LGBT heroes - Arthur C Clarke

A hero is someone admired for their achievements and/or qualities. An LGBT hero can be:

1. A hero who's achievements and/or qualities relate to the LGBT community
2. A hero who is also lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered (LGBT)
3. Both of the above

Most lists of LGBT heroes tend to be US-based or based on the first category. The list of UK heroes who are also LGBT normally just consists of Alan Turing. I want to expand that list as much as i can, continuing with...

Arthur C Clarke (1917-2008)

Sir Arthur Charles Clarke was  a British science fiction writer, science writer and futurist (producing 70 fiction and non-fiction books), inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host. 

He was born in Minehead (in Somerset) and then moved to London in 1936. During World War II, he joined the Royal Air Force as a radar instructor and technician. After the war he gained a first class honours degree in Physics and Maths from Kings College, London. He moved to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1956 for the diving opportunities and more tolerant laws relating to homosexuality.

As a science fiction writer, he is famous for writing numerous books including 2001: A Space Oddity (based on some of his short stories). As a science writer, Clarke contributed to the popularity of the idea that geostationary satellites would be ideal telecommunications relays and that space elevators would reduce the cost of getting into orbit.

The Arthur C. Clarke Foundation regards Sir Arthur’s work as an unparalleled synthesis of science, literature, and social concern. History will list him among the few whose insights ranged most broadly in our comprehension of the universe we live in, the way we live in it, and the responsibility we have to improve our world.The Foundation exists to advance these insights.

Clarke married in 1953 but the couple separated after 6 months. Clarke never remarried, but was close to a Sri Lankan man, Leslie Ekanayake, whom Clarke called his "only perfect friend of a lifetime", in the dedication to his novel The Fountains of Paradise.

Michael Moorcock has written:

"Everyone knew he was gay. In the 1950s I'd go out drinking with his boyfriend. We met his protégés, western and eastern, and their families, people who had only the most generous praise for his kindness. Self-absorbed he might be and a teetotaller, but an impeccable gent through and through."

Some of his famous quotes include:

• "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." 
• "Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying." 
• "In the struggle for freedom of information, technology, not politics, will be the ultimate decider."
• "It is not easy to see how the more extreme forms of nationalism can long survive when men have seen the Earth in its true perspective as a single small globe against the stars."
• "I don’t believe in astrology; I’m a Sagittarius and we’re skeptical."
• "Any teacher that can be replaced by a machine should be!"

I believe that Clarke's achievements had an international impact, made the world a better place and that he wasn't straight - an LGBT hero.

Previous LGBT heroes

John Maynard Keynes - economist