Pride Month
Hi Friends!
Welcome to Issue 34 of this newsletter! Today we are focusing on LGBTQ+ Pride Month, which is celebrated in June throughout the United States. Black queer and trans* women have always been at the forefront of LGBTQ+ activism, and we remember the large role they played during The Stonewall Riots of 1969, commemorated every Pride. Let’s review some key terminology, check out a brief history of gay rights in America, and then close with some additional resources and activists to continue to learn from. Let’s get into it.
Key Terms
Gender: Gender refers to the socially constructed characteristics of women and men, such as norms, roles, and relationships of and between groups of women and men. It varies from society to society and can be changed.
Sex: “Sex” tends to relate to biological differences. For instance, male and female genitalia, both internal and external and the levels and types of hormones present in male and female bodies.
Sexual Orientation: An inherent or immutable enduring emotional, romantic or sexual attraction to other people.
Gender Identity: One’s innermost concept of self as male, female, a blend of both or neither – how individuals perceive themselves and what they call themselves. One's gender identity can be the same or different from their sex assigned at birth.
Pronouns: Pronouns are words that refer to either the people talking (like you or I) or someone or something that is being talked about (like she, they, and this). Gender pronouns (like he or them) specifically refer to people that you are talking about. Examples: she/her, he/him, they/them, ze/hir.
Queer: An umbrella term to describe individuals who don’t identify as straight and/or cisgender.
Trans*: An umbrella term covering a range of identities that transgress socially-defined gender norms. Trans with an asterisk is often used in written forms (not spoken) to indicate that you are referring to the larger group nature of the term, and specifically including non-binary identities, as well as transgender men (transmen) and transgender women (transwomen).
Gender Non Conforming: A gender descriptor that indicates a non-traditional gender expression or identity. A gender identity label that indicates a person who identifies outside of the gender binary.
Cisgender: A gender description for when someone’s sex assigned at birth and gender identity correspond to their gender identity.
Non Binary: Noting or relating to a person with a gender identity or sexual orientation that does not fit into the male/female or heterosexual/gay divisions.
Let’s Get Into It
A Brief History
In 1779, Thomas Jefferson proposes Virginia law to make sodomy punishable by mutilation rather than death. Bill 64 stated: “if a man, by castration, if a woman, by cutting thro' the cartilage of her nose a hole of one half inch diameter at the least.”
The Harlem Renaissance was from 1917 to 1935. Historians have stated that the renaissance was “as gay as it was black.” Some of the lesbian, gay or bisexual people of this movement included writers and poets such as Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen and Zora Neale Hurston; Professor Alain Locke; music critic and photographer Carl Van Vechten, and entertainers Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters and Gladys Bentley.
In 1924, Henry Gerber, a German immigrant, founded in Chicago the Society for Human Rights, the first documented gay rights organization in the United States. Soon after its founding, the society disbands due to political pressure and frequent police raids.
In 1950, a Senate report titled "Employment of Homosexuals and Other Sex Perverts in Government" is distributed to members of Congress. The report states since “homosexuality is a mental illness, homosexuals constitute security risks" to the nation because "those who engage in overt acts of perversion lack the emotional stability of normal persons." More than 4,380 gay men and women had been discharged from the military and around 500 fired from their jobs with the government.
In April of 1952 the American Psychiatric Association lists “homosexuality” as a sociopathic personality disturbance. That same year Christine Jorgensen became one of the most famous transgender people when she underwent gender affirming surgery and went on to a successful career in show business.
On April 27, 1953 President Dwight Eisenhower signs Executive Order 10450, banning gay people from working for the federal government or any of its private contractors.
On January 1, 1962 Illinois repeals its sodomy laws, becoming the first U.S. state to decriminalize homosexuality.
On April 21, 1966 Members of the Mattachine Society stage a "sip-in" at the Julius Bar in Greenwich Village, where the New York Liquor Authority prohibits serving gay patrons in bars on the basis that homosexuals are "disorderly." The New York City Commission on Human Rights declares that homosexuals have the right to be served.
A few years later, in 1969 were The Stonewall Riots. The Stonewall Inn was a gay bar in Greenwich Village in New York City. In response to an unprovoked police raid on an early Saturday morning, over 400 people, including gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and straight people protested their treatment and pushed the police away from the area. Some level of rioting continued over the next six nights, which closed the Stonewall Inn. The Stonewall Riots became a pivotal, defining moment for gay rights. Key people at the riots who went on to tell their stories were: Sylvia Rivera, Martha P. Johnson, Dick Leitsch, Seymore Pine and Craig Rodwell.
In 1970, at the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, New York City community members marched through local streets in commemoration of the event. Named the Christopher Street Liberation Day, the march is now considered the country’s first gay pride parade.
In 1977, the New York Supreme Court ruled that transgender woman Renée Richards could play at the United States Open tennis tournament as a woman.
On November 8, 1977 Harvey Milk wins a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and is responsible for introducing a gay rights ordinance protecting gays and lesbians from being fired from their jobs. Milk asked Gilbert Baker, an artist and gay rights activist, to create an emblem that represents the movement and would be seen as a symbol of pride. Baker designed and stitched together the first rainbow flag, which he unveiled at a pride parade in 1978.
In 1981, The New York Times prints the first story of a rare pneumonia and skin cancer found in 41 gay men in New York and California. The CDC initially refers to the disease as GRID, Gay Related Immune Deficiency Disorder. When the symptoms are found outside the gay community, Bruce Voeller, biologist and founder of the National Gay Task Force, successfully lobbies to change the name of the disease to AIDS.
In 1992, Bill Clinton, during his campaign to become president, promised he would lift the ban against gays in the military. But after failing to garner enough support for such an open policy, President Clinton in 1993 passed the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy, which allowed gay men and women to serve in the military as long as they kept their sexuality a secret. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was officially repealed on September 20, 2011.
September 21, 1996, President Clinton signs the Defense of Marriage Act into law. The law defines marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman and that no state is required to recognize a same-sex marriage from out of state.
In 2004, Massachusetts becomes the first state to legalize gay marriage. The court finds the prohibition of gay marriage unconstitutional because it denies dignity and equality of all individuals.
On November 4, 2008, California voters approved Proposition 8, making same-sex marriage in California illegal.
In 2009, The Matthew Shepard Act is passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama on October 28th. The measure expands the 1969 U.S. Federal Hate Crime Law to include crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.
On June 26, 2015, with a 5-4 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, the U.S. Supreme Court declares same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states.
In 2016, the U.S. military lifted its ban on transgender people serving openly, a month after Eric Fanning became secretary of the Army and the first openly gay secretary of a U.S. military branch. In March 2018, Donald Trump announced a new transgender policy for the military that again banned most transgender people from military service. On January 25, 2021—his sixth day in office—President Biden signed an executive order overturning this ban.
In 2021, Florida, South Dakota, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, West Virginia, Montana and Alabama have enacted anti-trans sports bans. Under the law, public secondary school and college sports teams are required to be designated based on "biological sex," thus prohibiting trans women and girls from participating on women's athletic teams.
Today, universal workplace anti-discrimination laws for LGBTQ+ Americans is still lacking. Gay rights proponents must also content with an increasing number of “religious liberty” state laws, which allow business to deny service to LGBTQ+ individuals due to religious beliefs, as well as “bathroom laws” that prevent trans* individuals from using public bathrooms that don’t correspond to their assigned sex at birth.
Pride Month
Pride month commemorates The Stonewall Riots in June of 1969. It is an entire month dedicated to the uplifting of LGBTQ+ voices, celebration of LGBTQ+ culture and the support of LGBTQ+ rights.
In the rainbow pride flag, each color has a meaning. Red is symbolic of life, orange is symbolic of spirit, yellow is sunshine, green is nature, blue represents harmony and purple is spirit. In 2021, the flag has was altered in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter protests, including black to represent diversity, brown to represent inclusivity and light blue and pink, the colors of the trans pride flag, along with t purple circle to represent the intersex community.
Pride was made possible through the sacrifices of Black queer and trans women like Marsha P. Johnson who paved the way and continue to be the most vulnerable, most targeted, and most at risk in the community.
Resources
The best Pride Month is an intersectional Pride Month. That means whether someone is “out” or not, queer, gay, non-binary, intersex, gender non-conforming, or any other identity, Pride is still for them. Happy Pride to all of my queer siblings, see ya next time!
