When speaking about Gay Power and Gay Rights, we cannot forget about the enormous contribution and important role black people play in. In honor of the Black Lives Matter movement during Pride Month, here are some of the prominent black figures within the LGBT+ community who have dedicated their lives fighting for Gay Rights.
Marsha P. Johnson
Marsha P. Johnson was a black transgender activist for gay rights. Johnson had a difficult childhood due to upbringing in a Christia household. She was always quickly reprimanded for trying on stereotypically female clothes. After graduating high school, she moved to New York City, became homeless, and had to become a prostitute if she wanted to make ends meet. At night, she was a drag performer. Despite the ordeals she had to endure solely based on her skin color, and gender, she never gave up nor stopped fighting for her community. Many know her as a prominent figure during the Stonewall Riot, but she was also a strong advocate for sex workers, and HIV/ AIDS, and social justice and co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries with Sylvia Riveria and opened a house to shelter homeless LGBT+ youth. During the time, transgender people, especially black transpeople, were not widely accepted by both the LGBT+ community and the dominant culture (which is made up of cis-gendered, heterosexual, white males). Marsha P. Johnson helped make the LGBT+ community more inclusive, especially since racial minorities were tremendously overlooked within the LGBT+ community. In fact, she was hated by the LGBT+ community itself; they hadn't supported transgender people then. Despite their discouragements, she fought for both transgender people and her gay brothers and sisters without discrimination or biases. She helped give them a voice and let them be heard. Johnson did not care what others think and was never afraid of speaking up her mind. She had inspired everyone around her, "I don't think Marsha has left anything behind beside the permission for us all to be free."
Patrik Ian Polk
Patrik Ian Polk is an openly gay film director who is known for his films on the African American LGBT+ experience and relationships. With the goal of creating more diversity in representation in Hollywood, he has made many movies where the leads are non-white and non-straight. One of his movies- Blackbird- is about a devout high school choir boy who struggles with his sexuality while living in his conservative Mississippi town. Polk’s captivating, moving, entertaining, but hard to forget 2008 film Noah's Ark: Jumping The Broom is a movie about the lives and loves of four gay African-American men, won a GLAAD Award for Best Feature Film and was nominated for three NAACP awards. The Skinny, Punks, and Have Plenty are also a few more of his movies that share the experience of what it is like to be gay and black in America. Talk about intersectionality and diversity!
Sylvester
Sylvester James Jr, who was known mononymously as Sylvester, was an American singer and songwriter in the late 1970s and 1980s. He was also a significant activist during the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the late '80s. It was Sylvester’s androgynous appearance, drag costumes, and falsetto voice that could reach the high heavens that had helped him rose to international fame. A few of his biggest hits include DO Ya Wanna Funk, Dance (Disco Heat), You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real).
Audre Lorde
Lorde was an American writer, feminist, womanist, librarian, and Civil Rights activist. She dedicated her talents in writing to address injustices of racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism, and homophobia. The writer was also actively involved in the gay culture of Greenwich Village.
Kye Allums
Kye Allums was the first openly transgender athlete in NCAA Division I sports history when he came out as a trans man in 2010. Not only is he a transgender advocate, but he also holds many other titles such as a public speaker, artist, and mentor to LGBT+ youth. The Project I Am Enough, founded by Allum, is a project dedicated to encouraging self-love & self-definition for everyone.
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