"We don't believe we should legislate what happens inside a church or place of worship, but government should treat all people equally ... It's time to pass civil unions."

-Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper in his State of the State address, January 12, 2012

In the News

If you have not seen it yet, check out this story that appeared in the October 14th issue of the Catalyst, CC's own student newspaper. Lizzie Schoder speaks to Andrew Wallace about how the project got started and where it hopes to go. Find the article here.

[NOTE: The article mistakenly states that Amendment 2 was voted into law in 1972 and overturned by the  Supreme Court in 1986. Amendment 2 was actually voted into the Colorado constitution in 1992, to be overturned by the Supreme Court in 1996 in the case of Romer v. Evans.]

Introducing "Remember When..."

I am excited to announce a new element of this blog, the 'Remember When' series. Don't dwell to much on the title (I didn't) but do ask yourself the question. Do you remember when in 1973, the American Psychiatric Association decided that homosexuality was no longer a mental illness? Do you remember when the Matachine Society became one of the first organizations fighting for the betterment of the lives of homosexuals? You probably don't. I certainly did not come across this stuff in my high school history classes.

We will be periodically posting vignettes of interesting and important moments in queer history, providing links, videos, and other cool online resources to (hopefully) inspire a curiosity in the past and provide context for our own project interviews when they are published here. Stay tuned for our first posting next week!

And if you know of a historical moment that you think we should feature, by all means send it our way! You could even write the post yourself!

-Andrew

"It's Time" : A Second Try for Civil Unions in Colorado

Thinking historically, as we have been doing here at the history project, can have the effect of distracting us from important contemporary issues facing the LGBTQ community. It is easy to relegate injustice to memory and take comfort in the belief that things are surely better than than were. No doubt things have changed and yes, the progress we have seen in this country has largely been away from injustice and towards more just and equal treatment of non heterosexual Americans. After all, we can watch boys kissing on prime time television and gay men and women can serve openly in the military. Something is changing...

Despite this progress - and I certainly do not mean to belittle the important victories achieved - there is much to be done, much to fight for still. I was reminded of one of these persistent impediments to equality this evening at  a rally for civil unions hosted by One Colorado and the Strong Families Coalition right here at CC's Cornerstone Arts Center. The event brought together supporters and activists from around the state to recognize the official start of One Colorado's 2012 Campaign for civil unions. The rally just happened to coincide with the opening of 2012 legislative session. Hours earlier Sen. Pat Steadman (D- Denver) introduced the Colorado Civil Union Act to the General Assembly.

Brad Clark, Executive Director of One Colorado, addresses the crowd at the civil union kick off rally. January 11, 2012.

We heard from community members, activists, mothers, lovers, and allies dedicated to fighting for legislative action that would provide same sex couples those most basic rights currently denied them. As it was iterated and reiterated this evening, it's time for change.

HISTORY IS CREATIVE

“If history is to be creative, to anticipate a possible future without denying the past, it should, I believe, emphasize new possibilities by disclosing those hidden episodes of the past when, even if in brief flashes, people showed their ability to resist, to join together, occasionally to win” 

                                    -Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States 

QUEER HISTORY POPPING UP ALL OVER

photo credit: http://www.houseofdandridge.com/events/fundraisers/do-something-help-keep-the-pop-up-museum-of-queer-history-alive-on-indiegogo/

Though I realize we are not reinventing the wheel with our community history project, I was none the less delightfully surprised to hear of this fantastic project out of NYC: The Pop-Up Museum of Queer History. (Thanks for the lead Steve!) This grassroots organization facilitates ‘pop-up’ installations “dedicated to celebrating the rich, long, and largely unknown histories of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.” The organization first ‘popped-up’ in January 2011 with a one night only installation in a queer communal home in Bushwick, Brooklyn conceived as part of a ten-day festival organized by Queer Forum.  With a mission that resonates with our own goals here at the CC History Project, I was interested in the organization’s articulation of the need for such ‘alternative venues’ for the presentation of art and history. I quote from the project’s site at length:

“In an intellectual climate where even the Smithsonian can be forced to bow to the will of homophobia and remove the work of seminal queer artist David Wojnarowicz, we must create alternative venues for our art and history. By utilizing temporarily empty and/or public spaces, the pop-up format turns economic reality to our favor and expands our reach beyond a single location, while the online presence serves as the connecting thread between physical installations.”

The homophobia cited above came from the top, from Republican leaders in congress, to be exact. After CBS News published an inflammatory story about the exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery titled “Smithsonian Christmas-Season Exhibit Features Ant-Covered Jesus, Naked Brothers Kissing, Genitalia, and Ellen DeGeneres Grabbing Her Breasts,” Representative John Boehner and Majority leader Eric Canter called for the exhibit to be immediately removed and threatened budget cuts for encouraging ‘anti-christian hate speech’ in the institution’s promotion of this ‘questionable kind of art’. No joke. Despite this absurdity Wajnarowicz’s video was removed from the exhibit.

As much as I may like to think that this was an isolated incident of conservative takeover of this nation’s otherwise enlightened institutions, a recent report from Outhistory.org reminds us this is not the case. The report concludes,

“[T]he Metropolitan Museum […] discussed LGBT themes in only 1.8% of its exhibitions over the period from 1995-2005. The Museum of Modern Art […] came in at a mere 3.04%. Some museums, like the New York Historical Society have never, in any context and in any way, mentioned any LGBT theme in ten years.”

(Weena Perry: NYC Museums’ Representation of LGBT Artists and Art, August 2007, released April 21, 2011.)

The Pop-Up Museum of Queer History understands the need to advocate and actively work to make queer narratives public. This is exciting and inspiring stuff.

If anyone is on the east coast this month, check out their current show, Pop-Up SoHo at The Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation,

Pop-Up Soho

August 6^th – 25^th

Tues – Sat, noon – 6:00pm

At The Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation

26 Wooster Street

AN INTRODUCTION

Dear Readers,


Welcome to our Blog! We (some Colorado College students united by an interest in queer history) are here to share our stories, ideas, and thoughts as we undertake to collect and preserve the undocumented histories of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered individuals from our college’s past. This project was set in motion in the spring of 2011 when a CC student -after spending a bit too much time in the Tutt Special Collection archives -recognized a major void in the collected (both published and unpublished) history of Colorado College. Though the contemporary LGBT movement has, and continues to make great progress in the fight for equality, the LGBT community continues to face real challenges. This project believes that public queer historical narratives play an important role in present and future community organization. It is our hope that this work, in addition to creating a historically significant collection, will incite dialogue and  provide a solid foundation for ongoing activism and community building on our campus and beyond.

In addition to documenting the progress of the history project, it is hoped that this blog, inspired by the potential of the blogosphere to unite and engage independent voices, will provide a space for the sharing of ideas and events relevant to our contemporary lives. Like  the history project, this blog is for the community, so let’s see what we can do.  Your contributions of any kind - opinion, fiction, art -are welcome.

Looking forward to an exciting year!

Andrew Wallace and the CC LGBT History Project working group

Questions, concerns, ideas, contributions? Contact us @ cc.lgbthistory@gmail.com