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In 1742, Pamela became the first book published in America. Benjamin Franklin published it and thankfully it did not sell well despite being popular in England. Why am I happy this book wasn’t well loved in America?

Cause reading this book made me genuinely upset. I don’t even know if the dark romance fans would like this book since the female lead is 15 years old and her romantic male lead is her older boss. Though while I hate the age gap, the uneven power dynamic and constant sexual assault in the book was horrifying. Pamela gets kidnapped for a portion of this book and her genuinely begging to see her parents broke my heart. She is such a sweet girl who only wants to not be raped or sexually harassed and her boss is hiding in her closet trying to catch her alone in her bedroom. Though it ends up with Pamela and her Boss falling in love and getting married, which was jarring and sad reading. Especially since this novel was allegedly based on a true story. 0/100, plus I am a little bit disappointed in Ben Franklin for loving this book.

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Hatshepsut was the second confirmed Egyptian Pharaoh to rule in her own right. She depicted herself masculinity in her statue and portraits. Years after her death, it was attempted to wipe her from history by destroying statues, monuments, and contributing her accomplishments to others.

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The Great Raft was a naturally occurring log pile up that spanned 160+ miles in the Red and Atchafalaya River (Louisiana). It changed the waterways in the area for an estimated 2000 years and created many lakes and bayous. It was also incorporated into the Caddo tribe’s mythology.

The US army corps worked on removing the great raft from 1829 to 1838 in order to make the rivers more navigable. This greatly affected the waterways in the area and years later the Old River Control Structure was built to regulate water flow.

While this might not sound that amazing, until we reread the magnitude of this log pile. 160+ miles of a log pile up that was constantly decaying, breaking, and rebuilding for 2000 years. I wonder what the ecosystem of such a large and unique environment would have looked like.

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In 2003, 13 US states had sodomy laws criminalizing certain same sex sexual acts. Lawrence vs. Texas was the court case to challenge the law as unconstitutional and win at the US Supreme Court. This led to the elimination of these sodomy laws in the US, paving the way for more equal rights. Massachusetts legalized gay marriage a few months later.

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The first pride parade took place on June 27th 1970. While pride parades started in the US, countries all around the world now have pride parades.

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Dicks: the Musical is the most unhinged, funniest, creative, and elaborate musical I have ever seen. I have watched it over ten times and it still makes me laugh. Filled with LGBTQ actors and characters this is the perfect movie to watch for pride month. Cardi B is also in this movie and sings a song about making Alpha males her bitches.

It is a raunchy parody of The Parent Trap starring two of the dumbest successful alpha male salesmen , the quirkiest Mom, a newly out of the closet gay Dad and two sewer boys. The movie does cross some taboos but it’s so funny.

The song Gay Old Life is one of my favorite since it introduces the sewer boys to us and gives us more information. Nathan Lane’s was just perfect in this movie.

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The GLBT is one of the three established museums in the world dedicated to LGBTQ history, which is also referred to as the San Francisco's "queer Smithsonian. It is also one of thirty LGBT archives in the United States. The museum mostly focuses on LGBTQ history in the United States, with a deeper focus on San Francisco and Southern California area.

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Joseph and His Friend: A story of Pennsylvania by Bayard Taylor, published 1870 is considered America’s first gay novel. It was inspired by read life people but had a negative reception from the public. Reading the plot synopsis, I can see why since it has a plot twist that robs the story of some drama and excitement plus it doesn’t commit to the romance between the male leads.

So while not a highly recommended book it is a first, and that by itself makes this book interesting. If you want to read it, it’s free on google books, internet archives, and project Gutenberg.

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Journalist, activist, poet, and author, Elsa Gidlow was a busy woman. In 1923 she wrote the first volume of openly lesbian love poetry written in North America. This was followed by 12 more books. Elsa also helped found a bohemian community called Druid Heights for roughly 20 years until the national park system using eminent domain to shut it down.

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Despite being dead longer than he was alive, street artist, Keith Haring is still influential. A year before his death, he founded the Keith Haring Foundation, that focuses on HIV / AIDS education. After his death, Keith’s family and friends continued to honor his life and work. His aunt and mother both embroidered one of his signature icons on the aid memorial quilt in 1991. He was memorialized in the rainbow honor walk, the national LGBTQ wall of honor, and even a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade ballon. Brands and companies continue to use his art and motifs.

One of his most famous pieces of art is the Unfinished Painting. While many people believe the painting is unfinished due to Keith’s untimely death, it was purposefully left undone. The painting was left unfinished to symbolize Keith’s shortened life due to his aids diagnosis.

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The first mention of lesbians in literature was in 1672. The book was The Life and Struggles of Our Mother Wälättä P̣eṭros. Though many LGBTQ firsts happened from 1890s to current day. For example the first gay periodical was published in 1896 and the first LGBT rights organization was created. Last year there were many firsts of different people in the LGBTQ community being elected into different political offices and winning various awards.

So while the world may seem like it is on fire, progress is still being made even if it is small.

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In 1901 a 19 year-old Mary MacLane wrote a raw, honest, and compelling memoir where she came out as bisexual before the term became well known. Her book is in the public domain and is a great read. Originally she wanted to title the book I Await the Devil's Coming but the publisher didn’t like the name. It became a best seller selling 100,000 books in the first month.

In the book she talked about her depression, ego, and romantic yearning for her English teacher (a woman), the ugly portrait version of Napoleon Bonaparte, and the monster version of the devil. While you can tell that she is young in her writing she has an interesting perspective and voice.

Reflecting on her writing, it’s no wonder that she would become a vocal feminist and have a reputation for being wild and uncontrollable. She writes with confidence, humor, and seriousness.

Her book The Story of Mary MacLane contained lines ranging from:

“People say of me, ‘She’s peculiar.’ They do not understand me. If they did they would say so oftener and with emphasis.”

“If it please the Devil, one day I may have happiness. That will be all-sufficient. I shall then analyze no more. I shall be a different being.

But meanwhile I shall eat.”

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Linguistics is extremely important since it helps us communicate, categorize information, and research/ understand history. It is very fascinating to see how relatively new some of the words in LGBTQ are. While these concepts are nowhere near new, the terms we call them are. For example The Story of Mary MacLane, published in 1901, is a memoir where the reader comes out as bisexual while not knowing / using the term bisexual (it wasn’t a common term yet). Read the article to learn more about the history of LGBTQ linguistics.

LGBTQ identities and words are listed below along with the year they were coined. I had to do some extra research to find the year each word in LGBTQ was coined. Those articles are linked below too.

Terms and the Year Coined

Lesbian - coined 1733

Gay - started being used to describe sexuality in the 1950s

Bisexual- coined 1892

Transgender - coined 1965

Queer - started being used commonly around 1914

Homosexual- coined 1869

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While being a raunchy song about gay cowboys, Ram Ranch has had a cultural impact. Not only was it a meme in 2016 but it was used as a counter protest song against the Canadian convoy protests. In response to the songs use against the convoy, Grant MacDonald, the songs created made a 20-minute long explicit song about the truckers.

If you are interested in learning more about the backstory behind Ram Ranch, Strange Aeons has a really good video about it.

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Founded in 1973, PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) is an LGBTQ advocacy agency. They fought to create safe schools legislation, repealing don’t ask don’t tell, and marriage equality. They are currently focused on banning conversion therapy and fighting discrimination laws.

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From forced labor camps in 1960s to free sex reassignment surgeries since 2008. Same sex marriages became legal in 2022.

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First coined in 1892, the term bisexuality didn’t gain wider notoriety until the 1970s. Though that’s just the history of the word, bisexual people have existed long before then. Though due to a lack of definition, lack of understanding of sexuality, self censorship, external censorship, and lack of documentation it is hard to differentiate bisexual people in history.

This makes one of my favorite memoirs even more special since part of the book has the author coming out as bisexual without knowing the word bisexual, since it was written in 1901. She goes around it in a round about way, where she slowly admits her romantic / sexual yearning alongside things she doesn’t like. Her thought processes on her sexuality is interesting since she doesn’t have the correct labels to use. I also find the book courageous since she admitted to liking other women romantically in a published book in 1901. The book then became a best seller, selling 100,000 in its first month.