For my final project, I chose to design a 2020 calendar titled, “Pride Throughout the Years”. The calendar highlights many important milestones, celebrations and events which take you through the fight for equality and justice for the LGBTQ community. This topic is very important to me, as I am bi-sexual and it has been very interesting to take deeper dive into this important civil rights movement.
I chose to design a calendar because I feel this is an easy way for a reader to learn information in small bits at a time throughout the year instead of all at once. Each month features a photograph which I have taken on my phone over the years. Passively reading this calendar through the months will teach about many important days we celebrate and remember in the LGBTQ community. Each month has its setbacks and celebrations, and it is fascinating to see the journey it has been to reach the point we have today in equality of gay rights. We still have so far to go and through education and determination we can keep improving as an equal nation.
Below I have listed an Appendix for the calendar. This information would be found at the end, making it easy for the reader to easily look further into important dates and events in history marking landmark decisions and milestones for LGBTQ equality.
January
In January of 1958, The United States Postal Service refused to deliver magazines ONE: The Homosexual Magazine, the first openly gay publication. The case went to the Supreme Court and where a landmark decision was approved to support gay rights. This being one of the first significant cases in LGBTQ history.
February
In February 2011, President Barack Obama formally announced his administration will no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act. TheDefense Marriage Act (DOMA) was signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996 and declares the federal government would not recognize same-sex marriages. Later, in June of 2013, the Supreme Court officially strike down the Defense of Marriage Act and Obama declares, “We are a people who declared that we are all created equal – and the love we commit to one another must be equal as well (source)”.
March
On March 2, 1982, Wisconsin became the first state to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation. This prohibits discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations based on sexual orientation.
On March 31, we celebrate the International Transgender Day of Visibility, a day to celebrate the trans community and raise awareness of discrimination faced by transgender people worldwide. This holiday was founded by a Michigan based transgender activist, Rachel Crandall.
April
On April 21, 1966, The Mattachine Society, one of the first gay rights groups in the country, staged a legendary “Sip-In”. During this time in history, many bars were raided by the police for serving gay patrons. Three men, walked into a bar in Manhattan, Julius’ and announced they were gay before ordering a drink. When the bartender refused to serve them, and The Mattachine Society had a lawsuit. Julius’ bar, where the “Sip-In” took place is still serving the public today and is one of the oldest known gay bars.
May
In May of 2012, Obama became the first sitting United States President to publicly support freedom for the LGBTQ community.
June
June is known as Pride Month. Parades all over the country, bigger ones in New York, San Francisco, and Chicago, take place all month long to celebrate the LGBTQ community.
On June 28, 1969 the police raided the Stonewall Inn, a famous gay club in New York City. Patrons and local sympathizers became violent and demonstrations lasted for days. Although the police were enforcing the law, New York’s gay community had grown weary of being targeted.
On June 26, 2015 the Supreme Court made a landmark ruling to declare same-sex marriage a constitutional right! This is a major step forward for the LGBTQ community!
July
On July 23, 2015 The Equality Act is introduced. The Equality Act Senators Jeff Merkley, Tammy Baldwin, and Cory Booker, as well as Representative David Cicilline formerly introduced The Equality Act, which would make LGBTQ individuals a protected class and grant them basic legal protections in areas of life including education, housing, employment, credit, and more.
August
In August of 2016, the Olympics took place in Rio de Janeiro. At least 41 openly gay, lesbian and bisexual athletes completed in the Rio games, which is almost double the number in the 2012 London games.
September
In 2011, the Obama administration officially revoked the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell rule of the US military. This meant that those serving the United States could now do so openly and proudly.
October
On October 16, we celebrate Spirit Day which was developed by a Canadian teenager Brittany McMillan in 2010 which encourages people to wear purple in support of the LGBTQ youth who are victims of bullying.
In October we also celebrate Asexuality Awareness Week and Intersex Awareness Day. Intersex Awareness Day was first demonstrated in 1996 outside of Boston, intersex activists set to action “to end shame, secrecy, and unwanted genital cosmetic surgeries on intersex children” (disabled-world source).
November
On November 11, 1950, gay rights activity Harry Hay founds America’s first national gay rights organization, The Mattachine Society which aims to “eliminate discrimination, derision, prejudice and bigotry, and to assimilate homosexuals into mainstream society” (pbs source)
In November, we celebrate the Transgender Day of Remembrance. This day was founded on November 20, 1999 by transgender advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith as a vigil to honor the memory of Rita Hester, a transgender woman who was killed in 1998.Today, we use this day to remember all transgender people whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence.
December
On December 15, 1973 The American Psychiatric Association votes to remove homosexuality for the list of mental disorders in the DSM-II. By a vote of 5,854 to 3,810 homosexuality is officially removed from this list!
Resource Links
Five Influential Artists
1. Illana Gazer and Abbi Jacobsen co-stars and producers of Broad City a Comedy Central sitcom based on real-life friendship and trying to make it in the big city. The show does a superb job portraying real life relationships, love of all genders and sexualities, and body positivity. Both Ilana and Abbi are allies of the LGBTQ community and in later seasons Abbi comes out as a lesbian. This show is a beautiful, humorous portrayal of real life. Illana reflects on her work with Broad City quoting, “'Damn, I wasn't joking. That was me.' So, I've learned a lot from Broad City, including my own queerness and identity politics from reviews and reading people's pieces." This show holds a special place in my heart, and I think Illana Gazer and Abbi Jacobsen had a big social impact with this Comedy Central sitcom.
2. Barbara Kruger is a contemporary artist from Newark, New Jersey whose signature work often consists of black and white pieces of art and text which include pronouns such as “you”, “your”, “I”, or “we” and “they”. Much of her work addresses cultural constructions of power, identity, consumerism, and sexuality. Her use of pronouns is very symbolic to me in the gender identity.
3. Annie Leibovitz is one of the great American portrait photographers, She changed her career direction to photography and very soon after: landed her first job at Rolling Stone Magazine in 1970. She produced some of the publication's most iconic images, featuring the most influential musicians of the era, including The Rolling Stones, Elton John, and Bob Dylan. Her popularity went through the roof due to herdramatic, quirky, and iconic portraits of a great variety of celebrities. Her signature style is crisp and well lighted. In addition, she is renowned for her bold colors and unorthodox poses in her photographs, her influence on the world of photography has been significant.
Ironically before this project I had no idea that Annie Leibovitz was gay; not only that, her lifelong significant lover was Susan Sontag (deceased), whom wrote the article “On Photography”. This piece was one of the works I had chosen one of my quotes from, this too was something I had no idea about until now, and makes this really cool because it all ties into the project on so many levels.
4. The non-profit organization Allies in Art has a mission to support people of color and LGBTQQIA-2S identified artists who are underrepresented in the industry by granting them access to funding, professional equipment and services to produce and distribute original works. I think non-profit organizations who offer support like this are vital to a successful community.
http://www.alliesinarts.org
5. Milia Jam is a trans artist and activist in the R&B world who is looking to make social change with her music. Her fun tunes address important issues which are crucial to talk about.
Https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.billboard.com/amp/articles/news/pride/8513985/queering-up-your-playlist-lgbtq-artists-pride-month
Quotes
“The sequence in which the photographs are to be looked at is proposed by the order of pages, but nothing holds readers to the recommended order or indicated the amount of time to be spent on each photograph. Chris, a brilliantly orchestrated meditation on photographs of all sorts and themes, suggests a subtler and more rigorous way of packaging (and enlarging) still photographs. Both the order and the exact time for looking at each photograph are imposed: and there is a gain in visual legibility and emotional impact.
Source: “On Photography” By: Susan Sontag, page 2.
Clarence Thomas, one of the most respected Supreme Court justices’ claims that a person’s sex life is none of the government’s business. “I’m not going to engage in discussions of what goes on in the most intimate parts of my privacy and will remain just that.”
Source: Confessions of the Guerrilla Girls By: The Guerilla Girls
“We lived in farm country, isolated from other people. Our sense of gender roles was learned from our parents, from the ways we saw them behave. My brother and I remember our confusion about gender. In reality I was stronger and more violent than my brother, which we learned quickly was bad. And he was a gently, peaceful boy, which we learned was really bad. Although we were often confused, we knew one fact for certain: we could not be and act the way we wanted to, doing what we felt like. IT was clear to us that our behavior had to follow a predetermined, gendered script.
Source: “Understanding Patriarchy” By: bell hooks (page 19)
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