Today in the UK, Google is celebrating the legacy of lesbian reporter, actress and activist Jackie Forster with a Google Doodle in honor of what would have been her 91st birthday.





Under her maiden name of Jacqueline Mackenzie, Forster starred in West End productions the 1950s and in films like 1952’s You’re Only Young Twice and the 1956 noir thriller You Can’t Escape. While she enjoyed being in front of the camera, she preferred reporting—her coverage of Grace Kelly’s wedding to Prince Rainier and her lectures in America made her something of a household name in England.

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Garner had her first relationship with a woman while on a lecture tour in Savannah, Georgia. Despite her attraction to women, she married novelist Peter Forster in 1958, though theirone of Britain's leading lesbian activists who would have been 91 today A post shared by Switchboard LGBT+ Helpline (@switchboardlgbt) on Nov 6, 2017 at 6:30am PST

Not long after long Forster became a gay activist, coming out publicly in 1969 at Hyde Park’s Speaker’s Corner. (“You are looking at a roaring dyke,” she declared.) Forster joined Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE) and, in 1971, marched in the first Pride parade in the UK. She launched Sappho, a lesbian publication that stayed in print until 1981.

Sappho Magazine

Forster used her public persona to speak about lesbian rights, as well as the greater LGBT community. She regularly appeared on TV to defend homosexuality. In 1995, she was part of We Recruit, a Channel 4 documentary addressing the work of the Lesbian