Queering Stock Photos

I saw this article recently and thought it was really exciting and thought-provoking. The idea is that this organization The Gender Spectrum Collection created a stock photo library with photos of queer, gender nonconforming people etc. I thought this was so interesting because of its mundanity. Stock photos are an integral part of the fabric of our online lives, yet also seem incredibly unimportant and boring. Most memes involve making fun of these odd stock photos. But even as we mock them, we accept them as normalizing snapshots of our lives. We see them so often, it would be difficult to not internalize them as "generic" or stock views of what people look like. I've considered before how normative these photos are, but never considered that it would be possible to change this. But here we have people who've created stock photos that are just as lame and generic as "normal" stock photos, except that they remind us that people can look all sorts of ways! It's interesting to think about in what other mundane parts of life help reinforce compulsory heterosexuality.

Queer Eye Season 3

Recently the third season of Queer Eye was released on Netflix. The premise of the show is 5 Queer people who makeover people who need a little bit of help. They film in Georgia and Kentucky which strikes me as a thoughtful choice to choose people in the South. By the end of the episode, the person who is getting the makeover gets a brand new wardrobe and advice on how to dress from Tan France. They also get their hair redone by Jonathan Van Ness and more importantly get advice on self-care and how to maintain good hygiene. Bobby Berk redoes their space and Antoni Porowski helps with food. Lastly, Karamo Brown is the culture expert and does an amazing job lifting up the person of the week. The best part of the show is that throughout the season you get glimpses into each one of these people's stories and they do a decent job on the show to be as diverse as possible. There's an episode where they help out a trans individual and another with a Black lesbian woman where they help her grapple with what it means to be a Black lesbian. They have also helped someone come out to their stepmom and helped another person tell their parents that he didn't actually graduate from college. I've included the links to each one of their Wikipedias in case you want to read more about them. I also highly recommend watching an episode if you have Netflix.


Tan - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tan_France


Jonathan - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Van_Ness


Bobby - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Berk


Antoni - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoni_Porowski


Karamo - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karamo_Brown








I would also love to hear from anyone if they find certain parts of the show problematic because in some instances I think it could be but I'm not sure...

Bohemian Rhapsody

Scrolling through the other blog posts, I was reminded of the recent controversy over Bohemian Rhapsody. While it was widely acclaimed and won a lot of awards, there were a few voices critiquing the movie for failing Freddie Mercury. Largely, the themes of these critiques were that the movie erased his bisexual identity and seemed to blame him getting AIDs on his promiscuity and bad choices.

1. Bohemian Rhapsody loves Freddie Mercury’s voice. It fears his queerness.
2. How Bohemian Rhapsody Fails the Bi Experience
3. ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ Doesn’t Straightwash, but It’s Confused About Freddie Mercury’s Sexuality

Undercover in Russia

I came across this interesting article recently that I wanted to share. It's an account of the gay men who fled Chechnya's purge and are now living undercover in Putin's Russia. The police in Chechnya would conduct raids and arrest people who they had reason to believe were gay. They were tortured and detained until they gave up names of other gay men. Chechnya's government supports Putin explicitly. L.G.B.T. people have been a prime target of Kremlin propaganda since 2012. That year, Putin returned to the Presidency for a third term, amid mass protests.

Many of the men caught up in the sweep are married. There seems to be no blueprint to be gay in Chechnya, no community to attach yourself to. Many felt that their families would make them real men.

The article follows different men and their experiences, and it's very interesting to read.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/07/03/the-gay-men-who-fled-chechnyas-purge

2020 Democratic candidates to attend HRC LGBT forum

I was reading this article yesterday and thought I'd share it with the class.

For the first time, Democratic presidential candidates will be invited to participate in a forum focussed on LGBT policies. The event is scheduled for October 10 at UCLA. While many are praising the HRC for hosting the event, others are criticizing it as merely performative, claiming that it will likely be a competition to sound the most sympathetic, without actually addressing the issues facing queer Americans today. Either way, it will be interesting to see who attends and what is discussed.

The article also mentions Pete Buttigieg, who, if you didn't know, is the first openly-gay politician to run for president. You can read more about Pete on his website. 

global LGBTQ movement

I was reading this article from the New York Times and noticed that both Botswana and India started their LGBTQ criminalization law since colonial time.  And it raised some of my concerns about the global LGBTQ movement.
As this article depicted, many countries in the world still criminalize and pathologize LGBTQ people in their countries. But it seems these practices were started since Western culture began to expand to other parts of the world. People in ancient China are tolerant to same-sex behaviors. They were often depicted as some strange hobbies in history books (instead of depicted as criminalities or immoralities). However, nowadays, many people in China deeply believe homosexuality is a psychological disorder. They also believe it is immoral and is incompatible with Chinese culture. Influenced or colonized by Western countries, many countries in the world started their homophobia culture, like what this article described. However, they did not find more effective political strategies that can liberate LGBTQ people yet, as different countries have different political frameworks. LGBTQ identity politics is nearly impossible to be organized in China and many other countries. So is there any strategy we can use to make progress in the global LGBTQ movement?

Stonewall's 50th Anniversary

While reading up on Stonewall, I came across several articles on the special events and exhibits that are happening this year to honor Stonewall's 50th Anniversary. Thought I would share!

A few examples:

1. Washington DC's Newseum is opening an exhibit called "Rise Up: Stonewall and the LGBTQ Rights Movement." The journalistic museum will showcase articles and journals exploring the history of gay rights in the US including many of the topics that we will cover in this course - Harvey Milk, the HIV/AIDs crisis, military policies, and marriage equality.

Examples of some of the displayed images can be found here:

http://www.newseum.org/press-info/image-downloads/rise-up/

2. New York's pride theme this year is Stonewall 50. Events and celebrations are occurring throughout the month of June. One of the large events showcased is called "Rally: Stonewall 50 Commemoration.

More details on the variety of events and speakers held in New York can be found here:

https://2019-worldpride-stonewall50.nycpride.org/

3. New York's public city library is opening a new exhibit called "Love & Resistance: Stonewall 50." This exhibition follows four key themes from the Stonewall period: resistance, bars, in print, and love. These themes fit well with what we learned about in the course from this time period!

More info here:

https://www.gaycitynews.nyc/stories/2019/5/stonewall50-library-2019-02-28-gcn.html

Beat Generation

So I was down the instagram rabbit hole, following tagged page after tagged page on these nature-y profiles, when I saw a beautiful picture of snowy mountains with the caption " 'I don't think there is any truth. There are only points of view.' - Allen Ginsberg" I liked the quote and kind of knew Allen Ginsberg was an author or poet or something, but didn't know what he was really known for, so I looked up his wikipedia page out of curiosity. In the first sentence it described him as a leading figure of the Beat Generation, which I had never heard of, which of course was linked to its own Wikipedia page, to which I then went. I learned that the Beat Generation refers to a literary movement-turned-culture/lifestyle that came about in the 1950s that rejected materialism, embraced experimentation with psychedelic drugs, and promoted sexual liberation and exploration. Allen Ginsberg's Howl, a poem (which had its own wikipedia page that I also read) is a notable example of Beat literature. In it,   homosexual sex is described, and that resulted in the poem being considered in an obscenity trial. Between these three Wikipedia pages, I learned that Allen Ginsberg, and the Beat Generation more broadly, were part of the same post-WWII era of the 50s and 60s that experienced the Lavender Scare. Learning about how two different cultural attitudes towards the LGBTQ community could exist at the same time was really interesting to me. Furthermore, it was a good reminder that LGBTQ history did not happen in a vacuum; it is part of a broader history of the United States, and gay rights and liberation efforts intersect and overlap with other movements.

Police in Toronto Gay Pride

https://globalnews.ca/news/4877398/pride-toronto-police-uniformed/

I just wanted to post this because I was a little wrong about what I said in class. Also, I thought it was fascinating that the vote was 163-161, because that shows that there is a deep division in the LGBTQ+ community on how they feel about the police. Moreover, the article is interesting because it talks about their strategies moving forward and how they would want to address the hostility towards the police community.

Visiting The Stonewall Inn

I am in nyc for spring break, and of course, I had to visit Stonewall! Walking in and around the bar was surreal - it was crazy to envision everything that happened almost 50 years ago inside those four walls. As an added bonus, the first picture features alums of this class - Abby Schantz and Eliana Keinan! They say hi to Professor Selig!

Jess Louis: "Loving Butch/Femme as a Trans Woman"

https://www.autostraddle.com/with-gratitude-and-struggle-loving-butchfemme-as-a-trans-woman-399289/

Having recently discussed butch/femme dynamics through the lens of Davis & Kennedy, Lorde, and Feinberg, I was excited to see this Autostraddle piece from Jess Louis in which she describes her love for butch/femme and how this affiliation intersects with her identity as a trans femme lesbian woman. In the piece, Louis describes first coming out as queer and trans and believing in the idea that "butch and femme were just heteronormative mirrors of the gender binary, but for queers". She traces this belief to living in a femmephobic and misogynistic world, as well as being a part of a punk / DIY community which generally understood women's femininity as a "manifestation of patriarchy". Finally, she contextualizes this past belief with having grown up following the "feminist / lesbian sex wars in the 1970's and 1980's". Louis' description of the forces leading to her initial distaste towards butch/femme as well as her eventual acceptance and love for femme as an identity is fantastic and absolutely worth a read. I also appreciate her insistence that we give more oxygen to the existence of femme/femme and butch/butch love! I'll be curious to hear what ya'll think about this piece!

Drag Then and Today

I've attached an article on modern drag I found that I think relates to our conversation about drag identity...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/17/arts/drag-queens-rupaul-drag-race.html

I'm still curious how drag factored into an individual's identity in the 30's/40s/50s, and if it was an identity people claimed or was more of a hobby/art form. It's interesting to compare/contrast the tangential stories of drag we get with the stories in articles like the one I've included.

Where is prejudice against LGBTQ people comes from?

Same-sex behaviors have different names and recognizations in different cultures before the emergence of capitalism. And many cultures do not have a strong prejudice against "LGBTQ" people. However, it seems the prejudice of homosexuals are immoral became prevalent in a lot of cultures after the industrial revolution and the expansion of Western cultures.

My experience in China told me it was very hard to convince others if they believe homosexuals are immoral. So I have been interested in where are people's "gut feeling" about something is immoral comes from. And this psychology article helped me to understand this question. It seems people's moral "gut feelings" are related to a certain brain area that controls the emotion responses. And when people look at something they considered as immoral, their disgust area becomes more active. And disgust has an unfortunate habit of bringing condemnation down on people for what they are, not just for what they do. Disgust is a major factor in the condemnation of homosexuals (Haidt & Hersh, in press). And we focused too much on the logical arguments to demonstrate why something is moral, or immoral. But it seems these arguments do not really matter because they barely change other people's emotional response to certain issues. On the other hand, this emotion-morality connection seems to be forged by the environment and culture they grow up with. If that is the case, does the debates about whether homosexuals are moral or not matter? Or does the debates about whether any other controversial topics are moral or not matter?

Mr Rogers: Bisexual Icon

Mr. Rogers Was Apparently Queer, Says 2015 Book

This article talks about a passage from a biography about Mr. Rogers with the passage, "In conversation with one of his friends, openly gay Dr. William Hirsch, Fred Rogers himself concluded that if sexuality was measured on a scale of one to ten: 'Well, you know, I must be right smack in the middle. Because I have found women attractive, and I have found men attractive.'" Though there is no way to know if Rogers self-identified as bisexual or pansexual, here is another instance of icons from our childhoods being later claimed as a part of the LGTBQ community.

The Mattachine Society today

The Mattachine Society of Washington, DC is still at work today. Its mission includes "archive activism-- identifying, conserving and interpreting the LGBT historical record." It has a focus as well on stopping conversion therapy. Its website includes many valuable documents and links.

Building a Table for All: The Ascent of Queer Food Culture

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/21/dining/queer-food-culture.html

After reading NaNa's post about the commodification of queer identity, I was interested in the possibility of a "queer diet" that it mentions. I looked into queer food culture and found it to be an area of recent activity with many queer chefs currently working to carve out a specific food culture by and for them. One of the people interviewed for this article summed it up as "I think it’s extremely important for queer people, for people of color, for trans people to take up space and create that space for themselves" and one of the the ways to do this, the piece points out, is through restaurants and supper clubs.

How ‘Real America’ Became Queer America

From the New York Times:  The Trump administration may be busy waging culture wars. But in the heartland, it’s never been a better time to be L.G.B.T.

Transgender Military Ban & Equality Act

edit: Read the article Professor Selig shared above! :)


In the news yesterday and today:

Trump's Transgender Military Ban

"Under the new rules, currently serving transgender troops and anyone who has signed an enlistment contract by April 12 may continue with plans for hormone treatments and gender transition if they have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria. But after April 12, no one with gender dysphoria who is taking hormones or has transitioned to another gender will be allowed to enlist. And any currently serving troops diagnosed with gender dysphoria after April 12 will have to serve in their birth gender and will be barred from taking hormones or getting transition surgery."
https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/new-pentagon-transgender-rule-sets-limits-troops-n982661


Equality Act
In response, the Democrats introduced the Equality Act. This act would would "modify existing civil rights legislation to ban discrimination against LGBTQ people in employment, housing, public accommodations, jury service, education, federal programs and credit."

A recent poll shows that "majorities of Americans in every religion, party and U.S. state — from 56 percent in Arkansas to 81 percent in New Hampshire — support nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people", but the act is still unlikely to pass because of the Republican control of the White House and Senate.
https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/democrats-reintroduce-equality-act-ban-lgbtq-discrimination-n982771 

New York City's First LGBT Elder Housing Project

SAGE, the country’s oldest and largest LGBT elder advocacy organization founded in 1978, will be opening a 145-unit Ingersoll Senior Residences, the first affordable LGBT-welcoming senior housing development. Its first residents will move in around the same time as the 50th anniversary of Stonewall, which happened within their lifetimes and which some remember very vividly. I thought this piece of news would be fitting given our recent conversations regarding Stonewall, LGBT organizations, and older generations and their perceptions (or lack thereof) of gay people.

"Was Christine Jorgensen the Caitlyn Jenner of the 1950s?"

Last class, Laleh drew a parallel between Christine Jorgensen and Caitlyn Jenner. I was browsing online and found this interesting article. Both received explosive media coverage and were often portrayed as glamorous, feminine women. This reading identifies another common trait: whiteness. Transsexuals of color did not receive as much attention during Jorgensen's time, and the author argues that despite progress, they still receive less attention today. Thoughts?

https://daily.jstor.org/christine-jorgensen-caitlyn-jenner/

I Know A Place

This weekend I was performing at an a cappella event in San Francisco and I got the chance to hear one of my favorite a cappella groups sing a song called "I Know A Place" (opb MUNA) when I started to listen closely to the words. It turns out this song is about LGBTQ safe spaces, and it reminded me of the readings such as Gay New York and Butch to Butch. The song is really beautiful, and I encourage you all to listen to the original or this a cappella rendition. It came out in the dark times of the nightclub shootings a few years ago, but is reminiscent of the early 20th century and remains relevant today.

I Know A Place - Nor'easters

Modern personal narratives

I have found the personal narratives and diaries we have read in class fascinating and was thinking about YouTube as a modern extension of those sources. It acts as a sort of time-capsule and has an interesting tone--more raw than interviews or more manicured books, but less private than a diary. I learned most of what I know about the queer community through YouTube testimonials and stories. I was thinking back on my experience acquainting myself with the LGBTQIA+ world and remembered this playlist of videos I found really enlightening. It was put together by one of my favorite YouTubers Ash Hardell who creates LGBT educational videos. It features a wide variety of creators and identities, with some videos that are more raw than others. I hope you enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1g3MXAZto6JCfsVdWEr14J8Sz_0qiDUK

Capitalizing on Queerness?

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/17/magazine/when-everyone-can-be-queer-is-anyone.html

I thought this was an interesting read. I recently read an op-ed from TSL that discussed a queer centered party, Queer Apron. I went to this party with a friend and it was pretty fun; we enjoyed the space as a place where people were comfortable expressing their queerness and the community. However, later into the night, we noticed the surge of people who seemed to be completely unaware of the purpose of the party. As the writer from the TSL article points out, while being an ally is great, you also have to remember that part of it is taking a step back. I feel like this article touches on this and the idea that being queer is cool/fashionable, without considering the history and issues that still effect the community today. I've also discussed with another friend the companies that plaster rainbow flags across their buildings during June. While I appreciate the open support, I also consider the capitalistic approach they are taking, profiting off of a symbol that used to be and still is ridiculed, abused, and disregarded. In the NY Times article they say "Isa Noyola, a transgender Latina activist in San Francisco, remarked on the paradox that the same companies championing gay rights have contributed to the gentrification that has made the Castro one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the country." This contributes to idea of performative activism/white feminism that is really popular now. It's showing everyone that you are progressive and inclusive without actually enacting change or considering the intersecting issues that are present.

Mia Yamamoto

https://densho.org/mia-yamamoto/?fbclid=IwAR2e0tdM5FKrna3Vmiwcbk1ryg-uarLVh3Vn5qTpZqNyqD3eoIJQ77t1mLI

I stumbled upon this article about Mia Yamamoto who is a transgender Asian American woman. I thought it was super interesting because she grew up during the time of Japanese internment and later moved to Los Angeles, reminding me of the Gay Asians in Los Angeles reading. In the article it also says that she looked up to Christine Jorgensen, someone who we've touched on and are going to read more about! She also decided not to transition until later in her life out of fear for her career and clients as a lawyer, saying "their lives, their futures, were on my shoulders. If I transitioned, it would just pull the rug out from all of them.” I think her story is really fascinating and this article touches on the impact she has made as an activist, transgender women, and Asian American!

Billy Porter's Oscar Tuxedo Dress

 This is an article in the Washington Post about the tuxedo dress that Billy Porter wore to this year's Oscars. The article talks about the way in which Porter pushes the boundaries of gender conformity and creates space for others in the LGBTQ community to do the same. Porter believes that as a queer black man he should use his celebrity status and platform to make political statements, and his fashion choice at the oscars is a perfect example of that.

Washington Post Billy Porter Tuxedo Dress

Mental Health in Queer Populations

CW: SUICIDE

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/study-highlights-differences-between-gay-straight-suicide-deaths-n978211

What are some ways in which we can address the barriers that prevent LGBTQ+ individuals from accessing adequate mental health care?

HIV/AIDS News

Thought I'd share this exciting news from a few days ago about the second recorded case of an HIV patient being cured. I think the story serves as a reminder that even though the AIDS epidemic has declined, the disease remains an important issue today. This is also evident from another story a few months ago in which President Trump dramatically downsized the White House AIDS council and then restaffed it with new appointees.

I know we haven't looked at the AIDS crisis yet, but I think these stories will be relevant to that part of class.

Does Gay Hollywood Have Room For Queer Kids?

I find this article particularly interesting because it puts a focus on issues of how the queer community is represented in popular media. While there might be some victory that there is now an acceptance of putting gay romance in movies, that is not representative of a lot of the queer community. It also reinforces the fact that society wants the gay community to only have inclusion in our heteronormative culture. It makes me think a lot about representation of certain marginalized communities. Anyways, it's a quick read and written by a college student. I highly recommend to just take a quick glimpse!

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/28/opinion/love-simon-gay-femme-hollywood.html

Kinsey Scale vs Defined Categories

In the reading titled, "About 10 Percent of People are Gay or Lesbian" that was assigned for the class on Feb. 27th, Michael Bronski explains that this widely used statistic from the Kinsey Reports has been misused. This statistic was taken and sensationalized in news coverage following the publication of the release, which showed that the public did not grasp the point of the Kinsey Scale. The Scale was not meant to define what is gay and what is not gay but rather measure "all human sexual behavior" to create "a more complete picture of human sexuality" (12). Therefore, he strayed from identifying individuals as either homosexual behavior but behavior or desires as somewhere between the two of these categories. His conclusion was that "most people, in behavior and arousal, fell somewhere in between completely homosexual or hetereosexual" (12).

Interestingly enough, while I was browsing the news, I found this article titled: "Some 4.5% of the US adults identify as LGBT" https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-lgbt/some-4-5-percent-of-u-s-adults-identify-as-lgbt-study-idUSKCN1QM2L6

Aggregated from a study done recently from the UCLA School of Law, researchers attempted to measure homosexuality across regions, ethnicities, classes, and ages. According to Bronski, isn't this study again missing the point of the Kinsey Scale? Bronski claims that the tendency to develop these types of studies and statistics may be due to the idea that people like to feel comfortable knowing that there are others that are similar to them, especially when they can be discriminated against or feel like outcasts.

This leads me to a question: Is it more beneficial to the gay rights movement to devise clear categories like LGBTQ or to assume we all exist on a Kinsey Scale?

12 Anti-LGBTQ Bills in Tennessee in 2019

Article: https://www.bustle.com/p/tennessee-has-seen-12-anti-lgbtq-bills-introduced-already-in-2019-its-only-march-16811294

Unfortunately, this is not the best news for the LGBTQ+ community. The emergence of these bills are a reminder that the fight for LGBTQ+ rights is not one of linear progress (ie, as time goes on things will always get better), and that we must continue to fight and advocate for the LGBTQ+ community.

LGBT News from Lebanon

Hi guys :)

Our class is obviously focused on LGBT history in America, so I thought it would be interesting to post some current events from other areas of the world.

This article highlights the human rights violations happening right now against LGBT people in Beirut, Lebanon, by the UN:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/02/11/lebanon-no-justification-lgbt-crackdown

Here is the actual complaint: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/supporting_resources/hrw_letter_to_un.pdf

See you guys Wednesday!

- Danielle K

Alaska mayor vetoes anti-LGBTQ discrimination measure

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/sad-day-democracy-mayor-vetoes-alaska-city-s-newly-passed-n978381

Essentially, this article discusses Fairbanks, Alaska mayor Jim Matherly's decision to veto a local measure that would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. He alleges that, while he "supports" the measure, he "believe[s] this question should be given to City residents that choose to exercise their voting rights" rather than left to the discretion of a mayor and six council members.