History is written by the winners. For much of modern western history, the victors have been the straight, white men. Women couldn't vote, gay people faced prison or even death, and black people were enslaved.

Unless we make a time machine, it'll be impossible to know everything from LGBT history. Much of the lives and stories of those who dared to live outside the norm are gone forever. The stories that remain, however, are fascinating glimpses into the past.

1. Mother Clap's Molly House

The 1700's are considered to be a large portion of The Enlightenment. In England, the great thinkers met in coffee houses. Major cities were home to literally hundreds of these houses, each one catering to a specific demographic. Coffee Houses like Baston's Coffee House were used by physicians, Grecian on the Strand was home to scientists. Of course, while many coffee houses were used by acceptable people, many were not. "Molly Houses" were secretive coffee houses populated by gay men. It is not known how many Molly Houses existed; the only ones we know about are the ones that were caught.

Mother Clap's Molly House was caught on a Sunday in February, 1726. Those who were found to be patrons were punished severely. Mother Clap, in her testimony, revealed that she had rooms with no windows so the men could make love without fear of being watched. The men in her house often dressed in women's clothes, took on women's names, and had wedding ceremonies for each other.

Mark Partridge, a lover scorned, was one of the men who caused the downfall of Mother Clap's Molly House. After his lover outed him, he led investigators into the houses, pretending to be "married" to them, and brought his former lovers to trial for sodomy. Due to his participation in the raids, he was not charged with anything.

For their crimes at Mother Clap's Molly House, Thomas Wright, William Griffin, and Gabriel Lawrence were put to death.

2. Chevalier d'Eon

Chevalier d'Eon (1728-1810) was a French spy who completed missions as both a man and woman. They were hired by the King Louis XV to undermine policies enacted by the French government that the King did not like. After being sent to London and refusing to come back, they threatened to leak diplomatic information. They were exiled from France, continued to live in London, and used the diplomatic information as blackmail.

Many people began wondering what their true sex was, and a betting pool was started, but later abandoned. d'Eon requested pardon from France after the death of King Louis XV, and managed to get it. At the time, women could be pardoned easier than men, so d'Eon claimed to have been born female, but assumed a male role to get their father's inheritance. They moved back to France, and lived the remainder of their life as a woman.

When they died in 1810, it was determined that they had been born male.

3. Billy Tipton

At first, Billy Tipton's (1914-89) masculine gender performance was just what he used on stage. Born Dorothy Lucile Tipton, Billy Tipton transitioned to live as male full time, and even married women and adopted children with none of them knowing that he had born a woman.

He started dressing as a man to get jobs as a jazz musician, a profession that was well known to be a boy's club. He bound down his breasts and packed his pants with a prosthetic penis to pass as male.

He fell in love with women and dated them without them ever suspecting his true sex; he even married 18 year old Betty Cox, and they lived together for seven years, with her having no idea.

He fell in love with and married Kitty Oakes, a stripper from Spokane, and the couple adopted 3 children. When the children were teenagers, the couple split, and the kids lived with Billy.

He died when he refused to go to the doctor to treat an ulcer. Upon his death, his birth sex shocked everyone who knew him.

4. Montague Glover

Montague Glover (1898- 1983) did what not many would do in the mid and early 20th Century: he took pictures of gay men for his collection. Most of these men were working class male prostitutes or from the military. Glover is also one of the only men to of his time to document his relationship with another man, Mr. Ralph Hall. According to his records, Glover hired Hall as a manservant so the two of them could live together without suspicion. They were romantically together for more than 50 years.

After Glover and Hall died in the 1980's, their heirs found Glover's box of pictures. Dating back to WWI, there were hundreds of pictures of young gay men, and many love letters. In 1992, James Gardiner compiled Glover's collection into the book "A Class Apart: The Private Pictures of Montague Glover".

5. Radclyffe Hall

Most known for her book, "The Well of Loneliness", Radclyffe Hall (1880-1943) revolutionized lesbianliterature. "The Well of Loneliness" centers around a relationship between two women, and this caused the British government to order all copies destroyed. The ban on the book was met by protest from other famed writers, including T.S Elliot, George Bernard Shaw, and Virginia Woolf, who signed a letter of protest. In America, it was determined that the book was not obscene, and it was allowed to be sold.

She was in relationships with other women throughout her life, but was married to Admiral Ernest Troubridge. Their relationship was rocky, and she ended up suing him for libel. She liked to describe herself as a man trapped in a woman's body, and dressed very masculine.

After she died in 1943, the British government released its ban on "The Well of Loneliness".

6. James Barry

Dr. James Barry, (1795-1865) born Margaret Bulkley, was a revolutionary Female to Male British Army surgeon who worked hard to improve conditions for wounded soldiers and people living in Africa. He was known to be passionate and cross, and even fought in gun duels over insults to his voice or temperament.

His mother and uncle assisted him in getting into medical school by disguising him as a man. He graduated from the University of Edinburgh Medical School then went with the British Army to India and Africa, and eventually became the General Inspector of Military Hospitals. He spent his career working for the health of wounded soldiers and native Africans, and was the first surgeon in Africa to perform a C-Section with both the baby and mother to survive the procedure.

It is likely that he saved thousands of lives, however after he died of dysentery in 1865, it was discovered that he had been born female, and the horrified British Army locked away his records for nearly 100 years.

7. The Institute of Sex Research

Germany before the Nazi regime was a rather open place. In 1919, Magnus Hirschfeld opened up the Institute of Sex Research in Berlin. Dr. Hirschfeld, a Jewish man, was very accepting of LGBT rights and is considered one of the first advocates for trans rights.

His Institute of Sex Research was one of the few places transgender people could go to medically transition, and was the first place to offer modern gender reassignment surgery. The institute was home to Hirschfeld's expansive library of books on sex and gender, as well as a museum open to the public. People from all over came to learn.

As well as working with the sciences, Dr. Hirschfeld worked with the law to make life easier for LGBT people living in Germany. He tried to change crossdressing laws, and advocated for women's rights groups in Germany.

Dr. Hirschfeld's work was burned to the ground by the Nazis in 1933. Around 20,000 books were destroyed. He tried to restart, but died in 1935.

8. Gladys Bentley

From a young age, Gladys Bentley (1907-1960) realized she was different from other girls. She liked wearing men's clothes, and knew from a young age that she was attracted to women. She became part of the Harlem Renassance at age 16, working as a singer for speakeasies and parties. She was one of the many LGBT creators from the Renassance.

Bentley liked to change the words to popular songs, making them more provacative and exciting for her audience. She started performing in Harry Hansburry's Clam House, a popular gay speakeasy. In 1931, Bentley broke grounds by having a marriage with a white woman in New Jersey.

She was unable to remain open about her sexuality forever, though. In the early 1950's, the Harlem Renassance began winding down, and McCarthism started rising up. LGBT people across America feared being persecuted, and to avoid this Bentley calmed down her act and started wearing dresses. In 1952 Bentley told Ebony magazine that she had been "cured" of her homosexuality. She claimed to be married to journalist J.T. Gibson, however he denied it.

She died of the flu in 1960.

9. Giovanni Bordoni/ Catterina Vizzani

Giovanni Bordoni/ Catterina Vizzani (1718-1743) had a romantic adventure many dream could happen to them. Born Catterina Vizzani, she fell in love with another girl and dressed up as a man to sneak under her window to see her. This continued until the girl's father caught her. Vizzani ran away, dressed in her men's clothes. She called herself Giovanni Bordoni, and worked as a Vicar's servant. She was quite the lady's man, but eventually the Vicar complained to the priest about it, and the priest found out about Bordoni's true sex through her parents. For one reason or another, the priest kept this information to himself.

After leaving the Vicar, she fell in love with a minister's niece, and the two planned to run away together. However, on their escape, Bordoni was shot. On her deathbed, she revealed she was a woman and requested to be buried as a virgin, which was granted.

10. Bayard Rustin

Without Bayard Rustin (1912-1987), the Civil Rights Movement of the mid 20th Century would have looked a lot different. He was working tirelessly for Civil Rights, in 1942 he was arrested for refusing to give his seat to a white man on a bus. In 1948 he went to India to learn Ghandi's nonviolent techniques, and taught them to Martin Luther King Jr. when he returned to the United States.

It was thanks to him that Dr. King's March on Washington went smoothly. Rustin planned every detail, ensuring that the event would stay peaceful and nonviolent.

However, he was very open about his sexuality, so much so that he made his homophobic peers very uncomfortable. In 1953, he was arrested for having sex with two men in a car. He was asked to leave the Fellowship of Reconciliation (F.O.R.), the organization he worked with to plan the Freedom Rides, and many of his peers turned their backs to him. After this, he worked for M.L.K. and the War Resister's League.

In the 1970's, he met Walter Naegle and the pair were a couple until Rustin's death in the 1980's. Throughout the later half of his life, Rustin worked hard for gay rights, comparing the gay rights movement to the civil rights movement.

11. Same Sex Marriage in the Middle Ages

The Catholic Church in the 8th Century allowed two men to have a sort of civil union. They weren't married like a man and a woman were, but their "brotherly bond" was recognized by the church and God. Some sources say that the men were required to kiss each other and the priest performing their ceremony.

Anti-Sodomy laws existed, but the elite seemed to have turned a blind eye to the possible sex between the men. While these ceremonies were happening, other gay men were being burned at the stake for sodomy.

The Church did not fight same sex unions until the late middle ages, when the argument that marriage was created for children cropped up.

At the beginning of the 14th Century, the unions were banned, and the Church set up a strict anti-gay stance that is just only beginning to be loosened.

12. George Villiers

George Villiers (1592-1628) was considered to be one of King James' "favorites", that is, he was given gifts and affection from the King, and moved up in rank rather quickly. Throughout his life, Villiers was knighted, and then went on to become the Earl of Buckingham, the Marquess of Buckingham, the Earl of Coventry, and the Duke of Buckingham.

While it is not known if Sir Villiars had a romantic relationship with King James, their contemporaries compared the pair to a married couple, and made mention to James' physical affection, and current scholars mention that the two often shared a bed.

Throughout his relationship with the King, Sir Villiars was concerned the King would replace him with someone younger, however this never happened.