C3-P0, by Christopher Bryant.

To celebrate LGBT History Month, 2013, Polari is publishing a daily series of LGBT Heroes, selected by the magazine’s team of writers and special contributors.

“What set him apart was that he was not merely comedy relief, or the discontented villain (as in 1970s spy thrillers like The Eiger Sanction) but a key part of a team of heroes.”

Jefferson Airplane, ‘Volunteers’.

To mark LGBT History Month, 2013, Polari asked its contributors to recall a song that had an impact their own stories.

“My brother had me listen to Jefferson Airplane with the magic words, “Dude, trust me, this is cool”. Even though at the age of nine, the concepts of the ’60s social revolution eluded me, the music still stuck in my head.”

Madonna, by Nick Smith.

To celebrate LGBT History Month, 2013, Polari is publishing a daily series of LGBT Heroes, selected by the magazine’s team of writers and special contributors.

“Madonna is a trailblazer, and made it possible for artists such as Lady Gaga to follow in her path. She has always been an advocate for our views, our society and our right to be ourselves.”

Björk, ‘Pluto’

To mark LGBT History Month, 2013, Polari asked its contributors to recall a song that had an impact their own stories.

“The song’s metaphor of destroying oneself to start over brand new left a huge impression on me. I clung to the idea of being able to redefine your own identity and make new beginnings for yourself.”

Michel Foucault, by Jonathan Kemp.

To celebrate LGBT History Month, 2013, Polari is publishing a daily series of LGBT Heroes, selected by the magazine’s team of writers and special contributors.

“The exciting opportunities, for him, lay in the creative possibilities of non-normative sexual practices and new, alternative forms of organizing personal relationships; not in discovering who we are, but refusing who we are. “

Marc and the Mambas, ‘If You Go Away.’

To mark LGBT History Month, 2013, Polari asked its contributors to recall a song that had an impact their own stories.

“I can remember staring in wonder at Val Denham’s androgynous painting of Marc on the cover (while my boyfriend stared in wonder at my pert teenage bubble butt)..”

Oscar Wilde, by Neil McKenna.

To celebrate LGBT History Month, 2013, Polari is publishing a daily series of LGBT Heroes, selected by the magazine’s team of writers and special contributors.

“Oscar Wilde was my introduction to my own cultural history. There was precious little else in those days. It was as if our lives and our histories had been expunged from the records, which in a very real sense they had. “

Queen, ‘We Are The Champions.’

To mark LGBT History Month, 2013, Polari asked its contributors to recall a song that had an impact their own stories.

“The power ballad I forwarded to play, then rewound to play again, was always ‘We Are The Champions’. But I was 11 years old and that purchase had no significance to my yet-to-be-discovered sexuality.”

The Smiths, ‘Reel Around The Fountain’

To mark LGBT History Month, 2013, Polari asked its contributors to recall a song that had an impact their own stories.

” My unspoken feelings seemed to be woven throughout the lyrics of the songs we listened to that night and my secret was being decoded and laid bare in the music.”

PA Mag Lochlainn, by Scott de Buitléir.

To celebrate LGBT History Month, 2013, Polari is publishing a daily series of LGBT Heroes, selected by the magazine’s team of writers and special contributors.

“Mag Lochlainn was involved in training police officers about homophobia and hate crimes, and helped his friend and colleague, Jeffery Dudgeon in his campaign to decriminalise homosexuality in the region by bringing the issue before the European Court of Human Rights in 1982.”