It Gets Better

[It Gets Better]

This week’s #BlackHistoryMonth queer pioneer is Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, trans activist and the original Executive Director for the Transgender Gender Variant Intersex Justice Project!
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Growing up in Chicago, Griffin-Gracy attended drag balls and relied on the black market for hormones to transition. Having been kicked out of two colleges for her identity, she moved to New York City and grew into her activism as a supporter of trans rights, finding solace at the Stonewall Inn and participating in the uprising.
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Today, Griffin-Gracy focuses her activism on intersectionality and the safety of young trans women: “I’d like for the girls to get a chance to be who they are. For young transgender people to go to school, learn like everyone else does, and then get out there and live their lives, not afraid or thinking that the only solution for them is death.”

[It Gets Better]

Meet queer pioneer Stormé Delarverie! As a biracial woman born in New Orleans, Delarvarie made her way to New York City where she performed as a singer, often in drag, and would come to be known as the “Rosa Parks” of NYC’s LGBTQ+ community.

Identifying as a lesbian, Delarverie was on the forefront of “butch” fashion culture in the ‘40s and '50s, blurring the lines between a masculine and feminine appearance, and often performing on stage as a man.

While there are conflicting accounts as to who sparked the Stonewall uprising, some believe DeLarverie’s arrest and a subsequent scuffle with police ignited the action. She referred to the event not as a riot, but as “a rebellion, an uprising, it was a civil rights disobedience.” She would serve as a bouncer at many lesbian bars, and as a member of the Stonewall Veterans’ Association, being known as a rough-and-tumble protector and guardian of the local LGBTQ+ community.

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Marsha P. Johnson was an #lgbtq rights activist at the forefront of the Stonewall Riots. She went on to co-found STAR, an organization benefiting #queer youth experiencing homelessness. Today, we honor her contributions to the queer community as part of #BlackHistoryMonth.

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Bayard Rustin was a civil and LGBTQ+ rights activist best known for working alongside Martin Luther King Jr. Today, we remember his contributions as part of #blackhistorymonth. Learn more about Rustin, his partner Walter Naegle and the documentarian who retold their love story by clicking here: https://youtu.be/SJM_C9oub9Q

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Throughout February we’ll be highlighting the stories of #Black #LGBTQ+ historical figures. Follow along as we honor these trailblazers! #blackhistorymonth

[It Gets Better]

Zora Neale Hurston has been called “The Queen of the Harlem Renaissance,“ and her masterwork novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God” enjoys a prominent place in the American canon of literature.

Hurston’s writing career spanned the late 1920s and well into the 1930s. The stories she told were distinctly black, and distinctly female, resonating among the generations of writers in her footsteps witnessing how powerful the voice of the voiceless can be. Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison have cited her as a major influence.

It is often speculated that Zora Neale Hurston was gay, though it is not definitively known. Regardless, her insistence on fearlessly writing with a loud voice despite requests for silence is a powerful motivator for the LGBTQ community today accessing her writing so many decades later.