Militant QTPOC
Vienna Rue
Digital Print, 2019
New York, NY
June is a liberatory month. In 1865, over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, enslaved people in Galveston, Texas were finally told they'd been freed. Juneteenth celebrates this day of freedom every year on June 19th. In late June 1969, Black Queer women like Miss Major, Stormé Delarverie, and Marsha P. Johnson led the Stonewall Uprising against police brutality and the criminalization of queer people. Since then, Queer people have celebrated Pride throughout the month of June.
During increasingly hostile times for the Black and Queer communities, it is vital to celebrate and center the contributions Black Queer have made in liberation struggles. Historically, wedges have been placed between Blackness and Queerness–many gay bars were racist; white Queer people often appropriate language and culture that was born in Black spaces; during the Bush administration, government funding was diverted to Black religious organizations that were anti-marriage equality; some in the Black community have reframed queerness as a “white disease.” But Black Queer people have always been central to the liberation struggles of Black and Queer people–from William Dorsey Swann to Bayard Rustin to the subjects of this poster.
Both communities have fought, and are still fighting, against police abuse, government control of one's body, censorship, and severe health care disparities. Black Queer people are statistically more likely to experience incarceration, mental health crises, homelessness, impoverishment, and physical health conditions than non-Black Queer or non-Queer Black people. Black Queer individuals are at the intersection of most forms of oppression, and therefore their liberation is central to the liberation of all peoples.
About this poster:
Miss Major (waving, bottom center of poster) is a transwoman who was arrested at the 1969 Stonewall Uprising. She later served as the first executive director of the Transgender Gender-Variant & Intersex Justice Project, which helps trans people of color inside and outside of prisons, jails, and detention centers.
Stormé Delarverie (black and white photo, bottom center of poster) has been credited as the butch lesbian who threw the first punch at the 1969 Stonewall Uprising. She worked at various times in her life as a drag performer, MC, singer, bouncer, and bodyguard. She was also known as a vigilante who walked the streets of Greenwich Village with a licensed gun to protect other queer people from harassment.
Audre Lorde (black hat, bottom right of poster) was a self-described “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet.” Her writing and activism contributed to many intersecting struggles, especially those of Black women and Black lesbians
Black figures on the left side of the poster and indigenous women on the right of this poster have not been identified. If you can identify any of these figures, please reach out to CSPG: archives@politicalgraphics.org
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