34. Queers in the Civil Rights Movement

History is Gay

For today’s episode, Leigh is joined by return guest host, Aubree Calvin, to commemorate Black History Month by telling the stories of some folks who made contributions to the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s whose queerness has been overlooked or erased, and the ways in which the tremendous work done by Black activists was absolutely essential to the evolution of LGBTQ rights actions. Listen to hear about Freedom Rides organizer Rodney Powell’s epic takedown of Rev. Rick Warren, Ernestine Eckstein’s directions for the homophile movement, and Lorraine Hansberry’s thoughts on Eartha Kitt’s legs.

Our wonderful guest host for this episode, Aubree Calvin, can be found at www.aubreecalvin.com or on her podcast Southern Queeries. You can also hear Aubree in our episode on Sister Rosetta Tharpe!

Outline 0:00 – Introduction 5:12 – Main Topic: Queers in the Civil Rights Movement 5:27 – Socio-Historical Context 13:47 – 14:18 — Content warning: police brutality/violence mention 20:02 – Who were they? Bio Time. 31:13 – 34:21 – Content warning: violence mention 40:57 – Why do we think they're gay? 1:01:46 – Fun Segment: Word of the Week 1:24:56 – Content warning: suicide mention 1:28:01 – Fun Segment: Pop Culture Tie-In 1:22:25 – Main Takeaways and Final Conclusions 1:29:30 – How Gay were They? 1:35:59 – Closing and Where to Find us Online

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