October is National LGBTQ+ History Month. Proposed in 1994 by Rodney Wilson, the first openly gay Missouri public school teacher, this 31-day celebration honors queer history and the history of LGBTQ+ civil rights movements. The month of October was chosen to align with National Coming Out Day, celebrated on October 11, and the anniversary of the 1979 March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, October 14. As this LGBTQ+ History Month comes to its conclusion, I want to commemorate some of the most influential voices in queer activism.
“History isn’t something you look back at and say it was inevitable. It happens because people make decisions that are sometimes very impulsive and of the moment, but those moments are cumulative realities.”
Marsha P. Johnson
Bayard Rustin (1912-1987)
Bayard Rustin was a prominent figure in the African American Civil Rights Movement, as well as the Gay Rights Movement. Rustin was a close advisor to civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., and was active in the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). In 1953, Rustin was caught having sex with a man and was subsequently arrested. He served 50 days in a California jail for this “crime” and was required to register as a sex offender. It took 67 years for him to be pardoned in 2020. Once outed as a gay man, Rustin was open, proud, and claimed his sexuality. He was a strong advocate for Gay Rights and AIDS education. In 1986, Rustin testified for the New York Gay Rights Bill, stating, “gay people are the new barometer for social change.”
Barbara Gittings (1932-2007)
Barbara Gittings, nicknamed the “Mother of the Gay Rights Movement,” was one of the first lesbian activists in the US. Gittings served on the board of directors of the first national LBGTQ+ rights organization, the National Gay Task Force, now called the National LGBTQ+ Task Force, and was a member and eventually the president of the first lesbian rights organization, Daughters of Bilitis. Gittings participated in more controversial or “radical” activism of her time, such as the first picket of the White House for homosexual rights in 1965. Gittings lobbied to remove homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). At the 1972 American Psychiatric Association (APA) conference in Dallas, she and partners did something never seen before: they had a gay psychiatrist anonymously speak about his experience. A year later, homosexuality was removed from the DSM.
Audre Lorde (1934-1992)
Audre Lorde was a Black lesbian who emphasized the importance of intersectional activism, focusing on the convergence of gender, racial, and sexual oppression. Lorde worked as a school librarian as well as an English teacher and professor, but she is most known for her political activism expressed through her poetry. In 1980, three years after being diagnosed with cancer, Lorde published her book The Cancer Journals, which detailed her experience battling breast cancer, particularly as a Black lesbian woman. In 1981, her book won the American Library Association’s Gay Caucus Book of the Year award. Nine years after Lorde passed away from breast cancer, the Publishing Triangle, an association for gays and lesbians in publishing, instituted the Audre Lorde Award for distinguished works of lesbian poetry in 2001.
Marsha P. Johnson (1945-1992)
Marsha P. Johnson was a Black transgender woman and one of the most renowned LGBTQ+ rights activists of the twentieth century. Black transgender women were, and still are treated as disadvantages in the societal hierarchy. Because they felt like they had the least to lose, they were often the most vocal and active in the Gay Rights Movement. Johnson participated in the 1969 Stonewall Riots, which catalyzed the Gay Rights Movement. After the first Gay Rights parade in 1970, several groups and organizations were formed such as the Gay Liberation Front, and the Gay Activist Alliance. Johnson joined these groups, but became increasingly frustrated with the lack of support for transgender rights and people of color. In 1970, Johnson and fellow transgender activist Sylvia Rivera founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR). STAR was dedicated to supporting transgender youth, along with STAR House, which provided group homes for ostracized trans kids. Many transgender women at the were not accepted by society and could not get hired at a traditional job, so Johnson followed suit of many trans sisters and made a living a sex worker. In 1990, Johnson contracted H.I.V. and spoke publicly about her diagnosis. She advocated strongly against the fear and prejudice shown towards H.I.V. positive patients. In July of 1992, Marsha P. Johnson’s body was discovered in the Hudson River. While her death was initially ruled a suicide, many still remain doubtful. According to the New York Anti-Violence Project, 1992 was the worst year on record at the time for anti-LGBTQ+ violence. While her cause of death may never be known, her impact on Gay and Transgender Rights will never be forgotten.
Billie jean king (1943-)
Billie Jean King is a world-renowned former professional tennis player as well as an outspoken Women’s and Gay Rights activist. King won 39 major titles and set various records throughout her tennis career. In 1972, King became Sports Illustrated’s first female Sportsperson of the Year, which was then called Sportsman of the Year. Also in 1972, King publicly admitted to having an abortion and supported abortion rights efforts. In 1981, it was revealed to the public that King was in a relationship with another woman, while still married to a man. King confirmed that she was in fact in a lesbian relationship and became the first openly LGBTQ+ athlete. However, she subsequently lost all of her endorsement deals. King divorced her husband, and is still with her partner and fellow tennis athlete, Ilana Kloss. In 2009, King was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama for her achievements and activism. In 2014, King and Kloss founded the Billie Jean King Leadership Initiative, a non-profit aimed at fighting workplace inequality and discrimination.
“Equality means more than passing laws. The struggle is really won in the hearts and minds of the community, where it really counts.”
Barbara Gittings
