Tag: Queer History
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Stonewall and the History of LGBT Rights
In 1969, a police raid on the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, New York, prompted an uprising and subsequent demonstrations which would have a lasting impact on the LGBTQ+ community. Seth Silverberg explores this pivotal event and the legacy which grew from it.
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‘Do What You Want, Just Know What You’re Doing’: The Life of Jackie Shane
Born in Nashville, Jackie Shane came to be a prominent figure in the Toronto soul music scene. However, as a Black, transgender woman in the 1960s, she was forced to overcome racism and homophobia – something which fed into her dynamic performances. Megan Crutchley discusses Shane’s powerful legacy.
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LGBT History in India: A Colonial Legacy
In 2018, India overturned the section of the Indian Penal Code that criminalised homosexuality. Sophie Whitehead investigates the legacy that British colonialism has left on India’s attitudes towards LGBT people.
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“Know No Shame”: Black Sails and Writing the Historical Fiction of Sexuality
Written by Jess Womack. The television series, Black Sails, approaches the question of “pre-modern” sexuality. Through a range of individual experiences, it offers a route to writing the historical fiction of sexuality.
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“Deviant” Representation & Narrative Reclamation
Written by Justin Biggi. The Dionysian frescoes housed in Pompeii’s Villa of the Mysteries have confused scholars since their discovery. Yet, work by artists involved in the Visual AIDS collective may offer one route to interpreting these Ancient frescoes.
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The Combahee River Collective and Intersectionality in the Age of Identity
Written by Jess Womack. The Combahee River Collective grew out of disillusionments with “mainstream” feminism. Founded in the early 1980s by Black queer women, the Collective developed an “intersectional” approach to political activism.
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Queering the Bodysnatchers: McCarthyism and Moral Panic in the 1950s.
Written by Jess Womack. Queer identities and communism were viewed as inextricably linked in the eyes of many Americans. Although not a direct metaphor, Jack Finney’s 1954 horror novel, The Body Snatchers, can be understood as a warning against the general ‘un-american undesirable’ and reflected the anxieties of its time.
Retrospect Journal 