Lesbian Visibility Day: Most influential gay women of 2019

From Ruby Rose to Ellen DeGeneres, here are 10 amazing lesbian women making waves

After Lyra McKee's tragic murder, honouring LGBT+ women is as important as ever (Jess Lowe Photography/AFP/Getty)

It feels like a cruel irony that Lesbian Day of Visibility comes hot off the heels of an openly gay woman dominating the headlines – for the most tragic of reasons.

Journalist Lyra McKee was murdered last week at the riots in Derry, which she attended as part of her extensive reporting of violence in Northern Ireland.

Writing in The Independent, her friend Sarah Kay said: “Lyra was above political division. She was a fervent LGBTQ+ activist, a committed writer, an inquisitive journalist and a human rights worker.

"She was capable of tackling many subjects at once; she was capable of seeing beyond architectural and social limitations that characterised my own generation.”

After her death, a 2014 blog post by McKee entitled ‘A letter to my 14-year-old self’ was recirculated across the internet, in which she talks about her experience as a young queer woman growing up in a conservative environment.

Today, in honour of McKee’s life and legacy, and to mark Lesbian Day of Visibility, here are some of the most influential lesbian women of 2019.

For more LGBT+ news click here.