The history of the twentieth century shows that until practically the 1960s, when the gay, lesbian, and trans resistance emerged in the streets, the representation of sexual diversity generally remained in the private sphere, hidden, and shrouded in shame. However, various artistic expressions managed to make their way, in certain circles and without reaching the general public, allowing artists to express their sexual identity with the discretion required by prevailing morality. This is the case of Duncan Grant, Romaine Brooks, or Claude Cahun in the first half of the last century. Modesty was broken during the 1970s with the rise of homosexual collectives that burst into public spaces in New York, Paris, Santiago de Chile, and Barcelona. At the same time, some artists like Robert Mapplethorpe, censored by the most conservative and ultra-religious sectors, showed in their images a sexuality inconceivable to the prudish society. The 1980s and 1990s solidified the return of sexophobic policies by turning AIDS into a moral condemnation. In those harsh times, the so-called queer theory emerged, and a host of nonconformist artists revealed their heterodox desires and alternative lifestyles to the nuclear family. The gender binary (man/woman; masculine/feminine) was called into question, as can be seen in the open space of art, where transgressions gained strength and visibility. A Persecuted World offers a comprehensive overview of sexual diversity in the artistic expressions of the twentieth century, with the title referring both to the desire to achieve a life where freedom and respect for difference prevail and to the reality that sexual diversity has been—and continues to be—muzzled, pathologized, and condemned by laws and social norms.