Month: March 2018

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Instagram 4 – AIDS Die In Protests (social issue)

The AIDS epidemic hit the LGBTQ+ community hard in the 1990s. Despite it’s large impact on multiple communities, the AIDS epidemic was largely ignored by the political administration. Pat Buchanan infamously said, “The poor homosexuals. They have declared war on nature and now nature is exacting an awful retribution” (Rimmerman). Die ins, like the one shown above, were used as a form of protest and a way to gain awareness for the issues faced. Organizations like ACT UP called for political action and funding of AIDS research.

 

Photo by Chuck Stallard June 1990

Image Received From: ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15799coll4/id/375/rec/54

Additional Citation:

Craig Rimmerman, “The Conflict Over HIV/AIDS Policy,” in The Lesbian and Gay Movements. Assimilation or Liberation? (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2015), 33-74.

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Instagram 3 – Major! Documentary (film)

The documentary Major! consists of a series of interviews with Miss Major, a trans woman of color and activist who seeks reform the criminal justice system. Throughout the film Miss Major identify’s a number of obstacles trans women face on a  daily basis. Whether it is coming out and not being accepted, homelessness, sex work, or the prison system, Miss Major seeks criminal reform for the safety of her “children” and “grandchildren.” Miss Major explains how many times sex work is one of the only forms of work that trans women can get. This often leads to their arrest where they face increased rates of physical and sexual violence as well as unjust solitary confinement within the prison system. Miss Major hopes to use her activism to reform the prison system and protect trans women.

Image Received From: http://archive.transgenderuniverse.com/2016/03/10/people-profile-miss-major/

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Instagram Post 3

This image is a drawing from Queer Zines 2. It is of a penis being turned into a clown through the pubic hair and testicles. I find this image to be interesting because it makes its subject lighthearted. We often think of sexuality and nudity and penises to be so serious or bad. This drawing completely changes this norm and makes fun of our seriousness about its subject.

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social media post 3 – book

This book, Reframing Bodies: AIDS, Bearing Witness, and the Queer Moving Image, by Roger Hallas, recounts the ways in which queer films can “bear witness” to the AIDS epidemic and its social, psychological, and political effects on the LGBTQ+ community. His book includes examples of different types of queer media, including various examples of film, portraits, and relational art, in an attempt to convey the most honest depiction of HIV/AIDS possible. In an example of relational art, Hallas discusses Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s “AIDS-themed installation art,” Untitled, (Portrait of Ross in LA) (1991), which invites viewers to take a piece of candy with them, actively involving them in the representation of his partner’s life with AIDS. Hallas explains that gallery visitors are encouraged “to partake in their literal consumption, an act of both dismemberment and communion that blurs the distinction between the body of the artwork and its beholder” (230).

#lgbtqexperiencesusa #queerfilm #AIDSepidemic #bearingwitness #felixgonzaleztorres

(photo of cover taken by me of a book from RR Library. Work Cited: Hallas, Roger. Reframing Bodies: AIDS, Bearing Witness, and the Queer Moving Image. Duke University Press, 2009.)

-MF

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Instagram post – Rainbow Pride Flag (art)

Colors of the original pride flag. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a photograph of either of the first two pride flags.

The original pride flag, designed by Gilbert Baker, was first displayed at the 1979 San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade. Thirty volunteers dyed and stitched the first two flags. Each color held a meaning. From top to bottom, the colors signify sex, life, healing, sunlight, nature, magic/art, serenity, and spirit. The significance of this original piece is clear, as a slightly modified version with fewer colors is still used globally as a symbol of LGBTQ+ pride.

Photo credit: By Gilbert Baker (Vector graphics by Fibonacci) – SVG based on this image, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=685391

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Instagram post – BOYS will be BOYS newsletter (publication)

Front page to the first “BOYS will be BOYS” newsletter

The BOYS will be BOYS newsletter was an Australian-based publication for trans men, started in 1992. It served to connect transmasculine people both to share stories and to provide information about socially and physically transitioning that they might not be able to find elsewhere. This stuck out to me because it’s similar to current day blogs and forums used for the same purpose and sheds a light on what communication was for queer people before the internet.

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Instagram post – Harvey Milk (person)

Harvey Milk less than a year before being assasinated

Harvey Milk was the first openly gay person to be elected to office in California. Milk ran for office in San Francisco and was elected to the Board of Supervisors. He passed a significant piece of gay rights legislation, but after less than eleven months in office, Dan White, a disgruntled former city supervisor, assassinated Milk. Because of his vision of a future where all people were treated equally, Milk is an unsung hero in the gay rights movement.

 

Photograph by Ted Sahl, Kat Fitzgerald, Patrick Phonsakwa, Lawrence McCrorey, Darryl Pelletier – http://digitalcollections.sjlibrary.org, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53876020

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