USA's early riots that shaped the history of queer movement.
Cooper's Do-Nuts Riot (1959)
Dewey's Sit-in (1965)
Compton's Cafeteria Riot (1966)
Black Cat Tavern (1967)
White Night Riots (1979)
https://www.instagram.com/p/Ce9BkkGrDW7/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
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“Many people deny that homosexuality exists in India, dismissing it as a phenomenon of the industrialised world. Others acknowledge its presence but condemn it as a capitalist aberration, a concern too individualistic to warrant attention in a poor country like ours. Still others label it a disease to be cured, an abnormality to be set right, a crime to be punished. The present report has been prepared with a view to showing how none of these views can stand the test of empirical reality or plain and simple common sense.”
This is how a small, 70-page booklet with a pink cover titled “Less than gay: A citizen’s report” on the status of homosexuality in India starts. Published in 1991 by a collective called the Aids Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan (ABVA), the report was the first document of its kind that broke the silence around the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT).
“What struck me about the Less than Gay report was its rigour and how it drew on historical and theoretical discourses. Less than Gay was the first such document on gay and lesbian lives in India,” said Jaya Sharma, an activist who knew Siddharth Gautam, a young advocate who co-founded ABVA, and worked extensively on the report with the group. A film festival in his memory was started in 1993.
One of the most powerful aspects of Less Than Gay was its detailing of LGBT stories from around India — from Mizoram in the Northeast to Siliguri in north Bengal to Virar in Mumbai. It spoke to a wide range of LGBT experiences, from violence, heartbreak, loneliness, to the thrill of discovering finding companionship.
“Less than Gay, which we call the Pink Book, broke the silence around homosexuality. It tempted you to come out,” said Maya Sharma, a 68-year-old Baroda-based activist.
The 1990s were a tumultuous time for the public expression of gender and sexuality in India. The ABVA filed a petition against Section 377 in 1994 in the Delhi high court but it lay in cold storage. Outside the courts, though, the world was changing.
In 1991, Delhi-based activist Giti Thadani started a network called Sakhi where lesbian women could communicate via letters. In the same year, Delhi-based women’s group Jagori started a research project on single women (Ekal Aurat). Several of them would met informally in each other’s homes. “Some of us were not open to using English terminologies, preferring to use ‘sakhi’ which pertains to female friendship, and which allowed women to address their sexual identity while retaining privacy,” recalled Maya of her association with Jagori.
Pratibha Parmar, a London-based filmmaker of Indian origin was prolific at this time, making short films that dealt with women’s sexuality.
Riyad Wadia’s Bomgay and A mermaid called Aida were released in 1996. Both short films dealt with queerness, the latter was a film about a famous trans-woman called Aida Banaji, a well known personality in the Bombay of the 1980s. Contemporary artist Bhupen Kakkar routinely depicted same-sex intimacy on canvas.
Organisations such as Kolkata’s Counsel Club, Mumbai’s Humsafar Trust and Delhi’s Sangini would receive letters Expression of diverse sexuality also flowered in smaller towns filled with curiosity and questions surrounding same-sex desire.
Notions of what it meant to be trans and public were also changing. “When we were young, we saw older transpeople sitting in small circles, spending their evenings in adda at Esplanade, at Curzon park. We didn’t have big celebrations like now, but our festivities were in the everyday. We would go for picnics, run away from home for trips, bunk college for picnics. We didn’t have the internet and our everyday celebration was like oxygen, we couldn’t live without it,” said Raina Roy, a Kolkata-based activist.
“The word transgender was not very familiar for us. I remember the first time I was inspired was at a sex workers’ rally.”
In the later half of the 90s, films such as Fire and Darmiyan also moved the needle on portrayal of queer and intersex characters. “For the first time, people like us were shown on the screen. The halls would be empty but we would go again and again,” said Roy. The impact of Less Than Gay lives to this day. Rakesh, a 27-year old resident of Nadia district in West Bengal (he goes by only his first name) remembers reading the report as a lonely adolescent. “The place I grew up, there was no one who looked like me. The report changed my life. I learnt there were people other than me, who felt like me.”
You can read more here : http://aidsbhedbhavvirodhiandolan.blogspot.com/?m=1
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Sylvia Rivera was a Latina trans woman who was a lifelong trans rights activist in New York City. Activist Sylvia Rivera may be best known for her participation in the 1969 uprisings around the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City. When police raided the bar, patrons fought back. After these uprisings, LGBTQ+ community members founded the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA). Rivera campaigned with the GAA to urge New York City to end discrimination against LGBT residents. However, the GAA's leadership often rejected the role trans people, many who were people of color, played in Stonewall. Rivera worked with Marsha P. Johnson to create STAR (Street Transvestite* Action Revolutionaries). Rivera and Johnson provided a home and family for young LGBT people. Through STAR, they organized and protested around issues affecting their community in New York City.
Marsha “Pay It No Mind” Johnson was a Black trans woman who helped lead the LGBTQ+ movement in New York City for nearly 25 years. She was a drag performer and sex worker who poured all of her energy into advocating for trans and homeless people/youth, sex workers, people living with HIV/AIDS, and incarcerated people. At 23 years old, Johnson was also one of the leaders of the Stonewall Riots. In 1970, one year after the Stonewall Riots, Marsha P. Johnson co-founded STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries) with trans activist Sylvia Rivera. STAR was a shelter for homeless transgender youth that Johnson and Rivera funded by working as sex workers at night. Johnson and Rivera were often homeless themselves, so they wanted to create a safe place for trans youth to sleep at night. STAR was revolutionary on a number of levels; STAR was the first LGBTQ+ youth shelter in North America and it was the first organization in the US led by trans women of color. Unfortunately, Johnson’s life was cut short in 1992 when her body was found in the Hudson River. Her death was ruled a suicide, but the circumstances surrounding her death were not investigated, leading many activists to believe that she was murdered. In 2019, it was announced that a monument honoring Johnson and Rivera is going to be built in New York City, just blocks away from the Stonewall Inn. This monument will be the first permanent, public piece of artwork in the world recognizing transgender women.
Stormé DeLarverie was a butch lesbian and activist born in Louisiana in 1920. She had a Black mother and a white father; her mother was her father’s servant in her home. Growing up biracial in the South was very challenging, so DeLarverie moved to Chicago at 18 and came out as lesbian. She co-founded the Jewel Box Revue, North America’s first racially integrated drag touring company, where she worked for 14 years. DeLarverie sang in the shows as the only drag king, always wearing a white tuxedo.
A ferocious and radical activist, Brenda "Mother of Pride" Howard, was bisexual, vehemently supported and participated in the antiwar and feminist movements, as well as the Gay Liberation Front and Gay Activists’ Alliance (she was the chair for several years). And Howard never went quietly. “Though she was humble, she could be loud when needed,” wrote bi activist and author Tom Limoncelli. Friends with many inside the Stonewall Inn the night of the uprising, Howard created a one-month Stonewall anniversary rally in July 1969. Then, one year after Stonewall, she and a committee planned Gay Pride Week and the Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade. Often called “The Mother of Pride,” Howard’s week and parade evolved into the annual New York City Pride march and Pride celebrations we now know around the world.
As a pioneer in the movement to advance bisexual inclusion, Howard was part of the delegation that worked to get “Bi” added to the title of the 1993 March on Washington so it would become “March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bi Equal Rights.” Beforehand, the march had only focused on gay and lesbian rights. Decrying the many myths surrounding bisexuality, pushing it into the spotlight, and rallying for its support in ongoing queer narratives was a strong part of Howard’s activism, though she also campaigned heavily for LGBTQ+ rights in general, as well as women’s rights, national healthcare, equal treatment for people of color, and rights for those affected by AIDS. “She was an in-your-face activist,” Nelson said in 2014. “She fought for anyone who had their rights trampled on.”
https://www.them.us/story/brenda-howard
https://www.jcfs.org/response/blog/history-pride-part2
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The Runners Up are
SarafWasima
WildestDreams
Mish_18
Here's your siggy!
Winner is our lovely Havaana!!
Sorryyy Nehaa😭
Mein shaam tak I was excited about both the threads but fir thoda kaam aa gaya and mere dhyaan se hi nikal gaya tha about SNL🥺
I'm so sorry💔
I have a request, can you pls post the names next to the answers because I dont remember my answers😭(answers samajh aate to yaad hote na)
1. Choose a colour from Philadelphia pride flag.
Yellow (10)
dipihp, Havaana, mish_18, foreverlazy, Kavya1994, dipsdj, Phenyl, Anisha06, RockingSunny, Aquabutterfly
Brown (6)
Savera 84, NerdyMukta, SarafWasima, SoniRSippu21, Rani_Sahiba, md410
Orange (7)
Arpita00001, anonymouse1, Vedika.Kapoor, infinitely, Mysterie_girl, Daphnes, -prabz-
Green (9)
Sana_Jannat, evilxbalaa, _NINA_, Interstellarr, Abhaythevampire, BubbleTea, nautankitadka, WildestDreams, missFiesty_69
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