All of these famous lesbians and celebrities identify as either a lesbian, gay, a gay woman, or a dyke. You can also check out our roundups of bisexual celebrities and pansexual celebrities getting real about their identities and speaking about sexuality.
1Famous lesbians – Jacqueline Wilson
Author Jacqueline Wilson came out publicly in 2020 at the age of 74, although she said her relationship with her partner Trish had never been a secret. “I’ve never really been in any kind of closet,” Wilson told The Guardian. “It would be such old news for anybody that has ever known anything much about me. Even the vaguest acquaintance knows perfectly well that we are a couple.”
2Famous lesbians – Megan Rapinoe
US soccer star and co-captain Megan Rapinoe spoke to CNN and said she didn’t know she was gay when she was younger. “It’s so embarrassing because I’m just very gay, I don’t know how it happened but as soon as it clicked I was like she has arrived. She is here. Her life is beginning.”
3. Famous lesbians – Lena Waithe
Master of None actor Lena Waithe said, at the Essence Black Women in Hollywood Awards in 2018, “Being born gay, black and female is not a revolutionary act. Being proud to be a gay, black female is.”
4Famous lesbians – Hayley Kiyoko
Singer Hayley Kiyoko literally has a song called ‘Girls Like Girls’, was part of the reason last year was dubbed 20GAYTEEN on Twitter, and is even referred to by her fans as “lesbian Jesus”.
At a recent pride summit, she said, “I didn’t want a label at all, but once I released my music, there was this outpour of support for the fact that I did like girls. I learned that by embracing my label as a lesbian, I was helping normalise that for so many other people.”
5Famous lesbians – Samira Wiley
Samira Wiley, who played Poussey Washington in OITNB has spoken about being outed by a cast member. “I saw it in print, and I cried. I cried a lot,” she went on to say. “I tried to get it taken down. Look, I had a journey, I was not always a super open-hearted gay gay-mo!
“That’s something that somebody took from me, you know? You should be able to come out on your own terms, so that was probably a little deeper.”
6. Famous lesbians – King Princess (Mikaela Straus)
Singer and songwriter King Princess (real name: Mikaela Straus) spoke about how she identifies in an Entertainment Weekly cover interview. She said she uses lesbian “sometimes”.
“What I love about the time we are living in now is that you can express gender queerness, that you’re gay, that you’re a lesbian, a girl dating girls. Because I am a girl who dates girls and I have been for a long time. So I am a lesbian. But sometimes I feel like a gay man, you know? Just in my spirit. I’m learning how to be comfortable in between,” she said.
7. Famous lesbians – Kate McKinnon
Kate McKinnon, best known for Saturday Night Live is 98.5 per cent lesbian, apparently. “Talking to Julie Goldman on this filmed interview, Kate said, “I think it’s so apparent that I am [a lesbian]. I have not seen a human penis… except on a nude art model. I don’t hook up with people I don’t really like, and I don’t really like any men. I would give myself a 98.5 les rating.”
8Famous lesbians – Holland Taylor
The L Word actor Holland Taylor (and Sarah Paulson’s partner) is often referred to as a lesbian, but does she actually identify that way? She told the LGBTQ&A podcast she uses the term gay. And speaking to DIVA magazine in 2020, she said, “I have never concealed who I am. I’m not one to broadcast my private life anyway, but as far as simply being with whoever I’m partners with, of course I’m not going to be hiding in my house. Although in fact, right now we are hiding in our houses, all of us, from the silent enemy that’s all over the globe. But the idea that one would hide in that way still, in some societies, is extremely sad.”
9. Famous lesbians – Sarah Paulson
Ratched and American Horror Story actor and yep Holland Taylor’s partner, Sarah Paulson is another celebrity often referred to as a lesbian. But does she use that term? In 2016, she asked people specifically not to label her as a lesbian. “If my life choices had to be predicated based on what was expected of me from a community on either side, that’s going to make me feel really straitjacketed, and I don’t want to feel that,” she said to New York Times. “What I can say absolutely is that I am in love, and that person happens to be Holland Taylor.”
10. Famous lesbians – Katherine Moennig
The L Word actor Katherine Moennig realised she wasn’t straight while working on the original series almost 15 years ago. Speaking about why it took her until then to realise, she said, “Now I believe if I was in high school now I would see it more. Back then you didn’t. That shit did not exist.”
11. Famous lesbians – Hannah Gadsby
Comedian and writer/performer of Netflix’s Nannette, Hannah Gadsby said in conversation with bisexual author Roxanne Gay that she always gets trolled and called “sir”. “It’s so lazy. It’s just the short hair and the height, isn’t it? Someone tagged me in a post on Twitter, and it said, ‘Fuckin’ dyke, wearing a hat. There’s no need to wear a hat at night, except to say you’re a lesbian’.”
12. Famous lesbians – Audre Lorde
Audre Lorde described herself as a “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet”. She is best known for her books and poetry including Sister Outsider and Zami. She dies in 1992.
13. Famous lesbians – Sandi Toksvig
Former GBBO presenter Sandi Toksvig recently told PinkNews, “I don’t think there was a particular moment of realisation. I can’t tell you, for example, it was a Tuesday at 4pm. I think it’s a bit like being right or left handed — it takes age and a bit of experience to understand what it means for how you relate to the world. But you don’t suddenly realise you’re left handed. You just are.”
14. Famous lesbians – Elliot Page
Juno and Tales of the City actor Elliot Page famously came out as gay during a pretty big speech in 2014. He said they were “sick of lying by omission” about his sexuality. “I’m here today because I am gay,” they said, “and because maybe I can make a difference, to help others have an easier and more hopeful time. Regardless, for me, I feel a personal obligation and a social responsibility.” Elliot has since spoken out about being trans and changing his name and using he/they pronouns.
15. Famous lesbians – Ellen Degeneres
Ellen came out on the cover of TIME magazine back in 1997. The exclusive interview featured the cover line, “Yep, I’m gay” and Ellen spoke for the first time about why she was coming out.
“Until recently I hated the word lesbian. I’ve said it enough now that it doesn’t bother me. But lesbian sounded like somebody with some kind of disease. I didn’t like that, so I used the word gay more often,” she said.
