Pinniped Utopiae

Happy pride month, everyone! Pride is a beautiful time to celebrate our successes as a community, queer love, and the joy of being able to be yourself. It's also a time of protest and remembrance for the people we have lost, the decades of activism it took to get us here, and the brave queer thinkers, advocates, and activists that brought us forward. Here I'd like to share photos from protests throughout history from around the world. We have made so many great strides forward, we must continue to advocate for change and acceptance, not just for ourselves but for our queer neighbors around the world. To my LGBTQIA friends in less accepting places, families, and communities: you are not forgotten. You are part of the global queer community, and as we remember our past victories, we also keep in mind our current battles. Queer liberation is ongoing!

Protests outside the Black Cat bar, Feb. 11, 1967. The Black Cat was a gay bar that was raided by undercover LAPD officers during a New Years celebration on January 1, 1967. Patrons were dragged into the street, beaten, and arrested. Six men were convicted of lewd conduct for the act of kissing during the celebration. Some were forced to register as sex offenders for the rest of their lives. The community held protests on the patrons behalf.

Gay Liberation Front marching on Times Square, New York, 1969. This photo was likely taken during the Stonewall Riots: a series of protests and demonstrations that took place in New York City after police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar on Christopher Street. These protests are often considered the beginning of the public fight for LGBT rights in the U.S.

Double exposed photo of Charles Hill and George Hislop, and a spokesperson from Quebec gay liberation at an Ottawa demonstration for gay rights in 1971. Photographed by Jearld Moldenhauer.

Speeches underneath Nelson's column after a Gay Pride Rally in Trafalgar Square in London (1972)

First demonstration of homosexual emancipation groups in the Federal Republic, Münster [Germany], 1972. "The banner “Lieber ein warmer Bruder als ein kalter Krieger” (“Rather a warm brother than a cold warrior”) cheekily turned a line with which the conservative politician Franz-Joseph Strauß (1915-1988) had captured the opinion of his beer hall voters on its head." (quote from source linked)

A demonstration in support of gay rights bill Intro 475 at City Hall, NYC (Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, Jane Vercaine, Barbara Deming, Kady Vandeurs, Carol Grosberg (1973). The bill would have extended NYC's fair employment laws to prohibit discrimination (in employment) against individuals based on sexual orientation. It was eventually based under a different name in 1986.

Three gay men of the group "¡Zas, pirulín, chin chin!"* pose "coquettishly" for reporters after a gay rights protest in the Plaza de Armas in Santiago, Chilé. The 1973 protest was the first of its kind in Chilé, and one of the first gay rights demonstrations in all of Latin America.

"No somos enfermos, ni criminales." (1980). This sign is held up by a member of the Frente Homosexual de Acción Revolucionaria (FHAR) during a march commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Tlatelolco massacre.

Post-Mardi Gras protests in Sydney, Australia (1978). 1978 saw Sydney's first Mardi Gras celebration- a big parade through city streets that featured several gay and lesbian floats. The celebrants were confronted by police, who arrested 53 gays and lesbians, many of whom were beaten in jail. The next morning, the Sydney Morning Herald published their names and addresses, effectively outing them. Protest were held in defense of the community and the day became a defining moment for Australian LGBT history.

The first Marche National Pour Les Droits et Libertés des Homosexuels et Lesbiennes (National March for the Rights and Freedom of Gays and Lesbians) on April 4, 1981 in Paris. The March was organized by the Emergency Committee Against the Oppression of Homosexuals (CUARH).

Lesbianas de Latino America at the Los Angeles Christopher Street West pride parade, 1981. Queer Latina activists in the US began organizing and demonstrating in the 1970s following (and in conjunction with) the Chicano movement (El Movimiento).

People protesting for gay rights on what became known as "Pink Saturday" in Amersfoort, Utrecht, Netherlands (1982). Thousands of lesbian and gay people came from all over the Netherlands to protest together. 350 counter-protesters gathered and harassed the LGBT demonstrators, shouting and throwing stones and eggs. Two gay demonstrators had to be taken to the hospital. In the aftermath of the riots, a new dutch gay rights group formed and created a policy to include gay individuals in government that went into effect in 1984. The sign on the right translates to "love is... doing what you have never done before". Photo: Bernard de Wolff

Photo from Oct 13, 1990 at South Africa's first Gay Pride parade. The parade was organized by GLOW (the Gay and Lesbian Organization of Witwatersrand) and had over 1,000 marchers. Photo: IDAF

HAPPY PRIDE! 🌈

The ‘i'iwi’s bill is specialy suited for sipping nectar from long throated lobelias, Hawaii. Photo by Chris Johns. National Geographic, June 1995

via @geoarchive_

gerald of wales: The weasel also, when its young are dying from any hurt, recovers and restores them to life by the use of a yellow flower. We are told by persons who have witnessed the fact, having put the whelp to death to make the experiment, that the weasel brought the flower in its mouth, and first applied it to the wound, and then to the mouth, nostrils, and other orifices of the little animal, that it might inhale the odor, by which, through the efficacious touch of the plant, breath was restored, though life seemed extinct, some slight and imperceptible vestiges of it only having remained.

aberdeen bestiary: it is said, also, that they are skilled in healing, so that if by chance their young are killed, and their parents succeed in finding them, they can bring their offspring back to life.

thomas of cantimpré: Accordingly they are said to be expert in all the arts of medicine, so that, if they find their offspring dead, they make them naturally recuperate by means of a herb

also in marie de france's lai eliduc, guildeluec uses a flower she got from a weasel that was resurrecting its weasel friend to resurrect guilliadon

conclusion:

behold, a necromancer