LGBTQ Experiences in US History

This sculpture (“untitled”) was on display at the Queering Space exhibition at Alfred University School of Art and Design. The exhibition displayed several pieces by queer artists and was centered on the question of “what is a queer perspective and how does queerness meet form?”

I was intrigued by the fact that the piece took something natural and revered as pure—a tree—and reconstructed it out of something at first thought of as #disgusting and #impure —fingernails. Of course, fingernails are not inherently disgusting, considering everyone has them, but there is a social taboo on them when not attached to the fingers themselves. This seemed very relevant to the #queer experience: like the fingernails, queer people are often cast aside as disgusting. But that doesn’t necessarily mean our #existence is any less beautiful, much like the resulting tree.

#lgbtqexperiencesusa

Pepe, Sheila. “Untitled.” 1998, hydrocal, wire, plastic finger nails. Queering Space at Alfred University. 2 Feb.–28 Mar. 2018, Fosdick-Nelson Gallery, School of Art and Design, Alfred University, Alfred.

SB

Earlier this month, New York’s Alfred University hosted an art exhibit called the Queering Space. Among several goals, the event was largely intended to answer the question: “What is a queer perspective?” The exhibit featured several artists including Tommy Kha, the creator of an installation titled “Return to Sender,” a collection of 88 photographs featuring the same man kissing a different person (of various genders) in each one.

 

What makes these photos interesting to me is that in each, the man looks quite bored, almost annoyed at times. In conjunction with the title, “Return to Sender,” I interpret this artistic choice to be suggesting that although Kha feels able to love whomever he chooses, the result has remained dissatisfying. Perhaps the boredom in the photographs indicates that, of the 88 people, not one was able to create a feeling of true love within him.

#LGBTQexperiencesUSA#queeringspace#photography#love

Kha, Tommy. Return to Sender. 2010, digital c-type prints, The Queering Space, Alfred University.

–AG

This is a sheet of canvas that was signed by University of Rochester students and members of the community in 1994 as part of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. The project features a massive quilt (this section of the quilt is 12’ by 12’), and commemorates those who have died from AIDS. I was moved by the messages left on the sheet, where people addressed friends and family who have died from the disease, or longed for a cure.

#LGBTQexperiencesUSA #NAMESproject #AIDS #cure

-ML

I was born and raised in Erie County, and went to high school in Buffalo. My parents worked in the city practically my whole life, and I spent more time downtown than nearly any of my peers during my early childhood. And yet I never heard a whisper about Buffalo’s lesbian history. My high school always claimed to focus on the importance of emphasizing women’s perspectives, but we never explicitly talked about a single LGBTQ woman, at least not that I can remember. It is so fortunate that this history is being collected, but now it must be told. #LGBTQexperiencesUSA #LesbianHistory #BuffaloNY #WNY

This image is from the January 1982 publication of a newspaper called New Women’s Times. This specific section is titled “Abortion Briefs” and it contains six statements of varying severity on the limited access that women had to abortion clinics. It depicts the measures some women took in order to ensure that they would not have to have children. Many of the separate statements articulate how “anti-abortion bills [were] passed” or how there were bans on “state-funded abortions” – all indicating that people other than those who are pregnant were dictating the rules and regulations that must be followed.

#lgbtqexperiencesusa  #abortions  #stateregulations #awomansrighttochoose

[Image courtesy of UR’s River Campus Libraries Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation]

-MF

This image came from our visit to special collections. It is a picture of an advertisement from the New Women’s Times newspaper, which was published in Rochester beginning in the 1980s . This specific image is from the January 1982 edition of the newspaper. This image is interesting to me because it represents the social issue of women’s imprisonment, and more specifically the ways in which women of color and minority experiences are treated especially negatively in prisons. We have just read the Combahee River Collective Statement and this advertisement reminded me of some of the themes brought up in that reading.

One of the objects from our visit to the Special Collections that particularly stood out to me was an article for the Empty Closet called “Lesbian Life and Happiness In Rochester”, which was published in the April 1985 paper. The article describes a lesbian couple who had been together for 50 years having to keep their relationship a secret, and buried in lies. Lies that they were only together to cut the cost of living, never able to reveal that they were lovers. This stood out to me because I didn’t think much of the lengths to which same- sex couples had to go in order to protect themselves. The article also describes resource centers such as the Lesbian Resource Center, the Gay Alliance, and the Metropolitan Community Church. I think that this article is important to campus and city communities because it acknowledges the difficultiy of being in a same- sex relationship, and the fears that society won’t accept it.

The day after the inauguration of Donald Trump, I went to the Women’s March on Raleigh. The streets of Downtown Raleigh were flooded with people, both men and women. In my ignorance, I did not notice that the turnout at the march was nearly all white men and women until I went home and read about the Women’s March. Several of the articles mentioned that while the aim of the Women’s Marches was positive, it failed at achieving intersectionality and was only focused on a brand of white feminism. This became more apparent when I went on Instagram, and in the comments section of a feminism account I follow, it discussed the problematic nature of “token selfies” of the Women’s Marches. This made me upset because while it came across like an attempt at inclusivity and visibility, the majority of the posts seemed like only a pass at celebrating diversity.

-ML

1. I know I’ve already spoken and written about it, but Stephen Lein’s letter to the editor in the campus times really did strike me as being significant for our school community. From my perspective, while there has been considerable progress regarding the inclusion, protection, and even celebration, of LGBT+ students on campus, the University of Rochester still has a way to go. This letter pushes the school to take responsibility for its inadequacies and to actively disavow homophobic actions on the part of its own faculty. People who hold power over others usually don’t relinquish it unless compelled to, and Lein definitely did some compelling. Showcasing this letter would be a reminder to both students and faculty that their actions, whether they are interpreted as positive or negative, impact the school as a whole in many cases.

2. The other day, a friend of mine wrote a Facebook post tangentially related to the experience of having a vagina, and used the phrase “women and/or uterus havers.” While her post didn’t explicitly exclude trans women or nonbinary people who were assigned male at birth (that “and/or” certainly complicates things linguistically), it still didn’t sit quite right with me. I try not to get too hung up on language when I can tell people’s intentions are good, and this really wasn’t a big deal, but it shows that progress is a process, I think. Hopefully, if we all keep at it, we’ll find a way to make the language of identity even more respectful and meaningful.

The object that I found very interesting was the Gay Liberation Front’s Info pamphlet that was at the table that I was it. I found it interesting, because it had a lot of valuable information about the group’s main purpose. I found the 5 Truths that were in the front page very interesting, because that is how the message of the Gay Liberation Front was made clear for people. The pamphlet also has a lot of historical context, especially in regard to the University of Rochester. My partner and I were both looking at how the campus used to look in that time period. It is interesting to get a feel for how the campus was and how it is now. That is why I think having this pamphlet as part of an exhibit would be great, because people will be able to see that history behind the Gay Liberation Front and what exactly it stood for, along with showing the structure of the campus at the time.

For me, the issue that I have seen often and still currently see is the exclusion of Queer People of Color. I have seen a lot of LGBTQ+ films and in pretty much all of them, you will only see white queer people or just one or two queer people of color. Even the television shows and movies that focus on Queer People of Color characters, still play on other various stereotypes that are associated with race. For example, we were having a discussion in the Queer Students of Color Circle meeting about the lack of Queer Characters of Color and Orange is the New Black was brought up. We discussed how the show has various Queer Characters of Color, but the main character is still a white queer woman. Another big issue was that in a way, the show was glorifying being in jail especially because of how the majority of people in jail are people of color and also how there is a mindset that everyone in jail is having sexual encounters with one another. I feel that we need to have shows that portray Queer People of Color as the main characters, but also without having to use other stereotypes associate with people of color in order to create it either. That way younger queer people of color will have more exposure to situations and character that are relatable to them to help them as they learn more about themselves.

I think the diary that I read from the gay male graduate student (whose name I wish I had written down) who attended U of R in the 1970s stood out to me because the entries were so personal yet so relatable.  I loved the anecdotes that were written in about the early days of the Gay Liberation club, and how people would give them flack but often they were able to laugh it off.  I loved hearing the stories of the first few trans information panels on which trans people would share their experiences and educate people about trans issues.  I think this diary would be incredibly important to include in an exhibition about queerness at the University of Rochester because it provides a first hand account of what life was like for the queer people here during the early days of the Gay Liberation Movement.

One example of inclusion I encountered that left me feeling unsatisfied was the depiction of a queer couple on the TV show Grey’s Anatomy.  The couple is a female-female couple, one of them lesbian and one of them bisexual.  In the scenes with this couple, the chemistry was abhorrently non-existent I felt like I was watching people kiss as if it the other had terrible breath or something.  Their expressions didn’t change, they looked bored, and it was very disappointing.  I find it very important to represent queer intimacy on television because most drama and comedy shows on today include tons of heterosexual intimacy or passion, and yet often queer couples kiss as if their grandmother is watching.  Perhaps this was just a case of bad acting, but I really thought that perhaps the scene could have been written and directed better as well.

-RF