LGBT History in New Jersey

To go along with our reading on California's LGBT history requirement in public schools: as of February 2019, New Jersey also added a similar requirement, making it the only other state to require that schools teach LGBT history (https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/2019/02/01/nj-schools-teach-lgbt-history-new-law/2743028002/).

Massachusetts also has a framework for teaching LGBT history but it isn't legally enshrined or mandatory: https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2018/04/25/lgbt-history-school-lgbt-health-massachusetts-boston-lgbt/

'Art After Stonewall: 1969-1989' Exhibition

I found this interview with Johnathan Weinberg, who curated a new exhibition in New York of art produced after Stonewall, in honor of its upcoming 50th anniversary. It looks like it will be an amazing show, and if anyone is in New York anytime soon I would love to hear about it! It was also exciting that the article mentioned Sylvia Rivera along with Marsha P. Johnson, as from what we read and talked about in class it seems like she has been often forgotten in talk about historical LGBTQ activism.

https://www.them.us/story/art-after-stonewall

What does a marriage look like?

This video seems to touch on all the complexities of marriage brought up in our readings. This is a marriage, long before marriage equality, between an infertile intersex lesbian with a disability and a gay man. It discusses the idea that marriage does not necessarily mean sex or procreation, but simply a deep love (of any variety) and a commitment to care for another human being. I was interested in the ways this marriage points out all the things we do not ask straight-passing couples when they get married: What is your sexual orientation? What is your biological sex? Are you fertile? Despite the "untraditional" answers this couple would have given, they were able to marry and have been happily married for many years. I think it's an interesting piece and one that injects nuance into our notion of family, imbuing our understanding with the plurality discussed in the Queer Kids of Queer Parents piece we read.
(Just in case: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvpGzeXUFR8)

How Gay Are You? A new film explores the many shades of human sexuality

From the New York Times: “Between the Shades,” a documentary released Tuesday on iTunes, suggests that human sexuality is far more nuanced than labels or even a linear scale can capture.  Article and trailer are here.

AIDS Memorials

Those of you traveling to San Francisco or New York might want to check out the AIDS memorials in those cities:
https://aidsmemorial.org/ (National AIDS Memorial Grove, San Francisco)
http://nycaidsmemorial.org/ (New York City AIDS Memorial, Greenwich Village)

Los Angeles is planning an AIDS monument in West Hollywood:
https://aidsmonument.org/

There are AIDS memorials in other cities too.

The website for The Names Project - AIDS Memorial Quilt is here:
https://www.aidsquilt.org/

A Star-Studded Play about Prop. 8

As I was watching the ads for and against Prop 8, clips from this play titled "8" came up as suggestions. I've been watching a few clips and eventually found the play in its entirety - it's incredibly well done, funny, full of incredible actors, heart wrenching, and definitely worth watching!

US Supreme Court to hear LGBTQ Workplace Discrimination Cases

I came across this today, and it got my thinking about our class discussions about Harvey Milk and his advocacy for gay rights in the workplace and the Miami ordinance that Anita Bryant fought against.

The Court has agreed to hear three cases that center on sexual identity, gender, and current workplace anti-discrimination laws.

The cases that will be heard include "Donald Zarda, a skydiving instructor from New York, and Gerald Bostock, a former county child welfare services coordinator from Georgia, both alleged they were fired because of their sexual orientation.

The top court will also examine the Michigan case of funeral home employee Aimee Stephens, who claims she was fired because she is transgender."

In response to the Courts decision to hear the cases Sarah Warbelow, the Human Rights campaign legal director stated, "The Supreme Court has an opportunity to clarify this area of law to ensure protections for LGBTQ people in many important areas of life"

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48017275

Anti-discrimination bills regarding Adoption introduced in Michigan

"Senate Bill 275 would allow same-sex partners to adopt each other's biological or adoptive children. Senate bill 273 would bar church-based child-placement agencies from refusing to adopt to couples of a different religion; and SB 273 and SB 274 would allow governments to hold agencies accountable in cases of proven discrimination."

https://www.metrotimes.com/news-hits/archives/2019/04/18/lgbtq-groups-praise-michigans-new-adoption-anti-discrimination-bills

Why the L comes first

I decided to do some quick research about the order of the letters in LGBTQ+ and why L was eventually placed before G. I struggled to find a definitive answer, but most sources credited the acknowledgement of sexism within the gay community as the primary reason.

I stumbled across this article, which was an interesting read and discusses the role of the AIDS crisis in the swapping of L and G.

Adoption instead of marriage?

Hi all! Today's reading and discussion reminded me of an article I read a while back about gay couples that would have the older individual adopt the younger as a means of securing legal benefits that would otherwise be nearly impossible to obtain. It's interesting to see how this fits into the narrative of marriage equality...let me know what you think!

Here it is!

NYT Op-Ed: Mayor Pete and the Queering of the American Soul

My mom sent me this article, Mayor Pete and the Queering of the American Soul. It's really interesting to watch this coalescence of faith and values and gay identity in political rhetoric. Obviously, we are reminded of The Lord Is My Shephard and He Knows I'm Gay, but I was also thinking of this in the context of the fight for gay marriage. Buttigieg's whole vibe is this fascinating (and in many ways illegible) melange of progressive-small-town-family-values-Christian-gay-veteran-democratic-capitalism. It's a really interesting mix that we haven't really seen before in mainstream politics, I don't think. We saw today how AIDS, the lesbian baby boom, and other factors spurred the push for gay marriage. Now we have a gay candidate who can truly start to appeal to "family values" rhetoric with his legal husband. I think it's something to be both excited and suspicious about.

And then to the religious/faith point, I think this is an interesting place to question some of the assumptions we make about religion and gayness.

"Secular and nominally religious Americans can be forgiven for their surprise at this trend. Underneath the dominant narrative that equates religion with socially conservative causes, religious institutions have quietly been in productive — if contentious and sometimes violent — dialogue with queerness for decades. From pioneering figures like the civil rights leader and openly queer Episcopal priest Pauli Murray to the New York Fire Department chaplain and Sept. 11 hero Mychal Judge to Debbie Friedman’s indelible mark on Jewish sacred music, queerness has hovered around religion since the beginning of the gay liberation movement of the 1960s."

New Netflix Show "Special"

I recently binge-watched this new Netflix show "Special" and LOVED IT. First, it is 8 episodes, 15 minutes each, so you can literally watch it in 2 hours. Second, it is a show starring and created by a gay man with Cerebral Palsy, and so tackles ableism (and lots of other things) in the gay community head-on. It also is very funny and entertaining. Here is an article about it in case you don't want to commit to the full show just yet!

https://www.vulture.com/2019/04/special-netflix-review.html

Denied Disability Insurance Because of PrEP

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/12/health/truvada-hiv-insurance.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article

I found this from the related articles section on the article about an HIV cure that River posted. It sheds light on the intersection of disability and the HIV/AIDS medical world. Even as medical options become more available to treat HIV/AIDS, the way the benefits of these medical advances are distributed always ends up missing many people.

"But insurance brokers, gay-rights advocates and staff at medical clinics said in interviews they had heard of numerous such cases. H.I.V. specialists say the denials endanger men’s lives by encouraging them to drop PrEP if they need life, disability or long-term-care insurance."

Texas Elementary School Teach Put on Leave

Today we briefly mentioned the importance of states enacting laws to protect against workplace discrimination, particularly on the basis of sexuality. This is an article about a story of my really good family friend's neighbor. Stacy was an elementary art school teacher in Texas who was introducing herself on the first day, which included a picture of her and her wife. This got back to a parent who complained of this. The teacher was put on paid leave from her job.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/10/us/gay-teachers-wife-texas.html

Second patient "Cured" of HIV - Long term remissions

Hi! As we move on towards the HIV/AIDS epidemic, I wanted to share this article that was published little more than a month (!!!!) ago about a procedure that let an HIV patient go into long term remission.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/04/health/aids-cure-london-patient.html

The doctors gave the patient a bone marrow transplant, one that wasn't done to treat his HIV but his cancer. The transplant lets him generate immune cells that are resistant to the HIV virus, successfully leading to a "cure" for HIV. I'm still really amazed that this happened and it seems like a reliable method for a cure for HIV is approaching quickly. While we wait for that, there are other medication that, when taken regularly, effectively suppresses both the symptoms and the transmission of HIV. HIV isn't such a scary disease anymore, and we need to break the stigma surrounding it.

Atlantic Article: "Yes, It Matters That Pete Buttigieg Is Gay"

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/04/it-matters-pete-buttigieg-gay/586618/?fbclid=IwAR226hDLbkHl56zABgHyLMQYlnFhF-fCNk0mQXlnMWgp5BXv6lYZ3ZAE25M

This piece was a really powerful analysis of electoral representation. As the title argues, the author describes why it is so important to have political representation for the queer community. One statement stood out to me: 

Sims told me that being gay put Buttigieg in “learning situations” that give the candidate “heightened insight into issues far beyond human sexuality.” Sims believes that a “multidimensional identity can help educate, enlighten, and ultimately solve many of our most pressing cultural problems.”

In a crowded Democratic presidential primary, this article points to representation - and this case gay representation - as a key consideration. I found it to be a really powerful article, and I hope you guys give it a read! 

Podcast that covers Harvey Milk & HIV/AIDs activism

Hi everybody! 

https://www.npr.org/2017/12/01/567723152/lgbtq-activist-cleve-jones-i-m-well-aware-how-fragile-life-is

Above, I found a Fresh Air podcast from 2016 that connects the Harvey Milk documentary to the AIDs epidemic and ACT up movement. In the show, Cleve Jones is interviewed because of the recent publication of his memoir, "When We Rise: My Life in the Movement." Jones is a well-known gay rights activist.

In the podcast, he describes Harvey Milk as one of his early political mentors. After Milk's assassination, Jones joined California's state assembly. Then, the AIDs epidemic began, and he talks about several of the different readings that we are doing for class on Wednesday.

He explains that when he read the 1981 New York Times article, he put the article up on his bulletin board at work. In 1985, he tested HIV positive.  Later that year, at the annual candlelight vigil held for Harvey Milk and George Mascone, he came up with the idea for the AIDs memorial quilt. The quilt was built to recognize the names of the people that had lost their lives to AIDs. By 1987, there were 1,980 panels, and today, there are 48,000 panels representing 92,000 individuals (Myhre & Sifris 2018). More info on the quilt here: https://www.verywellhealth.com/the-history-of-the-names-aids-memorial-quilt-48711





He became seriously ill in 1993, but in 1994, he was able to get started on the drug cocktail treatment that would say his life. He says that the reason that he is alive today is because of "ACT UP and people like Larry Kramer driving people nuts with their anger and rage."

Super interesting stuff! I think that it really ties together the documentary that we watched today and the readings that we're doing for Wednesday.

Photos of Lesbian Lives Meant to Inspire a Movement

Two in one day! I must be on a roll.

I just saw this article on facebook, shared from my old photography teacher at FIT. As a visual/artistic person, I love when we get to use images in class to be transported back in time. Since we are currently in the gay rights movement of the 70s and moving into the 80s, these photographs are perfect. They are so sweet and tender; I hope you enjoy them too.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/08/lens/lesbian-lives-movement-jeb.html

If you like photography such as this, I highly recommend you check out Zanele Muholi and her series "Faces & Phases," which is about black lesbians in South Africa. (She has also been scheduled to visit Pitzer before, and might in the next few years!)

- Danielle K

Milk Documentary & SFO

Hi class,

I mostly wanted to take this time to talk about how deeply today's film affected me. I'm sure many of you were crying with me, or at least had some tightness of the throat. As a documentary filmmaking student through the Media Studies program, there was one scene that I have continued to think about since when we started the film last week. It was repeated again today, as he sat upon the car, wearing a lei, and waving enthusiastically through the parade--which was slowed down. He seemed like a truly genuine person, and that quality was really expressed in this shot. I found his attitude of not being afraid of assassination or attack as sort of astounding... and reflective of how he put the city and movement above his ego (I can't say the same for Dan White...)
I think part of what makes Milk's murder so shocking is that fact that it was perpetrated by another councilman. In some ways, White's light prison sentence seems to reflect that anti-gay backlash that we have exhibited following strides in the gay rights movement.

Also, I found this little news story about how people are trying to incorporate Milk commemorations at the San Francisco airport. I had no idea that it was proposed to be named after him at one time. While Milk's death clearly amplified his accomplishments,  I wonder what else he could have done if still alive today...

https://sf.curbed.com/2019/4/4/18294997/san-francisco-airport-milk-signage-ronen-harvey-sfo

- Danielle K

https://www.npr.org/2018/11/27/670657965/40-years-after-the-assassination-of-harvey-milk-lgbt-candidates-find-success

I was particularly interested by the legacy left by Harvey Milk after our class discussion. This article does a great job of breaking down and well illustrating the influence that Harvey Milk has had on the LGBTQ community, particularly those who hold positions in office. Statements as profound as "it changed the world" are made in this article. It is an extremely heroic outlook on Harvey Milk's actions and activism for the LGBTQ community. I am curious to know if looking at a white gay male and making Milk the spotlight and martyr of gay activism shows the exclusivity of many early, and even contemporary, gay activism organizations?

Mormon Church to allow children of LGBTQ couples to be baptized

Several news outlets blew up my phone this morning announcing that the Mormon Church will allow children of LGBTQ+ couples to be baptized effective immediately. This news is especially relevant to our class given our recent reading focused on the relationship between religion, morality, and homosexuality.

Although this news is a move in the right direction, the statement released by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints says, "While we still consider such a marriage to be a serious transgression, it will not be treated as apostasy for purposes of Church discipline" (NYT). I'm not sure what to make of this. Although the Mormon church has repealed an intolerant policy, it remains generally intolerant of LGBTQ people and their rights. It would be even better if the Mormon church found no issues of morality with LGBTQ people and their sexual/gender identity- perhaps that's another feat for a later point in time.

Satya Rhodes-Conway first openly gay mayor of Madison

Another openly gay mayor was elected yesterday.
Satya Rhodes-Conway quoted Harvey Milk in her speech!

https://madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/satya-rhodes-conway-trounces-paul-soglin-to-become-madison-s/article_8aaafa28-8578-5cff-8503-b5901056c6eb.html 

Lori Lightfoot Is Elected Chicago Mayor- first openly gay, female African-American mayor

Last night, Lori Lightfoot made history as the first female African American and first openly gay person to be elected Chicago mayor. Lightfoot, 56, a former federal prosecutor who'd never been elected to public office, defeated Cook County Board President and longtime City Council member Toni Preckwinkle on Tuesday. Lightfoot won every one of the city's 50 wards.

This represents a historic moment in American representational politics.

For more info:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/02/us/chicago-election-results.html

International Transgender Day of Visibility

On Sunday, March 31, the global community celebrated the International Transgender Day of Visibility. 
As many in the trans community sent out messages of support and strength, a number of celebrities joined in, pushing not only for their transgender fans and friends, but also for transgender rights.
https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/pride/8504943/trans-day-visibility-celebrities-post-social-media

George Clooney's Boycott of Brunei Sultan Owned Hotels

Hi Everyone!

As Brunei moves to legalize a death penalty for homosexuality, George Clooney and other celebrities have voiced their support for a boycott of the Sultan of Brunei's assets, such as hotels in Los Angeles. This is another reminder that there are still many nations in the world that have outlawed or have severe penalties for homosexuality, and it's nice to see straight-ally celebrities using their social capital to publicize and bring attention to these issues that are affecting the global LGBT community.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/elton-john-george-clooney-brunei-hotel-boycott-815733/

The (Almost) Lost Gay History of Brooklyn

Hello All,
So one of my favorite readings this semester was Chauncey's "Gay New York," because of its ability to resurrect the city at that time. As a New Yorker myself, it was really fun to go back in time and imagine what NYC used to be, and how those elements linger today. I came across this article that focused specifically on the queer history of Brooklyn, and there's an interesting little video embedded as well.

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/03/gay-history-brooklyn.html

Enjoy!

- Danielle K

Pete Buttigieg

After today's class I just wanted to make a quick post about Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg (according to the New York Times, pronounced "Boot-edge-edge"). A young Indiana mayor, Buttigieg served in the military, graduated from Harvard, was a Rhodes Scholar, and is also a married gay man. This article from The Hill places his candidacy and gayness in the context of the current political climate and situates Buttigieg as part of a national move towards respecting diversity. I thought it was timely to look at this, particularly after our discussion of Harvey Milk's call for visible gay politicians. I hope it piques your interest!