Category: #QueerHeroes

In June of 2018, I began posting a brief bio and picture/video of a different queer hero every day to Facebook to celebrate Pride. The posts became invigorating to write and research; a way to commemorate the reasons Pride exists.

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#QueerHeroes Day 30 – Us.

#QueerHeroes Day 30 – Us.

I began doing this series because I’m constantly in awe of our collective magnificence.

The trans drag queens of 1890s New York who started the first trans rights group in the attic of a queer brothel. The queers who formed a kickline in the faces of the riot police outside of Stonewall. The activists of ACT UP who protested and taught themselves pharmacology—as their friends were dying—until the pharmaceutical companies themselves were consulting them on the best way to get life saving drugs developed and distributed. And so many more.

The colors of the rainbow flag are rich but not nearly as rich as the vibrant, majestic tapestry of our history. We are everywhere, in every subset of every culture and every phenotype. We are timeless, existing in every era.

This is something to marvel at, but it should also be a call to action. There is so much left to do and we can’t be eternally drunk off the euphoria that comes with living in the light. Too many of us are still forced into the shadows.

There’s a wealth of lessons to learn from the people I’ve featured this month, but the most important, to me, is that any one of us has the capacity to be a queer hero. So many of the people I’ve shared this month were scoffed at for the actions that immortalize them today. Your actions may seem insignificant but, I swear to you, they’re revolutionary. Make art. Embrace each other. Do crimes. Call grown men “Mary.”

Let spitting in the face of life’s mundanity be the symphony of your existence.

I love you all, you beautiful, perfect freaks.

“The great work begins.”

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#QueerHeroes Day 29 – Gilbert Baker.

#QueerHeroes Day 29 –
Gilbert Baker.

Baker was an army medic stationed in San Francisco in the 60’s. He was out even then and later honorably discharged. While working to pass one of California’s first marijuana legalization bills, a fellow activist taught him to sew.

He began making banners for early queer rights organizations and later joined the drag activist group Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (he’d quit later, saying that Evangelists had begun using them as propaganda).

In 1978, he designed a flag meant to symbolize the entire LGBTQ community. It was a rainbow constructed of eight colors: Hot pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for art, indigo for serenity, and violet for spirit. He never trademarked the design because he said it was for the LGBTQ community. He and thirty activists stitched the first two flags for San Francisco’s Gay Freedom Day Parade.

He moved to New York in the 90s, creating special editions of the flag to commemorate Stonewall anniversaries. One stretched from Key West to the Gulf of Mexico.

Baker passed away in his sleep in 2017.

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#QueerHeroes Day 28 – Elliot Page

#QueerHeroes Day 26 – Elliot Page
I feel like Elliot Page perfectly captured this trend of queer “anti comedy” comedy with “Juno” (in no small part to Diablo Cody’s brilliant script).
Even though his sexuality had been more or less an open secret in the queer community, no one was expecting him to come out in his 2013 HRC speech (video in comments). He came as an ally and left as a sibling with the immortal words:
“I’m here because I am gay.“
You could see the relief of the admission overtake him, as it overtook so many of us when we said the words out loud.
Since then, he’s become a tireless activist for our community. You can currently catch him in the reboot of “Tales of the City” on Netflix.
(Since this was written, Elliot Page has come out as transgender. His name and pronouns have been edited here to reflect that)
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#QueerHeroes Day 27 – Miss Major

#QueerHeroes Day 27 – Miss Major

She was kicked out of two colleges for being transgender. The ostracism mobilized her to become an activist.

On June 27, 1969, she met with a friend at the Stonewall inn. The infamous raid occurred and she was one of the queers leading the charge against police. She was struck in the head by a cop and taken to jail, where another cop would break her jaw.

She would move to the west coast at the height of the AIDS epidemic. In addition to her activism on behalf of incarcerated trans women, she would provide health care and organize funerals for those succumbing to AIDS.

Her activism and organizing remain steadfast today. Miss Major isn’t going anywhere.

 

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#QueerHeroes Day 26 – Alexander Chee

#QueerHeroes Day 26 – Alexander Chee

Chee’s fiction is hypnotic, but I’m always most entranced by his essays. He turns everyday experiences into symphonies.

Planting a garden suddenly becomes as arduous and majestic as giving birth. A catering gig becomes a tale of overwhelming intimacy and quiet heartbreak.

I encourage all of you to read his collection HOW TO WRITE AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOVEL first. He introduces himself better than I ever could with this brief bio.

It details his relationship with his father and family, his AIDS activism in San Francisco, experiencing life as a writer, and more. You’ll undoubtedly learn a bit about yourself too.