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Have a question? Comment? Just want to chat?

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Have a question? Comment? Just want to chat?

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Email me: iacovettak@freelibrary.org

Follow me on social media:  @queerbook geek on Instagram and Goodreads.

Check out my LinkedIn

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Pidgeon is a nonbinary, intersex activist, blogger, and film maker dedicated to amplifying intersex stories and educating communities about the intersex experience.

Follow Pidegon on Instagram @Pidegon

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Cox is an actress and activist.  She was the first transgender person to win an Emmy for her performance in "Orange in the New Black."

Follow her on Instagram @lavernecox.  Check out her trans uplift campaign #TransIsBeautiful.

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Emmy-nominated actress, documentary film producer + prominent equal rights advocate Laverne Cox continues to make history in her career and in her activism.

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ALOK is a gender nonconforming performer, poet, and LGBTQIA+ rights activist. They are known for their satirical creative works and bold fashion trendsetting.

Follow ALOK on Instagram @alokvmenon

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The official website and shop of Alok Vaid-Menon, an internationally renowned gender non-conforming writer and performance artist.

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Please note that this resource is a living document.  As we uncover more about the past and push forward into a more equitable future, this document may change and evolve.  If you find something here that doesn't seem accurate or would like to suggest a resource,  please contact me! :)

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Milk was an American politician and gay rights activist. He was the first openly gay elected official in the United States. He was assassinated in 1978.

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Harvey Milk, was a visionary civil and human rights leader who became one of the first openly gay elected officials in the United States when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. Milk's unprecedented loud and unapologetic proclamation of his authenticity as an openly gay candidate for public office, and his subsequent election gave never before experienced hope to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) people everywhere at a time when the community was encountering widespread hostility and discrimination. His remarkable career was tragically cut short when he was assassinated nearly a year after taking office.

Harvey was born May 22, 1930, in Woodmere, New York. Harvey and his one sibling, Robert, worked in the family's department store, "Milks"; his Lithuanian born father, William, served in the U.S. Navy and as did his spirited, independent mother Minerva, also of Lithuanian heritage, who was a Yeomanette during World War I. Harvey came from a small middle-class Jewish family that had founded a Jewish synagogue and was well known in the New York "Litvaks" community for their civic engagement. He knew he was gay by the time he attended Bayshore high school, where he was a popular student with wide-ranging interests, from opera to playing football.

While in college at New York State College for Teachers (now State University of New York) in Albany, where he studied math and history, Milk penned a popular weekly student newspaper column where he began questioning issues of diversity with a reflection on the lessons learned from the recently ended World War. He graduated in 1951 and enlisted in the Navy. He attended Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island, and subsequently was based in San Diego, where he served as a diving instructor. In 1955, he resigned at the rank of lieutenant junior grade after being officially questioned about his sexual orientation.

Following his time in the Navy, Milk entered the civilian working world in New York, as a public school teacher on Long Island, as a stock analyst in New York City, and as a production associate for Broadway musicals, including Jesus Christ Superstar and Hair. During the 1960s and early 70s, he became more actively involved in politics and advocacy and he demonstrated against the Vietnam War.

Late 1972, Milk moved to San Francisco, where he opened a camera store on Castro Street, in the heart of the city's growing LGBTQ community. It quickly became a neighborhood center. Milkâ€™s sense of humor and theatricality made him a popular figure. Little more than a year after his arrival in the city, he declared his candidacy for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He lost that race, but emerged from the campaign as a force to be reckoned with in local politics.

After some area merchants tried to prevent two gay men from opening a store, Milk and a few other business owners founded the Castro Village Association, a first in the nation organizing of predominantly LGBT businesses, with Milk as president. He organized the Castro Street Fair in 1974 to attract more customers to area businesses. Its success made the Castro Village Association an effective power base for gay merchants and a blue print for other LGBT communities in the US.

In 1975, he ran again for the combined San Francisco City/County supervisor seat and narrowly lost. By now, he was established as the leading political spokesman for the Castroâ€™s vibrant gay community. His close friend and ally Mayor George Moscone, appointed him to the city's Board of Permit Appeals, making Milk the first openly gay city commissioner in the United States.

Milk soon filed candidacy papers for the state assembly, but lost his race to represent the Sixteenth Assembly District. Realizing that he would have a greater chance of political success if he relied on voters in the Castro, he then worked with with his campaign manager, Anne Kronenberg and Mayor Moscone for the passage of an amendment that would replace at-large elections for the Board of Supervisors with district elections. In 1977, he easily won his third bid, and was inaugurated as a San Francisco City-County Supervisor on January 9, 1978. This was an important and symbolic victory for the LGBT community as well as a personal triumph for Milk. His election made national and international headlines.

A commitment to serving a broad constituency, not just LGBT people, helped make Milk an effective and popular supervisor. His ambitious reform agenda included protecting gay rightsâ€"he sponsored an important anti-discrimination billâ€"as well as establishing day care centers for working mothers, the conversion of military facilities in the city to low-cost housing, reform of the tax code to attract industry to deserted warehouses and factories, and other issues. He was a powerful advocate for strong, safe neighborhoods, and pressured the mayor's administration to improve services for the Castro such as library services, and community policing. In addition, he spoke out on state and national issues of interest to LGBT people, women, racial and ethnic minorities and other marginalized communities

One of these was a California ballot initiative, Proposition 6, which would have mandated the firing of gay teachers in the state's public schools. State Senator John Briggs, seeking to marshal anti-gay sentiment and an agenda of hate and diminishment for political gain, spearheaded the initiative. With strong, effective opposition from Milk and others, it was defeated at a time when other political attacks on gay people were being successfully waged around the US.

Attendance swelled at gay pride marches in San Francisco and Los Angeles as Milk and others campaigned against the Briggs Initiative.

In one of his eloquent speeches, Milk spoke of the American ideal of equality, proclaiming, that Gay people, we will not win our rights by staying quietly in our closets. "We are coming out to fight the lies, the myths, the distortions. We are coming out to tell the truths about gays, for I am tired of the conspiracy of silence, so I'm going to talk about it. And I want you to talk about it. You must come out".

Many other qualities in addition to his eloquence made Milk a successful politician and leader. He pioneered the building of coalitions between diverse groups-women, asians, hispanics, the disabled-and even brought together the teamsters and gay bar owners in return for a pledge from the teamsters to hire more gay drivers, Milk asked bar owners to stop selling beer from certain distributors while drivers were striking.

On November 27, 1978, a disgruntled former city Supervisor assassinated Milk and Mayor George Moscone. Dan White sneaked into City Hall through a basement window, avoiding the metal detectors at the official entrances, went to Moscone's office, killed him, then walked down the hall to kill Milk. That night, a crowd of thousands spontaneously came together on Castro Street and marched to City Hall in a silent candlelight vigil that has been recognized as one of the most eloquent responses to violence that a community has ever expressed.

Given the hatred directed at gay people in general and Milk in particular, he received daily death threats, he was aware of the likelihood that he may well be assassinated. He recorded several versions of his will, "to be read in the event of my assassination". One of his tapes contained the now-famous statement, â€œIf a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door". His nephew, Stuart Milk, a teenager at the time, and close with his uncle, came out, along with countless others across the nation, on the day his uncle was killed. Shortly after Milk's death, people marching for gay rights in Washington, D.C., chanted "Harvey Milk lives".

Dan White, Milk's assassin, was acquitted of murder charges and given a mild sentence for manslaughter, partly as a result of what became known as the â€œtwinkie defense.â€ His attorney claimed that White had eaten too much junk food on the day of the killings and thus could not be held accountable for his crimes. He was sentenced to less than eight years in prison on May 21, 1979; the day before what would have been Milk's 49th birthday, igniting what came to be known as the White Night Riots. Enraged citizens stormed City Hall and rows of police cars were set on fire. The city suffered property damage and police officers retaliated by raiding the Castro, vandalizing gay businesses and beating people on the street.

The life and career of Harvey Milk have been the subjects of an opera, books, and films. These include the Shilt's biography, The Mayor of Castro Street (1982); the Oscar-winning documentary The Times of Harvey Milk by Robert Epstein(1984); and the Gus Van Sant directed drama Milk (2008). The latter film received eight Academy Award nominations, winning in two categories: Sean Penn was named best actor for his performance in the title role, and Dustin Lance Black won an Oscar for his screenplay.

There are several public schools named after Milk, the Harvey Milk High School in New York City and in his old Castro neighborhood, the elementary school bears his name. In San Francisco, there is a federal building at the US Job Corps Center on Treasure Island named after Milk, as well as a public recreation center, a branch of the public library, and a public plaza. A memorial plaque reads, "His life is an inspiration to all people committed to equal opportunity and an end to bigotry".In 2012, San Diego, California named the street that leads to the doors of that city's LGBT center Harvey Milk Street and the City of Long Beach, California dedicated the Harvey Milk Oceanside Promenade and Park. Abroad, the gay community center in the city of Verona, Italy is named after Milk as is the LGBT center in Anuncion Paraguay. Harvey was included in Time magazine's list of the 100 most important people of the 20th century.

A statue of Milk was unveiled in the center rotunda at San Francisco City Hall in 2008. On August 12, 2009, Harvey's nephew, Stuart Milk accepted the posthumously awarded Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama, who praised Milk's "visionary courage and conviction" in fighting discrimination. Stuart Milk also accepted Harvey's induction into the California Hall of Fame in 2009 from then First Lady Maria Kennedy Shriver. A bill designating Milk's birthday, May 22, as an annual "Harvey Milk Day" was introduced by Senator Mark Leno and championed by Harvey's nephew, Stuart Milk and Equality California - the non-fiscal Milk holiday was passed by the California State Legislature in 2009 and signed into law by then Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Milk's day is observed with events across the nation and around the globe. In 2014, the White House, the United States Postal Service and the Harvey Milk Foundation hosted a historic first day of issuance ceremony at the White House for the USPS Harvey Milk Forever Stamp, marking the first time that an openly LGBT official has joined the limited number of "great and accomplished Americans to grace the corner of an envelope and represent the US to the world".

Harvey Milk believed that government should represent individuals, not just downtown interests, and should insure equality for all citizens while providing needed services. He spoke for the participation of LGBT people and other minorities in the political process. The more gay people came out of the closet, he believed, the more their families and friends would support protections for their equal rights. In the years since Milk's assassination, public opinion has shifted on gay marriage, gays in the military, and other issues, and there have been hundreds of openly LGBT public officials in America, yet the work continues. The Harvey Milk Foundation, established by his nephew, Stuart Milk, and Anne Kronenberg, his campaign manager and aide, is dedicated to realizing his vision of equality and authenticity for everyone, everywhere.

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Harvey Milk, was a visionary civil and human rights leader who became one of the first openly gay elected officials in the United States when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977.

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The Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was founded in the wake of the Stonewall Uprising. GLF use radical tactics to demand the rights of all LGBTQIA+ people.

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Rivera was another prominent figure in the Stonewall Uprising.  In addition to forming STAR with Martha P. Johnson, she was a founding member of the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activists Alliance.

In this podcast interview, Rivera discusses Stonewall and her life on the streets of New York City.

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Episode Notes

Sylvia Rivera would have loved knowing that in the years since her death in 2002 she's become an icon-a symbol of LGBTQ people fighting back against police repression and fighting for respect and equal rights.But she'd also want you to know that she was a human being, born in the Bronx in 1951.Eleven years later the self-described effeminate child found herself homeless and hustling on 42 nd Street to scratch out enough money to get by.Sylvia was all of seventeen when she crossed paths with history at the Stonewall Inn on the night of June 28, 1969.She died at 51, having struggled with addiction and homelessness for much of her life, even as she continued to fight for trans rights and LGBTQ equality.

To learn more about Sylvia, have a look at this astonishing 1973 video , shot by the L.O.V.E Collective, of Sylvia speaking at the 1973 Christopher Street Liberation Day rally in Washington Square Park against the wishes of lesbian feminists who objected to Sylvia's cross-dressing as sexist.Soon after Sylvia's speech, Vito Russo, the event's emcee, called on his friend Bette Midler to sing "Friends" to keep the crowd from erupting into a full scale riot. You can watch a video of Bette Midler singing at the rally, which was also shot by the L.O.V.E. Collective here. For information please contact the Collective at LoveTapesCollective@gmail.com.

Listen to the second part of Eric Marcus's interview with Sylvia here, and check out "Sylvia's Stonewall," an episode MGH produced for Netflix's Tales of Your City podcast here.

In a 2015 NBC News article " A Forgotten Latina Trailblazer ," reporter Raul Reyes gives a solid overview of Sylvia's life and her impact on the LGBT civil rights movement in New York City, although he mistakenly states that the Stonewall uprising marked the start of the LGBT civil rights movement.While it was a key moment and catalyzing event, the movement was already nearly two decades old by June 1969.

If you'd like to know more about the Stonewall uprising, check out David Carter's definitive book about Stonewall and a column by Eric Marcus that he wrote for the New York Post for the 40th anniversary about Stonewall in which he challenges some of that landmark event's most common myths.

And, finally, PBS "American Experience" produced " Stonewall Uprising ," a 2010 documentary that tells the story of what happened at Stonewall in the voices of people who were there.

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Episode Transcript

Hi, Eric Marcus here with the Making Gay History podcast. Each week we take a deep dive into my stack of decades-old audio cassettes to share with you the voices of LGBTQ history.

In our first episode you'll meet Sylvia Rivera. She was an iconic trans activist who also happened to be at Stonewall in 1969, June 28, the night of the big uprising.

I'll never forget seeing Sylvia for the first time. I was standing in the entry hall of her tenement building in a small river town in New York. And she was standing at the top of a rickety staircase in the glare of a bare lightbulb. She had these really strong features: high cheekbones, wide-spaced eyes, gap-toothed smile. She was wearing red lipstick. She was wearing this outfit that my sister would have worn in the 1970s if she'd had the guts. It was a black halter top, tied at the waist, over a skin-tight black undershirt, and tucked into hot pink Spandex pants tucked into beige knee-high boots with chunky heels. And I don't know if it was the combination of her face, her makeup, her hair, or her outfit, or the light, but she scared the shit out of me.

I was wearing an orange down parka and green corduroys and I looked like I'd stepped off the "F" train from Queens, which is where I'm from.

So I caught my breath, climbed the stairs, and Sylvia welcomed me into her steamy kitchen. The windows were all fogged. She introduced me to her boyfriend, who was the most nondescript guy you can imagine, especially next to Sylvia. And sitting in a chair off to the side was her friend Rennie, who was Sylvia's butch opposite. Flat top haircut, lumberjack shirt, overalls, work boots.

A pot of chili was cooking on the stove. There was a bottle of vodka on the table that was almost empty. I don't remember now if she offered me a drink or not, but I have what I call Jewish Liver Syndrome and a teaspoon of vodka would leave me on the floor. No Sylvia.

So I got myself situated. I clipped the microphone onto Sylvia's halter top and I set my recorder to record.

Now, on this tape you'll hear me call Sylvia "Ray," which was the name she was going by at the time.

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Eric: Interview with Ray Rivera, Saturday, December 9, 1989, at 4:00 p.m. Location is the home of Ray Rivera in Tarrytown, New York. Interviewer is Eric Marcus. Tape 1, Side 1.

Sylvia:The Stonewall wasn't a bar for drag queens.Everybody keeps saying it was.So this is where I get into arguments with people.They say, "Oh, no, it's always a drag queen bar and it was a black bar.No, Washington Square Bar was the drag queen bar.Okay, you could get into the Stonewall if they knew you and there were only a certain amount of drag queens that were allowed into the Stonewall at that time.

We had just come back in from, um, from Washington, my first lover and I.We were passing forged checks and what not.But we were making good money.And so, well, let's go to the Stonewall.Let's do our thing.Let's go there, you know.Actually it was the first time that I had even been to friggin' Stonewall.

I wasn't in full drag.I was dressed, you know, very pleasantly.I was wearing a woman's suit.Bell bottoms were out then.I had made this fabulous suit at home and I was wearing that and I had the hair out.Lots of makeup, lots of hair.

Sylvia:Nah, I was drinking.The police came in.They came in to get their payoff as usual. They would come in, padlock the friggin' door.As soon as they left the mafia was there cuttin' in the door, they had a new register, they had more money, and they had more booze.This is what we learned to live with at that time.We had to live with it.We had to live with it until that day.

I don't know if it was the customers or it was the police.It just [snaps fingers], everything clicked.

Everybody just like, why the fuck are we doin' all this for?The people at them bars, especially at the Stonewall, were involved in other movements and everybody just like, alright, we gotta' do our thing.We're gonna' go for it.And when they ushered us out, it was nice, you know, when they just very nicely put you out the door.And then you're standing across the street in Sheridan Square park and, but why?Buy why?All of a sudden you just feel this... everybody's looking at each other.But why do we have to keep on constantly putting up with this?And the nickels, the dimes, the pennies, and the quarters started flying.

Eric:Why, why that?Why did people do that?

Sylvia:Yep.You already got...

Sylvia:And here's some more.To be there, you know... is was just like, oh, it was so beautiful...

Sylvia:Oh, it was so exciting.It was like, wow, we're doing it.We're doing it.We're fucking their nerves.The cops were, you know, they just panicked.Inspector Pine really panicked.He really did.Plus, he had no backup.He knew...He did not expect any of the retaliation that the gay community gave him at that point.

Sylvia:People were very angry for so long.I mean, how long can you live in a closet?

I was already out of my closet.

When you're obvious back then there was nothing to hold you back.

It was always the effeminate male or the butch woman, that's what society always looked at. We are the ones that went out there and we didn't take no shit from them.We didn't have nothing to lose.Actually, you know, at that point in time, you know, I understand the ones that held their heads down low, because they probably had very nice jobs and they had a family to go to.

I was born to be an effeminate child.My grandmother used to come home and find me all dressed up. Just like...I'd get my ass whipped, of course, you know."Well we don't do this.You're one of the boys.I want you to be a mechanic."I said, no, but I want to be a hairdresser.I want to do this.And I want to wear these clothes.

I was born July 2, 1951, at 2:30 in the morning in a taxi cab in the old Lincoln Hospital parking lot.The old queen couldn't wait.She says, "I'm ready to hit the streets."My grandmother used to always joke about that.I said, "Yeah, you see why I'm always standing out on the street corner.And then I was...came out feet first.

I always mention my grandmother because my mother died when I was three years old.And she raised me.So it's my grandmother that raised me until I left home.

Sylvia:Yeah.I left home at about 10, ten-and-a-half.I was almost 11.

The only reason that I left home at such an early age was because my grandmother came home crying one day with the tears in her eyes and says, "They're calling you 'pato.'" Which means faggot in the Spanish language.And it hurt her so bad because they were doing this to me.And she knew where I was coming from.She knew.

I had that much respect for my grandmother.I didn't want her to suffer.It wasn't my suffering.I was worrying about her suffering.

Sylvia:Became a street walker.You stand out in the street and you make money.

I don't know how many times my grandmother had to come and bail me out of jail.She was there.She always came, bailed me out.She says, "Oh, that's my grandson.I have to take him out."

Sylvia:Prostitution.You know, bullshit loitering.Nothing major, you know.

If you walked down 42 nd Street and even looked like a faggot, you were going to jail.

The community is always embarrassed by drag queens.

Sylvia:Why do I think?No, it's not "Why I think."I know.

Sylvia:Because, straight society always looks, "Oh, well a faggot always dresses in drag or he's too effeminate."You've got to be who you are.Passing is like saying a light skin black woman or black male passing for white.And I refuse to pass.

Sylvia:No, not in this lifetime.I just like being myself.It's fun being...It's fun being Sylvia.It's fun playing the game.

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This interview was the only time I ever talked to Sylvia. And I'm sorry that I never did again. I wish I had.

In the years that followed, Sylvia struggled with addiction and homelessness. And she died on February 19, 2002. She was fifty-one. When I interviewed Sylvia she talked about how old she was and how young I was. She said she was thirty-nine at the time. I think she was actually thirty-eight. And I was thirty-one. I'm nearly sixty. And now looking back at her age when she died, fifty-one, she seemed so young.

I'd like to thank our brilliant executive producer, Sara Burningham, our wonderfully fussy audio engineer, Casey Holford, our exquisite composer, Fritz Meyers. Thank you, also, to Hannah Moch, our social media guru, and our masterful webmaster, Jonathan Dozier-Ezell. We had production assistance from the incredibly talented Jenna Weiss-Berman, whose enthusiasm for this project made it possible.

The Making Gay History podcast is a co-production of Pineapple Street Media, with funding from the Arcus Foundation, which is dedicated to the idea that people can live in harmony with one another and the natural world. Learn more about Arcus and its partners at arcusfoundation.org.

And if you like what you've heard, please subscribe to the Making Gay History podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can find all our episodes on our website at makinggayhistory.com.

So long! Until next time!

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Episode 01 - Sylvia Rivera | Making Gay History

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Sylvia Rivera would have loved knowing that in the years since her death in 2002 she's become an icon-a symbol of LGBTQ people fighting back against police repression and fighting for respect and equal rights.But she'd also want you to know that she was a human being, born in the

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Marsha "Pay It No Mind" Johnson was a key figure in the Stonewall Uprising.  She spent her life as an activist with a focus on trans youth experiencing homeless.  She, along with friend Sylvia Rivera, founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) to support these youth. She was tragically murdered in 1992.

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Marsha "Pay it No Mind" Johnson (1945-1992) was a Black trans woman who was a force behind the Stonewall Riots and surrounding activism that sparked a new phase of the LGBTQ+ movement in 1969. Along with Sylvia Rivera, she established the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) in 1970--a group committed to supporting transgender youth experiencing homelessness in New York City. Marsha P. Johnson was tragically murdered on July 6, 1992 at the age of forty-six. Her case was originally closed by the NYPD as an alleged suicide, but transgender activist Mariah Lopez fought for it to be reopened for investigation in 2012. Marsha P. Johnson is now one of the most venerated icons in LGBTQ+ history, has been celebrated in a series of books, documentaries, and films. Her actions and words continue to inspire trans activism and resistance, and will continue to do so well into the future. Learn more about Marsha P. Johnson through the work of Tourmaline and Sasha Wortzel here.

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GLSEN LGBTQ+ History Cards - Marsha P Johnson

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Marsha "Pay it No Mind" Johnson (1945-1992) was a Black trans woman who was a force behind the Stonewall Riots and surrounding activism that sparked a new phase of the LGBTQ+ movement in 1969. Along with Sylvia Rivera, she established the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) in 1970--a group committed to supporting transgender youth experiencing homelessness in New York City.

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Queer, There, and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World by Sarah Prager

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Queer, There, and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World by Sarah Prager

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LGBTQIA+ people have been making history since the dawn of time, just like everyone else! Learn about some powerful figures you may never have heard of. Discover the queer identities of famous figures.

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This site features articles about both historical and contemporary queer figures who have impacted our world.

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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.

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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.

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This comprehensive guide from the Library of Congress features history articles, multimedia, bibliographies, search terms, and more.

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Research Guides: LGBTQIA+ Studies: A Resource Guide: Introduction

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The collections of the Library of Congress tell the rich and diverse story of LGBTQ+ life in America and around the world. This research guide serves as an introduction into the excellent collection of LGBTQ+ resources available at the Library of Congress This research guide serves as an introductio…

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"LGBTQ History." GLSEN, https://www.glsen.org/lgbtq-history. Accessed 11 Mar. 2021.

"LGBTQ+ Studies: A Resource Guide." Library of Congress, https://guides.loc.gov/lgbtq-studies/introduction. Accessed 11 Mar. 2021.

"Pride Month:  Who Was Marsha P. Johnson and Why Were They So Important?" BBC, https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/52981395.  Accessed 12 Mar. 2021.

"Unheard Voices:  Stories and Lessons for Grades 6-12." GLSEN, https://www.glsen.org/activity/unheard-voices-stories-and-lessons-grades-6-12.  Accessed 11 Mar. 2021.

Yalzadeh, Ida. "Harry Hay: American Activist." Brittanica, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Harry-Hay-Jr#ref1261762.  Accessed 11 Mar. 2021.

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In Stonewall: Breaking Out in the Fight for Gay Rights, Ann Bausum documents the police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a popular LGBTQIA+ bar in New York City's Greenwich Village. This raid led to a national liberation movement.  While raids on LGBTQIA+ establishments were not uncommon nor was it uncommon for the people to fight back, this particular raid culminated in the union of many LGBTQIA+ populations who were tired of mistreatment and recognized the power of a united gay rights front.

Listen to this excerpt from an interview with Michael Levine about his experience the night the uprising began.

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Initially a secret social club,  this group was the first lesbian rights organization in the United States.   While Rosalie "Rose" Bamberger is attributed for the idea for the group, other founding members include Del Martin, Noni Frey, Phyllis Lyon, Rosemary Sliepen, Marcia Foster, and Mary (surname unknown).

In this interview excerpt, Phyllis Lyon discusses coming of age in an era where sexuality was rarely spoken about.

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Lesbian couple Kay Tobin Lahusen, photojournalist, and Barbara Gittings, activist and editor of The Ladder. 1981. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

The Daughters of Bilitis (pronounced Bill-E-tis) were the first lesbian rights group in the United States, founded in San Francisco in 1955. The DOB began publishing The Ladder in 1956 becoming the first nationally distributed lesbian periodical in the United States. While Lisa Ben published Vice Versa in 1947-8, it was never distributed nationally. The Daughters of Bilitis founders were not aware of the other homophile organizations already in existence when they formed. They began as a private social club, an alternative to the frequently raided bar scene, but quickly grew into a national lesbian rights organization, with local chapters all over the country. The Daughters of Bilitis faced enormous odds, and they were subject to not just the surveillance of local police, but also the CIA and FBI.
Founded by Working Women of Color
It was a Filipina woman, Rosalie "Rose" Bamberger (1921-1990), who had the initial idea to form a private lesbian social club. The four founding couples first met at Rose and Rosemary's house on September 21, 1955. The founding meeting included Rose and her partner Rosemary Sliepen, as well as couples Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, Marcia Foster and her partner June, and Noni Frey and her partner Mary. Rose and Rosemary were working class and both employed in brush-manufacturing factories. While they left the DOB in January 1956, both Rose and Rosemary were still on the mailing list of Del and Phyllis into the 1970s. Census records and city directories show that Rosalie and Rosemary continued to live together until Rosalie's death in 1990. Rosemary passed away in 2010.

The Founding Board of Daughters of Bilitis Included: President: Del Martin. Vice President: Noni Frey, Secretary: Phyllis Lyon. Treasurer: Rosemary Sliepen. Trustee: Marcia Foster. Rose Bamberger and Mary (surname lost, but identified as Chicana) were the legal committee. Ultimately, the working class women were not comfortable going public when DOB began. The working class women left DOB and went on to form two secret groups for lesbians, Quatrefoil and Hale Aikane. The founding of these groups has been attributed to Nancy Frey, although a few references indicate Rose and Rosemary may also have been involved.

To find additional materials, search the Library of Congress Online Catalog:

Accessing The Ladder and other Daughters of Bilitis Publications:

The Daughters of Bilitis began publishing The Ladder in 1956. This was the first nationally distributed lesbian magazine in the United States. There is a full run of The Ladder on reference in the Main Reading Room at the Library of Congress. The Library also provides access to the Ladder on-site through subscription databases. If you are looking for a specific issue of the Ladder or Daughters of Bilits regional publications, use Ask a Librarian at ask.loc.gov. The Ladder has been partially digitized online, and you can find issues of the Ladder at:

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Research Guides: LGBTQIA+ Studies: A Resource Guide: The Daughters of Bilitis

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The collections of the Library of Congress tell the rich and diverse story of LGBTQ+ life in America and around the world. This research guide serves as an introduction into the excellent collection of LGBTQ+ resources available at the Library of Congress

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Founded by, Harry Hay, Bob Hull, Chuck Rowland, Dale Jennings, Konrad Stevens, James Gruber and Rudi Gernreich, this Los Angeles secret organization was comprised of gay men seeking to educate their members about the relationship between social justice and homosexuality.  In 1953, the group published ONE Magazine, the first widely distributed journal for the gay population.

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Randolfe Wicker is wearing a suit and tie. Today, it's a suit with a cartoon Lady Liberty tie and a button of Stonewall activist Marsha P. Johnson pinned to his lapel-accented by a pair of earrings made out of screws. But for several decades, Wicker, now 81, was never seen in public without his suit-and-tie uniform in a much more traditional black.

He was wearing that black suit and tie at what's thought to be the first U.S. picket for gay civil rights, which took place in New York City in 1964. He wore it when he answered questions on-air in 1965 as one of the first openly gay men to appear on television. And he donned that suit again when he protested New York's prohibition against serving gay patrons during a "sip-in" in 1966. Wicker jokes that he looked like a preacher for most of the 1960s-but for one of the earliest LGBTQ activists, it was a political choice.

"A black suit and tie works wonders anywhere, because if you wear a black suit and tie people will stop and listen to you and consider what you have to say," he told TIME one recent afternoon at his apartment in Hoboken, N.J. "It was assumed we were mentally ill; it was considered that we were certainly criminals, and we were also considered to be morally depraved. But people would still sit and listen to you, and that's the beginning of a conversation."

The staid fashion choice went hand-in-hand with the work Wicker did with the Mattachine Society, which he joined in 1958 when he was 20 years old. The Mattachine Society-considered one of the earliest gay activist groups in U.S. history-had already existed for nearly a decade at that point, and its work in advocating for equal civil rights for gay people predated the Stonewall Uprising in New York City by nearly 20 years. Many people understand the protests at the Stonewall Inn as the effective start of the LGBTQ rights movement-and while that 1969 protest signaled an expansive shift in the movement, it was hardly the beginning.

"A movement can't just materialize overnight," says George Chauncey, a professor of history at Columbia University and author of the book Gay New York, of the Stonewall protesters. "Even when they didn't always know it-because they were often too young to know what the Mattachine Society and Daughters of Bilitis [Mattachine's lesbian counterpart] had done before them-they actually relied on the communications network that Mattachine had set up."

In the 1950s, even in coastal metropolises like Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York City, being gay-or being suspected of being gay-carried threats to every aspect of a person's life. Gay people were banned from serving in the military and in civil service, and the government purged them from their ranks by the scores in a period now referred to as the Lavender Scare. Gay characters were even barred from appearing in entertainment. Employers in the private sector could fire suspected gay employees without repercussions (which is still legal in many states across the country). There were also the physical dangers, with police violence and entrapment chief among them.

Amid this atmosphere, in a living room in Los Angeles in 1950, a handful of men sat down for the first meeting of the Mattachine Society, a secret "homophile" group.

Given the LAPD's predilection for pursuing gay men-and even fears over the wire-tapping of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover-the early meetings were shrouded in secrecy. The group took its name from medieval dancers who performed in masks, disguises that allowed them to freely criticize their society. Harry Hay, a labor activist and outspoken civil rights advocate, created the society as a place where gay men could meet and discuss issues like discriminatory policing and employment. It was also a social group, providing one of the only safe spaces for gay men to meet, drink, and become friends and even lovers.

By 1952, the group turned its eye to the issue of police entrapment.

Thousands of men and women across the country were arrested on charges related to their sexuality each year throughout the '50s, and in California, certain sodomy convictions could carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. And even when the charges resulted in a slap on the wrist from a judge, an accusation could result in the loss of jobs or even homes. But after Mattachine cofounder Dale Jennings was followed and harassed by a police officer, the society mounted a defense-and won the case. Within just a few years, the group would grow to include thousands of members across the country in places like New York City, Chicago and San Francisco.

The New York City chapter organized lectures about how to fight arrests and solicited research from scientists and psychologists who could act as spokespeople for their movement. Like other activists from that era, the Mattachines used a mixture of demonstrations, civil disobedience, legal avenues and grassroots information campaigns.

Randy Wicker had been an activist since he was a student at the University of Texas in the late 1950s, and by the summer of 1958 he started volunteering with the Mattachine Society. One of his earliest memories of that time was passing out flyers for a lecture hosted at their downtown offices. Convinced that they could bring in more interest to their activism, he worked vigorously to drum up support for that lecture. Instead of the usual 30 participants, Wicker estimates he packed the room with 300 people-eventually leading to the group's eviction from their space.

From the start of his involvement, Wicker tried to push the group in a more radical direction.

The late '60s marked a parallel split in the civil rights movement happening across the country. As civil rights legislation stalled while violence against black people surged, non-violence lost its appeal to some. The Black Panthers began their ascent in 1966, forged in the crucible of that year's violent disappointments.

With his urging and under new leadership, the Mattachines started to shift their tactics. By 1966, they staged a "sip-in"-a tongue-in-cheek nod to the era's sit-ins-at bars across the city. The New York State Liquor Authority prevented bars from serving gay patrons, asserting that just being gay was a form of disorderly conduct. Wicker, along with Mattachine New York President Dick Leitsch and other members, went to bars around Manhattan, telling the owners that they were "orderly homosexuals" who wanted to be served. When they tried to order at Julius in Greenwich Village, the bartender slapped his hand over a glass and denied them service. "Three deviants invite exclusion from bars," read the headline in the New York Times the following day. But by 1967, the New Jersey Supreme Court would rule in favor of the Mattachines in a bar discrimination suit.

While a cheeky protest might not seem revolutionary, bars represented both the problem of discriminatory policing and a much broader exclusion from public life. Part of what the Mattachines did was to establish LGBTQ people as a minority group deserving civil rights protections. And the "sip-in" served as a foreshadowing of the protest that would erupt just a few streets over from Julius only three years later.

By the time police raided the Stonewall Inn in 1969, setting off a chain of events that would usher in a new era for the LGBTQ movement, young gay men and women were still coping with many of the same issues.

Some of them had specifically clashed with the Mattachines' stances - like Martin Boyce, who had just turned 21 in 1969 and spent most of his nights that year dancing with friends in the cafés and bars in Greenwich Village. Boyce says he had earlier been turned away from a Mattachine meeting for dressing in drag, only to be thrust into activism the night police raided the Stonewall Inn. On a recent afternoon, he met up with TIME in the bar where it all started on Christopher Street. In that neighborhood 50 years ago, Boyce and his friends-who dressed in scare drag ("think Boy George," he says)-had finally found a place where they didn't have to look over their shoulder all the time. When police raided the bar in the early hours of June 28, Boyce called it "the last straw."

"The raid was not only a raid on our regular bar. It was a raid on a popular dancing bar in the public eye, on the street that was considered our turf," he told TIME. "The raid destroyed all of this kind of equilibrium."

Instead of going along with police demands, the bargoers that night fought back, in a multiple days-long rebellion. Boyce became an activist in the new post-Stonewall movement, and seemingly overnight, the Mattachines and their methods became, to many, obsolete. The idea of incremental change was thrown out like a brick through a bar window.

Randy Wicker would remain an activist throughout his life, though he too would move away from the Mattachines and toward more radical groups like the Gay Activists Alliance and later the Radical Faeries. But he hopes that the 50th anniversary of Stonewall will also serve as an occasion to remember the framework that he and others built through two decades of slow work.

"One thing I think that people don't appreciate is how tediously slow change does come to any society," he said. "The only way we got to where we are today was literally 50 years of talk."

Jess McHugh is a New York-based writer. Her work has appeared in The Nation, The Paris Review and The New Republic, among other outlets.

Contact us at letters@time.com.

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What It Was Like to Be an LGBTQ Activist Before Stonewall

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Randolfe Wicker is wearing a suit and tie. Today, it's a suit with a cartoon Lady Liberty tie and a button of Stonewall activist Marsha P. Johnson pinned to his lapel-accented by a pair of earrings made out of screws.

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More commonly known as Joan of Arc, cross dressing teenager Jeanne listened to the voices of the saints in her head and helped liberate France from the English.

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This article is about the historical person. For other uses of this name, see Joan of Arc (disambiguation).

Template:Infobox Saint Joan of Arc, also known as Jeanne d'Arc, (c.1412 - 30 May 1431) was a national heroine of France and is a saint of the Roman Catholic Church. She asserted that she had visions from God which told her to recover her homeland from English domination late in the Hundred Years' War. The uncrowned King Charles VII sent her to the siege at Orléans as part of a relief mission. She gained prominence when she overcame the light regard of veteran commanders and lifted the siege in only nine days. Several more swift victories led to Charles VII's coronation at Reims and settled the disputed succession to the throne.

The renewed French confidence outlasted her own brief career. She refused to leave the field when she was wounded during an attempt to recapture Paris that autumn. Hampered by court intrigues, she led only minor companies from then onward and fell prisoner at a skirmish near Compiègne the following spring. A politically motivated trial convicted her of heresy. The English regent John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford had her burnt at the stake in Rouen. She had been the heroine of her country at the age of seventeen and died at just nineteen. Some twenty-four years later Pope Callixtus III reopened the case and a new finding overturned the original conviction. Her piety to the end impressed the retrial court. Pope Benedict XV canonized her on 16 May 1920.

She has remained an important figure in Western culture and many other nations. From Napoleon to the present, French politicians of all leanings have invoked her memory. Major writers and composers who have created works about her include Shakespeare, Voltaire, Schiller, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Twain, Shaw, Brecht, and Honegger. Depictions of her continue in film, television, and song. Template:TOChidden

Background

The historian Kelly DeVries describes the period preceding her appearance with, "If anything could have discouraged her, the state of France in 1429 should have." The Hundred Years' War had begun in 1337 as a succession dispute to the French throne with intermittent periods of relative peace. Nearly all the fighting had taken place in France and the English use of chevauchée tactics had devastated the French economy. The French population had not recovered from the Black Death of the previous century and its merchants were cut off from foreign markets. At the outset of her career, the English had almost achieved their goal of a dual monarchy under English control and the French army had won no major victory for a generation. In DeVries's words, "the kingdom of France was not even a shadow of its thirteenth-century prototype."

Although the English nobility had spoken Norman French as their primary language for centuries after the Norman Conquest, the English language had gained ascendancy among the English aristocracy during the fourteenth century. Notwithstanding her claim of a divine mission and her enemies' claim that she followed instead the Devil, both she and her opponents were Catholic, and England would remain so until the following century when England split with Rome during the reign of Henry VIII.

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The French king at the time of Joan's birth, Charles VI, suffered bouts of insanity and was often unable to rule. The king's brother Duke Louis of Orléans and the king's cousin Duke John the Fearless of Burgundy quarreled over the regency of France and the guardianship of the royal children. This dispute escalated to accusations of an extramarital affair with Queen Isabeau of Bavaria and the kidnappings of the royal children. The matter climaxed when the Duke of Burgundy ordered the assassination of the Duke of Orléans in 1407.

The factions loyal to these two men became known as the Armagnacs and the Burgundians. The English king, Henry V, took advantage of this turmoil to invade France, winning a dramatic victory at Agincourt in 1415, and capturing northern French towns. The future French king, Charles VII, assumed the title of Dauphin as heir to the throne at the age of fourteen, after all four of his older brothers died. His first significant official act was to conclude a peace treaty with Burgundy in 1419. This ended in disaster when Armagnac partisans murdered John the Fearless during a meeting under Charles's guarantee of protection. The new Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, blamed Charles and entered into an alliance with the English. Large sections of France were conquered.

In 1420, Queen Isabeau of Bavaria concluded the Treaty of Troyes, which granted the French royal succession to Henry V and his heirs in preference to her son Charles. This agreement revived rumors about her supposed affair with the late duke of Orléans and raised fresh suspicions that the Dauphin was a royal bastard rather than the son of the king. Henry V and Charles VI died within two months of each other in 1422, leaving an infant, Henry VI of England, the nominal monarch of both kingdoms. Henry V's brother, John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford, acted as regent.

By the beginning of 1429, nearly all of northern France and some parts of the southwest were under foreign control. The English ruled Paris, while the Burgundians controlled Reims. The latter city was important as the traditional site of French coronations and consecrations, especially since neither claimant to the throne of France had yet been crowned. The English had laid siege to Orléans, which was the only remaining loyal French city north of the Loire. Its strategic location along the river made it the last obstacle to an assault on the remainder of the French heartland. In the words of one modern historian, "On the fate of Orléans hung that of the entire kingdom." No one was optimistic that the city could long withstand the siege.

Joan of Arc was born to Jacques d'Arc and Isabelle Romée in Domrémy, a village which was then in the duchy of Bar (and later annexed to the province of Lorraine and renamed Domrémy-la-Pucelle). Her parents owned about 50 acres (0.2 square kilometers) of land and her father supplemented his farming work with a minor position as a village official, collecting taxes and heading the local watch. They lived in an isolated patch of northeastern territory that remained loyal to the French crown despite being surrounded by Burgundian lands. Several local raids occurred during her childhood and on one occasion her village was burned.

Joan said she was about nineteen at her trial, so she was born about 1412; she later testified that she experienced her first vision around 1424. She would report that St. Michael, St. Catherine, and St. Margaret told her to drive out the English and bring the Dauphin to Reims for his coronation.

At the age of sixteen she asked a kinsman, Durand Lassois, to bring her to nearby Vaucouleurs where she petitioned the garrison commander, Count Robert de Baudricourt, for permission to visit the royal French court at Chinon. Baudricourt's sarcastic response did not deter her. She returned the following January and gained support from two men of standing: Jean de Metz and Bertrand de Poulengy. Under their auspices she gained a second interview where she made a remarkable prediction about a military reversal near Orléans.

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Robert de Baudricourt granted her an escort to visit Chinon after news from the front confirmed her prediction. She made the journey through hostile Burgundian territory in male disguise. Upon arriving at the royal court she impressed Charles VII during a private conference. He then ordered background inquiries and a theological examination at Poitiers to verify her morality. During this time Charles's mother-in-law Yolande of Aragon was financing a relief expedition to Orléans. She petitioned for permission to travel with the army and wear the equipment of a knight. She depended on donated items for her armor, horse, sword, banner, and entourage. Historian Stephen W. Richey explains her attraction as the only source of hope for a regime that was near collapse:

After years of one humiliating defeat after another, both the military and civil leadership of France were demoralized and discredited. When the Dauphin Charles granted Joan's urgent request to be equipped for war and placed at the head of his army, his decision must have been based in large part on the knowledge that every orthodox, every rational, option had been tried and had failed. Only a regime in the final straits of desperation would pay any heed to an illiterate farm girl who claimed that voices from God were instructing her to take charge of her country's army and lead it to victory.

"King of England, and you, duke of Bedford, who call yourself regent of the kingdom of France...settle your debt to the king of Heaven; return to the Maiden, who is envoy of the king of Heaven, the keys to all the good towns you took and violated in France."

Her Letter to the English, March-April 1429; Quicherat I, p. 240, trans. Wikipedia.

She arrived at the siege of Orléans on 29 April 1429, but Jean d'Orléans, the acting head of the Orléans ducal family, initially excluded her from war councils and failed to inform her when the army engaged the enemy. This did not prevent her from being present at most councils and battles. The extent of her actual military leadership is a subject of historical debate. Traditional historians such as Edouard Perroy conclude that she was a standard bearer whose primary effect was on morale. This type of analysis usually relies on the condemnation trial testimony, where she stated that she preferred her standard to her sword. Recent scholarship that focuses on the nullification trial testimony asserts that her fellow officers esteemed her as a skilled tactician and a successful strategist. Stephen W. Richey's opinion is one example: "She proceeded to lead the army in an astounding series of victories that reversed the tide of the war." In either case, historians agree that the army enjoyed remarkable success during her brief career.

Leadership

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"...the Maiden lets you know that here, in eight days, she has chased the English out of all the places they held on the river Loire by attack or other means: they are dead or prisoners or discouraged in battle. Believe what you have heard about the earl of Suffolk, the lord la Pole and his brother, the lord Talbot, the lord Scales, and Sir Fastolf; many more knights and captains than these are defeated."

Her Letter to the citizens of Tournai, 25 June 1429; Quicherat V, pp. 125-126, trans. Wikipedia.

The sudden victory at Orléans led to many proposals for offensive action. The English expected an attempt to recapture Paris or an attack on Normandy. In the aftermath of the unexpected victory, she persuaded Charles VII to grant her co-command of the army with Duke John II of Alençon and gained royal permission for her plan to recapture nearby bridges along the Loire as a prelude to an advance on Reims and a coronation. Hers was a bold proposal because Reims was roughly twice as far away as Paris and deep in enemy territory.

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The army recovered Jargeau on 12 June, Meung-sur-Loire on 15 June, then Beaugency on 17 June. The Duke of Alençon agreed to all of Joan's decisions. Other commanders including Jean d'Orléans had been impressed with her performance at Orléans and became her supporters. Alençon credited her for saving his life at Jargeau, where she warned him of an imminent artillery attack. During the same battle she withstood a blow from a stone cannonball to her helmet as she climbed a scaling ladder. An expected English relief force arrived in the area on 18 June under the command of Sir John Fastolf. The battle at Patay might be compared to Agincourt in reverse. The French vanguard attacked before the English archers could finish defensive preparations. A rout ensued that devastated the main body of the English army and killed or captured most of its commanders. Fastolf escaped with a small band of soldiers and became the scapegoat for the English humiliation. The French suffered minimal losses.

The French army set out for Reims from Gien-sur-Loire on 29 June and accepted the conditional surrender of the Burgundian-held city of Auxerre on 3 July. Every other town in their path returned to French allegiance without resistance. Troyes, the site of the treaty that had tried to disinherit Charles VII, capitulated after a bloodless four-day siege. The army was in short supply of food by the time it reached Troyes. Edward Lucie-Smith cites this as an example of why she was more lucky than skilled: a wandering friar named Brother Richard had been preaching about the end of the world at Troyes and had convinced local residents to plant beans, a crop with an early harvest. The hungry army arrived as the beans ripened.

"Prince of Burgundy, I pray of you - I beg and humbly supplicate - that you make no more war with the holy kingdom of France. Withdraw your people swiftly from certain places and fortresses of this holy kingdom, and on behalf of the gentle king of France I say he is ready to make peace with you, by his honor."

"Her Letter to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, 17 July 1429; Quicherat V, pp. 126-127, trans. Wikipedia.

Reims opened its gates on 16 July. The coronation took place the following morning. Although Joan and the duke of Alençon urged a prompt march on Paris, the royal court pursued a negotiated truce with the duke of Burgundy. Duke Philip the Good broke the agreement, using it as a stalling tactic to reinforce the defense of Paris. The French army marched through towns near Paris during the interim and accepted more peaceful surrenders. The Duke of Bedford headed an English force and confronted the French army in a standoff on 15 August. The French assault at Paris ensued on 8 September. Despite a crossbow bolt wound to the leg, Joan continued directing the troops until the day's fighting ended. The following morning she received a royal order to withdraw. Most historians blame French grand chamberlain Georges de la Trémoille for the political blunders that followed the coronation.

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After minor action at La-Charité-sur-Loire in November and December, Joan went to Compiègne the following April to defend against an English and Burgundian siege. A skirmish on 23 May 1430 led to her capture. When she ordered a retreat she assumed the place of honor as the last to leave the field. Burgundians surrounded the rear guard.

"It is true that the king has made a truce with the duke of Burgundy for fifteen days and that the duke is to turn over the city of Paris at the end of fifteen days. Yet you should not marvel if I do not enter that city so quickly. I am not content with these truces and do not know if I will keep them, but if I hold them it will only be to guard the king's honor: no matter how much they abuse the royal blood, I will keep and maintain the royal army in case they make no peace at the end of those fifteen days."

"Her Letter to the citizens of Reims, 5 August 1429; Quicherat I, p. 246, trans. Wikipedia.

It was customary for a captive's family to ransom a prisoner of war. Joan and her family lacked the financial resources. Many historians condemn Charles VII for failing to intervene. She attempted several escapes, on one occasion leaping from a seventy foot tower to the soft earth of a dry moat. The English government eventually purchased her from Duke Philip of Burgundy. Bishop Pierre Cauchon of Beauvais, an English partisan, assumed a prominent role in these negotiations and her later trial.

Joan's trial for heresy was politically motivated. The Duke of Bedford claimed the throne of France for his nephew Henry VI. She had been responsible for the rival coronation so to condemn her was to undermine her king's legitimacy. Legal proceedings commenced on 9 January 1431 at Rouen, the seat of the English occupation government. The procedure was irregular on a number of points. In 1456, Pope Calixtus III declared her innocent of the heresy charges brought against her.

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To summarize some major problems, the jurisdiction of judge Bishop Cauchon was a legal fiction. He owed his appointment to his partisan support of the English government that financed the entire trial. Clerical notary Nicolas Bailly, commissioned to collect testimony against Joan, could find no adverse evidence. Without such evidence the court lacked grounds to initiate a trial. Opening a trial anyway, the court also violated ecclesiastical law in denying her right to a legal advisor. Upon the opening of the first public examination Joan complained that those present were all partisans against her and asked for "ecclesiastics of the French side" to be invited.

The trial record demonstrates her remarkable intellect. The transcript's most famous exchange is an exercise in subtlety. "Asked if she knew she was in God's grace, she answered: 'If I am not, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me.'" The question is a scholarly trap. Church doctrine held that no one could be certain of being in God's grace. If she had answered yes, then she would have convicted herself of heresy. If she had answered no, then she would have confessed her own guilt. Notary Boisguillaume would later testify that at the moment the court heard this reply, "Those who were interrogating her were stupefied." In the twentieth century George Bernard Shaw would find this dialogue so compelling that sections of his play are literal translations of the trial record.

Several court functionaries later testified that significant portions of the transcript were altered in her disfavor. Many clerics served under compulsion, including the inquisitor, Jean LeMaitre, and a few even received death threats from the English. Under Inquisitorial guidelines, Joan should have been confined to an ecclesiastical prison under the supervision of female guards (i. e., nuns). Instead, the English kept her in a secular prison guarded by their own soldiers. Bishop Cauchon denied Joan's appeals to the Council of Basel and the pope, which should have stopped his proceeding.

The twelve articles of accusation that summarize the court's finding contradict the already doctored court record. The illiterate defendant signed an abjuration document she did not understand under threat of immediate execution. The court substituted a different abjuration in the official record.

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Heresy was a capital crime only for a repeat offense. Joan agreed to wear women's clothes when she abjured. A few days later she was subjected to a sexual assault in prison that may have gone as far as attempted rape. She resumed male attire either as a defense against molestation or, in the testimony of Jean Massieu, because her dress had been stolen and she was left with nothing else to wear.

Eyewitnesses described the scene of the execution on 30 May 1431. Tied to a tall pillar, she asked two of the clergy, Martin Ladvenu and Isambart de la Pierre, to hold a crucifix before her. She repeatedly called out in a loud voice "the holy name of Jesus, and implored and invoked without ceasing the aid of the saints of Paradise." After she expired, the English raked back the coals to expose her charred body so that no one could claim she had escaped alive, then burned the body twice more to reduce it to ashes and prevent any collection of relics. They cast her remains into the Seine. The executioner, Geoffroy Therage, later stated that he "...greatly feared to be damned for he had burned a holy woman."

A posthumous retrial opened as the war ended. Pope Callixtus III authorized this proceeding, also known as the "nullification trial", at the request of Inquisitor-General Jean Brehal and Joan's mother Isabelle Romée. The aim of the trial was to investigate whether the trial of condemnation and its verdict had been handled justly and according to law. Investigations started with an inquest by clergyman Guillaume Bouille. Brehal conducted an investigation in 1452. A formal appeal followed in November 1455. The appellate process included clergy from throughout Europe and observed standard court procedure. A panel of theologians analyzed testimony from 115 witnesses. Brehal drew up his final summary in June 1456, which describes Joan as a martyr and implicates the late Pierre Cauchon with heresy for having convicted an innocent woman in pursuit of a secular vendetta. The court declared her innocence on 7 July 1456.

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Doctrinally speaking, she was safe to disguise herself as a page during a journey through enemy territory and she was safe to wear armor during battle. The Chronique de la Pucelle states that it deterred molestation while she was camped in the field. Clergy who testified at her rehabilitation trial affirmed that she continued to wear male clothing in prison to deter molestation and rape. Preservation of chastity was another justifiable reason for crossdressing: her apparel would have slowed an assailant.

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Joan's religious visions have interested many people. The consensus among scholars is that her faith was sincere. She identified St. Margaret, St. Catherine, and St. Michael as the source of her revelations although there is some ambiguity as to which of several identically named saints she intended. Some Catholics regard her visions as divine inspiration.

Documents from her own era and historians prior to the twentieth century generally assume that she was both healthy and sane. A number of more recent scholars attempted to explain her visions in psychiatric or neurological terms. Potential diagnoses have included epilepsy, migraine, tuberculosis, and schizophrenia. None of the putative diagnoses have gained consensus support because, although hallucination and religious enthusiasm can be symptomatic of various syndromes, other characteristic symptoms conflict with other known facts of Joan's life. Two experts who analyze a temporal lobe tuberculoma hypothesis in the medical journal Neuropsychobiology express their misgivings this way: "It is difficult to draw final conclusions, but it would seem unlikely that widespread tuberculosis, a serious disease, was present in this 'patient' whose life-style and activities would surely have been impossible had such a serious disease been present." Historian Régine Pernoud was sometimes sarcastic about speculative medical interpretations. In response to another such theory alleging that she suffered from bovine tuberculosis as a result of drinking unpasteurized milk, Pernoud wrote that if drinking unpasteurized milk can produce such potential benefits for the nation, then the French government should stop mandating the pasteurization of milk. Ralph Hoffman, professor of psychology at Yale University, points out that visionary and creative states including "hearing voices" are not necessarily signs of mental illness and names her religious inspiration as a possible exception although he offers no speculation as to alternative causes.

Further information: [[Alternative historical interpretations of Joan of Arc, Cultural depictions of Joan of Arc, Canonization of Joan of Arc]]

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The Hundred Years' War continued for 22 years after her death. Charles VII succeeded in retaining legitimacy as king of France in spite of a rival coronation held for Henry VI in December 1431 on the boy's tenth birthday. Before England could rebuild its military leadership and longbow corps lost during 1429, the country lost its alliance with Burgundy at the Treaty of Arras in 1435. The duke of Bedford died the same year and Henry VI became the youngest king of England to rule without a regent. That treaty and his weak leadership were probably the most important factors in ending the conflict. Kelly DeVries argues that Joan of Arc's aggressive use of artillery and frontal assaults influenced French tactics for the rest of the war.

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She came from an obscure village and rose to prominence when she was barely more than a child and she did so as an uneducated peasant. French and English kings had justified the ongoing war through competing interpretations of the thousand-year-old Salic law. The conflict had been an inheritance feud between monarchs. She gave meaning to appeals such as that of squire Jean de Metz when he asked, "Must the king be driven from the kingdom; and are we to be English?" In the words of Stephen Richey, "She turned what had been a dry dynastic squabble that left the common people unmoved except for their own suffering into a passionately popular war of national liberation." Richey also expresses the breadth of her subsequent appeal:

The people who came after her in the five centuries since her death tried to make everything of her: demonic fanatic, spiritual mystic, naive and tragically ill-used tool of the powerful, creator and icon of modern popular nationalism, adored heroine, saint. She insisted, even when threatened with torture and faced with death by fire, that she was guided by voices from God. Voices or no voices, her achievements leave anyone who knows her story shaking his head in amazed wonder.

In 1452, during the postwar investigation into her execution, the Church declared that a religious play in her honor at Orléans would qualify as a pilgrimage meriting an indulgence. She became a symbol of the Catholic League during the 16th century. Félix Dupanloup, bishop of Orléans from 1849 to 1878, led the effort for Joan's eventual beatification in 1909. Her canonization followed on 16 May 1920. Her feast day is 30 May. She has become one of the most popular saints of the Roman Catholic Church.

Joan was not a feminist. She operated within a religious tradition that believed an exceptional person from any level of society might receive a divine calling. She expelled women from the French army and may have struck one stubborn camp follower with the flat of a sword. Nonetheless, some of her most significant aid came from women. Charles VII's mother-in-law, Yolande of Aragon, confirmed Joan's virginity and financed her departure to Orléans. Joan of Luxembourg, aunt to the count of Luxembourg who held custody of her after Compiègne, alleviated her conditions of captivity and may have delayed her sale to the English. Finally, Anne of Burgundy, the duchess of Bedford and wife to the regent of England, declared Joan a virgin during pretrial inquiries. For technical reasons this prevented the court from charging her with witchcraft. Ultimately this provided part of the basis for her vindication and sainthood. From Christine de Pizan to the present, women have looked to her as a positive example of a brave and active female.

File:Flag of Free France 1940-1944.svg

Joan has been a political symbol in France since the time of Napoleon. Liberals emphasized her humble origins. Early conservatives stressed her support of the monarchy. Later conservatives recalled her nationalism. During World War II, both the Vichy Regime and the French Resistance used her image: Vichy propaganda remembered her campaign against the English with posters that showed British warplanes bombing Rouen and the ominous caption: "They Always Return to the Scene of Their Crimes." The resistance emphasized her fight against foreign occupation and her origins in the province of Lorraine, which had fallen under Nazi control. Traditional Catholics, especially in France, also use her as a symbol of inspiration, often comparing the 1988 excommunication of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (founder of the Society of St. Pius X and a dissident against the Vatican II reforms) to Joan's excommunication. Three separate vessels of the French Navy have been named after her, including a helicopter carrier currently in active service. At present the controversial French political party Front National holds rallies at her statues, reproduces her likeness in party publications, and uses a tricolor flame partly symbolic of her martyrdom as its emblem. This party's opponents sometimes satirize its appropriation of her image. The French civic holiday in her honor is the second Sunday of May.

Alleged Relics Debunked

In 1867, a jar was found in a Paris pharmacy with the inscription "Remains found under the stake of Joan of Arc, virgin of Orleans". They consisted of a charred human rib, carbonized wood, a piece of linen and a cat femur - explained as the practice of throwing black cats onto the pyre of witches. The Catholic church recognized them and they are now in a Chinon museum. In 2006, Philippe Charlier, a forensic scientist at Raymond Poincaré Hospital ( Garches) was authorized to study the relics. Carbon-14 tests, spectrometry and odour analysis by " noses" of the French perfume industry were performed, and the results show that the remains come from an Egyptian mummy from the sixth to the third century BC. The charred appearance comes from the embalming substances, not from combustion. Apparently the mummy was part of the ingredients of Medieval pharmacopea and it was relabelled in a time of French nationalism.

Template:Ibid

1. Modern biographical summaries often assert a birthdate of 6 January. Actually she could only estimate her own age. All of the rehabilitation trial witnesses likewise estimated her age even though several of these people were her godmothers and godfathers. The 6 January claim is based on a single source: a letter from Lord Perceval de Boullainvilliers on 21 July 1429 (see Pernoud's Joan of Arc By Herself and Her Witnesses, p. 98: "Boulainvilliers tells of her birth in Domrémy, and it is he who gives us an exact date, which may be the true one, saying that she was born on the night of Epiphany, January 6"). Boulainvilliers, however, was not from Domrémy. The event was probably not recorded. The practice of parish registers for non-noble births did not begin until several generations later.

2. Condemnation trial, pp. 342-343.[13] (Accessed 12 February 2006) Also nullification trial testimony of Brother Pierre Migier, "As to the act of recantation, I know it was performed by her; it was in writing, and was about the length of a Pater Noster."[14] (Accessed 12 February 2006) In modern English this is better known as the Lord's Prayer, Latin and English text available here: [15] (Accessed 12 February 2006)

3. Many of these hypotheses were devised by people whose expertise is in history rather than medicine. For a sampling of papers that passed peer review in medical journals, see ""I heard voices...": From semiology, a historical review, and a new hypothesis on the presumed epilepsy of Joan of Arc," d'Orsi G, Tinuper P, Epilepsy Behav. 2006 Aug;9(1):152-7. Epub 2006 June 5 [26] (idiopathic partial epilepsy with auditory features); "Joan of Arc," Foote-Smith E, Bayne L, Epilepsia. 1991 Nov-Dec;32(6):810-5 (epilepsy); "Joan of Arc and DSM III," Henker FO, South Med J. 1984 Dec;77(12):1488-90 (various psychiatric definitions) [27]; "The schizophrenia of Joan of Arc," Allen C, Hist Med. 1975 Autumn-Winter;6(3-4):4-9 (schizophrenia) [28]. (accessed 1 September 2006)

4. "A historical case of disseminated chronic tuberculosis," Nores JM, Yakovleff Y, Neuropsychobiology. 1995;32(2):79-80 (temporal lobe tuberculoma) (accessed 1 September 2006)[29]

5. Front National publicity logos include the tricolor flame and reproductions of statues depicting her.[41] Template:Fr icon (Accessed 7 February 2006) The graphics forums at Étapes magazine include a variety of political posters from the 2002 presidential election. [42] Template:Fr icon (Accessed 7 February 2006)

6. Declan Butler. Joan of Arc's relics exposed as forgery, Nature, 4 April 2007, doi:10.1038/446593a.

External links

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This article is about the historical person. For other uses of this name, see Joan of Arc (disambiguation). Template:Infobox Saint Joan of Arc, also known as Jeanne d'Arc,1 (c.1412 30 May 1431)2 was a national heroine of France and is a saint of the Roman Catholic Church.

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This transgender teenage Roman empress turned Rome upside down by refusing to conform to gender norms, appointing the first female senator, and taking on many lovers of all genders.

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"But what should our own verdict be on [her]? Does Elagabalus deserve to be more widely or favourably remembered today? One could perhaps single out as admirable [her] determination to be as open as possible about [her] sexuality and about [her] own perceptions of [her] gender. But what of [her] equal determination to enforce [her] own religion, or [her] habit of having [her] critics murdered, or [her] attempts to dispose of the young Alexander? . . . "

-John Edale

To discuss Elagabalus, one thing must be noted before all other things; there are almost no reliable accounts of her life. An empress who quickly became known as one of the most reviled leaders in the Roman empire has a lot of different sources saying a lot of different things about her reign. But we shall attempt to scavenge out what nuggets of truth we can and share with you the life of a bisexual transgender empress from the years 218 to 222.

From the very beginning of Elagabalus' reign, things were complicated. She only became empress because her grandmother started a rumour that she was the illegitimate child of the previous leader, Marcus Opellius Macrinus, who had been overthrown to get Elagabalus on the throne. Macrinus had replaced the former leader, Caracalla, after he was assassinated. To take Marcus's place, Elagabalus had the help of her mother, her grandmother, and her grandmother's friend/lover/servant, Ganny, who may have also been a eunuch. After they successfully killed Marcus, Elagabalus may have also killed Ganny when he adviced her not to draw too much attention to herself. Elagabalus would ignore that advice for her entire life.

Another thing worth noting is that Elagabalus came into power when she was fourteen. Part of the reason why people followed her so easily was because of how highly sexualized young boys were in that time and in that culture. Though Elagabalus would later make it clear that she was as a woman, society saw her as a young boy and sexualized her as such. Because of this, the amount of agency Elagabalus had when making large decisions is questionable at best. Much of her bad behaviour may be better understood when you consider she was a fourteen year old with the power most grown adults can't handle.

But, that is an explanation for her bad behaviour, not an excuse. And there is a lot of bad behaviour to explain.

Unfortunately, here is where accounts become unreliable. Elagabalus was an empress whose first political move was to make her grandmother a senator, appointing the first female to the Senate of an incredibly sexist society. While by all accounts her grandmother was pretty great at her job, it was not a popular move and it undoubtedly caused a lot of resentment; resentment that may have been expressed in spreading gossip about Elagabalus to make people hate her and eventually overthrow her. And there are wild rumours, such as the one that claimed she drowned dinner guests in flowers, or that she served people her feces when inviting them over.

When looking at her life it can be very difficult to tell fact from fiction, but there are a couple of things most sources seem to agree on. Elagabalus was raised, for the most part, in Syria and when coming to Rome to rule, she brought many Syrian customs with her: wearing silk instead of wool, worshiping and forcing others to worship Baal and trying to demote the Roman god Jupiter, and wearing robes that were more similar to dresses. She also married five times, once to a Vestal Virgin, which caused an uproar in all of Rome as that was highly forbidden. The general punishment for having sex with a Vestal Virgin was having the Vestal Virgin buried alive.

Shortly after their marriage, the woman killed herself, reportedly because of something the empress had done. It is also generally agreed that Elagabalus had sex with a lot of people from many different genders and did not try to keep this a secret. She demanded everyone call one of her male slaves "the empress's husband". She would have sex with other people and then make her slave beat her as wives were beaten after being caught having sex outside of the marriage. One might, of course, mistake this for a heterosexual transgender woman, but her bisexuality is made very clear by her many wives, and the fact she had a chariot made that was pulled by naked teenage girls.

All of this upset the Roman public further, and she slowly lost her initial popularity. Now we must look at the more murky events from questionable sources. The idea that she tried to pay a surgeon to perform a rudimentary version of gender confirmation surgery is one of the more popularly held beliefs, but it's largely based on gossip and speculation. It is possible that with her demanding to be called an empress, wearing make-up, and often disguising herself as a female sex worker, people wanted to add to the rumour mill that surrounded her transness. Regardless of whether she was searching for gender confirmation surgery or not, she was transgender. Though it was not unheard of at the time to be transgender, Roman xenophobia and racism attributed her femininity to Syrian stereotypes, as femininity was among the highest insults to the Romans. In regards to her gender, it can become difficult to parse the truth from the gossip. What can be said is that it is unlikely the gossip came from nothing, making it more likely that much of what we know is an exaggerated caricature of what actually happened.

There are also the rumours that had nothing to do with her gender and were instead about her wild dinner parties. There are stories of wild animals being released, dinner guests being strapped to the water wheel and drowned, and foods like parrot heads being served. She seemed to enjoy the drama surrounding being in public office. Though her grandmother made sure that her political decisions were solid, her penchant for scandal would be her undoing.

Her upset of the Roman religious system, her dramatic antics, and her habit of killing people who disagreed with her built into resentment on an institutional scale. By the time she was eighteen, she was killed along with her mother.

We are about to discuss death and other types of violence and desecration of a dead body; that discussion will be limited to this paragraph.

Elagabalus' grandmother soon noticed Elagabalus' unpopularity and convinced her to adopt another one of her daughter's sons as an heir. Once that was done, it set into motion the overthrow of Elagabalus. Elagabalus' mother stayed by her side throughout the political unrest and was killed alongside her. Elagabalus and her mother had their heads cut off, Elagabalus was killed in a latrine and after her and her mother's bodies were dragged through the streets before being weighed down and thrown into the river.

Elagabalus died at eighteen, after ruling for only four years. After her death, the Roman Senate had her erased from the history of Rome, which is a part of why information about her is so scarce and often so unreliable. What we know is that Elagabalus wasn't a good leader, and probably not that great of a person either. But we also know she was a teenager.

Having both facts in mind, it becomes difficult to pin down exactly how we should remember Elagabalus. Though she was undoubtedly worth remembering, she may also be one of the people in the queer community's history that isn't deserving of any reverence. She was queer, and she was also a very violent and justifiably hated person, but her bad behaviour was not because of her queerness. It is far more likely that her age played the biggest part in her terrible decisions.

John Edale from the Good Men Project brought an interesting perspective on this saying:

"But what should our own verdict be on [her]? Does Elagabalus deserve to be more widely or favourably remembered today? One could perhaps single out as admirable [her] determination to be as open as possible about [her] sexuality and about [her] own perceptions of [her] gender. But what of [her] equal determination to enforce [her] own religion, or [her] habit of having [her] critics murdered, or [her] attempts to dispose of the young Alexander? . . . Personally, I like just knowing that there were people like Elagabalus around. I like stumbling across them in corners of history where they were not expected, regardless of whether or not a case can be made for them having lived inspirational lives.

. . . Fundamentally, Elagabalus's trajectory as emperor was determined less by [her] gender and sexuality than by the fact that [she] was a spoilt teenager who had suddenly found [herself] to be in possession of absolute power. Like Caligula, Nero and Commodus [she] paid the inevitable price for being no good at a job which [she] should clearly have never been given. In this respect at least, there was a certain tragic normality to [her] reign, and any history that finds a more prominent place for the Empress should perhaps also find a place for that fact."

And there is no doubt that much of this is true. Not everyone in queer history is going to be easy to like, but that shouldn't mean we should ignore them, but it also shouldn't mean we ignore their mistakes. Because if we can't accept and face mistakes in our past, how will we learn how to face them in our present, or our future?

Just like life, history is not meant to be simple, and it is important not to ignore facts or even possibilities for the sake of simplicity. Instead, we should embrace and explore the complex, even when, like Elagabalus, it is a bit messy.
[Disclaimer: some of the sources may contain triggering material.]
"Elagabalus." Elagabalus, Illustrated History of the Roman Empire, www.roman-empire.net/decline/elagabalus.html.

The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Elagabalus: Roman Emperor." Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Wasson, Donald L. "Elagabalus." Ancient History Encyclopedia. Ancient History Encyclopedia, 21 Oct 2013. Web. 25 Sep 2017.

Weingarten, Judith. "The Crimes of Elagabalus: The Life and Legacy of Rome's Decadent Boy Emperor." The World Rankings, Times Higher Education (THE), 22 May 2015.

Mijatovic, Alexis. "A Brief Biography of Elagabalus: the Transgender Ruler of Rome · Challenging Gender Boundaries: A Trans Biography Project · Outhistory.org." Out History, The Digital Humanities Initiative.

Meckler, Michael L. "Elagabalus." De Imperatoribus Romanis, 26 Aug. 1997.

De, Arrizabalaga y Prado Leonardo. The Emperor Elagabalus: Fact or Fiction? Cambridge University Press, 2014.

Edale, John. "Rome's Forgotten Empress: The Strange Reign of Emporer Elagabalus." The Good Men Project, 6 Feb. 2015.

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Elagabalus, the Empress - Making Queer History

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To discuss Elagabalus, one thing must be noted before all other things; there are almost no reliable accounts of her life. An empress who quickly became known as one of the most reviled leaders in the Roman empire has a lot of different sources saying a lot of different things about her reign.

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Greetings!  Recently, New Jersey became the second state to mandate LGBTQIA+ curriculum in public schools!  Woo hoo!  We offer some resources to familiarize yourself with LGBTQIA+ history. We are so proud to live in a state that recognizes the need to study history from all sides and supports the inclusion of many voices!  :)