Happy LGBTQ+ Black History Month!

Afternoon fabulous people!

Today is the first day of Black History Month.

People of color are hardly talked about, at least in my experience, in history class.

Queer people of color? Not at all. 

LGBTQ+ Black folks are erased from the dialogue when discussing important contributions made in U.S culture. 

Or they may be mentioned but their sexuality or gender identity is left out. 

I feel its important to mention the intersectionality in these people's identities, 

It can show how a part of their identity impacted their life 

(Positively and/or Negatively)

And how they continued on to greatness, 

Creating Art, Making scientific discoveries, Being activists and more!

For the next 28 days, I will be featuring an LGBTQ+ Black person who did something significant, or continues to do amazing things. 

"LGBTQ Black folks have been major contributors to society and social justice movements for hundreds of years! From the famous scientist George Washington Carver to the legendary blues singer Ma Rainey – LGBTQ Black figures have made long-lasting contributions and have had a significant influence on U.S. culture. It is important for GSAs to celebrate the contributions of Black LGBTQ people and to advocate for the visibility of these important historical figures. Recognizing how interconnected our oppressions are makes our movements stronger."

-GSA Network

Lets kick it off with Bayard Rustin!

Bayard Rustin

Born Mar. 17, 1910- Aug. 24, 1987

Civil Rights Activist

Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream—and a gay ally who helped make it come true. A pacifist and activist, Bayard Rustin (1912-1987) learned to take a nonviolent yet effective stand for equality from his grandmother, Julia, and the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. In his youth, Rustin rallied against Jim Crow laws and the racially charged case against the Scottsboro boys.  Later, he debated Malcolm X, stressing the importance of seeing the world’s various races as one big family.

Rustin first met King in 1956, when Rustin helped organize the Montgomery Bus Boycott. He educated MLK in Gandhian nonviolent protest principles and went on to organize the 1963 March on Washington, where King made his immortal “I had a dream” speech.

But Rustin’s homosexuality posed a problem: Some civil rights leaders took issue with it, while members of the U.S. government used Rustin’s sexuality—and his arrest in 1953 for a “sex perversion” offense—to undermine his effectiveness.  Senator Strom Thurmond, in particular, blasted Rustin as a “Communist, draft-dodger, and homosexual” in 1963 and had his arrest file entered in the congressional record.  (Thurmond also produced an FBI photo of Rustin and MLK chatting while the latter was taking a bath, to suggest the two were lovers.)

Before views about homosexuality softened, much of Rustin’s accomplishments in the civil rights movement went unsung, though they are chronicled in the brilliant documentary Brother Outsider.

By the 1970s, Rustin began championing gay rights more directly: In a 1986 speech, “The New N*****s Are Gay,” he drew an explicit connection between the struggles of the black and LGBT communities:

“Today, blacks are no longer the litmus paper or the barometer of social change. Blacks are in every segment of society and there are laws that help to protect them from racial discrimination. The new ‘n*****s’ are gays. It is in this sense that gay people are the new barometer for social change. The question of social change should be framed with the most vulnerable group in mind: gay people.”

 "We are all one. And if we don't know it, we will learn it the hard way."
-Bayard Rustin

Info from: queerty.com