What I Do

with your car, inflicting the

Disabled effect.

With the convergence of the great migration and the jazz age, Harlem became a new center of cultural life for African-Americans. It brought together Black artists in a way that had never been seen before and saw an abundance of new music, theater literature, and art.

Chief among the new art being created there, of course, was drag.

While drag houses and drag balls had previously been put together by the likes of William Dorsey Swann, they reached a level of unprecedented vibrancy and popularity in Harlem in the 1920s. Famed poet Langston Hughes called them "The strangest and gaudiest of all of Harlem's spectacles."

The most celebrated of these balls was the one organized by the fraternal organization The Society of Odd Fellows at the Hamilton Lodge.

Alas, it no longer exists, but for many many years the OKC AIDS foundation held a Halloween fundraiser that was truly the event of the year. Food, drinks, decor, and the Ls Gs Bs and Ts in their very very finest costumes. I saw some truly great works over the years: a drag queen dressed as the entire film of The Wizard of Oz, in a half black and white/half color ensemble complete with a top hat that was Emerald City with the witch on her broomstick actually flying in a circle above it. Every time I passed her in the crowd I said “You’re going to win the big prize” and when she did, she came and found me and hugged me and said “You believed in me!!” I saw a bunch of lesbians dressed as the Partridge Family, and when they’d walk around the room they all held cardboard panels that came together to form the bus, and they’d wave out the windows at us. A woman with dwarfism dressed as JonBenet Ramsey in her cowgirl pageant gear. My best year, I found a set of pink silk slippers and built a 30s movie star peignoir around it— I got so many compliments from the drag gals!

When I was in high school I was known for having a girlfriend and got some shit about it sometimes. One guy used to hassle me a lot, telling me being gay was a sin and I was gross and going to hell. Like a lot of outspoken homophobes, he set off my gaydar and one day when he wouldn’t lay off I told him so. “The only people obsessed with gay people are other gay people.” He was big mad, no surprise. Then one year at the Halloween ball, I was checking my makeup in the bathroom next to this gorgeous drag queen when she suddenly stopped and turned to me. “Mandy!?! Oh god honey, you were so right!”

Performers taking a break during the filming of "What Sex am I?" by Lee Grant, 1984.

Felix Gonzales-Torres, “Untitled (Portrait of Ross in LA)” 1991

Calling trans men in their 50s “boys” is highly infantilizing wtf. Trans men are an important part of this community and we always have been. You are transphobic, seek help.

For anyone who believes the viewpoint of the screenshot please do research. Here are some names of transmen from the past and present to get you started:

Reed Erickson

Lou Sullivan

Michael Dillon

Kye Allums

Kai M. Green

Victor Mukasa

Chase Strangio

Chris Mosier

Kylar Broadus

at around 4:40, Devon mentions a type of queer protest I've *never* heard of until now. It was called "The Annual Reminder", and it was run by cis white gay men. Essentially it was a reminder to non-queers that gay (gay not queer) men looked like everyone else. they would dress in formal suits and hold signs that reminded the non-queers that they look just like everyone else. and the outcome of these protests? nothing. these protests did NOTHING to help queer rights. It wasn't until stonewall and pride that people started waking up, and I am in shock. Literally how have I never heard about this until now. I feel like it's such an important part of queer history that just gets swept under the rug, and I have a feeling I know why.