#lgbt+ History

[armzsoup]

Random old photos of lesbian couples happy, kissing, holding each other, in love, etc...

[alatismeni-theitsa]

This! The tweet references this tweet where foreigners proceeded to rejoice about their vacation in Greece as a first reaction after hearing about how the brutal reality of queer Greeks has been alleviated. Are you for FUCKING REAL people?? You make me wanna puke! Were we ever people to you? Or just a fancy destination and some vague ancient texts of a "dead" language, that you never cared to associate with the actual Greek culture and people??

I saw the majority of these comments came from USians and I implore you specifically to shut your fucking face. This shouldn't be your reaction to a foreign marginalized group (that is still in danger) gaining rights. The privilege of living in the country that controls Greece has gotten to your head, and unfortunately, I see this attitude from all US marginalised groups also.

You are clearly NOT ready to discuss how your country has been profiting from exploiting our culture, and that the way you see us for centuries now reeks of the neocolonialist attitudes.

Even when we are happy when for the first time in our history our existence is legal MUST WE cater to your voyeurism and "ancient Greek" fantasies? Not to mention the continuous eyerolls I had seeing people expressing they thought Greece is a gay paradise since antiquity... B R U H .... It was never legal or non-shameful for us to be gay! N E V E R . Check ancient texts and laws. It was never legal or pleasant for us here!

More from the tweet here:

[short-wooloo]

Gotta say, I really do get pissed off when people's response to being reminded of the very real threat trump/republicans pose to Queer rights is to say "the first pride was a riot"

Yes it was

Because it had to be

The first pride didn't have the option of being a peaceful fun celebration of being queer, things were so much worse for us back then, we had no choice but to riot, to risk everything in order to express who we are

The fact that pride doesn't have to be like that anymore is a hard earned privilege and victory, things got better, safer, free-er, we worked hard to get where we are now

So why are you okay with losing all that? Why are you okay with setting all our progress back? Why do you want us to be less safe?

I don't want pride to have to be a riot, I don't want us to be in danger

And under trump and the republicans, that is exactly what will happen

Why go back? Why not continue to move forward

[androgynealienfemme]

"The faggots and their friends live the best while empires are falling. Since the men are always building as many empires as they can, there are always one or two falling and so one or two places for the faggots and their friends to go. When an empire is falling, the men become so busy opposing the rebellions elsewhere and searching for the reasons why this is happening, that they have no time to watch the faggots and their friends at home. The populace, tired of hearing only of foreign defeats, allows the faggots room to play. This entertains them. Once the empire is gone, the cause of the present evil must be found. And the faggots and their friends along with others often get chosen. Then times get bad and the faggots and their friends fade."

The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions, Larry Mitchell (1977)

[themightyfoo]

????

Prior to the early 1990s you couldn't just access the internet because you wanted to. Only people with a connection to the US Defense Department were allowed* to use it. That included a lot of universities under contract with the US Government (not always the DoD.)

* In theory. In practice you just needed a buddy who was a systems administrator for said contractor. That's how I first gained access, in 1982 I was a physics grad student with buddies in the High Energy Physics lab. They had access through the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. So they gave me access via a dumb TTY terminal on the physics department's DEC VAX 11/780 minicomputer. It was useful as a way of connecting to other LGBT+ computer nerds on net.motss ("members of the same sex") which may have been the world's first queer social networking system. I'm that much of a relic. (By 1986 I was also developing communications equipment for the early internet, which at that time was called the Defense Data Network. I still have one of the old DDN tech manuals around the house somewhere. One of my gaming buddies was Roy Fielding, coinventor of HTTP and inventor of the RESTful API. I also know everyone quoted in the following article. )

[positively-bi]

It ain't over til the bisexual speaks...

The March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Equal Rights and Liberation took place on the 25th of April 1993 in Washington, D.C. An estimated 80,000 to over 1 million people attended.

The 1993 March was the first March on Washington to include bisexuals in the title. Out of 18 chosen speakers, only one was bisexual: Lani Ka'ahumanu.

Afterwards, she wrote an article for bisexual magazine Anything That Moves about her experience entitled "How I Spent My Two Week Vacation Being a Token Bisexual", which can be read on her website here.

The webpage also contains a transcript of the speech she made at the event, which has been copied below the cut:

Aloha, my name is Lani Ka’ahumanu, and it ain’t over til the bisexual speaks...

I am a token, and a symbol. Today there is no difference. I am the token out bisexual asked to speak, and I am a symbol of how powerful the bisexual pride movement is and how far we have come.

I came here in 1979 for the March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.

I returned in 1987 for the March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.

I stand here today on the stage of the 1993 March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Equal Rights and Liberation.

In 1987 I wrote an article on bisexuality for the Civil Disobedience Handbook titled, “Are we visible yet?”

Bisexual activists organized on the local, regional and national levels to make this March a reality.

Are bisexuals visible yet? Are bisexuals organized yet? Are bisexuals accountable yet?

You bet your sweet ass we are!

Bisexuals are here, and we’re queer.

Bisexual pride speaks to the truth of behavior and identity.

No simple either/or divisions fluid – ambiguous – subversive bisexual pride challenges both the heterosexual and the homosexual assumption.

Society is based on the denial of diversity, on the denial of complexity.

Like multiculturalism, mixed heritage and bi-racial relationships, both the bisexual and transgender movements expose and politicize the middle ground.

Each show there is no separation, that each and everyone of us is part of a fluid social, sexual and gender dynamic.

Each signals a change, a fundamental change in the way our society is organized.

Remember today.

Remember we are family, and like a large extended family, we don’t always agree, don’t always see eye to eye.

However, as a family under attack we must recognize the importance of what each and every one of us brings to our movement.

There is strength in our numbers and diversity. We are every race, class, culture, age, ability, religion, gender identity and sexual orientation.

Our visibility is a sign of revolt.

Recognition of bisexual orientation and transgender issues presents a challenge to assumptions not previously explored within the politics of gay liberation.

What will it take for the gayristocracy to realize that bisexual, lesbian, transgender, and gay people are in this together, and together we can and will move the agenda forward.

But this will not happen until public recognition of our common issues is made, and a sincere effort to confront biphobia and transphobia is made by the established gay and lesbian leadership in this country.

The broader movement for our civil rights and liberation is being held back.

Who gains when we ostracize whole parts of our family? Who gains from exclusionary politics?

Certainly not us...

Being treated as if I am less oppressed than thou is not only insulting, it feeds right in to the hands of the right wing fundamentalists who see all of us as queer.

What is the difficulty in seeing how my struggle as a mixed race bisexual woman of color is intimately related to the bigger struggle for lesbian and gay rights the rights of people of color and the rights of all women?

What is the problem?

This is not a competition.

I will not play by rules that pit me against any oppressed group.

Has the gayristocracy bought so far in to the either/or structure, invested so much in being the opposite of heterosexual that they cannot remove themselves that they can’t imagine being free of the whole oppressive heterosexist system that keeps us all down?

Bisexual, gay, lesbian, and transgender people who are out of the closet, who are not passing for anything other than who and what we are all have our necks and our lives on the line.

All our visibility is a sign of revolt.

Bisexuals are here to challenge the bigots who have denied lesbian, gay and bisexual people basic civil rights in Colorado.

Yes, Amendment 2 includes bisexual orientation.

Yes, the religious right recognizes bisexuals as a threat to “so called” family values.

Bisexuals are here to protest the military ban against lesbians, gays and bisexuals.

Yes, the Department of Defense defines bisexuals separately as a reason to be dishonorably discharged.

And yes, out bisexuals are not allowed to be foster or adoptive parents,

And yes, we lose our jobs, our children, get beaten and killed for loving women and for loving men.

Bisexuals are queer, just as queer as queer can be.

Each of us here today represents many people who could not make the trip.

Our civil rights and liberation movement has reached critical mass.

Remember today.

Remember that we are more powerful than all the hate, ignorance and violence directed at us.

Remember what a profound difference our visibility makes upon the world in which we live.

The momentum of this day can carry us well into the 21st century if we come out where ever and when ever we can.

Remember assimilation is a lie. It is spiritual erasure.

I want to challenge those lesbian and gay leaders who have come out to me privately over the years as bisexual to take the next step, come out now.

What is the sexual liberation movement about if not about the freedom to love whom we choose?

I want to encourage bisexuals in the lesbian, gay and heterosexual communities to come out now.

Remember there is nothing wrong with love. Defend the freedom to express it.

Our visibility is a sign of revolt. We cannot be stopped. We are everywhere. We are bisexual, lesbian, gay and transgender people.

We will not rest until we are all free;

We will not rest until our basic human rights are protected under federal law;

We will not rest until our relationships and families are not just tolerated but recognized, respected and valued;

We will not rest until we have a national health care system; We will not rest until there are cures for AIDS and cancer.

We deserve nothing less. Remember we have every right to be in the world exactly as we are.

Celebrate that simply and fiercely.

I love you.

Mahalo and aloha.

[multifandominfj]

What could happen to Fina should the writers go down this route.

The EXACT SAME THING happened to Amelia Ledesma with Luimelia.

[13lizardsinatrenchcoat]

Lesbian in the documentary I'm watching lost her virginity on a train. Yet another W for public transportation.

[usernamesarehard1]

Queer History: Real Life LGBT+ Princess

[historyandarthijinks]

#4 History Shorts

A pair of “forbidden” love letters during WW2 emerged between two male soldiers in 2008.

Gilbert Bradley and Gordon Bowsher fell back into love when they met each other again on the battlefield, fighting for Britain.

Being homosexual was illegal at the time. Being so could easily get you imprisoned, lobotomized, beat, and more. In the military it was viable to get you shot. However that didn’t exactly stop soldiers (almost everywhere).

They would send secret letters to each other, and gossip about their other crushes and romances. 

The letters would be found after Bradley’s death, and put in the Oswestry Museum.

One letter contained the exact words, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all our letters could be published in the future in a more enlightened time. Then all the world could see how in love we are.”

[julia-dobreva]

I understand if you don’t like the word queer but do the people saying its been a slur all the time even read lgbt+ history

[alatismeni-theitsa]

Patrochilles this and that but I see no people getting fixated on an actual real queer couple that is Hadrian and Antinous.. 👀

ΩΠΑ 😲 Good call! Okay the couple is later compared to "Patrochilles" however it was a real couple, and Antinoos was Greek (well, and Hadrian of the Italian peninsula but I focused on Antinoos cause Greece babyyy). Of course we can still speculate about other couples but I love it when real ancient same-sex couples are centered!

At this point I have another story about a possible same-sex real couple to tell:

In the spring of 390 A.D. emperor Theodosius published a law punishing homosexuality with death. Based on this text, the Goth general Buthericus of Thessaloniki imprisoned a popular rider (a sports star of the era), accusing him of pederasty. Archaeologist Thodoros Papakostas said that this rider had a relationship with the son of the Goth general, and this was the general's way of getting rid of him.

The people of Thessaloniki were enraged when the general didn't want to release the rider, and they revolted. In this stasis (revolt) the Goth general was killed. (At the time there was lots of tension because of the Goths in Thessaloniki) Then emperor Theodosius ordered the army to surround the Thessalonian Hippodrome and slaughter all the spectators. He repented of the order, but its revocation reached Thessaloniki after 7,000 citizens had been slaughtered.

[bigsalmoninapond]

The LGB that are against trans people and use these tactics against trans people don’t know their own history, they are 100% ignorant on their history and it shows. Your fears, ideas, and tacit a are the exact same ones used against y’all in the 70’s,80’s,90’s and forward, especially in the 80’s during the AIDS epidemic. y’all have just been lying in ignorance because you do not want to learn your history and how awful it was for people like you in the past. Your seat at the table is just a folded chair that can and will be taken away from you.

[androgynealienfemme]

"It is 10:30 at night. I ride the D train to the Bronx. I feel exceptionally beautiful and strong. My hair is fluffed, my dress short, my stockings patterned and colorful, my shoes high and black and patent leather. I am on my way to a party. My lover will be there, but she dos not know I am coming. I am excited about surprising her. I am excited about my low-cut, sleek black dress, my exposed legs, my hair. At least two men try to talk to me on the train, one who sits next to me, one across from me; they eye my legs. But tonight I am ready. "No," I say, "please, don't talk to me. Don't!" Eventually one by one, they leave me alone. When I arrive at the party I stand at the top of the stairs watching Buddy from across the room. She is quiet by the window and someone shouts her name and she turns around. She glances at me and slowly walks toward me with that swaggering, macho walk I love so much. She climbs the stairs to me and puts her arms around me, burying her face in my neck. Warmth. She takes my bag from me. She takes my coat off and hangs it in the closet behind me, then returns to me. Stands in front of me, kisses me, her hand on my waist. Holds me out in front of her, looks me up and down, smiles at the heels, my legs, my bubbling cleavage. her smile widening, she says, "You look like a girl," her hands in my hair. I smile, too, wanting to seem sophisticated but starting to giggle. "I am a girl!" I feel independent, confident. I sit with her on the couch directly from the big mirror on the wall. She wears a black, cropped-neck men's shirt and baggy blue slacks. I watch us in the mirror, her arm around my shoulder, fingers brushing my bosom, my hand moving slowly on her thigh. I am who I want to be. it feels good."

-“femme-insm” by Paula Austin, The Persistent Desire (edited by Joan Nestle) (1992)

[gautierprotectionsquad]

Source: Gay Community News (June 1994) Vol 20, No. 1 & 2. Page 15 https://archive.org/details/gaycommunitynews2001gayc/mode/2up?q=stonewall

[chxrchgay]

Jeb and Dash: A Diary of Gay Life, 1918-1945. Edited by Ina Russell, published 1993. 290 pages.

rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Jeb and Dash is an edited version of some 50 diaries written by Carter Newman Bealer (1899–1965), chronicling his life as a government employee and member of Washington D.C.’s gay community. While some aspects of his life were changed by his niece Ina during the editing process (all of the names are pseudonyms, and some figures in his life were left out or synthesized for clarity/ease of reading), it’s still an invaluable primary source. Jeb/Carter documented his life meticulously, and the infinite details he records about the city & its gay culture (and the friends who were involved in it) make it feel remarkably alive.

It is, admittedly, a sad read. Jeb was an aspiring writer but between long bouts of writer’s block and lifelong anxiety, he only had one short story published during his lifetime. His relationship with Dash was often marked by insecurity and jealousy, fueled by Dash’s sometimes cold behavior and inconsistent patterns of rejection and affection. And the world was also an unfriendly place for a gay man—Jeb makes mention of his hatred for cops, as they harassed or arrested men for cruising, and he was frequently harassed by strangers and coworkers and family alike.

Much of his writing about politics was cut, as Russell wanted the focus to be on gay history, but there are still moments where Jeb shows his spine in satisfying ways—defending the actions of anarchists and getting into arguments with fascists & nazi apologists, including those within his own family.

All in all, I considered it a very worthwhile read. I’ve always been fond of this sort of epistolary format (diaries and letters and the like), the relationships are often equal parts compelling and frustrating, I loved the historical aspect of it, and the great inescapable loneliness that followed Jeb throughout his life made me feel even more kinship with him, despite the fact that he died nearly 60 years ago.

“But we who are afflicted with this terrible and exquisite curse that uplifts us to the stars one moment and drops us in the mud the next, can find little lasting happiness in any way—our own or that of the unsympathetic world.”

While I’m sure I missed some, I made an accompanying playlist of every song referenced in Jeb’s diaries that I could find on spotify. Some other jazz playlists of the era can be found here: x x x x

Additional reading:

The Edwin Poems, by John Zeigler, 2007. Zeigler was a friend of Jeb’s and is featured in his diary under the pseudonym “Nicky.” This collection of poetry was written during and after Zeigler’s 49 year relationship with his partner Edwin Peacock. 4/5 stars. (ISBN: 9781425752729)

Edwin and John: A Personal History of the American South, by James T. Sears, 2018. (ISBN: 1560237619)