I use gay obituaries to explore history.
Paul Cameron uses gay obituaries to tell lies.
Author: michiganlgbtqremember
Remembering LGBTQ Strangers
I did not personally know Betty Jo Hudson or Vielka Holness. I never met Rexford Palmer or Duane Froelich. Katharine Coman died before I was born, before my grandma was born. Still, I seek to remember them.
Remembering LGBTQ Acquaintances
Somehow, in my 53 years, I never realized until recently that the refrain of “Auld Lang Syne” is posed as a question:
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
As someone who pursues the life of a historian, and as someone who has devoted much of the past year to bringing to mind lesbian, gay, bi, trans, and queer acquaintances, I want emphatically to not forget.
Giving a Rat’s Ass about LGBTQ History, 2017 edition
My grandfather, who in conversation would often ask “Why should I give a rat’s ass?” as if out of the blue, loved to tell stories of yesteryear. Although I was never sure if his salty language came from growing up in the Thumb or working in Flint’s factories, I came to understand his storytelling as a significant means of conveying personal values, culture, and history to his grandkids.
Continue reading “Giving a Rat’s Ass about LGBTQ History, 2017 edition”
Jon Nalley’s Affidavit
Thanks to Jon Nalley’s arrest, their names live on.
On January 23, 1991, New York police arrested 263 demonstrators following the rush hour takeover of Grand Central Station by the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power. ACT UP members brought the city’s evening commute to a halt. A banner hung over the Metro North arrival board that read “One AIDS Death Every 8 Minutes.”
Homage to Newsletters
The stapled sheets of paper contained everything from the puzzling to the profound.
“Help us find the ‘cow collar’… During the Gay Pride Week rally Steve lent us a collar (or whatever it is called) to hold down the papers on the table,” the Association of Suburban People newsletter announced in September 1977. Anyone with information on the object’s disappearance was urged to call Wes.
Origin Stories
The statewide LGBTQ civil rights advocacy group Equality Michigan, also known as EQMI, made an embarrassing gaffe last month when it used the wrong photo to identify organization founder Henry Messer in promoting a key annual fundraiser. Instead of Messer, the promotion showed his partner of 62 years, Carl House. EQMI then exacerbated its mistake by again identifying House as Messer at the event itself.
Remembering Wade
I met Wade Richards thirty years ago this month at the 1987 March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. Although our friendship lasted just seven years, it left a strong imprint, one indelibly entwined with the march itself and how the event rippled in collective and individual ways.
The Purging of Ann Arbor’s (Queer) Past
I knew criminal court cases could be a gold mine for researching LGBTQ history. I did not know such records were so vulnerable.
As I recounted in an earlier blog post, my path to queer remembering started in the late 1980s with looking into old gross indecency and sodomy cases at the Genesee County Court House, unkind clerical staff and all.
The Q Word
Last month I received some feedback about Michigan LGBTQ Remember that caught me off guard.
The message came from Leonard Graff, who was a key and pioneering activist in the Gay Liberation Movement at Michigan State University in the early 1970s. Leonard expressed appreciation for the project, then shared his deep dislike for the Q at the end of LGBTQ.
Queer Remembering 