The African-American LGBTQ community, otherwise referred to as the Black American LGBTQ or Black Queer community, is part of the overall LGBTQ culture and overall African-American culture. The initialism LGBTQ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer.
A landmark event for the LGBTQ community, and the Black LGBTQ community in particular, was the Stonewall uprising in 1969, in New York City's Greenwich Village, where Black activists including Stormé DeLarverie (who instigated the uprising) and Marsha P. Johnson (who was in the vanguard of the later pushback against the police) played key roles in the events.
Following Stonewall, the 1996 legal precedent Romer v. Evans also had a major impact. Ruling in favor of Romer, Justice Kennedy asserted in the case commentary that Colorado's state constitutional amendment denying LGBTQ people protection from discrimination "bore no purpose other than to burden LGB persons". Advancements in public policy, social discourse, and public knowledge have assisted in the progression and coming out of many Black LGBTQ individuals. Statistics show an increase in accepting attitudes towards lesbians and gays among general society. A Gallup survey shows that acceptance rates went from 38% in 1992 to 52% in 2001. However, when looking at the LGBTQ community through a racial lens, the Black community lacks many of these advantages.
4.6% of African Americans self-identified as LGBT in 2016. African American women are more likely to openly identify as LGBTQ than African American men. Surveys and research have shown that 80% of African-Americans say gays and lesbians endure discrimination compared to 61% of White Americans. Black members of the LGBTQ community are not only seen as the "other" due to their race, they are also seen as the "other" due to their sexuality, as a result, they occasionally hear both racist and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric.
History
Before Stonewall The first African-American person who was known to describe himself as a drag queen was William Dorsey Swann, born enslaved in Hancock, Maryland. Swann was the first American on record who pursued legal and political action to defend the LGBTQ community's right to assemble. During the 1880s and 1890s, Swann organized a series of drag balls in Washington, D.C. Swann was arrested in police raids numerous times, including in the first documented case of arrests for female impersonation in the United States, on April 12, 1888.
Trans woman Lucy Hicks Anderson, born in 1886 in Waddy, Kentucky, lived her life serving as a domestic worker in her teen years, eventually becoming a socialite and madame in Oxnard, California, during the 1920s and 1930s. In 1945, she was tried in Ventura County for perjury and fraud for receiving spousal allotments from the military, as her dressing and presenting as a woman was considered masquerading. She lost this case but avoided a lengthy jail sentence, only to be tried again by the federal government shortly thereafter. She too lost this case, but she and her husband were sentenced to jail time. In the trial of Hicks Anderson, the testimonies of five doctors was included all of which attested that "Hicks Anderson 'was definitely a man.'" In defense, Hicks Anderson rebutted stating that they had 'hidden organs,' which could only be seen through autopsy following death. To avoid incarceration, Hicks Anderson pledged her corpse for indefinite medical use and experimentation.Snorton, C. Riley. pg. 145-150 Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity. Univ Of Minnesota Press, 2017. After serving their sentences, Lucy and her then husband, Ruben Anderson, relocated to Los Angeles, where they lived quietly until her death in 1954.
Harlem Renaissance During the Harlem Renaissance, a subculture of LGBTQ African-American artists and entertainers emerged, including people like Alain Locke, Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Wallace Thurman, Richard Bruce Nugent, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Moms Mabley, Mabel Hampton, Alberta Hunter, and Gladys Bentley.
Places like Savoy Ballroom and the Rockland Palace hosted drag-ball extravaganzas with prizes awarded for the best costumes. Langston Hughes depicted the balls as "spectacles of color". George Chauncey, author of Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890–1940, wrote that during this period "perhaps nowhere were more men willing to venture out in public in drag than in Harlem".
The spark of the Stonewall riot The Stonewall riots began when butch lesbian Stormé DeLarverie fought back against the police who were violently brutalizing her. She was very adamant on not allowing the police to discriminate against LGBTQ people, especially anyone who she considered her family, specifically butch lesbians and street kids. She walked around with a hidden rifle and referred to herself as the "guardian of the lesbians in The Village." Even as an octogenarian she still felt it was her civic duty to protect anyone who she felt was in danger of being brutalized by the police. Oftentimes they would arrest people for violating the "three piece rule." A common law cited during arrests was "three articles," meaning that an individual had to be wearing at least three items of clothing that matched their assigned sex at birth. The police used these as grounds to arrest trans people on multiple occasions. It was still an active law up until recently in 2011 when it was finally repealed. DeLarverie was constantly being arrested for "impersonation of a male" because she was always dressed in masculine presenting clothing. During the '50s and '60s, any hint of homosexuality or gender deviance was grounds for arrest, losing your job and often your life. Stormé DeLarverie was a Black/biracial singer, drag king and MC, originally born and raised in New Orleans. She started singing in New Orleans clubs at 15, and soon after began touring around Europe, eventually landing in New York City and hosted at the Apollo Theater. After the uprising was underway, African-American drag queens Marsha P. Johnson and Zazu Nova were "in the vanguard" of the pushback against the police.
LGBTQ African Americans and Latinos were among the protestors, notably the LGBTQ youth and young adults who slept in nearby Christopher Park.
Post-Stonewall riot - timeline In 1979, the Lambda Student Alliance (LSA) was established at Howard University. It was the first openly Black LGBTQorganization on a college campus.
In 1983, after a battle over LGB participation in the 20th anniversary March on Washington, a group of African-American leaders endorsed a national gay rights bill and put Audre Lorde from the National Coalition of Black Gays as speaker on the agenda. In 1984, Rev. Jesse Jackson included LGB people as part of his Rainbow/PUSH.
In 1989, Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term "intersectionality," to show how different aspects of one's identity, including race, sexuality, gender, etc., combine to affect their life.
In 1993, William F. Gibson, national chairman of the board of NAACP, endorsed the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation and also supported repealing the ban on LGB service in the military.
On February 2, 2009, the first episode of RuPaul's Drag Race aired, normalizing and promoting drag, and winning many awards.
On May 19, 2012, the NAACP passed a resolution in support of same-sex marriage. That same month and year, President Obama became the first sitting president to openly support same-sex marriage.
In 2013, the Black Lives Matter movement was established by three Black women, two of whom identify as queer. From its inception, the founders of Black Lives Matter have always put Black LGBTQvoices at the center of the conversation.
In 2017, Moonlight, a Black queer centric film, won several highly acclaimed awards.
In 2018, the critically acclaimed TV show Pose premiered, which is the first to feature a predominately people of color LGBTQ cast on a mainstream channel.
In 2019, Atlanta's mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms became the first elected official to establish and host an annual event recognizing and celebrating the Black LGBTQ community. Also in 2019, Spelman College which is part of the Atlanta University Center, became the first historically Black college or university to fund a chair in queer studies. The endowed chair is named after civil rights activist and famed poet Audre Lorde and backed by a matching gift of $2 million from philanthropist Jon Stryker. And also in 2019, Chicago's mayor Lori Lightfoot became the first openly queer Black person elected to lead a major city.
In 2020, Ritchie Torres and Mondaire Jones became the first openly queer Black members of the United States Congress.
Cultural Performances and social practices
Ballroom
"Ball culture", "drag ball culture", the "house-ballroom community", the "ballroom scene" or "ballroom culture" describes a young African-American and Latin American underground LGBTQ subculture that originated in New York City, in which people "walk" (i.e., compete) for trophies, prizes, and glory at events known as balls. Ball culture consists of events that mix performance, dance, lip-syncing, and modeling.Bailey, Marlon. "Gender/Racial Realness: Theorizing the Gender System in Ballroom Culture". Feminist Studies. 37: 365–386. Attendees dance, vogue, walk, pose, and support one another in numerous drag and performance competition categories. Categories are designed to simultaneously epitomize and satirize various genders and social classes, while also offering an escape from reality.
The culture extends beyond the extravagant events as many participants in ball culture also belong to groups known as "houses", a longstanding tradition in LGBTQcommunities, where chosen families of friends live in households together, forming relationships and community to replace families of origin from which they may be estranged.
Typically, installed in these houses are family dynamics based on a gender-sex system curated by the community itself. "Mothers" are roles taken by more feminine presenting members of the house, typically known as "Butch queens up in drags/drag queens" (feminine-presenting gay men), or "Femme queens" (transgender women). "Fathers" are roles given to masculine presenting members, such as "Butches" (transgender men), and "Butch queens" (gay men). This form of family dynamic provides a sense of "home" for outcast Black LGBTQ+ youth, many using ballroom spaces and their houses as a replacement for the biological families. This idea extends further than Ballroom, as Black scholars also refer to this form of queer found-family as "kinship", substituting ballroom terms like "mother" and "father" for "play aunties", "school moms", and "everybody Grandma".
Kiki scene/Kiki-balls
The "Kiki-scene" is an extension of Ballroom. While Ballroom is closely associated with competitions and performances, the Kiki scene refers to a subsection of Black queer culture which focuses on youth resources and social services, yet also serves as a practice area for the younger participants to compete. "Kiki-balls" are held and cater to LGBTQ+ youth and teens, and members of the Kiki-scene usually will graduate from Kiki-balls and advance to compete into the "Main-scene", being Ballroom. Due to this, Ballrooms will usually have higher stakes and subjective to bigger prizes.
Black gay pride
Several major cities across the nation host Black gay pride events focused on uplifting and celebrating Black LGBTQ community and culture. These events are held separately from White dominated and/or corporate pride celebrations in order to highlight the specific histories of Black-queer people have endured. Many of these celebrations are funded through the International Federation of Black Prides, an umbrella organization for Black Pride organizations throughout the world.
Voguing