Gladys Bentley was a gender-bending performer during the Harlem Renaissance. Donning a top hat and tuxedo, Bentley would sing the blues in Harlem establishments like the Clam House and the Ubangi Club.

Bentley publicly married a woman in 1931. According to a belated obituary published in 2019, Bentley, who died in 1960, was "Harlem's most famous lesbian" in the 1930s and "among the best-known Black entertainers in the United States."