This month, the nation honors the 1969 Stonewall Riots and celebrates Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual, and more (LGBTQIA+) gender identities and lives during “Pride Month.” This year, councils are exploring queer experiences, identities, and intersections through storytelling and community building across generations and U.S. landscapes.
Northern Mariånas Humanities Council hosted “The Language of Pride in the Mariånas” to discuss “Chamorro and Carolinian words and phrases associated with the LGBTQIA+ experience in the Mariånas.” In Massachusetts, Dr. Susan Stryker presented on the criminalization of transness at her virtual talk, “Criminalized Cross-Dressing: Policing Gender Expression from the Colonial Period Until Today,” sponsored by Mass Humanities. On May 4, Vermont Humanities Council hosted “Standing in This Place: Growing Up LGBTQ in Vermont” with playwright Maura Campbell, gay-rights activist Howdy Russell (from an older generation) and trans actor/school educator Ray Merrill (from a younger generation) to discuss their challenges cross-generationally.
New Mexico Humanities Council is “Mapping Queer History” on its Augmented Humanities podcast with Dr. Amanda Regan, and Dr. Eric Gonzaba, co-creators of Mapping the Gay Guides, which is “built around interactive geographic visualizations of the Bob Damron Address Books, detailed travel guides for American gays, published 1964-2000.” Arkansas Humanities Council is discussing LGBTQIA+ rights with Arkansas House Representative and Arkansas Humanities Board Member Tippi McCullough on episode one of their Reflective Images Lecture Series: “A Kaleidoscope of Change and Impact of the LGBTQ+ Community.” Celebrating LGBTQIA+ identities, histories, and lived-experiences through public humanities programming will continue nationwide and year-round.
Written by Jazzy DiMeglio
