LGBTQ+ Figures Dataset

Real biographies of LGBTQ+ activists, politicians, thought leaders, and scientists from across history and around the world — packaged as test data for use in demos, fixtures, and test suites.

Quickstart

npm install @mosaic-code/lgbtq-figures-data @mosaic-code/test-data-factory

import DataFactory from "@mosaic-code/test-data-factory";
import lgbtqFiguresData from "@mosaic-code/lgbtq-figures-data";

const factory = new DataFactory(lgbtqFiguresData);

// Three random people for your test
const users = factory.getPeople(3);

// A specific person by id
const marsha = factory.getPerson("marsha-p-johnson");

// People tagged Activism
const activists = factory.getPeopleByTag("Activism");

For deterministic output across test runs, call factory.setSeed(<number>) first.

See the framework README for the full DataFactory API.

Purpose

This dataset celebrates the lives and work of LGBTQ+ people — activists, politicians, thought leaders, and scientists — across a wide span of geography and history. It is intended both as useful test data and as a deliberate counter to the assumption that queer identity and community are recent Western phenomena.

Scope and Coverage

Representation Categories

• Activists — organising for liberation, decriminalisation, healthcare, and survival
• Politicians — first openly LGBTQ+ heads of government, ministers, and legislators
• Thought leaders — writers, philosophers, theorists, public intellectuals
• Scientists — researchers across STEM whose openly LGBTQ+ identity is part of the public record

Geographic Distribution

The dataset aims for broad geographic representation, including subjects from Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe, and Oceania, with explicit effort to avoid US/UK-only coverage.

Historical Periods

Entries span from antiquity (e.g. Sappho, Emperor Ai of Han) through the early modern period (e.g. Chevalier d'Éon), the long twentieth century, and into the present. Pre-modern entries are framed in their own cultural terms rather than retrofitted to modern identity categories.

Two-Spirit and Indigenous LGBTQ+ figures

This dataset includes Two-Spirit and other Indigenous gender-diverse figures (e.g. We'wha, Osh-Tisch, Barbara May Cameron, Sharice Davids, Albert McLeod), marked with isFirstNations: true at the person level.

Because the dataset contains records of deceased First Nations people, the package metadata sets containsFirstNationsPeople: true. By default the DataFactory filters those records out at the person level — non-FN records still load. To include the Two-Spirit and other Indigenous records, pass the cultural-protocol acknowledgement explicitly:

const factory = new DataFactory(lgbtqFiguresData, {
  acknowledgeDeceasedFirstNations: true,
});

This is granular: an lgbtq-figures dataset loaded without acknowledgement still returns the non-FN people, rather than refusing to load entirely.

Historical Accuracy

All entries in this dataset are based on real people and strive for accurate representation. If an entry is inaccurate, please let us know, or, ideally, open a pull request to correct it.

Unicode Character Support

This dataset includes proper Unicode characters for names in their native scripts where applicable, alongside Latin transliterations:

• Chinese: e.g. 漢哀帝 / Hàn Āi Dì
• Greek: e.g. Σαπφώ / Sapphō
• Icelandic / extended Latin: e.g. Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir
• Devanagari: where the subject is best known under a Devanagari name

Contributing

When adding new entries, please:

• Follow the BIO_WRITING_SPEC.md guidelines
• Ensure accuracy with proper citations in the reference attribute
• Pictures should be URLs of public-domain photos or other suitable images
• Emails, phone numbers, and other personal contact information must be clearly fake (email domains must end with .test, phone numbers include 555)
• Use the language the person used for themselves
• Resist Eurocentric and presentist framing
• Ensure tests pass

License

MIT License - See LICENSE file for details.

Releasing

Use conventional commits for changes (prefix with feat:, fix:, docs:, etc.):

# Preview changelog before release
npm run release:dry

# Release (updates changelog, bumps version, pushes, publishes)
npm run release:patch   # 0.1.0 → 0.1.1
npm run release:minor   # 0.1.0 → 0.2.0
npm run release:major   # 0.1.0 → 1.0.0

Acknowledgments

This dataset draws on the work of historians, archivists, biographers, and community organisations who have preserved the records of LGBTQ+ lives through periods when those records were actively destroyed, suppressed, or ignored.