They must’ve been women, ‘cause I don’t like no men…
They say I did it, ‘nobody caught me,
They sure got to prove it on me
…
It’s true I wear a collar and a tie
George Hannah - The Boy in the Boat
Notable lyrics:
When you see two men walking hand in hand.
Just look ‘em over and try to understand.
They’ll go to these parties have their lights down low.
Only those parties were women can go.
You think I’m lying, just ask Tack Anne.
Took many a broad from many a man.
Bessie Jackson/Lucille Bogan - B.D. (Bulldyke) Women’s Blues
Notable lyrics:
Comin’ a time, BD Women, they ain’t goin’ to need no men.
Oh, the way they treat us is a low down and dirty thing.
Capturing the complex attitudes regarding female homosexual relations in music is no easy task. In 1920s Harlem, Blues echoed the era’s and the sophisticated Harlemites sentiments on wlw relations.
The blues songs sought to be obvious about the lesbianism, titillate their listeners, and reach a wide audience through humour:
I know women that don’t like men.
The way they do is a crying sin.
It’s dirty but good, oh yes, it’s just dirty but good.
As you can see/hear, these artists were successful in their endeavours. Presenting lesbian stereotypes allowed the listeners recognize the situations and sexual daring, to either find them affirming (if wlw) or provocative and humorous. In fact, Historians describe one lesbian song “BD’s Dream” as one of the most heard songs in rent parties in the 1920s and 1930s.
Source:Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers by Lillian Faderman, and (x).
You know when your (probably) white, male, straight, and cis friend asks you ‘if you could time travel to any time period, where would you go?’ Then proceed to refuse to accept answers such as ‘no where. The present is the best time to be me believe it or not’ or ‘the future’ - if you are a black wlw, don’t worry. I’ve got you covered.
Next time this nuisance appears answer: Harlem, 1920s.
Here’s why:
The black lesbian subculture thrived in Harlem and was very influential. For instance, it has been inferred that the “butche/femme” patterns were first found in Harlem and thereafter became an identifiable image in other wlw subcultures.
Harlem was by no means a homophobia-free zone in the 1920s. Nevertheless, the tolerance was sufficient enough for black lesbians to socialize openly in their own communities, which white lesbians generally couldn’t do. This specific time period and place would probably maximise your personal safety AND dating life.
The black lesbians even shared dance floors, bars, and nightclubs with the heterosexuals. If this fact seems familiar to you, it may be because you’ve read of them in novels such as Home to Harlem, Strange Brother, The Big Money,andNigger Heaven - the nightclubs they featured all had counterparts in reality.
You’ll for once get to outnumber the straights! heterosexuals sometimes quit clubs when they perceived that the gays were taking over.
Once you find your vintage girlfriend and decide that you want to spend the rest of your life with her, you can marry her! Don’t feel pressured to keep it a secret - invite all your friends and family. Large butch/femme lesbian weddings were of the ordinary. Just make sure you you masculinize one of your first names to receive your wedding license. These licenses were placed on file in the New York City Marriage Bureau and were often common knowledge among Harlem heterosexuals.
If you are bisexual you may even be treated better by the then ‘LGBTQ community’ than you are today thanks to A’Lelia Walker. Daughter to the first self made female African-American millionaire and a businesswoman, Walker is believed to have been bisexual. Her contemporaries observed that “all the women were crazy about her.” some even believed that the various men she married were merely her beards. Nevertheless, historian Lillian Faderman believes that she had much to do with the “manifest acceptance of bisexuality among the upper classes in Harlem: those who had moral reservations about bisexuality or considered it strange or decadent learnt to pretend a sophistication and suppress their disapproval if they desired Al’Lelia’s goodwill.”
I know that if I can go back I’ll make sure I also get my hair done at one of A’Lelia’s salons. If they are good enough got European princesses, Russian grand dukes, and world-renowned intellectuals, they are certainly good enough for me.
Source:Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers by Lillian Faderman
A leader of the Stonewall Riots. According to several eyewitnesses, Marsha was the one who “really started it”. She was “in the middle of the whole thing, screaming and yelling and throwing rocks and almost like Molly Pitcher in the Revolution or something”
Dedicated her life to activism:
Co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (later renamed Street Transgender Action Revolutionaries)
Ensured that the young drag queens, trans women and other street kids on Christopher Street were fed and clothed. Marsha also housed them whenever she could.
In the 1980s, she was an activist and organizer in ACT UP.
Stormé DeLarverie
Also a leader in the Stonewall Riots - has been identified as the “butch lesbian that threw the first punch” against the police officers.
Several eye-witnesses recollections also recognize her as the cross-dressing lesbian that yelled “why don’t you guys do something” at the bystanders that evoked the reaction from them that helped make Stonewall a defining moment in history.
Unofficially worked at gay bars who otherwise couldn’t afford security.
Bayard Rustin
Was a leading strategist of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement between 1955-1968:
The formidable behind the scenes figure of the civil rights movement who organized the March on Washington
Through his influence, the civil rights leadership adopted a non-violent stance.
Is and was often overlooked in African-American history because of the public’s discomfort with his sexual orientation.
Supported LGBTQ rights and movements.
Was posthumously awarded Rustin the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.
Miss Major Griffin-Gracy
Another leader in the Stonewall Riots.
Has been involved in community efforts since 1978. She has worked at local food banks, provide services for trans women suffering from addiction or homelessness. During the AIDS epidemic she also provided healthcare and funeral services.
Is currently serving as the Executive Director for the Transgender GenderVariant Intersex Justice Project, working to assist transgender persons who are disproportionately incarcerated under a prison-industrial complex.
Alvin Ailey
At the young age of 22, Alvin AIley became Artistic Directer for the Horton Dance Company where he choreographed as well as directed scenes and costume designs.
Formed the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre in 1958 but continued to choreograph for other companies.
Ailey’s signature works prominently reflects his Black pride.
Is credited for popularizing modern dance.
Was also posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.
Rink Foto’s first celebration of his birthday in San Francisco was interrupted by a phone call from a friend in Greenwich Village about the Stonewall riots - and he has documented the LGBT movement ever since. With his photographic eye, Rink Foto has not only captured pictures of same-sex couples but also worked with many historic activst groups such as The Gay Liberation Front, Bay Area Gay Liberation, Solidarity, AIDS Action Pledge, ACT UP, Queer Nation, GAPA, Aquilas, LGADDA, HRC, NGLTF, and The Harvey Milk LGBT.
This post is a only small glimpse into Rink Foto’s vast collection, consisting of hundreds of thousands pictures of the LGBT political movement since 1969. For more make sure visit Rink Foto’s website for information about his work HERE.
I’ve been receiving a couple of asks regarding where and when these pictures were taken so I just wanted to let you guys know that I already captioned them on the post. So just click on the picture if you want more info about it!
Rink Foto’s first celebration of his birthday in San Francisco was interrupted by a phone call from a friend in Greenwich Village about the Stonewall riots - and he has documented the LGBT movement ever since. With his photographic eye, Rink Foto has not only captured pictures of same-sex couples but also worked with many historic activst groups such as The Gay Liberation Front, Bay Area Gay Liberation, Solidarity, AIDS Action Pledge, ACT UP, Queer Nation, GAPA, Aquilas, LGADDA, HRC, NGLTF, and The Harvey Milk LGBT.
This post is a only small glimpse into Rink Foto’s vast collection, consisting of hundreds of thousands pictures of the LGBT political movement since 1969. For more make sure visit Rink Foto’s website for information about his work HERE.
For those of us who did not live through the AIDS Crisis, it is difficult to truly fathom the terror and confusion of the tragedy - the lack of information, suffering, and inevitable death many in our community faced. In celebration of the UK’s LGBT History Month, Reddit users shared their experience of living during the, at the time, ceaseless state of fear. They also highlighted a group of people who go overlooked despite their selflessness and sacrifice:
I do want to add this. There is a group of people that to this day get little credit for all the hard work they did during the crisis and that was the lesbian community. They were not directly affected by the spread of the virus but so many of them jumped on the bandwagon right at the beginning, gave everything they had helping out wherever they could and in many cases, led the way when things got really bad in the mid- to late 80’s. We should all be eternally grateful to them for what they did.
- Reddit user VillageGuy
This perhaps doesn’t surprise you - we are after all a relatively supportive community that share similar political and social agendas. Nevertheless, in 1970s there were separatist attitudes between gay men and lesbians that harbored deep resentment between the two groups. But as the epidemic took its toll, the lesbians stepped up even in the face of death, and did the work that other people feared to help those who had been infected:
I knew a woman around that time who’d had at one point been making bank in construction. But at the outset of the AIDS crisis she had abandoned her career to pursue nursing instead, and was close to her degree when we were hanging out. She was a big, hearty drinker, and fortunately so was I. We’d been utterly thrashed at a bar once when someone whispered a fairly benign but nonetheless unwelcoming comment about her. Middle fingers were exchanged, and afterwards, furious and indignant, I asked her, Why do you do it? Why did you abandon a career to take care of these assholes who still won’t pay you any respect?
‘She cut me a surprisingly severe look, held it and said, “Honey, because no one else is going to do it.” I remember feeling ashamed after that, because my fury and indignation weren’t going to clean blood and puke off the floor; it wasn’t going to do the shit that needed to get done.
- Reddit user arocklegend
Normally, I tend to summarize the history in the hopes of that you take something away from the post even if you don’t have the initial interest in history but this time I’ve decided against that. I feel that these first hand accounts of the crisis and the lesbians are so valuable and touching that I can’t possibly do them justice. I’ve decided to copy-paste some of them so if you can, please take the time to read through them. The least we can do is acknowledge the seminal role the lesbians played:
... These women walked directly into the fire and through it, and they did not have to. And that they did it even as some of the gay men they took care of treated them with bitchiness, scorn, and contempt…
…When the AIDS crisis struck, it would be many of these same women who would go straight from their jobs during the day to acting as caregivers at night. Because most of them lacked medical degrees, they were generally relegated to the most unpleasant tasks: wiping up puke and shit, cleaning up houses and apartments neglected for weeks and months. But not being directly responsible for medical care also made them the most convenient targets for the devastating anger and rage these men felt – many who’d been abandoned by their own family and friends.
These women walked directly into the fire. They came to the aid of gay men even when it was unclear how easily the virus could be transmitted. Transmission via needlestick was still a concern, so they often wore two or three layers of latex gloves to protect themselves, but more than once I saw them, in their haste and frustration, dispense with the gloves so that they could check for fevers, or hold a hand that hung listlessly from the edge of a bed whose sheets they had just laundered.
They provided aid, comfort, and medical care to men withering away in hospices, men who’d already lost their lovers and friends to the disease and spent their last months in agony. They’d been abandoned by their own families, and were it not for lesbians – many if not most of them volunteers – they would have suffered alone. And when there was nothing more medicine could do for them and their lungs began to fill with fluid, it was often these same women who’d be left to administer enough morphine to release them, given to them by the doctor who had left the room and would return 15 minutes later to sign the certificate (a common practice at the time)…
…HIV killed my friends, took my lover from me, and tore up my life. During that time, I did what I could. But nothing I did then or have ever been called to do in my life puts me anywhere near the example set by the lesbians I knew in the 80s and 90s. I’ve felt obligated to remember what they did, and to make sure other people remember it too.
- Reddit user arocklegend
As a lesbian if this era, I echo much of what OP says. While I was not ‘at risk’ (per se, we know more these days), we all lost many good friends. It is true that there is a somewhat mystifying (to me) separatist attitude between some gay men and lesbians, especially back then, this tragic time really brought us together.Sitting at the bedside of a terminally ill friend, and just holding their hand when everyone else was just terrified, was a gift I was one of those willing to give. No one should die alone, and no one should be in the hospital on their death beds with family calling to say “this was gods punishment”. My friends and I, men and women, acted as a protective layer for ill friends, and companion to mutual friends juggling the same, difficult reality of trying to be there, and be strong when we were losing our family right and left. Difficult times, that should never be forgotten.
- Reddit user h20rabbit
Our sister lesbians took on the care of these AIDS patients because no one else would. They were angels, and gave comfort to those dying.
I have to add, that not once did I ever hear them complain. They just stepped up to the plate, and did it. I’m humbled by their compassion and generosity.
- Reddit user Griffie
I also strongly encourage you to read through the Reddit thread HERE to get an insight into the crisis that statistics and facts alone can’t provide.
I’ve seen this picture going around tumblr again but without any context so I thought I would provide some:
Picture by Rink Foto. The anti-racism protest occurred in 1980 because Randy Kikukawa was denied entrance to the Castro Station bar because he was “small”.
The “NO ASIANS” on grindr profiles of the 1980s, if you will.
Let this me a reminder that racism is still prevalent in the LBGTQ+ community. A relatively recent survey in the UK evince that 82% of Black men surveyed said they personally feel sexualized or objectified by white men on the gay scene.
If there’s one catalytic person who bears a lot of that credit [saving eight million lives]. It’s Iris Long.
- David France, director of How to Survive a Plague .
More often than not, the name ‘Iris Long’ unfortunately doesn’t ring a bell. Iris Long is an unsung hero whose scientific knowledge and benevolence made invaluable contributions to ACT UP during the AIDS epidemic in the United States that effectively helped end suffering and save millions of lives.
Iris Long received her Master’s degree in chemistry from Hunter College in 1964. Thereafter, she worked at Sloan-Kettering as a chemist where developed nucleosides, helping her to understand the workings of the drugs that were first used to treat HIV and AIDS. After 11 years at Sloan-Kettering, Iris left and earned her Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Connecticut, the Department of Pharmacy, in 1972.
Iris had no connections to the LGBTQ+ community but had taken an interest in the aids epidemic and felt that she couldn’t be on the sidelines and watch any longer. She believed that her insights into the science and the pharmaceutical industry might help make a difference. She offered them to numerous nonprofits whom didn’t recognize her value. However, Iris understood that “You had to stand up and fight for the medical – actually fight – for the care and the drugs”so in March of 1987 she made her way to an ACT UP meeting.
ACT UP has been described as a scrappy downtown activist group at the time. They protested outside government health agencies, stopped traffic, and chained themselves to desks (and rightfully so) to urge change and reform. Iris believed that these methods were misguided. For instance, instead of feeding the parallel market for HIV/AIDS drugs by importing drugs from other countries that were not yet approved by the FDA, Iris wanted to make the real system work. She began to organize the Treatment Registry and for the next nine years worked tirelessly with other activists to make this a reality.
Under Iris’s leadership, ACT UP’s initial oppositional stance was transformed to one that productively cooperated with the institutions they initially protested. Iris’s efforts yielded respect from noble prize winners, direct reforms in the NIH and FDA, and ultimately the discovery of effective treatment to HIV and AIDS.
Iris Long efforts saved eight millions of lives. Let’s not forget that.
Approximately a year after the Ugandan MP David Bahati introduced a bill that would have imposed the death penalty for some homosexual acts and life imprisonment for others, the Ugandan local tabloid paper, Rolling Stone, (not affiliated with the American the one) published a list of names and addresses of Ugandans they believed to be homosexual. The egregious October 9th of 2010 Rolling Stone’s front story was also accompanied by a banner reading “Hang Them”.
AFTERMATH:
According to activists, the people on the list have been harassed “Some people could not even get out of the house, as they’ve been throwing stones,” said the director of LGBT group Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), Frank Mugisha.
After the Rolling Stone published another list with the headline “More homos faces exposed”, SMUG took the matter to the court. The High Court ruled that the paper had violated the privacy rights of Ugandans. The paper has since then ceased publication.
One of the people on the list was, David Kato, one of the founding fathers of Ugandan LGBTQ right movement.. Kato was subsequently assaulted in his home. With two strikes from a hammer to his head, Kato died on the way to the hospital the 26th of January, 2011. There is a disagreement between the police and human rights activists whether or not his death was a hate crime.
Managing editor of the weekly Rolling Stone, Giles Muhame said in a statement that he felt “sorry for the family of Kato "but that he has “no regrets about the story. We were just exposing people who were doing wrong."
In writings about her time in the Army during the second world war, Rita Laporte reveals that she fell in love for the first time. Laporte decided that the only way to rejoin the woman who had been transferred to a different base was to “sacrifice all on the altar of love” by admitting that she was homosexual to get discharged from the Army:
I awaited my fate. Then the Major smiled. In a kindly voice he said, “You’re kidding. I don’t believe you.” I was stunned. Naturally I had rehearsed all the Major’s possible answers. I was ready to hang my head in deepest shame, to bear up under all insults, to weep or not weep, as might be necessary. Something was terribly wrong.
At last I blurted out, “But I AM one!”
We argued. I pleaded But it was useless; I could not convince him.
Women were undeniably an integral part of the US military during World War 2. The army also became a place where women who loved women could feasibly meet women like themselves. Their contributions were so crucial that officials were put in the awkward position of either condoning what had been condemned as “monstrosities” only a decade ago, risking what had clearly worked to their benefit, or denying the lesbianism that clearly flourished around them. They chose the latter.
Read more about WLW in World War 2 and it lead to the start of lesbian political consciousness in the United States HERE
Source: “We Protest” Leaflet distributed by the Coalition for a Feminist Sexuality at Barnard College Conference “The Scholar and the Feminist”
In the United States, World World II was a real game changer for women who loved other women. The demand for labour created a sudden 180 degree turn in the attitude towards lesbianism. Lesbians were considered to be monstrosities the 1930s (read more about it HERE) but in the 1940s the love between females was temporarily understood, undisturbed, and even protected in the military. And in many interesting ways inadvertently sponsored the growth of lesbian subculture.
DURING THE WAR:
Military service was an opportunity to meet other women and to engage in work and adventure that they were normally denied. Reminiscent of all women’s colleges, women worked in tight quarters free that allowed close relationships to develop unfettered by societel dictates.
When it became clear for the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) that women who loved other women worked amongst them they took clear measures to cover it up without compromising their productivity. They did so by:
Warning officers not to go on witch-hunts to expose or punish such behaviour “any officer bringing an unjust or unprovable charge against a women in this regard will be seriously reprimanded”
Ordering the officers to be sympathetic to close friendships that “may eventually take some form of sexual expression” - you know, just gals being pals.
Actions against lesbianism was only to be taken if its “manifestations undermine the efficiency of the individual concerned and the stability of the group”
AFTER THE WAR:
Increased tolerance among young women - even those who weren’t lesbians developed “Who care’s” kind of attitude.
The military even helped to introduce lesbian who had honuorable discharges to large metropolitan areas where they could meet women like themselves.
This helped create large homosexual enclaves - for the first time there were number of American bars that could survive if they catered exclusively toward lesbians.
Ex-military women stayed because they found anonymity of a big city to be more compatible with what became their life choices.
To add to this, lesbians once again had the means to be financially independent and build a life with their partner.
= Overall, these opportunities account for the incipient lesbian political consciousness in the United States.
(It is also important to note that this is far from how homosexual men were treated in the military. More about that in a future post)
This is part 3 of this series. Read part 1 HERE and part 2 HERE
Sources:
Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers - a History of Lesbian Life in 20th-Century America by Lillian Faderman
Has your relationship been blessed by the Rabbit Deity? No? That’s what I thought.
According to a folk tale from What the Master Would Not Discuss by Yuan Mei from the 17th century, Hu Tianbao (胡天保) fell in love with the imperial inspector of the Fujian Province. Hu Tianbao reluctantly confessed his affections toward the imperial inspector after he was caught spying on him through a bathroom wall. Consequently, Hu Tianbao was sentenced to death by beating. A month after later he is said to have appeared in a dream of another man in his village in which he claimed that the underworld officials decided to “correct” the injustice by appointing him the god and safe-guarder of homosexual affairs. And thus, a temple was built in Hu Tianbao’s honour in his home village.
In late imperial China “rabbits” was a derogatory term for homosexuals, which is why Hu Tianbao is referred to as the rabbit deity (Tu'er Shen, 兔兒神).
There has been a debate about whether or not Hu Tianbao was fictional. Professor Szonyi asserts that Hu Tianbao was nothing but an invention by Yuan. It is very possible that aspects of the story are fictitious, but the existence of the 18th century underground cult of Hu Tianbao certainly isn’t. The cult has been thoroughly documented in official Qing Dynasty records from their attempts to expunge the cult. Later official records suggest that it was still active in the late 19th century. Nevertheless, considering that the evidence is solely from the point of view of the officials who tried to suppress the practice and not from the its followers, the lifespan of the cult remains inconclusive.
The Rabbit Deity’s first temple may be long gone and the Chinese government may have been successful in the cult’s crackdown, but the good news is that there is still hope for you and your relationship! A Taoist priest, Lu Wei-ming (盧威明), founded a new Rabbit Temple in the Yonghe district of Taiwan and would be happy to help you out.
Edward Francis P. Murphy spent little time being a stranger to breaking the law. Murphy was repeatedly thrown out of Catholic schools and at the tender age of nine he first came to the attention of the police when he attacked the owner of a banana store and trashed his fruit stance. And when his temper didn’t improve he was sent to a reform school after whacking a policeman over the head with a milk bottle for breaking his shoebox. This was only the beginning of Murphy’s unusual relationship with law enforcement.
Murphy’s criminal history begins to take precedence in the late 1940s after his wrestling career. He teamed up with a fellow gay man to rob dentists for their shipments of gold from dental laboratories. They managed to rob seventy-three dental offices before they were finally caught in 1947. Murphy served a total of ten years in prison (the maximum time) in which he spent most of his time in isolation for assaults.
After prison, he worked as a bouncer for gay bar and eventually took a second job as a house detective, marking the start of when his criminal activities have a direct bearing on LGBTQ+ history.
In August of 1965, when Murphy was working for the New York Hamilton as a house detective, he was arrested and charged for being the head of a ring that preyed on hotel guests. Six months later this accusation developed into one in which he was involved in a nationwide ring that blackmailed publicly closeted homosexual men. To no one’s surprise, this became a big hit in the New York media and Murphy’s name suddenly appeared everywhere.
While it was known that the extortion ring was large from the very beginning, as the investigations began coming to a close, it was revealed that its scope and size was astounding. For almost a decade, the ring had extorted $2 million from almost a thousand men. From very very successful men with very very eminent social ranks. From the prosecution cases, it is known that amongst these men were:
A leading movie actor
The head of the American Medical Association
Two army generals
Admiral William Church
Republican member of Congress from New Jersey, Peter Frelinghuysen Jr.
A Princeton professor
The extortion process would begin with a scam. Usually, they would send attractive young men into hotels where wealthy homosexual men came to meet such men. The baits would lure the men into hotel rooms so they (the baits) could attack them to steal their valuables, but perhaps more importantly, their identification. After the ring had weeded out which men had the most to lose in terms of family, profession, or reputation, members of the ring would produce police badges and arrest warrants. Disguised as policemen, they would threaten to arrest the victim, exposing him as a homosexual, and then offer to “forget about it” in return for a generous sum of money.
The blackmailers did not hold back:
They tracked down the New Jersey congressman at Capitol Hill, marched him out of his own office door and forced him to fly home to pick up the $50,000 they demanded.
They pulled a surgeon out of an operating room.
Some members went to the West Coast and got inside a nuclear plant:
The scientist’s superior walked into the office in which the blackmailers were discussing the price of their silence with a scientist. Quick on his feet, the victim introduced the blackmailers as two detective friends from New York. Since the superior thought he was dealing with real detectives, the extortionists were taken throughout the plant that was normally under the heaviest of security strictures.
Many of the outcomes of these stories would unavoidably end tragically:
For instance, Admiral William Church, the head of the New York Naval Yards, was approached by Detective McDonnell. He initially refused to accompany McDonnell to New York to testify before a grand jury. But Church changed his mind and said that he would drive up to New York the following day. Instead, he drove to a Maryland motel to put a bullet through his head.
What’s particularly interesting about Murphy’s relationship with law enforcement became noteworthy between 18 February 1966 and 12 July 1967. During this period, Murphy name disappeared from newspaper coverage despite the initial newspaper stories that had proclaimed him to be one of the three leading ringleaders, if not the head of the entire operation.
In March of 1968, the New York Mattachine Newsletter demanded to know why Murphy had not been sentenced for his role in the blackmail ring, on top of the fact that not only had Murphy served prior prison terms, he had also pled guilty under a federal indictment to extortion charges. Murphy had merely been put on probation for five years. It was thereafter reported that Murphy’s sentence had been postponed to work out a ‘deal’ for a lighter sentence as he provided evidence against the two other main figures in the ring. But just how plausible is that one could get off with serving only part of a five-year sentence for solely providing evidence against one’s co-conspirators when one has a criminal record as extensive as Murphy’s and been the brain behind these elaborate crimes for almost a decade?
As it turns out, Murphy was exceptionally talented in targeting the most vulnerable men and happened to land the biggest fish of them all, whose value surpassed even that of money because this one had the authority to protect him from law enforcement; the first director of FBI, J. Edgar Hoover.
Research suggests that with Hoover caught in his web, he continued to blackmail professional gay men that he spotted at gay bars such as the Stonewall Inn where he also worked as a manager. On the other hand, Murphy’s friend explained that Murphy became an informer for the FBI about the mob’s activities. But at some point stopped working with the mob and quit informing because he “wants to become a good guy.” In his turnabout he earned prominence for his aid activism, his work with runaway teens, young prostitutes, and homeless children. He even eventually became known as the “Mayor of Christopher Street”.
Murphy died of AIDS in 1989 at the age of 64.
(I’m not sure if I was clear enough in the text, but yes, Murphy was also gay)
Source:Stonewall: The Riots that Inspired the Gay Revolution by David Carter
Go on the road and look for women who are also wearing pants and have cut ties with their family
Embracing one’s lesbianism during in the U.S. during the 1930s was no task for the faint of heart. After bisexual experimentation had been fashionable with the sexual liberalisation of the 1920s, economic collapse and the spread of medical opinion regarding the abnormality of love between women reversed the little progress that had been made in establishing lesbian subcultures.
The loss of financial independence for middle-class women expunged any possibility of committing themselves to same-sex relationships. It wasn’t necessarily that fewer women worked - the number of working women actually increased slightly during the 1930s; women were cheaper to hire but not encouraged to compete against men for better-paying jobs. Thus, a second income became crucial for survival, making marriage to men a necessity. The bold beliefs about lesbian and independence among female college students lived no more.
Nevertheless, poor queer women had never even felt momentary liberation nor been led to believe that they should expect more remunerative work. So when the depression rendered them jobless or homeless they fully embraced it. Hobo-life seemed to be the next best alternative. It permitted them to wear pants, embark on adventures, and commit their lives to other women. Statistics from 1933 estimate that approximately 150,000 women were wandering around the country as hoboes or “sisters of the road”. Depression historians argue that such working class lesbian couples were not uncommon among the hobo population. A “sister of the road” herself, Box-Car Bertha wrote in her autobiography that lesbians on the road usually travelled in small groups and had seldom troubles with getting rides or obtaining food. Bertha asserts that the majority of “automobilists” who gave lesbians rides were not only generous but would not think of attacking them physically or verbally.
George W. Jorgensen, Jr., son of a Bronx carpenter, served in the Army for two years and was given honorable discharge in 1946. Now George is no more. After six operations, Jorgensen’s sex has been changed and today she is a striking woman, working as a photographer in Denmark. Parents were informed of the big change in a letter Christine (that’s her new name) sent to them recently.
- the text following “A World of a Difference”
On December 1st of 1962, The New York Daily News published a front-page feature on Christine Jorgensen, the first person in the United States to have undergone a sex-change involving both hormone therapy and surgery. Christine achieved celebrity status overnight and was greeted by curiosity, fascination, and respect.
An incomplete account of Christine’s life that doesn’t do it justice:
During her time in the US military in the late 1940s, Christine came across an article about a Danish doctor (Christian Hamburger) who was experimenting with gender therapy by testing hormones on animals. With Danish-born parents, Jorgensen found an excuse to make her way to Copenhagen without telling anyone about her real intentions.
Finally, after more than a year on experimental hormone therapy, Christine underwent sex reassignment surgery.
In 1952, Christine returned to New York and received surprisingly warm welcomes. In the midst of theatre and film contracts, calls from Hollywood, and glamorous parties, Christine was even named Woman of the Year by the Scandinavian Society in New York. Furthermore, Christine spent the 1950s and 1960s touring the country with a nightclub act.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Jorgensen was that she ultimately seized control over the news of her sex reassignment surgery. When the story broke out her transition was first presented as something salacious and scandalous. Christine turned it into an opportunity to educate the public through lecturing on trans topics, publishing stories, as well as an autobiography. Althoughshe didn’t know it at the time, Jorgensen was a predecessor to the human rights movement that is currently surfacing.
Before she died of lung and bladder cancer in 1989, Christine made one last trip to Denmark to reunite with the same Danish doctors who helped with her transition and so famously said: “ We didn’t start the sexual revolution but I think we gave it a good kick in the pants!“
(When the 60s are more tolerant and accepting than yourself you know you are doing something wrong @ transphobes)
READ MORE about Christine Jorgensen at her website (x).
Sources: The Queer Encyclopedia of Music, Dance, & Musical Theater by Claude J. Summers, and (x), (x), (x).
