Renaissance Italy was a very homosocial culture for aristocratic men, and it was public knowledge that younger men (such as apprentices) often had intimate and sexual relationships with their mentors. But this proves nothing about Lord Leighton, who appears to have had a long-term partner in the working-class actress Dorothy Dene; although of course he may have been bisexual. Léo Taxil, illustration from La prostitution contemporaine : étude d’une question sociale, 1884, Librairie Populaire, Paris, France. Langberg wants queer love to speak boldly in his paintings; Willy and Alan , a piece exhibited at the Swiss edition of Art Basel earlier this year, depicts two nude lovers in a post-coital peace in a blaze of vibrant reds and oranges.

And San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City have become huge urban canvases for self-labeled "queer street artists" like Jeremy Novy, Homo Riot, and Jilly Ballistic to fight homophobia by claiming a share of ownership in public space. The first Pride Parade was held a year after the uprising, and marches are now held every year all over the world. When even erotic, figurative art is hard to characterize as queer without falling back on biographical data, abstraction tests queer art history to the limit.Militant Eroticism: The ART+Positive Archives is an exhibition catalogue, from 2015, published to accompany a survey of their work. The Names Project, as it became known, was conceived by gay rights activist Cleve Jones in San Francisco. These artists work in a variety of modes, from abstract painting to NFTs, to challenge the historical obscuring of queerness in art and to celebrate their gender and sexual identities.

Feminist graffiti from the 1970s, as shown in Jill Posener's photographs, proved a vital influence for gay activism. He wrote in the History of Sexuality (1976), "The sodomite had been a temporary aberration; the homosexual was now a species," hinting at a future where the queer experience would become an important branch of Identity Politics.Dismissive of the gay experience, history and criticism of the past deliberately concealed artists' sexuality.

The term "queer" is situated in the politics of non-normative, gay, lesbian and bisexual communities, though it is not equivalent to such categories, and remains a fluid identity.In his recent art piece Wallflower , posted during Pride Month, Osinachi depicts a gender-fluid person dressed in a bright pink dress covered in flowers.