Fritz Klein and Florence Nightingale

Icons of Science in the LGBT Community

LGBT History Month is a month-long annual observance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history, and the history of the gay rights and related civil rights movements.  LGBT History Month provides role models, builds community, and makes the civil rights statement about our extraordinary national and international contributions.

This month, CBD College celebrates exceptional scientists in the LGBT community.

Meet Fritz Klein:

Born: December 27, 1932

Died: May 24, 2006

Origin:  Vienna, Austria

Fritz Klein was an American psychiatrist and sex researcher who studied bisexuals and their relationships. He helped begin a foundation that promoted bisexual culture. He was the developer of the Klein Sexual Orientation Grid, a scale that measures an individual’s sexual orientation. Klein believed that sexual orientation changed over the course of a lifetime and that researchers underestimated the number of men that had sexual interactions with both sexes.  He mentioned neurolinguistic programming had supplanted other methods to change behavior. In 1998 he founded the American Institute of Bisexuality (AIB), also known as the Bisexual Foundation, to encourage, support and assist research and education about bisexuality. Klein also founded the Journal of Bisexuality. He remained the Journal’s principal editor until his death. He published Bisexual and Gay Husbands: Their Stories, Their Words in 2001.“

Meet Florence Nightingale:

Born: May 12, 1820

Died: August 13, 1910

Origin:  Florence, Italy

“British Nurse, organized the world’s first school for nurses,

reformed for hospital hygiene, sewage treatment, and regularized medical practices, as well as making advances in the graphical presentation of statistical data. She became the first woman ever to be awarded the Order of Merit by the British government. Nightingale played a vital role in the opening up of legitimate careers for women outside the home and, in this way, helped create the social and economic conditions that made the modern lesbian (and heterosexual working woman) possible.  Her father taught her Italian, philosophy, history & most of all for women of the time  writing and mathematics.”