Author: Malgarita

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. 

#LGBTQExeriencesUSA #aidsawareness #actagainstaids #rentmusical

Let me just say, that I LOVED this documentary! This film was so beautifully put together I found myself emotionally overwhelmed at many points while watching. Between the telling of Major’s story or of the lives of the other women, I felt so connected to these women and was empathetic to their struggles and pain. I also greatly appreciated the fact that the film was focused on the lives of Trans women of color. When I first entered the class, I know that the Trans women of color voice was an aspect that I noticed was missing from our class discussions. So it was nice to be able to have something that was solely focused on this ideas. I feel as though this film is a beautiful piece and that people should watch it out of pure enjoyment but also for educational purposes.

I feel like the film overall was extremely informative. The things that stood out to me the most was learning about TGIJP (Transgender, Gendervariant & Intersex, Justice, Project). This was an organization that I didn’t have any prior information about. I think the first time I started thinking about the Trans presence in the prison system was when I first started watching “Orange is the New Black” which was a popular Netflix series. I think that the issues that Sophia Burset (Laverne Cox) went through in the system spoke to watch went on behind bars. Through the documentary I think it became that much more learn and significant to my understanding of the issue. I personally loved the message that the organization fights for, just the fact that it is lead and organized by a group of Black Trans women is amazing. But what’s more amazing than that is the fact that they, themselves, have been to prison and want to advocate and offer support to other Trans women. I just was so taken aback at how beautiful that is. These women have been tortured and mistreated, beaten, raped and ridiculed while behind bars but that doesn’t kill their spirit.

Something that I found myself wondering about was if Rochester’s Trans committee would benefit from a program such as TGIJP? I think that without a doubt the answer is yes. After watching this film I honestly believe that their needs to be more programs designed to help strengthen the Trans committee. One issue that come to mind was how Major talked about how she found it difficult to find work while she was transitioning/transitioned. I think that if organizations and companies worked closer together that they should develop programs that would work to help Trans people who have served their sentences, find and keep steady forms of work. These women are looking for a fresh start but if they can’t find work and have a means to sustain themselves then it is a cycle like Major said. Trans people just like everyone else need to survive and be clothed. I think our society needs to do more for the progression of the Trans community. These people are still fighting and pushing to make their voices heard and know. I commend their hard work, determination and spirit,  because they “Are Still Fucking HERE!”

I decided to choose this flyer out of all the others for a few key reasons. The flyer itself is one of many that were found within the AIDS Poster Collection at UR;so that alone makes it part of a larger collection of items that advocate for AIDS awareness. With that being said, this particular poster stood out among the rest due to its message. “Sleeping with your partner is sleeping with their past,” I feel like this message speaks volumes. Often when people get into relationships they tend to not want to ask about their partners past. This can be due to a number of different reasonings: jealousy, being uncomfortable, trying to establish a respect of privacy, ect. With that, I still believe that speaking to one’s partner about past relationships is extremely important.

Personally, when I start a relationship with someone, this is one of the first questions I ask. Now I understand that not everyone is as straightforward as I am, but this is a habit that I think people should start practicing. Having this conversation is hard when starting off a new relationship but it is also one that can save your life or your partner’s life. Starting the conversation encourages people to go out and get tested and makes people more conscious, as well as gives them a sense control in their sex lives and actions.

I think that this poster is related to the class because the AIDs outbreak was directly related to the LGBTQ+ community originally. Growing up I was always told that AIDs was a “gay man’s” disease. That comment being made by ignorant people of course, but it was still heavily associated with the greater community.  I also think this poster relates to the class because the poster itself was publishedas a means of educated the community at large
about this outbreak. To me, this class strives to educate the students about all issues related or targeted towards the LGBTQ+ community, by learning about these issues we can hope to spread further awareness and lead people away from cultural ignorance. 

For this post I decided to focus on African American LGBTQ+ publications. BLK Magazine was first published in 1988 with the intention of targeting and covering people, events and issues that were about African American LGBTQ+ audiences. It was originally issued for lesbian and gay men, but in time, the magazine became to attract the greater LGBTQ+ community.

This magazine demonstrates a significant milestone within western mass media due to the fact that it was focused and representation of queer individuals within minority communities. BLK magazine paved the way for a number of African-American specific media to spring up, including “Black Lace” a Black Lesbian targeted magazine and “Blackfire” a Black gay magazine. I feel like these magazines are significant to the class because they are prime examples of minority LGBTQ+ experiences and issues. Race and class are often two factors that are disregarded in the LGBTQ+ movement, but with more publications lines these it serves as representation of a marginalized community within a marginalized community.

#lgbtqmedia #lgbtqblacklivesmatter #blacklgbtqhistory #lgbtqexperiencesusa

An object that really stood out to me during our session at the Rare Books and Special Collections library was the little section in my article of the Empty Closet. My article was dated January 1975 Number 46, the small section in the newspaper was titled: “Transexual Murder.” I think that this piece is important and if we can find others like it, that they should be included in the exhibition for a few reasons. One, I think that it shows the progression of the LGBTQ movement and how trans people were not included in the moment originally. I think that highlighting this is important because its essential to show where the movement started and how far the movement has improved since then. Second, I think this piece and other like it are important because it generates questions about the trans population that is now included in the LGBTQ moevement as well as calls to question other forms of identity, such as class and race.

In the article, it tells the story of Leah Wilder, age 33 who was murdered off campus in the city of Rochester in 1975. Her story can be found only if you were to look through the paper carefully. I honestly glossed right over it the first few times I looked through it, and it was only pointed out to Raul and myself by Lina. I am glad that she did because, like I mentioned above, I think this article speaks to the importance to the trans movement and acceptance within the LGBTQ community. I tried searching for more information on Leah Wilder, but was unsuccessful in finding anything. One thing’s for sure, although there may be no record of her anywhere else, she will forever be remembered through this article. I am happy that I got the opportunity to learn a little about her.

Originally, I had a hard time thinking about a particular example of inclusion that left me unsatisfied. But after a little while of thinking, I think I felt this way last semester in one of my GSW classes. The reason why I felt this way was because during the class I was surrounded by people that were invested in learning about topics within my major but my peers did not take into consideration the fact that class and race play a factor into our discussions. I found myself constantly having to bring up issues of race and I found our conversations limiting to open discussion.

The reason that I chose this images is because it shows the statistics of LGBTQ+ youth and the leading causes of homelessness in our society. The chart shows the break down between LGBTQ as well as Transgender youth more specifically. I found this chart to be relevant to this class because the historical movement of the LGBTQ, purposely excluded trans individuals. I do, however,  wish that this chart showed stats from cisgender youth as a means to compare even further. Regardless, I feel that this chart is useful in identifying key issues within our communities.

#https://truecolorsfund.org/our-issue/

Being a Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies major I was already introduced to some of the history of the infamous Stonewall Riots. I remember taking Queer Theory a couple semesters back and we talked about this event and its significance to the Gay Rights Movement. Although I don’t have a first-hand account of what actually took place I do have a pretty good overview. I knew that the riots took place at a popular Gay bar and that the crowd was majority transgender and people of color. Although this movement was made so popular by the efforts of people of color, it was mostly white cisgender males and lesbians that took advantage of this movement as recognition of the suffrage. This exclusion of specific minority groups drastically effected the progression of the movement as a whole because it placed people into categories against one another. Turning a movement of progression into a movement of segregation.

I feel like one of the biggest shocks to me was learning that other riots took place before Stonewall. I always pegged this movement as the first one because it is the most popular. Looking back on it now, I can see how that notion is completely flawed. Just because something become famous doesn’t mean that it was the first of its kind. Learning that distinction made me question how many other riots took place before this and why were they concealed so heavily within mass media. Considering this as well, it makes sense to consider that the reasoning behind these policies raids was to dissipate the collective gathers of drag queens, gay, and transgender people from public domains. Its a sad moment when you have to consider the level of scrutiny that these people faced on an everyday basis. If you were a person of color in addition to being one of the other types of people, I would imagine it being even harder. On one hand, people that were white and gay or trans didn’t seemed to be pegged harder than individuals of color. Now that may be just a theory with no evidence to support it but I think overall that race is a huge element to this discussion in particular due to Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera being such significant contributors.

I personally didn’t know much about Marsh P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera before now.  I had a conversation with Raul in regards to this issue and he told me a lot. I definitely feel that trans representation within the Gay Rights Movement and it shouldn’t be that way. I feel that as a society, we are so fixated on placing every little thing into categories and because of that certain people get forgotten or pushed out. If the movement was set in motion by self-identified trans individuals, then they should be represented.