Shoulders to Stand On
I found the film to be very intriguing. I did not know just how involved the students at the University of Rochester and the Rochester Community were within organizing for the Gay Rights Movement. It was surprising to see that most of the places where LGBTQ+ people would hangout in were owned my the mafia people here in Rochester. It makes it easier to understand why police would raid these places. Getting an explanation of the time period that the Gay Rights Movement started, helped to show why it was huge since their were other big movements going on as well. It was also interesting to see just how far the LGBTQ+ organizations of Rochester have come and everything that they have done for this community. I remember going to the Picnic that was held during Rochester Pride and seeing just how packed GVP was and how everyone was having a great time! It really helped me to appreciate all of the work that people before us have put in to make this city more accepting.
Perversity to Diversity
Reading this article was very interesting as well. I was surprised by the kind of work that was being presented during the exhibit. I really connected to the section by Michele Moore, because of how she talked about seeing it as a safe space sine she was around all LGBTQ+ related work. It was a process though to try and out when the article was posted. I did a lot of simple google searching that led me to many interesting places. I learned a little more about how Pride Network was started and how the named has changed over time. I also found some interesting events that were held on campus involving LGBTQ+ Experiences such as the film screenings that they had for LGBTQ+ films which included “Head On,” “The Edge of Seventeen,” and “Skin Flick.” I ended up finding a site that had more information on Michele Moore such as that she was the Co-founder Rochester Bisexual Women’s Network (RBWN) from 1988-1991, because she talked about how the meetings for that group were a safe space for her. This is what narrowed down my time frame and then I saw that she talked about the Empty Closet and how she knew about the typeface that they used. So I figured that she must have been a writer for them during the time she was part of RBWN. I googled empty closet past issues and came across the archive of all of their previous articles and just focused on Feb-April articles form 1988-1991 since that is the time frame for the months that the exhibit was open. Overall, this really taught me more about some of the LGBTQ+ History that we have here in Rochester and I can’t wait to see what else I will learn!