LGBTQ Experiences in US History

Big Freedia is a musician and rapper from New Orleans, closely associated with the #bouncemusic genre. Bounce music itself has roots in New Orleans, and Big Freedia is credited with helping spread it into mainstream culture, along with the associated #twerk dance (although twerking has largely been appropriated by white people and is now more thought of as being linked with Miley Cyrus, rather than with the communities that actually originated it). Big Freedia was born Freddie Ross, and although she prefers she/her #pronouns (but responds to either he/him or she/her), she is not #transgender and she considers herself a gay man. I think it is really significant to have mainstream icons who deconstruct gender in this way. The fact that she is a cisgender man who uses she pronouns and who wears her hair and clothing in whatever way she wants helps to question the notion that pronouns, hairstyles, clothes, and so on are necessarily connected with particular genders, and opens up more freedom for everyone—not just trans and non-binary people—to choose whatever pronouns and presentations of themselves they want. It is also important that she is fairly well-known—she even appeared in Beyoncé’s “Formation”—since that helps spread this message to a wider population than just queer communities.

#lgbtqexperiencesusa 

Hutt, John. “Big Freedia on Miley Cyrus and ‘Transforming One Twerker at a Time.’” Out Magazine, Here Publishing, 10 September 2013. https://www.out.com/entertainment/interviews/2013/09/10/big-freedia-queen-bounce-miley-cyrus-twerking-gender

Image Credits:

Big Freedia on “Big Freedia: Queen of Bounce.” Billboard, 7 May 2014. https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/the-juice/6077622/big-freedia-queen-of-bounce-season-2-trailer-video-exclusive

Big Freedia. Out Magazine, Here Publishing, 10 September 2013. https://www.out.com/entertainment/interviews/2013/09/10/big-freedia-queen-bounce-miley-cyrus-twerking-gender

SB

In any grocery store, the strong prevalence of #gendered products is hard to miss. Most of the time, this gendering is completely unnecessary: soaps, deodorant, hair color, razors, clothing, and birthday cards (generally) all provide the same function regardless of who’s using them, and there is no reason why the smell, the images used, and so on should be cause for restricting items to only men or only women. This takes a particularly heavy toll on #trans and #nonbinary people, and I can speak from personal experience how difficult it is having to misgender myself, simply because I need to use a product where every option has some binary gender attached to it. Issues may arise for binary trans people as well, for example, if they have to buy something like vitamins which are specific to their sex coercively assigned at birth, but which instead make reference to gender in conflict with their actual gender identity. What is ultimatley at issue is that under the #consumerism and #capitalism -based culture that we live in, we are forced through our purchases to participate in, support, and perpetuate a system which forces everyone to be categorized by binary gender as early as birth (gendered birth cards, gender reveal parties, etc.), which reinforces #stereotypes of the images, colors, smells, and activities that people in those gender categories are required to conform to, and which lacks—or rather does not make the effort to offer—a trans-inclusive language of talking about the products that do have to be particular to different types of bodies and to different physiologies based on the sex assigned at birth, the current bodily sex, and so on.

#lgbtqexperiencesusa

SB

Elmo Avet as the Marquis de Vaudreuil and other Carnival celebrants on Royal Street. New Orleans Magazine, January 2015. Historic New Orleans Collection, Gift of Mr. Clay Watson. http://www.myneworleans.com/New-Orleans-Magazine/January-2015/IN-THE-KINGDOM-OF-QUEENS/

Every year, parades, balls, and other festivities during the #mardigras /#carnival season in New Orleans are hosted by official, recognized organizations called Krewes. The Krewe of Yuga was the first Carnival #krewe formed by and for members of the #LGBT community, although it was never granted an official charter. The gay culture was vibrant in the 1950s, in spite of criminalization and the intolerance under McCarthyism, and it was out of this culture and community that the idea for an exclusively gay Carnival krewe developed. The first ball of the Krewe of Yuga was held in 1958, featuring extravagant costumes, plenty of glitter, sequins, and jewels, and a crowning of Yuga royalty. Unfortunately, there are no available images of the Yuga balls themselves, but the picture above gives an idea of what some of the costumes may have looked like (except they were probably much more fabulous). However, at the 1962 Yuga ball, as Elmo Avet was about to be crowned the fifth Yuga Regina, the police raided the event—calling it a “lewd stag party.” Almost 100 people were arrested and crowded into prison cells, and others were forced to flee into the nearby forest, chased by attack dogs. This #policebrutality meant the end of the Krewe of Yuga, but a strong legacy was left behind. The original founders persisted, and the Krewe of Petronius was formed, this time obtaining an official charter. Other members went on to found other LGBT-specific Krewes, including the Mystic Krewe of Celestial Knights, the Krewe of Amon-Ra, the Krewe of Armeinius, and the Lords of Leather. These krewes, along with newer krewes such as Satyricon, Queenateenas, Mwindo, and Narcissus, continue to hold balls and to form a strong gay Carnival tradition to this day.

#lgbtqexperiencesusa

Smith, Howard Philips. “The Royal Krewe of Yuga and the Birth of Gay Carnival in New Orleans.” Advocate.com, Here Publishing, 11 January 2018. https://www.advocate.com/books/2018/1/11/royal-krewe-yuga-and-birth-gay-carnival-new-orleans

SB

 

Did you know that LGBTQ youth make up 40% of youth homelessness in the United States? The graphs above are from TrueColorsFund, which is an organization that works to end homelessness amongst lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth.

There are a lot of intersecting issues that can lead to youth homelessness, such as race, socio-economic class, and education level. Youth of color make up 65% of young people experiencing homelessness.

One reason why LGBTQ people find themselves more easily homeless compared to their heterosexual counterparts is because of job discrimination. Harrasment, firing or not hiring LGBTQ people can lead them to becoming economically unstable and end up homeless.

Having unaccepting family members can also lead to being kicked out of your home with no money and no where to go. When people are placed in this situation, sometime they are forced to trade sex for housing  (survival sex), and can become involved in the legal system as juveniles.

The awareness that has grown regarding LGBTQ youth homelessness has allowed more shelters to be opened that are welcoming to these youths. If you would like to volunteer to help work at a homeless shelter for LGBT youth, you can sign up at nationhomeless.org/issues/lgbt/

Sources:

Coco Wheeler, Christa Price, and Ian Ellasante, “Pathways Into and Out of Homelessness for LGBTQ2S Youth,” in Where Am I Going to Go? Intersectional Approaches to Ending LGBTQ2S Youth Homelessness in Canada & the U.S., eds. Alex Abramovich and Jama Shelton (Toronto: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, 2017), 49-61

Bridges, E. (2007). The impact of homophobia and racism on GLBTQ youth of color. District of Columbia: Advocates for Youth. Retrieved from: http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/storage/advfy/documents/fsglbtq_yoc.pdf

truecolorsfund.org

 

~BZ

For my last post for class, I want to focus on the German Jewish physician and sexologist named Magnus Hirschfeld. He is known as the “Einstein of Sex,” because of the amount of work he did to prove, scientifically, that homosexuality was rooted in biology to help liberate gay men and lesbians from oppressive German laws. He founded the Scientific Humanitarian Committee (Wissenschaftlich-humanitäres Komitee) to campaign for LGBT individuals to be recognized in society and against their legal persecution and is known as the first ever LGBT organization in history. He also created and ran the Institute of Sex Research (Institut für Sexualwissenschaft), which as a non-profit foundation that served as a research library and had medical, psychological, and ethnological divisions, and a marriage and sex counseling office. The institute advocated for sex education, contraception, the treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, and women’s emancipation, and was a pioneer worldwide in the call for civil rights and social acceptance for the LGBT Community. Magnus Hirschfeld started advocating for gay rights, because many of his LGBT patients started to commit suicide, because of the way that society viewed them. Sadly, most of his work was either destroyed or ended up in the wrong hands during the Hitler reign on Germany. He was a true pioneer that paved the way for others to continue advocating for the acceptance of LGBT individuals within society.
#LGBTQExperiencesUSA #LGBTQFiguresinHistory #LGBTQOrganizingwithinHistory

The Rochester Out Alliance is hosting an event known as “Ride for Pride.” This event, now in its 9th year, aims to raise money for both the Gay Alliance and the LGBTQ Resource Center. It consists of a 50 mile bike-ride through Rochester, and has been quite successful in the past, raising over $40,000 dollars in 2017. This year, event organizers have set a goal of $70,000. To participate in the event, you must contribute at least $100, though the majority of the funds come from numerous sponsors including all different types of companies from The Bachelor Forum (a gay bar located in Rochester) to Barilla Pasta.

.

Source: “Ride for Pride.” Out Alliance, Out Alliance, www.gayalliance.org/ride-for-pride/.

#OutAlliance #Bike #LBGTQExperiencesUSHistory

For my final post for my LGBTQ+ Experiences in US history class, I decided to focus on a person. The person I chose in none other than the fabulous, Stormé DeLarverie! I first became interested in the life of Stormé DeLarverie during a documentary that we watched for class, Major! In that documentary, I learned about a trans women by the name of Major who worked their whole life to advocating for Trans equality and representation which the LGBTQ+ movement. But Major also mentioned the ever so dreamy, Stormé DeLarverie. Stormé was a self identified butch lesbian who scuffled with police during the ever famous Stonewall incident. Many often describe this moment in LGBTQ+ history as a”riot” but according to Stormé, “ It was a rebellion, it was an uprising, it was a civil rights disobedience – it wasn’t no damn riot!” Stormé’s father was white and her mother was an American American servant, working for her father’s family. Growing up in a time where mixed race children were shunned, Stormé often found herself the victim of bullying and harassment. After discovering that she was gay at the age of 18, DeLarverie sought of life of liberation and self expression. From 1955-1969 Stormé toured with the black theater circuit as the MC and ONLY drag king of the Jewel Box Revue; which was North America’s first racially integrated drag revue. This would also be the location where Major and Stormé would meet and become coworkers on the show. Stormé’s strikingly handsome presence inspired countless other lesbians of the time to adopt what was formerly considered, “men’s clothing.” As an entertainer, fashion icon, and political activist, Stormé was a force to be reckoned with. I deeply admire her for her perseverance and service to the LGBTQ+ movement, the deconstruction of gender stereotypes, and the representation of mixed race participation in the LGBTQ+ community.  <3

#stormédelarverie #stonewallriots #jewelboxrevue #mixedrace #dragkings

For this post, I decided to focus on a significant event. This event being President Obama signing the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act into law on October 28, 2009. This law makes it a federal crime to assault an individual based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. This law was named due to the deaths of Matthew Shepard, a young gay Wyoming teenage who was murdered after being kidnapped and severely beaten, and James Byrd Jr., and African American man who was dragged to death by the bumper of a tuck in Texas in 1998. Both of these crimes were devistations to the LGBTQ+ community and are another stain on the history of this country. After the signing of the document into law Obama said, “help protect our citizens from violence based on what they look like, who they love, how they pray.” Although the passing of this bill into law cannot bring back the lives of all those that have passed due to hate crimes and their injustice; this law was at least a recognition that a change needed to happen. If we wish to see change in our communities and lives, we have to vote and elect individuals that share our same values. May all died in the name of hate, may they  never be forgotten.

#LGBTQExperiencesUSA #hatecrimeawareness #matthewshepard #jamesbyrdjr

For this 3rd post I decided to focus on the musical “Rent” which is a musical as well as a book written by Jonathan Larson. The musical tells the story of a group of impoverished young artists struggling with their sexuality, drugs, paying their rent, and life under the shadow of the newly discovered HIV/AIDS epidemic. The musical film of 2005 takes place in the East Village of New York City from 1989 to 1990. Although the musical is meant as entertainment, the songs and characters bring to life the humanism behind HIV/AIDS. Giving a name and face to the millions of people who are affected by this disease.  I strongly feel as though this musical brings attention to this issue in a form that would not be expected. Just by the name alone I would not have thought the story would revolve so heavily around the issue, but it does. Just goes to show that important issues can be found embedded anywhere. 

#LGBTQexperiencesUSA #emoji #prideflag #rainbow

The image I have chosen to provide is the pride flag emoji. The pride flag emoji was released in March of this year, after a push for representation and inclusion of the LGBTQ+ community. The emoji is a tiny picture of the pride flag, and can be accessed via the Apple keyboard. I chose this image because the establishment of the pride flag as an emoji meant the LGBTQ+ community could see representation of themselves in our technologically- immersed world, especially with the role emojis have in pop culture.

“There’s Now a Pride Flag Emoji! – BBC Three.” BBC News, BBC, 7 Mar. 2018, www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/79d08e2a-cda3-426d-acd3-3fd404ee6305.

-ML