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From the three presentations and the discussion that followed, what struck me is how deep the impact of religiosity-based puritanical lenses is prevalent in history and seeps into everything from patriarchal structures, erasure of non-conformist histories and the biases and discrimination we face today.

From Sally’s presentation:

How long fight to freedom of body and self still is for women to break free from the historical subjugation of women that in the context of Joslyn Gage is based on religious underpinnings  The assertion that it all begins with the story of eve, when canon law became common law in western society placing a man in control of a woman, her body, soul, her sense of person. And that historically this has become entrenched because ‘something that disrupts the absolute gender identity disrupts common law', canon, religious and moral right’and in effect western ways of life. To me personally that is hugely relevant because it isn’t just women but by extension to people of colour and colonialism in general that we see reflected in how we struggle today because of western religious fundamentals.

From Antonio’s presentation:

LGBTWI rights and historical discrimination that become entrenched in norms and prejudices that are difficult to combat or erase in the world today.  Works of art that are protected as museum content but not as LGBTQI heritage in the public sphere that in essence creates a lacuna of information and public consciousness about how pervasive this heritage is as human heritage, human history and human nature. Providing legal protection LGBTQI sites as sites of conscience and for the historical memory of LGBTQI people is important.

From Kate’s presentation:

How historical revisionism through our puritanical lenses can erase the open-heartedness and acceptance that existed, to be fair, within pockets of society. And how the erasure can skew our perspectives today that heteronormativity is the only reality.

A few key points as we close this session on understanding the roots of bias, discrimination and violence:

1.     Sharing of the stories is a foundation of building a movement of upending the stranglehold of discrimination  Of course context matters, but it is important to understand the context, the history and seek out how opening peoples’ minds about acceptance is a start.

2.  Dialogue - slow and steady dialogue along with framing within justice conversations is useful – at least so that in hearing them regularly, and normalising them they become our realities. This is a start to that movement building against bias

3.     Looking at religious biases as a foundational challenge on how to understand and approach tackling discrimination today. Here, it is interesting to note that most religions while being oppressive elements/passages in their doctrines that represses women and vulnerable groups such as LGBTQI people, also have progressive elements/passages within them. It is important to unlock their potential and look for allies who believe in these progressive parts – can help push the agenda of freedom forward.

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from Sally: if you have a different tradition, that has at its centre the respect for women, the respect for mothers and the respect for the land - the two creators - a culture of respect will be born

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from Sally: dialogue has been an incredibly powerful tool for us, for people to hear at each others realities

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I was excited by the approach presented by the interventionist, who linked the monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, discrimination and persecution. Hedda Al-Ba'ad, Mohamed Khamlichi from the Human Rights Center for Al-Dakra, Morocco

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all stories are important and we try to explain all of them

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History is not lineal

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from Katherine:

One of the most important aspects of Longfellow House is that is has been many different things to many different people. It is both a place of leisure, where Henry Longfellow wrote his poetry and a place of slavery. Different perspectives and voices are needed to understand the history of the house.

This elegant Georgian-style mansion was built in 1759 as the home of John Vassall, a wealthy young man whose family owned a number of sugar plantations in the Caribbean. The Vassalls lived here at a time when slavery was still legal in Massachusetts. Although slavery was not widespread in the colony, it was not uncommon for wealthy families to have several enslaved domestic servants. In the case of the Vassalls, though, they had at least seven slaves living here at this house, which was an unusually large number for colonial Massachusetts. This reflected the significant wealth of the Vassall family, which itself was largely derived from enslaved labor on the family’s sugar plantations. When the family moved to Boston, the enslaved people living there remained in the property.

The house was given to Mr Longfellow as a wedding gift, and for ears, the house was a safe space .

At Longfellow House–Washington's Headquarters, the site's LGBTQ history began long before its preservation as a historic site. There have been LGBTQ members of the Longfellow family as long as there have been Longfellows. Harry Dana, the grandson of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, preserved many of his families’ important documents — as well as his own. As a gay man and a public figure in his own right, Harry Dana was not only preserving queer history, he was creating it at the same time.

The site's archives hold the rich family history that Harry Dana worked to preserve. The personal papers of Longfellow family members held in the archives give insight into the intimate relationships of Samuel Longfellow (1819-1892), Alice Longfellow (1850-1928), and Harry Dana (1881-1950).

As America’s storytellers, the National Park Service is committed to telling the history of all Americans in all of its diversity and complexity. For many years, the rich histories of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer Americans have been erased through punishing laws and general prejudice—appearing sporadically in police proceedings, medical reports, military hearings, and immigration records. (NPS LGBTQ Heritage)

These papers have allowed staff to explore the site's LGBTQ stories; this page explores the many stories that have emerged from this archival research. Queer history is a key piece of the broader history of Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters. Join us in exploring the lives of LGBTQ people, and the resonance of these stories today.

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In Spain there is no specific legislation that protects the LGTB heritage. Therefore, this protection emanates from the Spanish historical memory laws, which allow to repair everything that happened during the civil war, dictatorship and transition. Nevertheless, these laws do not allow to repair anything that happened before the civil war, which would be fundamental to holistically memorialize the LGTBI experience in Spain.

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Linked to the LGTB movement
Suffered a raid in 1971
Place of Historical Memory
First gay bar in Spain
During the 60's and until the early 70's it was an international emblem of leisure, coexistence, openness and diversity.
Bringing back to memory, from a positive point of view, all that it meant and the story told by the passage.
Recovery of aesthetics and image

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Asociación Pasaje Begoña - Cuna de los derechos y libertades LGTBI

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Asociación Pasaje Begoña - Cuna de los derechos y libertades LGTBI

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El Pasaje Begoña es un claro ejemplo de cómo otras generaciones fueron capaces de ser visibles e iguales y convivir en libertad y respeto por la diversidad.

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It is necessary to bring new perspectives to the space that surrounds us. The LGTB heritage, in the Spanish case, is an instrument that is neither categorized nor used.
Traditionally, everything that has to do with the LGTB heritage has been reduced to the artisticity of its assets. That is to say, the heritage has been protected but not categorized as LGTB heritage. Moreover, there is a great deal of heritage that has not even been catalogued as such.

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If in the case of women, their heritage and their patrimonial relationships have been legitimized by men,
No one has legitimized LGTB heritage assets.
Their object-testimonial manifestations are in a legal limbo, which is at best diluted among the artisticity of the testimonies.
They are not categorized as heritage that reveal a new vision of history, in which there were not only women and men, but also homosexuals, lesbians, hermaphrodites, transvestites, etc.

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from Antonio: It is not that it is an emerging field of study, it is that it is a field that we have not yet questioned the need to study. From the point of view of communication, LGTB heritage has practically zero media repercussion.
As an area of knowledge, it has no history, no institutional backing, no legal protection, so legally the cultural rights to which we alluded earlier are not being complied with.
In Spain, the LGTB heritage is not only totally invisible, but there are no sites of LGTB historical memory.

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From Antonio: "We could define LGTB heritage as a set of material and immaterial testimonies that show the participation and importance of homosexuals, lesbians, hermaphrodites, transvestites, etc., in historical societies, as well as the processes of discrimination that they have suffered over time and whose analysis allows us to reconstruct the past in a more accurate and approximate way to the worldviews of the world of each moment. The recovery, analysis and protection of the material and immaterial testimonies of these subcultures are also constructs of equity and social and emotional progress".

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violence against women begin with Christianity, begin with Adam and Eve, begin with religious law becoming common law

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We have come to a long road in women's rights, but the critical issues remain. We have not ended rape, the beating of women and children nor the rape cultures that produce that

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"you need to obtain personhood before fighting for rights"

"everything that disrupts gender binarisms, becomes the enemy to defeat"

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As long as they did not inglict permanent damage, husbans were allowed to beat and mistreat women in the name of "salvation". According to religious beliefs, women's souls were the responsability of their husbands. in the 19 century women had to establish that they were individuals, separate entities from their husbands, in front of the state and the church. Women had to obtain personhood before obtaining their rights.

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Held at Syracuse University Lightworks

G.A. toured a photographic exhibit by female artists that addressed women's issues of sexual abuse, domestic violence, and generational family memory. They held a Dialogue on different forms of domestic violence, how Ambassadors can support women and LBGTQ+ populations who have experienced domestic violence, how violence distorts memory, and how children are damaged by domestic violence and sexual abuse.

Held at Lemoyne College in Partnership with Lemoyne College's Upward Bound Program.

(A minute to minute transcript of the Dialogue was shared in real time on Facebook, with members of the Syracuse, U.S., and International population responding to the Dialogue and posting comments.) . The Dialogue addressed how Domestic Violence and Sexual Abuse creating vulnerable victims for Human Trafficking, men as allies in ending Human Trafficking, how young people can create awareness of trafficking issues and empower each other to help end it.

NOTE: The Ambassadors that coordinated this Dialogue were invited to present on the George Kilpatrick Radio Show after Mr. Kilpatrick participated in the Facebook real-time Dialogue.

Workshop and Dialogue held at Interfaith Works and included youth participants from the Gage Girl Ambassadors, Interfaith Seeds For Peace, the Syracuse Community Choir, and the Onondaga Nation.

The Workshop and Dialogue was an interactive education program that addressed the impact of the European Invasion of the Americas on Native populations through European and Native primary documents, and how Native populations were and continued to be affected.

NOTE: Feedback from the Girl Ambassadors that attended the workshop/dialogue was anger, a feeling of betrayal that their schools do not address the truth of this history, and a need by the Ambassadors to do something to share what they had learned in the Witness project.

Held in NY City, this series of Dialogues and Presentations was sponsored by the Women's Bar Association of New York State

A series of Presentations, Conversations, and Dialogues on Generational Mentorship and the responsibilities Women and Girls have in passing on Social Justice awareness and responsibility to the next generation.

Located in Suhum, Ghana the Islamic Girls Senior High School was founded by the Imams of their community. The residential High School serves both Muslim and Christian girls from Suhum and the region that surrounds that town.

Technology is a challenge in Ghana, and when the planned SKYPE failed on their end, the Girl Ambassadors rallied, and held the dialogue with the girl's school through phone texts! The Dialogue addressed girl empowerment in Ghana and in the United States, the goals that girls have for their lives in both Nations, and an examination of the impact that educating girls has on Social Justice and the development of a nation.

Mothers, Sisters, and Women Community Mentors of the Girl Ambassadors attended this Dialogue at the Gage Center

This Generational Dialogue addressed the differences in the lives of women in different generations, the hopes and dreams that Mother's and older significant others had for their own lives and how being a woman impacted on their dreams, and lastly the hopes and dreams that the older generation has for their daughters and mentees.

Training Dialogue held by Gage (Girl) Ambassador Mentors for Gage (Girl) Ambassadors at the Gage Center

The Dialogue addressed slang and rhetoric used among teens that denigrates, stereotypes, oppresses, and damages how girls are viewed in society and how girls themselves often promote this use of language.

Training Dialogue held by Gage (Girl) Ambassador Mentors for Gage (Girl) Ambassadors at Gage Center

A male Native student from Fayetteville High School requested and joined the Ambassadors in this Dialogue addressing T-shirts with Native stereotypes were being worn and sold in the school, how anti-bullying programs are ineffective in addressing this type of prevalent intolerance and bullying in Onondaga County high schools, and how the Ambassadors could be allies in fighting this intolerance.

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Held at Syracuse University Lightworks G.A. toured a photographic exhibit by female artists that addressed women's issues of sexual abuse, domestic violence, and generational family memory. They held a Dialogue on different forms of domestic violence, how Ambassadors can support women and LBGTQ+ populations who have experienced domestic violence, how violence distorts memory, and how children are damaged by domestic violence and sexual abuse.

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Gage challenges you to reflect on your own values in this house that values ideas, not artifacts. You won’t learn where she ate or slept; you’ll learn about her passion to change the world. Each room you enter will take you to the heart of one of Gage’s commitments to freedom, justice and equality.

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from Sally:

The Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation is dedicated to educating current and future generations about Gage’s work and its power to drive contemporary social change.

She championed rights for women that we still have not won today, like reproductive justice, an end to sex trafficking and violence against women, religion out of politics and equal pay for equal work.

Gage believed that the United States Constitution guaranteed women full equality, including the right to vote. Members of the NWSA broke state laws by attempting to vote; they sued local registrars who wouldn’t let them register to vote; they put forward female candidates for offices at all levels of government and they refused to pay taxes, citing the Revolutionary credo: “No taxation without representation.”

Matilda began her magnum opus, Woman, Church and State, with a chapter on the “matriarchate,” an egalitarian value system resting on creative female authority, which Baum mirrors in Oz. The connections between Baum and his mother-in-law range from the good and bad witches– which come straight out of the chapter on witches in Woman, Church and State – to the women’s revolution in the The Marvelous Land of Oz which results in the men appreciating the difficult nature of housework.

Married in the front parlor (now the Oz Parlor) in 1882, Frank and Maud Baum came to live with Matilda at the Gage Home during the summer of 1887. A gifted amateur photographer, Frank photographed the Gage Home in photos that guided the 2009 rehabilitation of the Gage Home. Enlargements of his photograph of the front parlor and of Matilda painting are on view in this room.

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Radhika Hettiarachchi, Founder, The Herstories Archive - Sri Lanka 

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Radhika Hettiarachchi, Founder, The Herstories Archive - Sri Lanka 

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Radhika Hettiarachchi is a researcher, curator and development practitioner working on oral history and memory, socio-economic stability, conflict transformation and peacebuilding work, based in Sri Lanka with over 16 years of experience. Designed by her and implemented together with Viluthu centre, www.theherstoryarchive.org is a collection of auto-ethnographic oral histories of war-affected women from Sri Lanka. As a collection of gendered narratives of war, peace and justice, it is archived at the National Archives of Sri Lanka as its first women’s oral history collection. She conceptualised and together with SFCG implemented the Community Memorialisation Project which has not only collected an archived ordinary people’s lived experiences of conflict, but used the stories for people-to-people exchanges through facilitated dialogue for non-recurrence of violent conflict. The online collection is at www.memorymap.lk.  She read English and Communications Theory at York University, Toronto, Canada, and holds a Masters in Development Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science, London, U.K.

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Katherine Potter, seasonal park ranger, Longfellow House – Washington Headquarters - USA

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Katherine Potter, seasonal park ranger, Longfellow House – Washington Headquarters - USA

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Kate Potter (she/hers) is a seasonal park ranger at the Longfellow House Washington’s Headquarters

National Historic Site. Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site preserves the home of Henry W. Longfellow, one of the world’s foremost 19th century poets. The house also served as headquarters for General George Washington during the Siege of Boston, July 1775 - April 1776. In addition to its rich history, the site offers unique opportunities to explore 19th century literature and arts. She has worked a range of history organizations in Massachusetts, including Historic New England, the Paul Revere House, and the Old North Church. In addition to her B.A. in English Literature from Mount Holyoke College, Kate holds a master’s degree in Museum Studies from the Harvard University Extension School. Her capstone paper was titled “We’ve Always Been Here: Interpreting Queer History at Historic House Museums”. She has presented on queer literature and

interpreting queer history for the National Park Service, the New England Museum Association, and The History Project.

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Antonio F. Paradas, Researcher, Asociación Pasaje Begoña - Spain

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Antonio F. Paradas, Researcher, Asociación Pasaje Begoña - Spain

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Antonio Rafael Fernández Paradas (1983) D. in Art History from the University of Malaga, with a doctoral thesis entitled “Historiography and methodologies of the History of furniture in Spain (1872-2011). A state of the art” and Doctor in Educational Sciences, also from the University of Malaga, with the thesis “Heritage as a means for the construction of affective-sexual diversity: a study of its degree of curricular development in the training of future teachers of Primary Education in Andalusia”. Graduate in Library and Information Science, Bachelor of Science in Documentation, and Graduate in History of Art. Master in Appraisal and Valuation of Antiques and Works of Art by the University of Alcalá de Henares. Corresponding Academician for Granada in the Sciences Section of the Royal Academy of Noble Arts of Antequera. Date of appointment: May 28, 2018

He has worked in various museums (Thyssen Museum and Carmen Thyssen Museum) and art auction houses (Durán and Lamas Bolaño). Specialist in sculpture, furniture and Decorative Arts, his lines of research deal with religious iconography, Art History, gender and homosexuality, baroque sculpture, Didactics of Social Sciences etc.

He is a member of several research groups, such as the research group of the Junta de Andalucía entitled "UNES. University, school and society. Social Sciences", research member from 10/02/2017 to the present.

He has been a researcher of the research group of the Junta de Andalucía entitled "TIEDPAAN-MÁLALAGA PROTECTION AND CULTURAL HERITAGE PPC", or the Educational Innovation project of the University of Malaga, Generation of contents and processual methods applied to teaching and university educational innovation: the archive as a basis for artistic historical research, digital culture and NTIC's, and has made research stays in centres such as the Academy of Fine Arts in Palermo, Venezuela and Brazil.

He is currently principal investigator of the project MULTIDISCIPLINARY STUDY OF THE INFLUENCE OF THE CREATIVITY AND THE CORPORTATIVE HAPPINESS IN THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT -ECONOMICALLY, SOCIALLY AND ENVIRONMENTALLY- OF THE TERRITORIES.

He is currently an Interim Associate Professor at the University of Granada, where he teaches in the Department of Didactics of Social Sciences of the Faculty of Education Sciences, and a teacher of the Master Art and Advertising at the University of Vigo.

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Sally Roesch Wagner, Executive Director, Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation – USA

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Sally Roesch Wagner, Executive Director, Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation – USA

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Awarded one of the first U.S. doctorates for work in women’s studies (UC Santa Cruz) and a founder of one the first college-level women’s studies programs in the United States (CSU Sacramento), Dr. Wagner has taught women’s studies courses for 50 years.  The Founder/Director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation, she teaches in Syracuse University’s Honors Program.

Dr. Wagner appeared on the CNN Special Report: Women Represented and CNN’s Quest’s World of Wonder.  She has been quoted recently in the New York Times, Washington Post, Smithsonian, Nation and Time Magazine, and published in the New York Daily News, Ms. Magazine, and National Suffrage Centennial Commission blog. She appeared in and wrote the faculty guide for the Ken Burns’ documentary, “Not for Ourselves Alone.”

Dr. Wagner’s anthology The Women's Suffrage Movement, with a Forward by Gloria Steinem (Penguin Classics, 2019), unfolds a new intersectional look at the 19th century woman’s rights movement.  Sisters in Spirit: Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Influence on Early American Feminists (Native Voices, 2001) and her young reader’s book, We Want Equal Rights: How Suffragists Were Influenced by Native American Women (Native Voices, 2020) document the surprisingly unrecognized authority of Native women, who inspired the suffrage movement.

Dr. Wagner was selected as a 2020 New York State Senate Woman of Distinction, one of “21 Leaders for the 21st Century” by Women’s E-News in 2015 and she received the Katherine Coffey Award for outstanding service to museology from the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums in 2012.