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Sadiya Ansari, “What it’s like to be LGBTQ at a Canadian Christian university“
”The fight was framed in court as religious freedom versus LGBTQ rights. But the issue looks very different on a campus where some LGBTQ students don’t see their sexuality as being in conflict with their faith. And despite the covenant, Froehlich and others have found real community on campus.”
Lucy Diavolo, “Gender Variance Around the World Over Time“
”As the transgender community continues to fight for civil rights in the U.S., one of the most common arguments against progress is that transgender people are a recent phenomenon. Some regard trans people as a symptom of the postmodern condition, or identity politics on steroids. Many claim that the struggle for transgender rights is difficult because the concept is still new to many Americans.”
Anne Fausto-Sterling, “Why Sex is Not Binary”
”Today, some governments seem to be following the Roman model, if not killing people who do not fit into one of two sex-labeled bins, then at least trying to deny their existence.”
Tim Fitzsimons, “LGBTQ History Month: Transgender and gender-nonconforming pioneers“
”From Sylvia Rivera to Miss Major, meet some of the the country's pioneering trans and gender-nonconforming activists.”
Sara Kettler, “The Complicated Nature of Freddie Mercury's Sexuality“
”The Queen frontman and rock icon was involved with both men and women but never publicly confirmed his sexuality, a decision that may have been prompted by the period he lived in.”
Shannon Liao, “2018 saw record growth in LGBTQ roles on television“
”2018 has been a bad year for the LGBTQ community in politics, but it’s been a record-breaking year in media, according to GLAAD’s annual TV diversity report. LGBTQ representation on television hit a record high this year, with 8.8 percent out of 857 series regulars on broadcast TV openly identified as on the gay, trans, or queer spectrum. And for the first time, LGBTQ people of color outnumbered white LGBTQ characters on-screen by 50 to 49 percent.”
Belinda Luscombe, “Why Are We All Having So Little Sex?“
”The indicators of a falling bonk rate are everywhere. In 2016, 4% fewer condoms were sold than the year before, and they fell a further 3% in 2017. Teen sex, which is monitored by the Centers for Disease Control, is flat and has been on a downward trend since 1985. And the fertility rate—the frequency at which babies are added to the population—is at a level not seen since the Great Depression.”
Angela O’Donnell, “LGBTQ archives provide accessible queer histories“
”The database features around 1.5 million documents with everything from newspaper clippings to personal letters, ACT UP photographs to bathhouse ticket stubs.”
Amy Patton, “Long, Dark History of West Hollywood’s Barney Beanery Against the LGBTQ+ Community“
”The founder of Barney’s Beanery, John “Barney” Anthony installed the sign. It wasn’t until nearly 30 years later when LGBT community leaders such as Rev. Troy Perry and Gay Liberation Front founder Morris Kight pressured the new owner, Irwin Held to take the sign down. But he refused, saying that the sign ‘didn’t mean anything’.”
Sam Stein, “I Grew Up in a Place Where I Felt Safe from Anti-Semitism—It was the United States“
”I was the product of an upper-middle class community in America where I was surrounded by fellow Jews. Anti-Semitism was a concept to me, not a reality. I had been afforded the luxury of being moved by it without ever having to truly experience it, at least not in a way that could remotely compare with what had confronted the Jews of Poland before they were shipped off to the ghettos and, then, Auschwitz-Birkenau.”
Kai Cheng Thom, “The (trans) kids are all right: What gender-affirming health care really means“
”As proponent of gender-affirming trans health care, I think often of the lessons I learned as a teen about the complicated love that exists between parents and trans/gender-nonconforming youth, and the questions that it raises: What is the role of family in a trans person’s journey? And how can health-care institutions help? How can we bring parents and youth together in order to work for the happiness of the whole family?”
Jonathan U, “I came out as trans while in a heterosexual relationship“
”I shared my self-discovery with Ryan. I enjoyed borrowing his clothes a little too much. I spent a little too much time reading the blogs of other trans people. I tried to compromise with gender neutrality, and spent hours researching what that entailed.”
Article Spotlight
"This article looks at these issues through a focus on Redford’s campaign against the Adult World Bookstore. Beginning with an examination of the history and demographics of Redford using digital mapping, I argue that the neighborhood was an area perched uneasily between poor black inner city and rich white suburb. I then move to an overview of the letters sent by Redford’s protesting residents, paying close attention to the gender of the letter writers and using maps of the return addresses to speculate about the racial makeup of Redford’s antiporn activists. Turning to a detailed examination of the letters themselves, I investigate recurring themes, particularly the perceived threat of pornography to children, the rampant fears that the Adult World would attract “undesirable” individuals, and the concerns over property values and white flight. Finally, I conclude by looking at the legacy of Redford’s fight against the Adult World. Beyond just providing an example of grassroots antiporn activism during this era, Redford’s campaign helped drive the city of Detroit to pass an innovative new antiporn ordinance in October 1972 that was based on zoning rather than obscenity law. After being affirmed as constitutional by the United States Supreme Court, Detroit’s zoning-based approach to regulating pornography would later be emulated by countless cities across the country. In this way, a letter-writing campaign against one adult bookstore in northwest Detroit inadvertently helped shape antiporn politics for decades to come."
Episode Spotlight
The hit television show American Bandstand has shaped how we understand the 1950s and early 1960s. For many, American Bandstand still evokes nostalgic images of white youth culture and sexually innocent teenage romance: a world made up of malt shops, juke joints, sock hops and drive-in movie theaters. If we look closer at how Bandstand was staged, and what was hidden from sight or hiding in plain view, we can see how the show's creators erased blackness and queerness from the show itself and from the official story of youth culture.
Books
Podcasts
RadioLab’s “In the No Part 3”
”In the final episode of our ‘In The No’ series, we sat down with several different groups of college-age women to talk about their sexual experiences. And we found that despite colleges now being steeped in conversations about consent, there was another conversation in intimate moments that just wasn't happening. In search of a script, we dive into the details of BDSM negotiations and are left wondering if all of this talk about consent is ignoring a larger problem.”
