# data[].attributes.body
The Salt Roads by nalohopkinson

Book

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Trans, Gender-Variant, and Intersex Justice Project is founded in San Francisco.

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Attica Prison Uprising becomes the most deadly prison uprising in the history of the U.S.

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B4T - Before Testosterone

A Theatre Piece by Imani Henry

B4T is a smart, funny, and moving multi-media theatre piece that explores race, sexuality and gender expression through the lives of three Black, masculine, female-bodied people. Written and performed by Imani Henry | B4T played to sold-out audiences and standing ovations in NYC. B4T has been featured on national television and presented at festivals, conferences and campuses across the country.

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Aug 2005 - Hurricane Katrina hits & reshapes Black life - schools, community, families - in the South/US

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Aug 2005 - Hurricane Katrina hits & reshapes Black life - schools, community, families - in the South/US

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The Aggressives(2005) Documentary

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maroonage on Turtle Island and throughout the so-called Americas (16th century + )

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maroonage on Turtle Island and throughout the so-called Americas (16th century + )

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Dr Kortney Ziegler Film Still Black 2008

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Dr Kortney Ziegler Film Still Black 2008

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Still Black: A Portrait of Black Transmen is brought to life by the stories of six thoughtful, eloquent and diverse transmen. Preachers, teachers, students and activists educate us simply by making their presence known. Each man brings a colorful and complex richness as he describes his relationship to himself, as well as others in his life — the cadence of his voice keeping in rhythm with how the speaker displays himself to the camera.

Director Kortney Ryan Ziegler lets the subjects’ words and personalities dictate the images and film effects, and the black images on the white background play on the fact that issues concerning gender, race and sexuality are not and cannot be discussed in black and white terms.

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Queering Herbalism by Toi Scott published (2010)

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Queering Herbalism by Toi Scott published (2010)

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This may cause VK to work slowly or experience errors. Update your browser or install one of the following:

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Spring 2011 - Carter Brown Creates the Black Trans Advocacy Conference

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Spring 2011 - Carter Brown Creates the Black Trans Advocacy Conference

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Only Conference of its kind that sustained after many pre dating attempts

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Skip to Content

The Introduction of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

In 1994, the U.S. adopted "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" as the official federal policy on military service by lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals. The rule was discrimination in its purest form and prevented service members from being openly queer without threat of being discharged. DADT was based on the false assumption that the presence of LGBTQ+ individuals in any branch of the military would undermine the ability of people to carry out their duties. Over the course of the policy's life, thousands of brave service members were discharged simply for who they were and whom they loved.

Ensuring Justice for Service Members Everywhere

HRC made repealing DADT a top priority - and public sentiment showed the evolving perceptions of LGBTQ+ people serving openly in the military. By the time President Obama took office, we knew there was a coalition of supporters and elected officials ready to retire this hateful policy once and for all. Our Voices of Honor tour worked with hundreds of LGBTQ+ veterans across 50 different cities to lobby members of Congress to repeal DADT and identified more than 20,000 pro-repeal veterans. We also worked with Eric Alva, an openly gay Marine and the first person injured in the Iraq War, to share his story and speak on behalf of the thousands of LGBTQ+ service members actively fighting for our country.

19 million Emails to members & supporters

625,000 Emails to members of Congress

50,000 Handwritten letters

1,000 Grassroots lobby visits

A Vote for Equality

Leading up to a vote on repealing DADT in the Senate Armed Services Committee, HRC mobilized across six states identified as key to passing legislation through the committee. We then expanded our efforts across the country - hiring 27 staff members on the ground nationwide - to rally support ahead of a full Senate vote. After tens of thousands of letters, emails and calls from our members and supporters, victory was achieved and DADT was repealed in full on September 20, 2011. Service members previously discharged for their LGBTQ+ status were offered re-enrollment and future recruits knew they would no longer face discrimination when trying to serve their country.

The Continued Fight for Transgender Rights

In July 2017, President Trump sent a hateful tweet that transgender individuals would no longer be able to enter the military and those currently enlisted would not be allowed to continue in their roles. This was followed by an official memorandum the next month that went into effect in January 2019 amid ongoing lawsuits. Since then, HRC has joined a lawsuit fighting back against the policy. Trump's ban is baseless, spurious and flat out unpatriotic. HRC is continuing to fight against this ban so that all people - especially transgender individuals - can serve our country.

You'll receive email updates from HRC. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Manage Your Membership

Adjust your membership details

Equality Magazine

The nation's largest-circulation LGBTQ+ magazine

Full-time positions, fellowships and internships

Press releases, corporate assets

Department contacts, membership inquiries

The Human Rights Campaign, All Rights Reserved

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Skip to Content In 1994, the U.S. adopted "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" as the official federal policy on military service by lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals. The rule was discrimination in its purest form and prevented service members from being openly queer without threat of being discharged.

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1920 - Stormé DeLarverie, a lifelong gay rights activist and drag performer was born (credited for throwing the first punch during the Stonewall Riots in 1969) 

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1920 - Stormé DeLarverie, a lifelong gay rights activist and drag performer was born (credited for throwing the first punch during the Stonewall Riots in 1969) 

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2012: First Black Trans Lawyer Kylar W. Broadus’ Testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee 

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2012: First Black Trans Lawyer Kylar W. Broadus’ Testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee 

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Broadus' Testified to the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee

106 Dirksen Senate Office Building June 12, 2012 10 a.m.

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June 2012 - CeCe McDonald case hits national news

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June 2012 - CeCe McDonald case hits national news

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CeCe McDonald (/ˌsiːˈsiː/; born May 26, 1989) is an African American trans woman and LGBTQ activist.[2][3][4] She came to national attention in June 2012 for accepting a plea bargain of 41 months for second-degree manslaughter of a man she stabbed after McDonald and her friends were assaulted in Minneapolis outside a bar near closing time.[5][6][7][8] The attack, a year prior, was widely seen as racist and transphobic, and became physical when McDonald was struck in the face by the man's friend with "an alcoholic drink" glass causing a bleeding gash that needed stitches.[9]

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African Traditional / Indigenous Spiritual Systems with worldviews and roles that transcend Western conceptions of biological sex/gender/separation between humans and "nature"/etc. (since beginning of time + )  

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African Traditional / Indigenous Spiritual Systems with worldviews and roles that transcend Western conceptions of biological sex/gender/separation between humans and "nature"/etc. (since beginning of time + )  

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2013  - sharon bridgforth "Dat Black Mermaid Man Lady" stage premiere

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2013  - sharon bridgforth "Dat Black Mermaid Man Lady" stage premiere

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dat black mermaid man lady (performance)

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"dat Black Mermaid Man Lady/The Show" on Twin Cities PBS

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1940 - Miss Major Griffin-Gracy is born. 

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1940 - Miss Major Griffin-Gracy is born. 

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Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, often referred to as Miss Major or Major, is a black transgender, genderqueer woman, social activist, and community leader, who participated in the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City. Miss Major has spent more than 40 years of her life working on a variety of causes for marginalized groups including those related to transgender women of color. Her own experiences with incarceration gave her inspiration to advocate for those subjected to heteronormativity and racism within the prison system and living on the streets. A formative experience for her happened while at the Attica State Prison in New York during a four day uprising in September 1971 which inspired her to help other trans women, especially trans women of color, by making sure they were not subjected to the same treatment she endured. She also played a major activist role during the AIDS crisis as a part of a number of HIV/AIDS organizations. This then lead to her serving as one of the first Executive Directors of the Transgender Gender Variant Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP). Recently, Miss Major has relocated to Little Rock, Arkansas to start the Griffin-Gracy Historical Retreat and Educational Center. Affectionately referred to as the House of GG, it was built as a safe house for the transgender community.

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fatima jamal introduces her film "no fats, no fems" to the world. don't have exact date: 2013-2015?

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fatima jamal introduces her film "no fats, no fems" to the world. don't have exact date: 2013-2015?

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Fatima Jamal on Making a Personal Archive

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2013-2015 Trayvon in FL, Mike Brown in MO, Freddie Grey in MD + others publicly killed: [Ferguson] Uprisings launch a new era

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2013-2015 Trayvon in FL, Mike Brown in MO, Freddie Grey in MD + others publicly killed: [Ferguson] Uprisings launch a new era

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Black Girl Dangerous: On Race, Queerness, Class and Gender created by Mia McKenzie

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brandi wharton creates the magical fat black femmes group on facebook creating a space for hundreds of fat black folks globally to crowd-source sex/pleasure education, medical advice, world-navigation/survival tools, resources and education. (2015)

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brandi wharton creates the magical fat black femmes group on facebook creating a space for hundreds of fat black folks globally to crowd-source sex/pleasure education, medical advice, world-navigation/survival tools, resources and education. (2015)

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In Essex County, Massachusetts, Elizabeth Johnson is fined and whipped for "unseemly practices with another maid attempting to do that which man and woman do."

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1940 - Pauli Murray is arrested for refusing to move on a bus in Virginia.

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1940 - Pauli Murray is arrested for refusing to move on a bus in Virginia.

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The first lesbian and transgender person in modern times, Charlotte Clark, publishes an autobiography. She is a flamboyant, cross-dressing actress who writes about her relationship with her wife, Mrs. Brown.

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 2015: LaVerne Cox first openly transgender person to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in an acting category

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 2015: LaVerne Cox first openly transgender person to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in an acting category

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Laverne Cox Is the First Transgender Person Nominated for an Emmy

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Orange Is the New Black's Laverne Cox has become the first transgender person nominated for an Emmy award.

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2015-2017 #Ferguson2Palestine emergence: Black 4 Palestine Delegations with the Dream Defenders, BLM/M4BL, Interfaith Peace Builders

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2015-2017 #Ferguson2Palestine emergence: Black 4 Palestine Delegations with the Dream Defenders, BLM/M4BL, Interfaith Peace Builders

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During the her trial for perjury, she stated "I defy any doctor in the world to prove that I am not a woman," and "I have lived, dressed, acted just what I am, a woman." However, the court convicted her of perjury on her marriage license and sentenced her to 10 years of probation.

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Born in Waddy, Kentucky in 1886, Lucy Hicks Anderson insisted on wearing dresses to school. While Anderson was a child her concerned mother took her to a doctor who suggested that she allow her child to live as a female. By age 15, she changed her name to Lucy and left home. Lucy Lawson married Clarence Hicks in 1920 and divorced him in 1929. Working as a domestic, she saved her money and eventually owned and operated a brothel in Oxnard, CA. In 1944, Lucy Hicks married Reuben Anderson. But in 1945, when an outbreak of venereal disease in Oxnard was said to have originated from Hicks's establishment, the employees were ordered to undergo a medical physical examination where it was revealed that Lucy was assigned male at birth. Upon discovery, the Ventura County District Attorney voided the marriage and arrested Lucy for perjury, justifying the charge by saying she had signed the marriage license stating there were "no legal objections to the marriage." Both Lucy Hicks Anderson and her husband were tried by the federal government. During her perjury trial Lucy Hicks Anderson insisted that a person could appear to be of one sex but actually belong to the other, saying, "I defy any doctor in the world to prove that I am not a woman." She told reporters, "I have lived, dressed, acted just what I am, a woman." She was placed on ten years probation as an alternative to prison. However, her troubles were not over. When the government concluded that Lucy had been illegally receiving Anderson's allotment checks as the wife of a member of the U.S. Army, the couple was tried and convicted of fraud. After her release from prison, Lucy Hicks Anderson was banned from moving back to Oxnard. She relocated to Los Angeles where she lived until her death in 1954.

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Lucy Hicks Anderson | Legacy Project Chicago

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Born in Waddy, Kentucky in 1886, Lucy Hicks Anderson insisted on wearing dresses to school. While Anderson was a child her concerned mother took her to a doctor who suggested that she allow her child to live as a female. By age 15, she changed her name to Lucy and left home.

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2016 - Ash Williams Shuts Hillary Clinton down 

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2016 - Ash Williams Shuts Hillary Clinton down 

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#WhichHillary? #BlackLivesMatter Activist Demands Apology from Clinton for "Superpredator" Comments

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William Dorsey Swann (March 1860 – c. December 23, 1925) ; African-American born into slavery, was the first person in the United States to lead a queer resistance group and the first known person to self-identify as a "queen of drag"

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The Trans List (tv doc)

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Combahee River Collective publishes the Combahee River Collective Statement | Pauli Murray Pauli becomes an ordained priest.

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Frances Thompson was a formerly enslaved black transgender woman and anti-rape activist who was one of the five black women to testify before a congressional committee that investigated the Memphis Riots of 1866. She is believed to be the first transgender woman to testify before the United States Congress. Thompson and a housemate, Lucy Smith, were attacked by a white mob and were among many freedwomen who were raped during the riots.[1] In 1876, Thompson was arrested for "being a man dressed in women's clothing".[2]

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The Combahee River Collective publishes the 4-part Combahee River Collective Statement.

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1980s The Carter-Johnson Leather library was founded by two black lesbian leatherwomen

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1980s The Carter-Johnson Leather library was founded by two black lesbian leatherwomen

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FDA bans blood donations by MSM and as an extension, trans people with particular anatomy and sexual practices.

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2016 Donald Trump is elected & begins to roll back decades of Black, POC & LGBTQ+ protective policies

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2016 Donald Trump is elected & begins to roll back decades of Black, POC & LGBTQ+ protective policies

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President Trump announces via Twitter, that "the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military." & releases a memo directing Defense Department to move forward with developing a plan to discharge transgender military service members and to maintain a ban on recruitment.

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Staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were instructed not to use the words “transgender,” “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “fetus,” “evidence-based,” and “science-based” in official documents.

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Pauli Murray dies (1910-1985). Their memoir is posthumously published in 1987

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Renowned blues singer during the 1920s and 30s. 

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1907 - 1960 Gladys Bentley aka Bobbie Bentley

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1907 - 1960 Gladys Bentley aka Bobbie Bentley

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1910 - Pauli Murray is born in North Carolina

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1910 - Pauli Murray is born in North Carolina

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This act prevented LGBTQ people from holding government positions

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1955 - 1968 Civil Rights Movement & Anti-War Protests activate the nation & world

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1955 - 1968 Civil Rights Movement & Anti-War Protests activate the nation & world

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The Compton’s Cafeteria riot, marks the beginning of transgender activism in San Francisco and was the first known incident of collective militant queer resistance to police harassment in U.S. history.

In the 50's and 60's police officers were known to mistreat transgender people; one of these known officers attempted to arrest one of the trans women at the restaurant. She threw her coffee in his face and the cafeteria "erupted.” Dishes and furniture were thrown, and the restaurant's plate-glass windows were smashed. Patrons force police out of the establishment

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2017 Yance Ford's Oscar Nomination for Strong Island doc

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2017 Yance Ford's Oscar Nomination for Strong Island doc

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The forces of family, grief and racial injustice converge in this Oscar-nominated documentary exploring the murder of filmmaker Yance Ford's brother.

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It’s impossible to say exactly how many people were killed or injured in the race riots and lynchings of the Red Summer of 1919—official records for some incidents were poor or never documented. We know that hundreds of people lost their lives, thousands were injured and many more were forced to flee their homes. The Red Summer saw Black populations fight back aggressively against racial violence and intimidation in ways that were not typical before; it did not intimidate African Americans into submission, as their tormentors had hoped. Instead, African Americans emerged from the violence of that bloody year with a greater sense of shared purpose, identity and pride, which served as a vital foundation for the civil rights movement to come.

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American servicemen returned from the First World War only to find a new type of violent conflict waiting for them at home.

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Pose (tv)

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BLK Magazine

BLK was a monthly American newsmagazine, similar in format to Time and The Advocate, which targeted its coverage of people, events and issues to African-American LGBT readers.

Published in Los Angeles, the magazine was initially distributed free to local black establishments frequented by lesbians and gay men, but distribution rapidly expanded to nearly all LGBT venues in Greater Los Angeles. Its early coverage of the local black LGBT scene soon enlarged to a nationwide and international focus, and eventually to national and Canadian distribution.[1]

Sub-titled "The National Black Lesbian and Gay Newsmagazine", with the motto "where the news is colored on purpose", BLK (always capitalized) took its name from the standard abbreviation used in U.S. personal ads for "black", i.e. a person of sub-Saharan racial descent.[2]

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Interview with Alan Bell of BLK Magazine

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Ezili's Mirrors Imagining Black Queer Genders (book)

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Black Trans Liberation Kitchen ( organizing initative in nyc)

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Robert Rayford, First suspected AIDS patient dies May 15, 1969 (aged 16) of HIV

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Robert Rayford, First suspected AIDS patient dies May 15, 1969 (aged 16) of HIV

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Stonewall Rebellion

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Many of the movement’s leaders were openly gay or identified as having nuanced sexualities including Angelina Weld Grimké, Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, Wallace Thurman, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Alain Locke, and Richard Bruce Nugent among others. The movement offered a new language that challenged social structures and demonstrated the ways that race, gender, sex and sexuality distinctions were actually intersecting, fluid and constantly evolving.

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1970 - STAR founded by Marsha P Johnson & Sylvia Rivera

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1970 - STAR founded by Marsha P Johnson & Sylvia Rivera

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Sylvia Rivera & Marsha P. Johnson saw that the needs of street & transgender youth were not being taken seriously by other early gay groups. They founded STAR: Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries to fill the gap.

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Niggerati Manor releases first and only issue of FIRE! (1926)

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Niggerati Manor releases first and only issue of FIRE! (1926)

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A dramatization: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgUODwKXaBg

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HOW NIGGERATI MANOR AND BLACK QUEER ARTISTRY LIVE ON TODAY

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During the Harlem Renaissance, Zora Neale Hurston would be known to walk into a room, throw her arms out, and proclaim herself “Queen of…

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Bostock v. Clayton County, 590 U.S. 644 (2020), is a landmark[1] United States Supreme Court civil rights decision in which the Court held that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects employees against discrimination because of sexuality or gender identity.

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the death of vivek oji akwaeke emezi (book)

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2020 4 Black Queer Women Organize Largest STL Protest Against Police Brutality

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2020 4 Black Queer Women Organize Largest STL Protest Against Police Brutality

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As George Floyd lay dying, he called out for Larcenia.

"Mama!" he shouted twice. But Mama could not help him. Larcenia Floyd has been dead for two years, but the invocation of her spirit in George Floyd's final moments was an act so widely understood, it is possibly the most heartbreaking moment of that video.

As days passed and photos surfaced from Floyd's life, one picture of George and Larcenia showed the tender relationship between mother and son. It's one of George snuggled into his mother's lap, asleep, with both Larcenia's hands wrapped around him. It is a universal image, one that provides comfort and the familiar feeling of having a parent love and protect their child.

George did not call out for a brother. He didn't call out for a friend. He called out for Mama, a Black woman who fought for him and loved him.

George Floyd is not the first Black man to be murdered by police. He is also not the first person whose killing was captured on video. In 2020 alone, the hashtags with the names of Black men killed by police have been numerous. And yet, the women - people like Breonna Taylor, Atatiana Jefferson, Nina Pop and Sandra Bland - trending in recent years on social media have not received the sort of attention that Black men received. There was no major protesting across cities in America, no burning, no intense representation of anger of the masses.

But four young women in St. Louis have not forgotten. Activists Natasha Jain-Poster, Brooke Jones, Bersabeh Mesfin and Daishanae Crittenden see these hashtags and internalize them. They see their friends, sisters, aunts and mothers lost in the Strong Black Woman and Women of Color tropes accepted by society, just as they see their fathers, boyfriends and peers in the Black men slain by police.

Back in 2014, the women were just juniors at Clayton High School and Parkway West High School, friends who'd known one another since middle school. They began seeing each other regularly after graduating, having conversations surrounding activism and the political climate. When Michael Brown was killed, Jain-Poster, Mesfin and Jones protested in Ferguson, while it would be a few more years before Crittenden would join them in their social justice efforts.

As women who identify as Black and Brown, they decided with the killing of Michael Brown, it was time to be the change they wished to see.

"The Mike Brown situation was the catalyst that got us into activism on the grassroots level and in the streets," Jain-Poster says. "But the George Floyd situation happened, and we all regrouped and decided this was something we needed to take into our own hands."

Much has been said in the news regarding protests and the activism of everyday people, but rarely have the now young adults who were in the midst of adolescence in 2014 been given the opportunity to share what it meant to see the body of someone their age lying out in the street in broad daylight.

"For me, it was very scary, because I am the oldest of five and I have four younger brothers," Crittenden says. "Just knowing that Mike Brown was a child and could've been one of my brothers - that was just scary."

The women recall feeling deeply affected by Brown's death. Several of them knew his family personally. When the events of Ferguson made national headlines, Brown's name and image were lost in a sea of demonization, racism, cruelty and hatred. It was another reminder of what Black people and people of color have faced in the United States for decades.

The collaboration of these four women, all with varying backgrounds organizing community activism, represents the necessity of nuance in the battle for equality. Jain-Poster is a double major in international relations and Spanish; Crittenden is studying elementary education; Jones is a biology and pre-med major; Mesfin is a double major in human and social development and psychology. And while their educational pursuits provide academic insights for understanding the world and political climate around them, they recognize that those studies alone are not enough for anyone seeking equality.

The women agree that Michael Brown was the catalyst and George Floyd the reminder for their activism. In June, the women rebirthed their own movement, with Crittenden joining as the fourth member of the group. Now halfway through college at their respective universities, the women are still unsatisfied with the efforts to raise awareness and speak out against police brutality. So they've gone to work. It was in the collective experience of living during a pandemic and having the time to organize that they found the opportunity to push for more change.

"When we started to talk about the murdering of George Floyd, there hadn't been any action in St. Louis," Jones says. "That's when we said we couldn't keep waiting on somebody to do something, so we went ahead and created our own protest."

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How Four St. Louis Women Protested for Justice and Moved the City

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As George Floyd lay dying, he called out for Larcenia. "Mama!" he shouted twice. But Mama could not help him. Larcenia Floyd has been dead...

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In this documentary, leading trans creatives and thinkers share heartfelt perspectives and analysis about Hollywood's impact on the trans community.

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creation and ongoing evolution of African Diasporic Spiritual Traditions (e.g. Haitian Vodou, Hoodoo), with worldviews and roles that transcend Western conceptions of biological sex/gender/separation between humans and "nature"/etc. (16th century + )

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creation and ongoing evolution of African Diasporic Spiritual Traditions (e.g. Haitian Vodou, Hoodoo), with worldviews and roles that transcend Western conceptions of biological sex/gender/separation between humans and "nature"/etc. (16th century + )

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Born: April 20, 1951, New York, NY

Died: July 1, 2005 (age 54 years), Edison, NJ

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2022- Samantha "Miss Cookie Tookie" James Transitions

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2022- Samantha "Miss Cookie Tookie" James Transitions

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Aspiring Funeral Home Director and Internet Sensation dies from complications related to COVID-19

BIRTH

17 Sep 1978

Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, USA

DEATH

3 Dec 2022 (aged 44)

Los Angeles County, California, USA

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2015-2022: Trans Woman of Color Collective 

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2015-2022: Trans Woman of Color Collective 

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TWOCC is a grass-roots global initiative led by trans and gender non-conforming people of color that works to uplift the lived narratives, experiences and leadership of trans and gender non-conforming people of color, their families and comrades while building towards collective liberation for all oppressed people through healing and restorative justice.

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Xmas 2023 The Color Purple arrives at the box office as a Musical

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Xmas 2023 The Color Purple arrives at the box office as a Musical

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Warning: The following contains spoilers for "The Color Purple."
Over the years, retellings of "The Color Purple" onscreen and onstage have explored many facets of Celie's journey: horrific traumas at the hands of her father and husband; an unbreakable bond with her sister, Nettie; heroic triumphs over hardship.

But not every adaptation of Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel has been so frank about Celie's sexual orientation. And a new movie musical version of the story, in theaters Dec. 25, has reignited a decades-long debate over whether Hollywood and Broadway can ever do its most transformative romance justice.

The creators of the new movie are acutely aware of the criticism that past adaptations have downplayed the truth about the character's sexuality. "Celie is a queer icon, and Alice Walker has been very vocal about that," director Blitz Bazawule tell The Times. "Our job was to just lean into it harder, and give a little bit more context and a little more beauty to her coming-out moment."

That moment occurs between Celie, a poor Black woman living in the rural South in the early 1900s, and Shug Avery, a free-spirited jazz-blues singer who is also the longtime mistress of Celie's husband. The 1982 novel - which has been the subject of multiple book bans over the past 40 years for its depiction of homosexuality, among other controversial content - details Celie's attraction to Shug from their first meeting, the sight of her naked body in the bath and the moment Shug remarks lovingly on Celie's beauty and significance. Their intimate encounters are the only times Celie experiences sex that is caring and consensual, and their connection continues for years,even as Shug maintains relationships with other men and women.

Walker created Celie and Shug's relationship in the novel because she "wanted to give my family and friends an opportunity to see women-loving women - lesbian, heterosexual, bi-sexual, 'two-spirited' - womanist women in a recognizable context. I wanted them, I suppose, to see me," she wrote in her 1997 book "The Same River Twice: Honoring the Difficult." More recently, Walker has elaborated on the real-life inspiration for Celie and Shug's romance, spurred by an actor's refusal to play Celie onstage.

"Celie ... is based on the life of my grandmother, Rachel, a kind and loving woman brutally abused by my grandfather," Walker said in a statement in 2019. "It is safe to say, after a frightful life serving and obeying abusive men, who raped in place of 'making love,' my grandmother, like Celie, was not attracted to men. She was, in fact, very drawn to my grandfather's lover, a beautiful woman who was kind to her, the only grown person who ever seemed to notice how remarkable and creative she was.

"In giving Celie the love of this woman, in every way love can be expressed, I was clear in my intention to demonstrate that she too, like all of us, deserved to be seen, appreciated, and deeply loved by someone who saw her as whole and worthy," the statement continued. "Because I believe, and know, that sexual love can be extraordinarily holy, whoever might be engaging in it, I felt I had been able to return a blessing of love to a grandmother who had always offered only blessing and love, when I was a child, to me."

In contrast with the book's painstaking exploration of Celie's pivotal romance with Shug, the women's intimate relationship is relegated to a single brief scene in the 1985 film adaptation, which was directed by Steven Spielberg and earned 11 Oscar nominations. After hugging, dancing and laughing in a dressing room, Shug (Margaret Avery) tells Celie (Whoopi Goldberg) she's beautiful and that she loves her, and then softly kisses her on her forehead, cheeks and lips.

Walker recalls in "The Same River Twice" that producer Quincy Jones received numerous letters from people "who adamantly opposed any display of sexual affection between Celie and Shug" and threatened to boycott the film. The scene's very inclusion demanded "a bit of gentle insistence" on Walker's part with Spielberg, Jones and screenwriter Menno Meyjes - and the final version, though it does depict a joyous, reciprocal encounter, lacks the sensuousness of Walker's description in the novel.

"I knew the passion of Celie and Shug's relationship would be sacrificed," she adds, "when, on the day 'the kiss' was shot, Quincy reassured me that Steven had shot it 'five or six' different ways, all of them 'tasteful.'"

Spielberg has since acknowledged the criticism that the scene is an insufficient depiction of the pair's bond. "There were certain things in the [lesbian] relationship between Shug Avery and Celie that were finely detailed in Alice's book that I didn't feel could get a [PG-13] rating," he said in a 2011 interview.

"And I was shy about it. In that sense, perhaps I was the wrong director to acquit some of the more sexually honest encounters between Shug and Celie, because I did soften those," he continued. "I basically took something that was extremely erotic and very intentional, and I reduced it to a simple kiss." (When asked if he would change it, he responded, "I wouldn't, no. That kiss is consistent with the tonality, from beginning to end, of 'The Color Purple' that I adapted.")

The shyness of Spielberg's version is one reason why producer Scott Sanders pursued Walker in the late 1990s about creating a "Color Purple" stage musical. "She said, 'The relationship between Celie and Shug is very important to me,'" he recalls. "I told her I would want to elaborate on that and really open it up. I said, 'This is Broadway, we can touch on subjects like this, it's not an issue.'"

Songwriters Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray wrote songs representing the different stages of Celie and Shug's courtship, including "What About Love?," a romantic duet between two female characters that culminates in a kiss - still a rarity for a commercial musical.

From the start of the new movie musical project, Sanders, producer Oprah Winfrey and screenwriter Marcus Gardley sought to preserve, or even expand, the stage version's treatment of the relationship.

"There's a lot more intimacy between Celie and Shug in this movie than even was in the Broadway musical because we're not on a proscenium stage anymore," says Sanders. "It was important for us to make it abundantly clear to audiences that these two women had both a sexual relationship and a loving relationship, and that Celie had one love in this entire story."

Director Bazawule underscores Celie's attraction to Shug by "tracking the arc of how Celie finds what love is and who to love," and making each representation of Celie's romantic feelings "extravagant and memorable." For instance, their "What About Love?" duet comes as the pair sneaks off to a date at a movie theater, which transforms into a sumptuous Art Deco concert stage.

"Celie's mind goes into this incredible place of what she believes love is, and when she comes back into reality, it has happened to her," Bazawule explains of the scene, which closes with a tender kiss in their theater seats. The next scene shows them waking up in the same bed after spending the night together.

"They probably didn't even have the language for it that we use now, but they were courageous and found freedom in their love," says Gardley. "One thing that's important and vital about this story is that these women and their love for each other existed during this time period, and we really wanted to embrace and celebrate that."

For a number of critics, this approach still falls short, not only of Walker's original but even of other adaptations. As Autostraddle's Carmen Phillips argues, for example, the movie musical sacrifices queer romance for a message of finding strength in sisterhood: "'The Color Purple' has never been only about Black women saving each other. It's about Black women finding beauty and worth in each other, in all aspects of who we are, and on this Alice Walker could not be more clear: that means in our bedrooms, too."

Of the potential for fresh backlash to the adaptation of Celie and Shug's story, Sanders says, "There was nothing intentional to soften the relationship and, quite frankly, we thought we did a beautiful job with it. ... We show that they kissed, that they were romantic, that they slept together at least once. But how many scenes do you want to keep going back to the bedroom?"

Indeed, though the filmmakers have dropped or changed some material from the Broadway musical, they don't view these choices as a form of erasure. The Act 2 argument that set up Celie's showstopper "I'm Here" onstage, in which Shug leaves her for a young man, has been replaced by Celie's discovery that her long-lost sister is alive - turning the number from a cry of heartbroken resentment into one of triumphant celebration, the creative team argues.

"It's way more powerful," says Gardley, who wrote the argument into the film script and only learned of the song's new setup upon watching an early version of the movie. "And it feels like that's what that moment should be about."

For his part, Bazawule welcomes feedback from viewers, and he hopes future adaptations of Walker's novel take it into consideration - just as he, Sanders and others have consistently looked to Spielberg's adaptation to shape the story they wanted to tell.

"Who knows? Twenty, 30 years from now, another group might come and remake this again," he says. "I don't know what it will be then, but they will advance what queer representation looks like and all the things that we took upon ourselves to expand on. And it all gets to be part of the canon of 'The Color Purple.'"

'The Color Purple'

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The 40-year fight over 'The Color Purple's' queer love story

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Steven Spielberg, a Broadway show and now a movie musical all have tried to capture the queer love story in Alice Walker's novel. Here's how they did it - and why some argue they've all failed.