Black Pride: Here are 5 black LGBTQ pioneers to know
June is the recognition of LGBTQ History Month. It is a subject is schools not as well covered as Black History Month, it is still a history that is very rich and diverse.
Today, people like Laverne Cox, Andrea Jenkins, Phill Wilson and Chicago Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot are bringing increased visibility as openly LGBTQ, high-profile black leaders. Still, activists say teachings have fallen short in educating students about the historical black LGBTQ figures who paved the way for these achievements.
In recognition of LGBTQ History Month, professors and activists reflected on the seldom-told stories of black LGBTQ trailblazers and their contributions to American history.
Lucy Hicks Anderson (1886-1954) Transgender pioneer for marriage equality
Before Christine Jorgensen, often recognized as America’s first prominent transwoman, there was Lucy Hicks Anderson. She preceded Jorgensen’s notoriety when stories of her trans identity made news in the early 20th century, said C. Riley Snorton, a professor of English and gender and sexuality studies at the University of Chicago, who wrote about Anderson and the erasure of Black transsexual narratives in the book “Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity.”
After marrying a soldier in Oxnard, CA., in 1944, local authorities discovered that Anderson was assigned male at birth and the couple was charged with perjury. Taking a stand in court, Anderson reportedly said, “I defy any doctor in the world to prove that I am not a woman. I have lived, dressed, acted just like what I am, a woman.”
Instead of prison time, Anderson and her husband were placed on 10 years of probation. Anderson was also ordered to refrain from wearing clothes made for women, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Years later, the couple was charged again — this time for fraud after Anderson received federal money reserved for military spouses. Both went to prison and were banned from Oxnard upon release. The couple then moved to Los Angeles, where Anderson lived for the remainder of her life.
Gladys Bentley (1907-1960) Blues singer, pianist and drag king pioneer
Black arts and culture blossomed during the Harlem Renaissance, but an often overlooked aspect of the era was its queer nightlife enclaves and the influence of black lesbian and transgender blues. As a lesbian blues singer, pianist and cross-dressing performer, Gladys Bentley was considered “Harlem’s most famous lesbian,” often singing her own raunchy lyrics to popular tunes and performing in her signature top hat and tuxedo.
In the 1930s, Bentley headlined at Harlem’s Ubangi Club, where she was backed up by a chorus line of drag queens. “She also donned male artifice and attire and performed as a drag king in Harry’s Clam House in New York in the 1920s,” Snorton said. “She was like, coldblooded, the best.” According to the New York Times, Bentley was one of the best known Black entertainers in the country.
Toward the end of her life, Bentley married a man, denied that she was gay and expressed regret for her drag performances, Story said, “but that, to me, was no doubt from the ensuing pressure of homophobia and all of those things.”
Bayard Rustin (1912-1987) Gay civil rights activist
Bayard Rustin is recognized as one of the key leaders of the civil rights movement. He advised Dr. King on nonviolent tactics, helped plan the Montgomery, AL., bus boycott and was a chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington. But as an openly gay man, Rustin faced discrimination of his own while fighting for the rights of others.
In January 1953, he was arrested on a “morals charge” after police officers caught him engaged with two other men in a parked car in Pasadena, CA. The conviction, which was often used to target gay people, forced Rustin to register as a sex offender and nearly derailed his career as a civil rights activist.
“He was a prominent gay man during the civil rights movement when there was no space to talk about lesbian and gay issues,” said Karsonya Whitehead, an associate professor of communication and African and African American Studies at Loyola University Maryland.
For years, Rustin’s arrest sidelined him in the civil rights movement. He struggled to find work and was pushed out of Dr. King’s inner circle. Then, in 1963, Rustin’s long time mentor appointed him as a key organizer of the March on Washington. Following the success of the march, Rustin continued to advocate for civil rights, and he brought the AIDS crisis to the NAACP’s attention in an effort to encourage others to “come out” and live their truths.
Pauli Murray (1910-1985) Lawyer, scholar and women’s rights activist
Lawyer and activist Pauli Murray is widely credited for building the legal frameworks that paved the way for the civil rights and women’s rights movements. Both the late Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Thurgood Marshall said they were influenced by Murray’s arguments on race and gender. In particular, Marshall hailed Murray’s 700-page summary of racism in state law as “the bible” of Brown v. Board of Education. And Murray was also considered instrumental in arguing for the14thAmendment’sequal protection clause, which stated discrimination based on sex is unconstitutional.
Murray was an “architect of civil rights legislation and civil rights victories who was queer,” Hazzard said, “and if she was alive to day, might even identify as transgender.” According to the Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice, Murray self-described as a “he/she personality” earlier in life and also attempted to receive gender-affirming healthcare, including hormone therapy, but was repeatedly denied.
Pauli Murray applied to be a Supreme Court justice in 1971. 50 years later, a black woman could make history.
Miss Major Griffin-Gracy (1940-present) Transgender rights activist
Throughout her lifetime, transgender activist Miss Major Griffin-Gracy has stood at the forefront of a wide range of causes — many of which were inspired by her own personal challenges. Early in her life, she said, she experienced homelessness, incarceration and engaged in sex work to survive.
Griffin-Gracy is also considered a prominent figure in the Stonewall riots. She was present the night police raided the Stonewall Inn on June 27, 1969, in New York, which prompted the demonstrations, and was reportedly struck on the head by police and taken into custody. While in prison, an officer broke her jaw, she later said.
After the riots, Griffin- Gracy focused her efforts on working with trans women who were incarcerated, homeless or battling addiction. ”Her work has been about specifically uplifting Black trans women,” Story said, “and really giving them teaching tools around how to deal with incarceration, police brutality.
When the HIV/AIDS epidemic struck in the 1980s, Griffin-Gracy also provided direct health-care services. Now 81, she runs a retreat center for trans and gender- nonconforming Southern leaders. “She’s a piece of living history that I think, even in black LGBT spaces, a lot of folks don’t seem to talk about her and how foundational she was as much,” Story said.
