Queer History

all 22 countries where nationwide same-sex marriage is legalised. #LoveWins

LGBTQ+ people have always been a part of history. All over the world, LGBTQ+ individuals have led communities small and large, from cities to entire empires. We’ve existed since the beginning of human history and will continue to exist far into the future. #PrideMonth

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Our intern Kevin loved this new book from Sarah Prager, Queer, There, and Everywhere: 22 People Who Changed the World, and felt compelled to say thank you for all they did. In the book, Prager outlines the extraordinary lives of LGBTQ figures throughout history – a project of painstaking research and devotion, and a task not made easy by the many who have erased and revised the rainbow’s visibility within some of our world’s greatest contributors.

This is a series of Thank You notes to those figures featured in Prager’s book who have paved the way toward today, where Pride parades (or marches) may dance down city roads, streets clogged by the sheer multitude clamoring to participate in festivity; where marriage equality drapes its long laced veil across a vastly more accepting world, nation by nation; where LGBTQ stories win the highest cinematic awards; where LGBTQ athletes can proudly reveal their truths; where LGBTQ world leaders stand tall amongst their peers; and where there’s still terrible things we need to fix, but we know it gets better when we look behind us and see all that has hitherto been accomplished.

Dear Lili Elbe,

Thank you for your bravery! Not only did you transition in a time when such a thing was unheard of, but after the fact, you told the world. Your example gives us hope, and teaches us that transparency is not invisibility.  When you were Einar, you were a painter. But as Lili, your brushstrokes were most purposeful, your colors most beautifully vivid.

Dear José Sarria,

Thank you for utilizing your creative, curious mind to defend the queer community throughout your lifetime. When laws were written against us, you found the loopholes that would uphold our dignity. And as a renowned performer, you made sure we knew we were correct, and valuable. We are so grateful for you, an empress whose conquest was unforgiving stigma, and who crushed it beneath his red stilettos.

photo: Nate Gowdy Photography

Dear George Takei,

Thank you for acting as such a figurehead, piloting us into a more visible world. Despite the injustice done to you and your family during the period of Japanese internment in the 1940s, you have dedicated so much time and energy as an activist fighting for LGBTQ rights in a country that had once turned its back on you. Your voice, amplified so loudly despite its deep register, has given so many people hope. Thank you for widening your spotlight to land on our whole community.

More thank you notes throughout this week.

Our intern Kevin loved this new book from Sarah Prager, Queer, There, and Everywhere: 22 People Who Changed the World, and felt compelled to say thank you for all they did. In the book, Prager outlines the extraordinary lives of LGBTQ figures throughout history – a project of painstaking research and devotion, and a task not made easy by the many who have erased and revised the rainbow’s visibility within some of our world’s greatest contributors.

This is a series of Thank You notes to those figures featured in Prager’s book who have paved the way toward today, where Pride parades (or marches) may dance down city roads, streets clogged by the sheer multitude clamoring to participate in festivity; where marriage equality drapes its long laced veil across a vastly more accepting world, nation by nation; where LGBTQ stories win the highest cinematic awards; where LGBTQ athletes can proudly reveal their truths; where LGBTQ world leaders stand tall amongst their peers; and where there’s still terrible things we need to fix, but we know it gets better when we look behind us and see all that has hitherto been accomplished.

Dear Eleanor Roosevelt,

Thank you for the strides you made for women and human beings around the world. Where you saw progress could be made, you struck. Though you were not able to live alongside a woman whom you loved, openly, you nevertheless grasped at any human rights within reach, whether for professional women in the White House or on a global scale. Thank you for your diplomacy that was felt throughout the world at the time, and now, many decades later.

Dear Abraham Lincoln,

Essentially, you lived a life we dread for ourselves, one of secrecy and uncertainty. Who was Joshua Fry Speed to you? Time may have eroded this relationship, polishing its grooves into the smoothest stone, but we who look at history can see what may have been there. Your most famous act was freeing the enslaved people. Now, we can wave our nation’s flag with pride, while in the other hand, we wave one of rainbows. Thank you.

Dear Albert Cashier,

Thank you for literally running across open fire to pick up a fallen Union flag and climb a tree, waving it high, proudly. Today, we can’t take for granted our ability to wave our flags.

More thank you notes throughout this week.

Our intern Kevin loved this new book from Sarah Prager, Queer, There, and Everywhere: 22 People Who Changed the World, and felt compelled to say thank you for all they did. In the book, Prager outlines the extraordinary lives of LGBTQ figures throughout history – a project of painstaking research and devotion, and a task not made easy by the many who have erased and revised the rainbow’s visibility within some of our world’s greatest contributors.

This is a series of Thank You notes to those figures featured in Prager’s book who have paved the way toward today, where Pride parades (or marches) may dance down city roads, streets clogged by the sheer multitude clamoring to participate in festivity; where marriage equality drapes its long laced veil across a vastly more accepting world, nation by nation; where LGBTQ stories win the highest cinematic awards; where LGBTQ athletes can proudly reveal their truths; where LGBTQ world leaders stand tall amongst their peers; and where there’s still terrible things we need to fix, but we know it gets better when we look behind us and see all that has hitherto been accomplished.

Dear Frida Kahlo,

Thank you for painting through the pain, for turning to art in the wake of your horrific bus accident. Decades later, we still cherish your body of work risen from the wreckage of a shattered physical body. You lived with so much passion, so much zeal, and we in the 2017 LGBTQ community draw inspiration from someone so unapologetically proud. We can only hope that your famous self portrait may double as a reflective surface in which we glimpse the fearless potential within ourselves.

Dear Juana Inés de la Cruz,

Thank you for the gifts of your mind, for the beauty of your Spanish poetry, for your assertion that the female mind is just as capable as men’s to be filled with prose, intellect, and knowledge, and for your words of languished love to the woman of your affections, Maria Luisa, who would go on to publish your works. From behind your tall cloister walls you helped break down barriers young people today see before themselves, seemingly impenetrable but, with pens and determination, they can easily surpass, entering a great, open world.

Dear Elagabalus,

Thank you for living your truth, no matter how outrageous. As Empress of the Nile, you refused to exist alongside denial, an important distinction for us today who might find it too difficult to resist hiding.

Dear Mychal Judge,

You were a first responder. Whether that be during 9/11 where tragically you lost your life in a manner similar to how you lived it — selflessly helping others, ministering to others, anyway you could. And you were a first responder for a community who needed you: the LGBTQ community of which you were a part and which you would not let be abandoned during the AIDS crisis. Thank you for all you did for the queer community, and for being the first of the many who would follow your example.

More thank you notes throughout this week.

Our intern Kevin loved this new book from Sarah Prager, Queer, There, and Everywhere: 22 People Who Changed the World, and felt compelled to say thank you for all they did. In the book, Prager outlines the extraordinary lives of LGBTQ figures throughout history – a project of painstaking research and devotion, and a task not made easy by the many who have erased and revised the rainbow’s visibility within some of our world’s greatest contributors.

This is a series of Thank You notes to those figures featured in Prager’s book who have paved the way toward today, where Pride parades (or marches) may dance down city roads, streets clogged by the sheer multitude clamoring to participate in festivity; where marriage equality drapes its long laced veil across a vastly more accepting world, nation by nation; where LGBTQ stories win the highest cinematic awards; where LGBTQ athletes can proudly reveal their truths; where LGBTQ world leaders stand tall amongst their peers; and where there’s still terrible things we need to fix, but we know it gets better when we look behind us and see all that has hitherto been accomplished.

Dear Bayard Rustin,

You endured so much violence: brutal beatings from police, hateful slanders about you said by a mother to her child, walking through a society of injustice that you dedicated every fiber of yourself toward fighting – without violence. Through your efforts, the March on Washington was one of the most successful protests in history, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law less than a year later. You fought for the rights of millions of people even knowing that, as a gay man, there were rights you were owed that these same people would not grant you. Thank you for all you did, for starting that march that we’re still marching but, because of your efforts, we’re so much farther along.

Dear Jeanne D'arc

Thank you for donning your armor against those who would strip it all away. Your sword may have been raised to crown a king, but it also slashed a clear pathway for non conformers to clothe themselves in the armor of a free queer expression.

Dear Kristina Vasa,

A former queen/king of Sweden, thank you for giving up the power of your throne in exchange for the freedom of sexual/gender/romantic identity. Though your society pressured you to marry a man — both for political power and convention, you remained steadfast in your insistence on living your own life according to your own choices and truths. So much appreciation for the example you give us today who, though we may not have the choice of a crown, may be brave enough to traverse our destinies

Our intern Kevin loved this new book from Sarah Prager, Queer, There, and Everywhere: 22 People Who Changed the World, and felt compelled to say thank you for all they did. In the book, Prager outlines the extraordinary lives of LGBTQ figures throughout history – a project of painstaking research and devotion, and a task not made easy by the many who have erased and revised the rainbow’s visibility within some of our world’s greatest contributors.

This is a series of Thank You notes to those figures featured in Prager’s book who have paved the way toward today, where Pride parades (or marches) may dance down city roads, streets clogged by the sheer multitude clamoring to participate in festivity; where marriage equality drapes its long laced veil across a vastly more accepting world, nation by nation; where LGBTQ stories win the highest cinematic awards; where LGBTQ athletes can proudly reveal their truths; where LGBTQ world leaders stand tall amongst their peers; and where there’s still terrible things we need to fix, but we know it gets better when we look behind us and see all that has hitherto been accomplished.

Dear Gertrude “Ma” Rainey,

Thank you for your performances based – not in acting – but in revealing truth. Your sexually-empowered Blues music (even with explicit reference to lesbian love) has allowed so many to follow your example throughout the decades. For pretty much all of the modern sexually charged popular music that we love (begrudgingly or otherwise) today, thank you!

Dear Del Martin & Phyllis Lyon,

Thank you for providing a visible (though invisible) space for lesbians in a dangerous time when governments sought them for prosecution, when gay rights groups ignored women, and when women’s rights groups ignored gay women. Through your newsletters, you provided a chance for lesbians to recognize themselves as valid with the ability to pursue their happiness. Add this to the countless Thank You letters you’ve received from scared gay women you talked out of the darkness.

Dear Sylvia Rivera,

Thank you for your ferocity in fighting for your rights even when the community you called your own abandoned you. Through your tireless selflessness, homeless trans youth had a place to call (STAR), and a place to stay. Your refusal to remain silent even as you were beaten by your own peers has inspired so many fighters in our journey for acceptance both for ourselves and our brothers and sisters.

Our intern Kevin loved this new book from Sarah Prager, Queer, There, and Everywhere: 22 People Who Changed the World, and felt compelled to say thank you for all they did. In the book, Prager outlines the extraordinary lives of LGBTQ figures throughout history – a project of painstaking research and devotion, and a task not made easy by the many who have erased and revised the rainbow’s visibility within some of our world’s greatest contributors.

This is a series of Thank You notes to those figures featured in Prager’s book who have paved the way toward today, where Pride parades (or marches) may dance down city roads, streets clogged by the sheer multitude clamoring to participate in festivity; where marriage equality drapes its long laced veil across a vastly more accepting world, nation by nation; where LGBTQ stories win the highest cinematic awards; where LGBTQ athletes can proudly reveal their truths; where LGBTQ world leaders stand tall amongst their peers; and where there’s still terrible things we need to fix, but we know it gets better when we look behind us and see all that has hitherto been accomplished.

Dear Alan Turing,

Thank you for your gift: your mind, capable of envisioning the inconceivable, and the unimaginable. Your theories on the possibilities of a computational machine laid the groundwork for the computers we have today. Essentially, you have brought the world together, where communication across the farthest reaches can take place in the span of infinitesimally small nanoseconds.

It’s through scientific breakthroughs like this that we come to understand just how much we can change the world. In exchange for your genius, you were treated with unspeakable cruelty, sentenced as a criminal for homosexual acts and forced to take inhumane treatments that had no effect on what they hoped to “remedy.” These events led to your suicide.

In large part thanks to your theoretical inventions, most of us don’t live in that world anymore. And we’re fighting to make it better for everyone. Thanks so much.

Dear Josef Kohout,

Simply, thank you for your endurance and ingenuity. When sent to a concentration camp during one of the most horrifying periods of modern history, not only did you survive, but you saved lives. We owe so much to you. Now we can put on our own LGBTQ badges, and we’ll never take them off – but that’s our choice, thanks to you and the other heroes of our community.

Dear Renée Richards,

photo: Manny Milan

Thank you for establishing precedent, for forcing the law to recognize you as a woman, regardless of chromosomes. It’s another point for trans rights, and that much closer to game set match.

Our intern Kevin loved this new book from Sarah Prager, Queer, There, and Everywhere: 22 People Who Changed the World, and felt compelled to say thank you for all they did. In the book, Prager outlines the extraordinary lives of LGBTQ figures throughout history – a project of painstaking research and devotion, and a task not made easy by the many who have erased and revised the rainbow’s visibility within some of our world’s greatest contributors.

This is a series of Thank You notes to those figures featured in Prager’s book who have paved the way toward today, where Pride parades (or marches) may dance down city roads, streets clogged by the sheer multitude clamoring to participate in festivity; where marriage equality drapes its long laced veil across a vastly more accepting world, nation by nation; where LGBTQ stories win the highest cinematic awards; where LGBTQ athletes can proudly reveal their truths; where LGBTQ world leaders stand tall amongst their peers; and where there’s still terrible things we need to fix, but we know it gets better when we look behind us and see all that has hitherto been accomplished.

Dear Glenn Burke,

You invented high fives. That alone deserves a high five.

You may not have been outted on your own terms, but even as a major league baseball player in the 80s, you didn’t necessarily live in hiding. Your friendship with your homophobic team manager’s son demonstrates something so vital to LGBTQ folks: community. It must have been difficult to be such a public figure in a subset of the world even less inclined to accept you than the world at large already struggling to. But at least within our community, it’s a little easier to slide into home.

How ‘bout one more high five.

Dear Harvey Milk,

As one of the first openly gay public officials in the country, we have so much to thank you for. Your persistence on continuing campaign after campaign, loss after loss until finally you were elected represents so much of the LGBTQ experience, historically. Like you, we won’t give up the fight until our world is better.

Dear Mercedes De Acosta,

Your life’s work was in writing, yet your greatest skill seemed to be seducing women through a powerful, magnetic charm. You had and have so much influence through your words.

Thank you for these words: “I do not understand the difference between a man and a woman, and believing only in the eternal value of love, I cannot understand these so-called ‘normal’ people who believe that a man should love only a woman , and a woman love only a man. If this were so, then it disregards completely the spirit, the personality, and the mind, and stresses the important of the physical body.”

Dear Sarah Prager,

Thank you for this book.

Our intern Kevin loved this new book from Sarah Prager, Queer, There, and Everywhere: 22 People Who Changed the World, and felt compelled to say thank you for all they did. In the book, Prager outlines the extraordinary lives of LGBTQ figures throughout history – a project of painstaking research and devotion, and a task not made easy by the many who have erased and revised the rainbow’s visibility within some of our world’s greatest contributors.

This is a series of Thank You notes to those figures featured in Prager’s book who have paved the way toward today, where Pride parades (or marches) may dance down city roads, streets clogged by the sheer multitude clamoring to participate in festivity; where marriage equality drapes its long laced veil across a vastly more accepting world, nation by nation; where LGBTQ stories win the highest cinematic awards; where LGBTQ athletes can proudly reveal their truths; where LGBTQ world leaders stand tall amongst their peers; and where there’s still terrible things we need to fix, but we know it gets better when we look behind us and see all that has hitherto been accomplished.

Dear Eleanor Roosevelt,

Thank you for the strides you made for women and human beings around the world. Where you saw progress could be made, you struck. Though you were not able to live alongside a woman whom you loved, openly, you nevertheless grasped at any human rights within reach, whether for professional women in the White House or on a global scale. Thank you for your diplomacy that was felt throughout the world at the time, and now, many decades later.

Dear Abraham Lincoln,

Essentially, you lived a life we dread for ourselves, one of secrecy and uncertainty. Who was Joshua Fry Speed to you? Time may have eroded this relationship, polishing its grooves into the smoothest stone, but we who look at history can see what may have been there. Your most famous act was freeing the enslaved people. Now, we can wave our nation’s flag with pride, while in the other hand, we wave one of rainbows. Thank you.

Dear Albert Cashier,

Thank you for literally running across open fire to pick up a fallen Union flag and climb a tree, waving it high, proudly. Today, we can’t take for granted our ability to wave our flags.

More thank you notes throughout this week.

Our intern Kevin loved this new book from Sarah Prager, Queer, There, and Everywhere: 22 People Who Changed the World, and felt compelled to say thank you for all they did. In the book, Prager outlines the extraordinary lives of LGBTQ figures throughout history – a project of painstaking research and devotion, and a task not made easy by the many who have erased and revised the rainbow’s visibility within some of our world’s greatest contributors.

This is a series of Thank You notes to those figures featured in Prager’s book who have paved the way toward today, where Pride parades (or marches) may dance down city roads, streets clogged by the sheer multitude clamoring to participate in festivity; where marriage equality drapes its long laced veil across a vastly more accepting world, nation by nation; where LGBTQ stories win the highest cinematic awards; where LGBTQ athletes can proudly reveal their truths; where LGBTQ world leaders stand tall amongst their peers; and where there’s still terrible things we need to fix, but we know it gets better when we look behind us and see all that has hitherto been accomplished.

Dear Lili Elbe,

Thank you for your bravery! Not only did you transition in a time when such a thing was unheard of, but after the fact, you told the world. Your example gives us hope, and teaches us that transparency is not invisibility.  When you were Einar, you were a painter. But as Lili, your brushstrokes were most purposeful, your colors most beautifully vivid.

Dear José Sarria,

Thank you for utilizing your creative, curious mind to defend the queer community throughout your lifetime. When laws were written against us, you found the loopholes that would uphold our dignity. And as a renowned performer, you made sure we knew we were correct, and valuable. We are so grateful for you, an empress whose conquest was unforgiving stigma, and who crushed it beneath his red stilettos.

photo: Nate Gowdy Photography

Dear George Takei,

Thank you for acting as such a figurehead, piloting us into a more visible world. Despite the injustice done to you and your family during the period of Japanese internment in the 1940s, you have dedicated so much time and energy as an activist fighting for LGBTQ rights in a country that had once turned its back on you. Your voice, amplified so loudly despite its deep register, has given so many people hope. Thank you for widening your spotlight to land on our whole community.

More thank you notes throughout this week.

Queer There and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed The World by Sarah Prager

Highlighting the fashion and style of LGBTQ African immigrants, Limit(less), according to the project’s website, explores how African immigrants “navigate their identities and find ways to overcome the supposed ‘tension’ between their LGBTQ and African individualities.”

Here are some ways be more body positive towards your children, especially when it comes to gender nonconforming or trans kids.

1. Don’t Enforce The Gender Binary

2. Let Them Wear What They Want

3. Respect Their Pronouns And Chosen Name

4. Make Body Positive Compliments As You Would With Your Cis Child

5. Support Their Decisions To Bind Or Alter Their Bodies

6. Don’t Ask Them To Dress Differently Around Certain People

7. Ask Questions

Having more open communication with your child about these subjects should allow you to develop a greater understanding for your child, as well as give them the feeling of being heard by you.

It might feel scary sometimes, but visibility is arguably the most empowering and body positive thing out there.

By choosing to see your children and everything about them, you can help them love themselves at least a little bit more.

A wave of Republican-backed ‘bathroom bills’ have spread across the US aimed at rolling back LGBT rights protections – ostensibly to stop transgender people from using their preferred bathroom. The laws, many of which expand well beyond simply the bathroom issue and directly attack anti-discrimination protections, have been backed by a string of senior Republicans including Ted Cruz.

Speaking to Buzzfeed, Loretta Lynch – who was appointed as Obama’s Attorney General last year – explained why the Justice Department affirmed that existing sex discrimination laws also cover gender identity.