Developed by: Nicole Patin, HBCU Campus Coordinator Farah Tanis, Executive Director Black Womens Blueprint ftanis@blueprintny.org
Things to Know: LGBTQ Roots Homosexuality has existed among people of African Descent since ancient times and on the African continent.
Same-sex marriages, homosexuality, gender non-conformity, women marriages, have been recorded in somefortysocieties in pre-colonization Africa. They were not a marginal phenomenon (SOURCE: Tommy Boys, Lesbian Men, and Ancestral Wives: Female Same-Sex Practices in Africa).
Among major West African ethnic and linguistic group in Benin, and in southwest Nigeria, homosexual women who inherited wealth or prospered economically established compounds of their own and at the same time married women. LGBTQ Black Facts The inaugural results of a new Gallup question -- posed to more than 120,000 U.S. adults thus far -- shows that 3.4% of U.S. adults say "yes" when asked if they identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.
The survey results show that 4.6% of African- Americans identify as LGBT, the highest amongst any racial group. LGBT Black History 1782: Deborah Sampson disguises herself as a male and enlists in the Continental forces under the name of Robert Shurtleff.
1880: Angelina Weld Grimke, (often confused with her famous aunt, the white abolitionist Angelina Grimke Weld), becomes a teacher and a poet of the Harlem Renaissance. LGBT Black History 1920: The Harlem Renaissance established the reputation of such LGBTQ writers, artists, and musicians as Gladys Bentley, Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, Ethel Waters, and Langston Hughes.
1953: James Baldwin publishes his first novel, Go Tell It On the Mountain. During the 60s Baldwin is a leading spokesman for the civil rights movement.
LGBT Black History 1963: Bayard Rustin, a gay Black man, the prime architect of the 1963 March on Washington and aide to Martin Luther King, Jr. from 1955 to 1960, helped organize the Montgomery bus boycott in response to the refusal of Rosa Parks to ride in the back of the bus. LGBT Black History 1976: Barbara Jordan, a Black Lesbian and a congressional representative from 1972-1978, delivers the keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention. She is one of fourteen people Jimmy Carter considers for Vice President.
1994: Deborah A. Batts, A Black Lesbian shattered the glass ceiling within the federal governments judicial branch when President Clinton appointed her to the U.S. District Court in New York.
LGBT Black History 2003: The people of Palm Springs, Calif., elected the countrys first openly gay African- American mayor in 2003. Ron Oden.
2008: Denise Simmons became the first out lesbian African-American mayor of Cambridge, Mass.the first to lead any American city, for that matter. LGBT Black History 2009: Georgias District 58 elected Simone Bell, the countrys first African-American lesbian to serve in a U.S. state legislature. Prominent Black LGBTQ Leaders Alice Walker: author, poet, and advocate Alvin Ailey: choreographer and advocate Angela Davis: political advocate, scholar, and author Bayard Rustin: chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, advisor to Martin Luther King Jr. Bessie Smith: blues singer Prominent Black LGBTQ Leaders Countee Cullen: poet E. Denise Simmons: mayor of Cambridge, Massachusetts, during the 2008-2009 term, first openly lesbian African American mayor in the United States E. Lyn Harris: author James Baldwin: author Jean-Michel Basquiat: artist Prominent Black LGBTQ Leaders Josephine Baker: dancer, singer, and actress June Jordan: author Langston Hughes: poet and social advocate Ma Rainey: blues singer Meshell Ndegeocello: singer Sheryl Swoopes: WNBA player Tracy Chapman: singerWade Davis, former NFL player Wanda Sykes: actress and comedian Questions/More Information Contact: Farah Tanis, Executive Director Black Womens Blueprint ftanis@blueprintny.org
Mother Tongue Monologues: For Lesbian Ancestral Wives and Revolutionary Women Speaking The Unspeakable. EVENT DATE. Feb 16, 2013. The Schomburg Center, NYC