Contents:
- MAKINGGAYHISTORY—THE PODCAST
- TO BE YOUNG, GIFTED AND BLACK AND GAY: LORRAE HANSBERRY
- LORRAE HANSBERRY'S GAY POLICS
MAKINGGAYHISTORY—THE PODCAST
By necsy, her engagement wh the homophile movement remaed hidn, but 1957, the DOB’s magaze, The Ladr, published two letters she submted.
———Episo TranscriptEric Marc Narratn: I’m Eric Marc, and this is Makg Gay History.
” One em ma both lists: “my homosexualy. ”——— Many thanks to everyone who mak Makg Gay History possible: senr producer Nahanni Ro, -producer and puty director Inge De Taeye, d engeer Jeff Towne, rearcher Brian Ferree, photo edor Michael Green, genealogist Michael Leclerc, and our social media team, Cristiana Peña, Nick Porter, and Den Louren. Our theme mic was posed by Frz Gay History is a -productn of Peapple Street Studs, wh assistance om the New York Public Library’s Mancripts and Archiv Divisn and the ONE Archiv at the USC eight of this podst is produced associatn wh the Studs Terkel Rad Archive, which is managed by WFMT partnership wh the Chigo History Mm.
TO BE YOUNG, GIFTED AND BLACK AND GAY: LORRAE HANSBERRY
Stay touch wh Makg Gay History by signg up for our newsletter at Our webse is also where you’ll fd prev episos, archival photos, full transcripts, and addnal rmatn on each of the people and stori we long! She first wished to dispel the ia of “wishg to foster any strict separatist notns, homo or hetero. ” In a readg of the “homosexual” lerature that was not apparently her first, Hansberry negotiated the problem of difference, showg a sensivy to need to fd separate and to jo, and monstrated remarkable aptns at applyg an unrstandg of the civil rights movement to the qutn of lbianism.
After addrsg the needs of separatism, Hansberry pared the dictat of black rpectabily to the homophile’s adoptn of a siar strategy, argug that the “most splendid argument is simple and to the pot, Ralph Bunche, wh all his clean fgernails, gre, and, of urse, unniable service to the human race, uld still be sulted, nied a hotel room or meal many parts of our untry. On the other, Hansberry ma a number of observatns about the homophile movement that seemed to reflect a staed readg of The Ladr and more than a passg tert lbian issu. ” She readily analogized the se of Ain Amerins to that of homosexualy, but did so om the si.
LORRAE HANSBERRY'S GAY POLICS
” Of this scene, Hansberry wonred if the Wt Coast was more prejudicial than the East Coast, and therefore had spawned more homophile groups, or if they were “Pneers still? “As for this homosexualy thg (how long sce I have thought or wrten of that way—as some kd of enty! ” In the new materials, evince of several passnate relatnships nfirms the speculatn sparked by the letters: Hansberry not only subscribed to homophile magaz, cludg ONE, but also rrpond wh several women wh whom she clearly had tense physil relatnships.
The only exceptns to the silence of the closet me om a few gay and lbian archivists and wrers. Del Mart and Phyllis Lyon’s 1972 lbian anthology, Lbian/Woman, referred directly to Hansberry, observg that “many black women who been volved the homophile movement found themselv forced to make a choice between two ‘Cs’ that touched their liv so timately, ” and that “One of them wrote a play that was a h on Broadway. Some years later apparently Nemiroff, or perhaps another archivist, clipped the pag of Jonathan Katz’s Gay Amerin History (pag 5 and 425) that reference her letters to the Ladr, and posed them her personal papers, but this was the extent of his abily or tentns to clu, much ls regnize a public way, Hansberry’s enthiasm for the homophile movement and passns for other women.
Characters a third play, “L Blancs”, which was unfished at her ath, clud a gay uple. Hansberry worked tirelsly to end racism, sexism, and eventually homophobia.