Saeed Jon On Growg Up Black And Gay In 'How We Fight For Our Liv' : NPR

Contents:

• DIFFERENT FIGHT, 'SAME GOAL': HOW THE BLACK EEDOM MOVEMENT SPIRED EARLY GAY ACTIVISTS
• A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.
• BLACK GAY HISTORY AND THE FIGHT AGAST AIDS
• HEARG THE QUEER ROOTS OF BLACK LIV MATTERBY DAVID B. GREEN, JR.NATNAL CENTER FOR INSTUTNAL DIVERSY·FOLLOWPUBLISHED SPARK: ELEVATG SCHOLARSHIP ON SOCIAL ISSU·7 M READ·FEB 6, 2019--3LISTENSHARELEFT TO RIGHT AND TOP TO BOTTOM: JUNE JORDAN, PAT PARKER, MELV BOOZER, ASSOTTO SAT, AUDRE LOR, JOSEPH BEAM, BARBARA SMH, MARSHA P. JOHNSONTHIS PIECE IS A PART OF OUR SPARK SERI: THE BLACK RADIL TRADN OF RISTANCEWHEN PATRISSE KHAN-CULLERS, OPAL TOMETI, AND ALICIA GARZA — THE FOUNRS OF THE BLACK LIV MATTER MOVEMENT (BLM) — LLECTIVELY UTTERED THE PHRASE “BLACK LIV MATTER,” THEY HELPED TO REIGNE THE NTUED STGGLE FOR BLACK EEDOM, LIBERATN, AND JTICE THE UNED STAT. AS BLACK FEMISTS, THEY ROOTED THEIR FIGHT FOR EEDOM AND LIBERATN AN TERSECTNAL-JTICE PRAXIS THAT DISPTS THE TRADNAL AMEWORK OF BLACK ACTIVISM — A AMEWORK THAT HISTORILLY PRRIZED ADDRSG RACIAL JTICE OVER AND AGAST GENR JTICE AND SEXUAL EEDOM; A AMEWORK, WHOUT QUTN, THAT SILENCED AND SHUNNED “HOMOSEXUALY” AND OPENLY GAY ACTIVISTS ACROSS MUCH OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. AS THE BLACK LBIAN FEMIST AUDRE LOR OBSERV ABOUT THE 1960’S POLIL CLIMATE: “THE EXISTENCE OF BLACK LBIAN AND GAY PEOPLE WERE NOT EVEN ALLOWED TO CROSS THE PUBLIC NSCNS OF BLACK AMERI.” FOR BLACK GAYS AND LBIANS WHO WERE “OUT” AND SIRED LIBERATED-PUBLIC-POLIL PARTICIPATN, THE 1960’S BEME, LOR WR, NOT “A GUI FOR LIVG BUT A NEW SET OF SHACKL.”UNLIKE THE BLACK FREEDOM MOVEMENT OF THE 1950’S AND 1960’S, BLM IS HERENTLY A MOVEMENT STAED BY A POLICS OF BLACKNS THAT IS, CHARLENE CARTHERS REMDS , UNAPOLOGETILLY FEMIST, WOMANIST, AND QUEER. HOWEVER, WOULD BE UNWISE TO FET AND IGNORE THE BLACK QUEER CULTURAL AND POLIL NTEXT OM WHICH THIS MOVEMENT EMERG AND RTS UPON. THE POLIL SURGENCY OF BLM EVOK THE LIK OF EARLIER BLACK QUEER ACTIVISTS — LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR ACTIVISTS OF AIN SCENT — WHO, BEE OF TIME AND CIRCUMSTANCE, SPOKE VAR TON OF “HOW FELY PLEX ANY MOVE FOR LIBERATN MT BE.” INED, IF ONE WERE TO SEARCH FOR A HISTORIL NTEXT TO UNRSTAND THE IMPERATIVE AND VALUABLE NTEXT OF TODAY’S BLACK LIV MATTER MOVEMENT, THEN ONE WOULD HAVE TO TRACE S LEGACI ON THE PAGE AS WELL AS THE STAGE. WHILE BLACK LIV MATTER — ALL OF S GLORY, RHETORIC, AND POLIL PRAXIS — VERY MUCH DISPTS ANTI-BLACK PUBLICS, S LIVG LEGACY AS A NTEMPORARY POLIL MOVEMENT N BE TRACED TO BLACK QUEER ACTIVISM, WRG AND PUBLIC SPEECH THAT BOOK-END TWENTIETH CENTURY US POLICS AND EEDOM MOVEMENTS.BLACK & QUEER: A HEARG EN MASSEWHENEVER I RELL HEARG ALICIA GARZA SHARG THAT, RPONSE TO TRAYVON MART’S MURR — AND THE KILLG OF BLACK PEOPLE BY POLICE OFFICERS ACROSS THE UNED STAT — I NOT ONLY THK OF HOW SHE DID THGS WH WORDS, TO EVOKE J.L. AT, BUT HOW, HER EFFORTS “TRANSFORMG SILENCE TO LANGUAGE AND ACTN,” I HEAR SO MANY OF THE BLACK QUEER ACTIVISTS BEFORE HER TIME SPEAKG SUCH TTH TO POWER. AND I PECIALLY HEAR THE VOIC THAT EMERGED ACROSS THE LAST S OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, THE 1980’S AND 1990’S. I HEAR BLACK-TRANS ACTIVIST MARSHA P. JOHNSON PROCLAIMG THAT “THE STREETS BELONG TO THE PEOPLE” AS SHE, ALONG WH PUERTO RIN-TRANS ACTIVIST SYLVIA RIVERA, ARGUED THAT BLACK AND LATX TRANSGENR YOUTH LIVG NEW YORK CY HAVE A RIGHT TO WALK UP AND DOWN STREETS WHOUT THREAT OR HARM OM EVERYDAY FOLKX OR POLICE OFFICERS. I HEAR BOTH JUNE JORDAN’S “POEM ABOUT MY RIGHTS” AND “WHO LOOK AT ME?” PROCLAIMG A BLACK WOMAN’S SIGHT AS AGENCY AND EMPOWERMENT AND ANTI-BLACK SIGHT AS DANGERO; I HEAR THE AO-HAIAN ACTIVIST, POET, WRER, AND PLAYWRIGHT ASSOTTO SAT’S THEATRIL PRODUCTN RISG TO THE LOVE WE NEED AND HIS CHARACTERS “SGG THE SOULS OF BLACK GAYS AMERI;” I HEAR JOSEPH BEAM CLARG THE 1980’S THAT “BLACK MEN LOVG BLACK MEN IS A REVOLUTNARY ACT;” I HEAR DIS-DIVA SYLVTER AND ARCH-BISHOP CARL BEAN’S LYRIL FUNK, G MIC AS A POLIL STMENT TO ADDRS AND END DRAG/TRANS/ QUEER/HOMO-PHOBIA; I HEAR BARBARA SMH AND MEMBERS OF THE COMBAHEE RIVER COLLECTIVE CHURNG RADIL EEDOM DREAMS TO EEDOM PRACTIC CCIAL TO BLACK WOMEN SURVIVG AND THRIVG THEN AND NOW. I HEAR AUDRE LOR’S “NEED: A CHORALE OF BLACK WOMEN’S VOIC” — A POEM, FACT, THAT FORCED LOR TO STOP DRIVG AND PULL OVER ON THE SI OF THE ROAD TO REMEMBER THE LIV OF BLACK WOMEN KILLED BY AN OPPRSIVE NATN-STATE.WHENEVER SCHOLARS AND ACTIVISTS LIVER KEYNOTE ADDRS WH THE NTEXT OF BLACK LIV MATTER, I HEAR MELV DIXON’S KEYNOTE SPEECH AT THE 1992 OUT/WRE CONFERENCE BOSTON, WHERE HE CLAR THAT GAYS AND LBIANS ARE THE “SEXUAL NIGGERS OF SOCIETY.” AND, SIMULTANEOLY, I HEAR — AS A PREEMPTIVE REA TO DIXON’S SPEECH — DC ACTIVIST MELV BOOZER STANDG ONT OF MEMBERS AT THE DEMOCRATIC NATNAL CONVENTN, REJECTG, 1980, THE PARTY’S NOMATN FOR HIS NDIDACY FOR VICE PRINT OF THE UNED STAT. BOOZER’S POLIL SENSIBILY MEANT THAT HE REFED TO ROMANTICIZE POLIL PROGRS FOR THE SAKE OF CREASED POLIL VISIBILY, THORY, AND POWER. AS A BLACK GAY MAN, BOOZER WAS KEENLY AWARE OF HOW RACISM, GENR EQUALY, AND HOMOPHOBIA NOT ONLY ENTRENCHED HIS LIFE BUT NTUED TO HAVE A STRANGLEHOLD WH THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND ACROSS ON THE UNTRY. HE SPOKE, BOLDLY:“WOULD YOU ASK ME HOW I’D DARE TO PARE THE CIVIL RIGHTS STGGLE WH THE STGGLE FOR LBIAN AND GAY RIGHTS? I N PARE, AND I DO PARE THEM. I KNOW WHAT MEANS TO BE LLED A NIGGER. I KNOW WHAT MEANS TO BE LLED A FAGGOT. AND I N SUM UP THE DIFFERENCE ONE WORD: NONE.” —MELV BOOZERBIGOTRY IS BIGOTRY.LIKE MANY BLACK AND CHIN@ FEMISTS BEFORE THEM, “THE TWO MELVS” UNRSTOOD THAT THERE ULD BE NO HIERARCHY OF OPPRSN. AS BLACK GAY MEN, THEY MAND THAT ANY FIGHT FOR SOCIAL JTICE BE TERSECTNAL.MOVEMENT BLACK: ALWAYS
• EFFY’S BIG GAY BLOCK PLAC LGBTQ PRO WRTLG THE DTRY’S NARRATIVE
• THAT’S WHAT I THK: GAY MEN CAN FIGHT!
• INTRODUCG THE MOST OUTRAGEOLY GAY FIGHT VIO OF ALL TIME
• LIL NAS X CALLS OUT BET FOR AWARDS SNUB: 'BLACK GAY PEOPLE HAVE TO FIGHT TO BE SEEN'

DIFFERENT FIGHT, 'SAME GOAL': HOW THE BLACK EEDOM MOVEMENT SPIRED EARLY GAY ACTIVISTS

On April 25, 1965, three teenagers refed to leave Dewey’s Rtrant Philalphia after employe repeatedly nied service to “homosexuals and persons wearg nonnformist clothg, ” acrdg to Dm magaze, which was created by the Jan Society, an early gay rights teens were arrted and charged wh disorrly nduct, and Jan Society members protted outsi of the rtrant for the next five days, acrdg to Marc Ste, a history profsor at San Francis State Universy.

A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.

"Eric Cervi, LGBTQ Historian“Unlike so many other episos, kd of bed issu of homosexualy and trans issu, ” Ste, thor of “Rethkg the Gay and Lbian Movement, ” told NBC May 2, three more people staged a send s- at Dewey’s.

Specifilly, s-s anized by gay activists the ‘60s appear to be directly spired by protts held 1960 by Black llege stunts at Woolworth’s lunch unter Greensboro, North Carola, agast racial stunts wa va for food service at this F. C., one of the first homophile groups ("homophile" beg the adjective of choice at the time), and he drew strategi directly om the Black civil rights movement, acrdg to Eric Cervi, a historian and thor of “The Deviant’s War, ” which foc on Kameny and the early gay rights movement. (In fact, 1979, activists would anize a Natnal March on Washgton for Gay and Lbian Rights, which drew an timated 200, 000 protters, acrdg to the Natnal LGBT Chamber of Commerce) hold signs as they participate the Natnal March on Washgton for Lbian & Gay Rights Washgton, DC, on Oct.

BLACK GAY HISTORY AND THE FIGHT AGAST AIDS

A aln of gay and lbian anizatns held a yearly peaceful prott at Inpennce Hall lled the Annual Remr om 1965 to 1969, which Ste said were fluenced by the early civil rights monstratns which monstrators were stcted to drs rpectably, wh women drs and men sus. ”Barbara Gtgs and other gay rights activists picket outsi the Whe hoe Tob Lahen / NYPLOn the other hand, gay and trans activists were also affected by the Black Power movement and urban uprisgs, acrdg to Ste.

”Crowd attempts to impe police arrts outsi the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street New York's Greenwich Village York Daily News via Getty ImagCervi said FBI reports explicly nnect the Black Freedom Movement and the early homophile movement. ”“This ia of a aln between the two anizatns — that the Black Freedom Movement might be spirg this other group of Amerin cizens who are also margalized, and the fact that they may both be takg to the streets, perhaps ordatn — that is what sred them the most, ” Cervi said of the FBI and Southern racist Kameny and Mattache Society of Washgton members marchg New York, June Tob Lahen / NYPLHowever, the homophile movement, at least New York and Washgton, never ma that aln a realy, Cervi said he the word “plagiarism” to scribe how Kameny ed civil rights tactics whout workg wh or credg the activists whose tactics he ed. Kuromiya -found the Gay Liberatn Front’s Philalphia chapter and beme a spokperson for a homosexual workshop at the Black Panther’s Revolutnary People's Constutnal Conventn September 1970, acrdg to gave a prentatn “to the huge dience of the nventn to applse, ” Ste said of Kuromiya, cg this as one of many exampl showg that the movements weren’t agmented or divid at the time some ci.

HEARG THE QUEER ROOTS OF BLACK LIV MATTERBY DAVID B. GREEN, JR.NATNAL CENTER FOR INSTUTNAL DIVERSY·FOLLOWPUBLISHED SPARK: ELEVATG SCHOLARSHIP ON SOCIAL ISSU·7 M READ·FEB 6, 2019--3LISTENSHARELEFT TO RIGHT AND TOP TO BOTTOM: JUNE JORDAN, PAT PARKER, MELV BOOZER, ASSOTTO SAT, AUDRE LOR, JOSEPH BEAM, BARBARA SMH, MARSHA P. JOHNSONTHIS PIECE IS A PART OF OUR SPARK SERI: THE BLACK RADIL TRADN OF RISTANCEWHEN PATRISSE KHAN-CULLERS, OPAL TOMETI, AND ALICIA GARZA — THE FOUNRS OF THE BLACK LIV MATTER MOVEMENT (BLM) — LLECTIVELY UTTERED THE PHRASE “BLACK LIV MATTER,” THEY HELPED TO REIGNE THE NTUED STGGLE FOR BLACK EEDOM, LIBERATN, AND JTICE THE UNED STAT. AS BLACK FEMISTS, THEY ROOTED THEIR FIGHT FOR EEDOM AND LIBERATN AN TERSECTNAL-JTICE PRAXIS THAT DISPTS THE TRADNAL AMEWORK OF BLACK ACTIVISM — A AMEWORK THAT HISTORILLY PRRIZED ADDRSG RACIAL JTICE OVER AND AGAST GENR JTICE AND SEXUAL EEDOM; A AMEWORK, WHOUT QUTN, THAT SILENCED AND SHUNNED “HOMOSEXUALY” AND OPENLY GAY ACTIVISTS ACROSS MUCH OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. AS THE BLACK LBIAN FEMIST AUDRE LOR OBSERV ABOUT THE 1960’S POLIL CLIMATE: “THE EXISTENCE OF BLACK LBIAN AND GAY PEOPLE WERE NOT EVEN ALLOWED TO CROSS THE PUBLIC NSCNS OF BLACK AMERI.” FOR BLACK GAYS AND LBIANS WHO WERE “OUT” AND SIRED LIBERATED-PUBLIC-POLIL PARTICIPATN, THE 1960’S BEME, LOR WR, NOT “A GUI FOR LIVG BUT A NEW SET OF SHACKL.”UNLIKE THE BLACK FREEDOM MOVEMENT OF THE 1950’S AND 1960’S, BLM IS HERENTLY A MOVEMENT STAED BY A POLICS OF BLACKNS THAT IS, CHARLENE CARTHERS REMDS , UNAPOLOGETILLY FEMIST, WOMANIST, AND QUEER. HOWEVER, WOULD BE UNWISE TO FET AND IGNORE THE BLACK QUEER CULTURAL AND POLIL NTEXT OM WHICH THIS MOVEMENT EMERG AND RTS UPON. THE POLIL SURGENCY OF BLM EVOK THE LIK OF EARLIER BLACK QUEER ACTIVISTS — LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR ACTIVISTS OF AIN SCENT — WHO, BEE OF TIME AND CIRCUMSTANCE, SPOKE VAR TON OF “HOW FELY PLEX ANY MOVE FOR LIBERATN MT BE.” INED, IF ONE WERE TO SEARCH FOR A HISTORIL NTEXT TO UNRSTAND THE IMPERATIVE AND VALUABLE NTEXT OF TODAY’S BLACK LIV MATTER MOVEMENT, THEN ONE WOULD HAVE TO TRACE S LEGACI ON THE PAGE AS WELL AS THE STAGE. WHILE BLACK LIV MATTER — ALL OF S GLORY, RHETORIC, AND POLIL PRAXIS — VERY MUCH DISPTS ANTI-BLACK PUBLICS, S LIVG LEGACY AS A NTEMPORARY POLIL MOVEMENT N BE TRACED TO BLACK QUEER ACTIVISM, WRG AND PUBLIC SPEECH THAT BOOK-END TWENTIETH CENTURY US POLICS AND EEDOM MOVEMENTS.BLACK & QUEER: A HEARG EN MASSEWHENEVER I RELL HEARG ALICIA GARZA SHARG THAT, RPONSE TO TRAYVON MART’S MURR — AND THE KILLG OF BLACK PEOPLE BY POLICE OFFICERS ACROSS THE UNED STAT — I NOT ONLY THK OF HOW SHE DID THGS WH WORDS, TO EVOKE J.L. AT, BUT HOW, HER EFFORTS “TRANSFORMG SILENCE TO LANGUAGE AND ACTN,” I HEAR SO MANY OF THE BLACK QUEER ACTIVISTS BEFORE HER TIME SPEAKG SUCH TTH TO POWER. AND I PECIALLY HEAR THE VOIC THAT EMERGED ACROSS THE LAST S OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, THE 1980’S AND 1990’S. I HEAR BLACK-TRANS ACTIVIST MARSHA P. JOHNSON PROCLAIMG THAT “THE STREETS BELONG TO THE PEOPLE” AS SHE, ALONG WH PUERTO RIN-TRANS ACTIVIST SYLVIA RIVERA, ARGUED THAT BLACK AND LATX TRANSGENR YOUTH LIVG NEW YORK CY HAVE A RIGHT TO WALK UP AND DOWN STREETS WHOUT THREAT OR HARM OM EVERYDAY FOLKX OR POLICE OFFICERS. I HEAR BOTH JUNE JORDAN’S “POEM ABOUT MY RIGHTS” AND “WHO LOOK AT ME?” PROCLAIMG A BLACK WOMAN’S SIGHT AS AGENCY AND EMPOWERMENT AND ANTI-BLACK SIGHT AS DANGERO; I HEAR THE AO-HAIAN ACTIVIST, POET, WRER, AND PLAYWRIGHT ASSOTTO SAT’S THEATRIL PRODUCTN RISG TO THE LOVE WE NEED AND HIS CHARACTERS “SGG THE SOULS OF BLACK GAYS AMERI;” I HEAR JOSEPH BEAM CLARG THE 1980’S THAT “BLACK MEN LOVG BLACK MEN IS A REVOLUTNARY ACT;” I HEAR DIS-DIVA SYLVTER AND ARCH-BISHOP CARL BEAN’S LYRIL FUNK, G MIC AS A POLIL STMENT TO ADDRS AND END DRAG/TRANS/ QUEER/HOMO-PHOBIA; I HEAR BARBARA SMH AND MEMBERS OF THE COMBAHEE RIVER COLLECTIVE CHURNG RADIL EEDOM DREAMS TO EEDOM PRACTIC CCIAL TO BLACK WOMEN SURVIVG AND THRIVG THEN AND NOW. I HEAR AUDRE LOR’S “NEED: A CHORALE OF BLACK WOMEN’S VOIC” — A POEM, FACT, THAT FORCED LOR TO STOP DRIVG AND PULL OVER ON THE SI OF THE ROAD TO REMEMBER THE LIV OF BLACK WOMEN KILLED BY AN OPPRSIVE NATN-STATE.WHENEVER SCHOLARS AND ACTIVISTS LIVER KEYNOTE ADDRS WH THE NTEXT OF BLACK LIV MATTER, I HEAR MELV DIXON’S KEYNOTE SPEECH AT THE 1992 OUT/WRE CONFERENCE BOSTON, WHERE HE CLAR THAT GAYS AND LBIANS ARE THE “SEXUAL NIGGERS OF SOCIETY.” AND, SIMULTANEOLY, I HEAR — AS A PREEMPTIVE REA TO DIXON’S SPEECH — DC ACTIVIST MELV BOOZER STANDG ONT OF MEMBERS AT THE DEMOCRATIC NATNAL CONVENTN, REJECTG, 1980, THE PARTY’S NOMATN FOR HIS NDIDACY FOR VICE PRINT OF THE UNED STAT. BOOZER’S POLIL SENSIBILY MEANT THAT HE REFED TO ROMANTICIZE POLIL PROGRS FOR THE SAKE OF CREASED POLIL VISIBILY, THORY, AND POWER. AS A BLACK GAY MAN, BOOZER WAS KEENLY AWARE OF HOW RACISM, GENR EQUALY, AND HOMOPHOBIA NOT ONLY ENTRENCHED HIS LIFE BUT NTUED TO HAVE A STRANGLEHOLD WH THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND ACROSS ON THE UNTRY. HE SPOKE, BOLDLY:“WOULD YOU ASK ME HOW I’D DARE TO PARE THE CIVIL RIGHTS STGGLE WH THE STGGLE FOR LBIAN AND GAY RIGHTS? I N PARE, AND I DO PARE THEM. I KNOW WHAT MEANS TO BE LLED A NIGGER. I KNOW WHAT MEANS TO BE LLED A FAGGOT. AND I N SUM UP THE DIFFERENCE ONE WORD: NONE.” —MELV BOOZERBIGOTRY IS BIGOTRY.LIKE MANY BLACK AND CHIN@ FEMISTS BEFORE THEM, “THE TWO MELVS” UNRSTOOD THAT THERE ULD BE NO HIERARCHY OF OPPRSN. AS BLACK GAY MEN, THEY MAND THAT ANY FIGHT FOR SOCIAL JTICE BE TERSECTNAL.MOVEMENT BLACK: ALWAYS

Marshall’s legal strategy, which volved g the due procs and equal protectn cls of the 14th Amendment, served as a mol that the LGBTQ movement ed to challenge the crimalizatn of homosexualy and the nial of marriage rights.

Outlg the group’s posn on the two emergg movements, Newton wrote: “Whatever your personal opns and your securi about homosexualy and the var liberatn movements among homosexuals and women (and I speak of the homosexuals and women as opprsed groups), we should try to une wh them a revolutnary fashn. That tersectn is as old as the morn fight for LGTBQ rights, and perhaps no moment illtrat that as well as the movement’s most famo turng pot: the 1969 Stonewall Rts, the uprisg sparked by a police raid at a gay bar New York Cy’s Greenwich Village neighborhood, and the tone to which Pri Month is pegged. As they are today, members of the LGBTQ muny were disproportnately targeted by police durg the 1950s and 1960s, “the most homophobic perd Amerin history, ” says historian Hugh Ryan, thor of When Brooklyn Was Queer: A History.

EFFY’S BIG GAY BLOCK PLAC LGBTQ PRO WRTLG THE DTRY’S NARRATIVE

Trans women of lor played a key role the Augt 1966 Compton Cafeteria Rts San Francis, and a police raid on the Black Cat tavern Los Angel on New Years’ Day 1967 rulted anized public protts agast police harassment of gay, trans and genr non-nformg people. For historian Ryan, the Haven Rt 1970, which took place at the Haven gay bar Greenwich Village, was also a landmark event and monstrat that there was a nsistency to the ancy beyond the sgular moment of Stonewall. The fact that several members of the Black Panther Party, cludg Angela Davis, Afeni Shakur and Joan Bird, had also spent time the prison speaks to the shared nnectns a broar stggle, Ryan says, as lks emerged between the Black Panther Party, the Gay Liberatn Front, radil lbians and the femist and women’s movements.

It was after she saw the prison how the opprsn of gay people was nnected to the opprsn of mori that Afeni Shakur went on to anize a meetg between the Black Panther Party and the Gay Liberatn Front at Jane Fonda’s penthoe apartment on the Upper East si 1970. But the tth is, the two Black gay men are the foundg rnerston of the Black Pri experience that lns experience yearly and the policy advancements that have slowed the spread of HIV/AIDS and uplifted the fac and voic of the Black LGBTQIA muny the U. As a native of Newport News, Virgia, or as he scrib , "a son of the segregated south, " Pannell's anizg for gay liberatn, which kicked off the summer of 1969 the Greenwich Village, found a home the District.

As a founr of both Black Pri and a one-time lear the Capal Pri ftival, Hopks has been a leadg advote for changg how the Centers for Disease Control and Preventn rpond to the proliferatn of HIV/AIDS among Black gay men. He explored issu of sexualy and black inty his work, and his avant-gar story “Smoke, Lili, and Ja” is thought to be the first explicly gay story published by a black RUSTIN (1912-1987)Bayard Rt his Park Avenue South office New York Cy, April 1969.

THAT’S WHAT I THK: GAY MEN CAN FIGHT!

In 2013, Rt was posthumoly award the Printial Medal of Freedom, the natn’s hight civilian honor, for his tirels work promotg equal BALDWIN (1924-1987)Author Jam BaldwTed Thai / LIFE Picture Collectn/Getty“There isn't a sgle black gay wrer of lerary fictn or nonfictn that has not been fluenced by Jam Baldw on some level, " Charl Stephens, executive director of the Counter Narrative Project, told NBC News.

A wrer and social cric, Baldw is perhaps bt known for his 1955 llectn of says, "Not of a Native Son, " and his groundbreakg 1956 novel, "Gvanni's Room, " which picts them of homosexualy and AILEY (1931-1989)Dancer and choreographer Alv Ailey.

"RON ODEN (Born 1950)Ron On, April 18, Khan / LA Tim via Getty ImagWhen On was elected mayor of Palm Sprgs, California, 2003, he ma history by beg the first openly gay Ain-Amerin man elected mayor of an Amerin cy, acrdg to The Advote. Held the "world’s first permted para advotg for gay rights, " a fact Christopher Street Wt still highlights on s webse to this Shalae, a Beyoncé impersonator who performed at the march, said that when she first moved to Los Angel, she uldn't persua whe-owned LGBTQ bars and clubs to book her for performanc. The bsman and his wife, Melissa, first plaed to the Front Porch proprietors about pre-dawn vendor liveri 2019, not long after the nservative Christian uple moved their fancial firm right next door to the rtrant, which fli a gay Pri flag.

INTRODUCG THE MOST OUTRAGEOLY GAY FIGHT VIO OF ALL TIME

(Front Porch Market and Grill)What’s more, the Washers say, the ad rat was jt one more sult that the uple, who once planted an “all liv matter” sign their ont yard, have endured sce movg next door to a rtrant owned by a gay uple. They married 2020, five years after they opened the Front Porch, which quickly beme a statn The Front Porch has been flyg a Pri flag on s pat sce 2016, not long after a gunman killed 49 people a gay bar Orlando.

“I had so many threats agast me that even the Dallas police statned squad rs outsi our home, ” Waybourn an activist, Waybourn says, his goals were clear: same-sex marriage, gays and lbians the ary, accs to lifavg medic.

LIL NAS X CALLS OUT BET FOR AWARDS SNUB: 'BLACK GAY PEOPLE HAVE TO FIGHT TO BE SEEN'

“I have que a few gay iends, clients and a fay member, and I have patronized a gay-owned rtrant for years, ” he whether the Washers are tryg to remake The Plas to their image of Ameri — Whe, nservative, Christian — Melissa said, “I n see where you’re g om.

They argued that the visibily of same-sex sire among people of Ain scent stori about the past was one of a nstellatn of factors that explaed the disproportnate impact of the disease on Black gay men. Activists saw the tellg of a “plete” history that acknowledged the signifince—and sexualy—of figur such as Bayard Rt, Richard Bce Nugent, and Gladys Bentley as a unterweight to the homophobic attus Black muni that led gays and lbians to lead a “double life.