Making Queer History has a vague title because it has a rather vague purpose. We are not alone in our aim to tell the queer community’s history. What defines us is our focus not only on the past, but toward the future.
Frida Kahlo's life seems best encompassed by three themes: her art, her politics, and her love. To explore these themes properly, however, we must look at where she came from. Frida herself states that she was born in La Casa Azul, just outside of Mexico City. Her parents were Matilde Calderon y Gonzalez and Guillermo Kahlo. Guillermo was a photographer who had spent part of his life in Germany, but who emigrated to Mexico due to Jewish ancestry.
Gianni Versace was a well-known man, and the details of his life and death are readily available, so it’s easy to imagine that there isn’t much to say about him that hasn’t already been said. However, there is much still left unsaid about the man who had his life entangled with Versace’s for fifteen years. His name is one that rarely shares a headline with Versace's, but it does not lack importance: Antonio D'Amico.
Taking a cursory glance over the lives of lesbians throughout history.
A man who was integral in the formation of Portuguese music and queer culture: António Variações. Variações was a man who had an impressively eclectic musical career alongside influence on his country's political side. As he was becoming popular shortly after the Carnation Revolution, he was at the forefront of a huge social and political shift, pushing his country towards acceptance through his music.
Anderson Bigode Herzer was a transgender poet from Brazil who never reached the level of fame he deserved. Herzer was a young poet who was deeply traumatized throughout his youth and died far too young. Though he did not have a long life, he did have an eventful one.
There are times when a tactical retreat is necessary for a battle. Those fighting against the queer community were fighting with fire, while the queer community was fighting with flowers. Even though it was not intended, a rainbow was seen as an attack against a homophobic government. It incited anger in politicians and the general populous alike. Not only does this speak to the power of art, but it speaks to the nature of the queer community. Though not passive folk; while some may fight with flowers, they fight. Finding a symbol where one was not intended, and using it, to stand up against those who find not only queer symbols but queer existence incendiary.
Sir Ewan Forbes was born into a noble family, and later in life gained the title of baronet. From a young age, Ewan was not interested in conforming to gender norms. Through most of his childhood, Ewan was able to avoid acting and dressing as Scottish society expected him to and was only seen in traditionally female clothing on special occasions. Most of his life, that easiness followed him as it did for most people who were born into a privileged family like his.
While a rebellious aristocrat is not a rare narrative, one who was jailed and exiled for her political efforts, and married her female secretary and partner of twenty years on her deathbed, is less commonplace. The phenomenon of a privileged person using their privilege for the good of others isn't unheard of, Luisa Isabel Álvarez de Toledo, 21st Duchess of Medina Sidonia approached it with a fervent strength that is rare.
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson is best known as a pioneer in his home country in the fight for the decriminalization of gay relationships. This week, we move to Norway to look at his relationships with men and his stance in society for gay people’s rights.
A warrior, artist, and incredibly valued person in the Crow nation, Osh-Tisch was a baté person and is remembered as one of the last baté people to have existed before colonizers committed genocide against this part of Crow culture. A baté person is a person who is born with a body that many European cultures of the time designated as male, and later is discovered to be a woman and is accepted as a woman in Crow culture.
Oscar Wilde, playwright, poet, and novelist, was a well-known author when he was alive and thrived in the artistic society of his time. He is remembered for his incredibly influential work even now. Many of his works are still taught in school, though they are often edited in an attempt to minimize the heavy queer themes (among them is the green carnation, which is theorized to symbolize a queer character). He is a well-known and well-liked historical figure even in the heterosexual community, but let’s look at what the heterosexual community did to him while still alive.
David Kato is considered the father of the queer movement in Uganda, as well as the first openly gay man in Uganda. He was also well-known in international politics for his work in his country. However, it was incredibly dangerous for him to even be on the radar in Uganda, as same-sex relationships are illegal as of when this article was written in 2023, and all throughout David Kato’s life.
While this is not the first time, we have discussed more than one person in an article, as we consider this couple we must realize the difference between them and the other couples we've discussed. Jane and Paul Bowles were married in 1938 and stayed together until the day Jane died, and both of them were queer. In this queer couple, we find a deep platonic love that sustained both of these artists throughout their tumultuous lives.
We had a number of different ideas for the article this week. However, we as a staff cannot disconnect ourselves from the shooting in Orlando. We thought of writing about the history of queer bars, the history of queer organizations, and we have written and deleted more than three articles at this point. We are now trying to find the balance between respectful silence and outright ignorance of a tragedy. If we fail in finding that, we apologize.
We now shift from one prolific writer to another: Langston Hughes. A leading force in the Harlem Renaissance, a poet, a scholar, an activist, and a black man, Hughes spoke unashamedly of his experiences with racism in a still heavily segregated America.
