to research early images of same-sex couples, painstakingly looking through archives, websites, digital collections, and Tumblr sites alike.



The idea, she wrote, was not just to collect the familiar images of actresses, but to get ‘pictures of actual people, pictures of women who were active in the community – regular human beings, writers, and social activists.’

She noted on her website that it was ‘impossible to verify the sexual orientation of some of the subjects of earlier photos’ that were sourced to Tumblr. She said: ‘Some of these photos may just be of cross-dressers or super-close friends.’

Victorian romance: A couple from the 1890s gazes into each others' eyes

Jet setting: Neoclassical sculptor Edmonia 'Wildfire' Lewis, pictured in the 1880s, was an American-born artist who spent most of her time in a lesbian artists' community in Rome

Herstory: Charlotte Cushman and Matilda Hays, a couple pictured from the 1850s, left, and right, Anna Moor and Elsie Dale pose for a photograph in 1900



Just the two of us: Left, a young couple in the 1900s is seated in garden from the Powerhouse Museum Collection, and right, a couple from the 1920s wearing top hats and three-piece suits

The odd couples: Four couples of women pose for a photo, around 1910

Feeling friendly: Left, four women at the Dyke Lumber Company in 1925, and right, American blues singer Gladys Bentley poses with bandleader Willie Bryant in 1930 outside the Apollo Theater



Sock hop: Two seemingly gay couples from the 1950s pass the time outside a bank in Idaho Author Kathryn Hulme and former nun Marie Louise Habets, pictured in 1956 Ooh la la: Guests at the bar of the Chez Moune nightclub, the longest-running lesbian club in Paris, pictured in the 1960s

All you need is love: An interracial couple embraced on June 27, 1971 as demonstrators gather for the second Gay Pride Parade in New York City, left; right, Gwenn Craig, from San Francisco, holds aloft a poster giving her sentiments during final session of Democratic Convention on August 14, 1984



Menacing: Three members of Lavender Menace at the Second Congress to Unite Women in New York in May of 1970 Clarification: A couple in the 1970s wore shirts portraying stereotypes during a protest Lazy summer day: A Germantown couple on porch in 1977 TLC: Mariana Romo Carmona, left, helps girlfriend June Chan, right, with the mundane task of grooming

Promised: Marilyn Barnett, seen after a judge ruled that she had no right to a $500,000 beach house she claimed was promised to her by her former lover, tennis star Billie Jean King, in 1981

Showing affection: Left, a lesbian couple kisses at a 1994 protest, and right, a couple in Albany in the 1970s



More than friends: A couple show their affection in Greenwich Village in 1997

Tying the knot: Joy Galloway, right, and Keltie Jones, centre, are married in San Francisco's City Hall on February 13, 2004. Officials married a steady stream of gay and lesbian couples in a first-in-the-nation move that defied state law

Legal: Karen Carter, left, and Joanne Ellerington, right, sit in a horse carriage after they exchanged vows in a civil ceremony for single sex couples 21 December 2005, at the Brighton Royal Pavillon in East Sussex, during the first day of legalisation in England

Happy day: Connie Kopelov, 84, right, and Phyllis Siegel, 76, married in New York in 2011 after a historic legislation allowed gay couples to legally wed in New York State