*If you're 12 or under, it's not legal for anyone to collect your e-mail address. You can subscribe to this blog in a reader and follow me on twitter to get much of the same information, just not put together in tidy packages. But heck, if you're 11 or 12, you already know that life isn't always tidy. Thanks!
In their article about "Loving: A Photographic History of Men in Love 1850s–1950s," Hrag Vartanian writes, "Flipping through the book, it wasn’t that I felt that I learned a great deal about being LGBTQ, but what gave me comfort was the feeling that we’re not going anywhere. Seeing ourselves in the past is as much about being certain of our present and, dare I say, our future." and I think that's so true. Knowing our Queer past emboldens us to claim our place today, and lets us imagine a future that can be amazing!
A special shout out to my librarian friends and readers!
I hope you'll join me a week from today for this panel, moderated by Mahnaz Dar, with my fellow panelists Kyandreia Jones (Choose Your Own Adventure Spies: Mary Bowser); Randi Pink (Angel of Greenwood); Michael O. Tunnell (Desert Diary? Japanese American Kids Behind Barbed Wire); Paula Yoo (From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial That Galvanized the Asian American Movement); and me - Lee Wind (No Way, They Were Gay? Hidden Lives and Secret Loves).
History is more than the dates and names in textbooks; it's the stories of everyday people—especially the accounts of marginalized people, which have often gone untold. These authors will discuss surfacing information that has gone unaddressed in history textbooks but that is vital to give students a well-rounded and nuanced understanding of history.
When is it happening? It's an Afternoon Concurrent Session I: 1:40 PM–2:30 PM ET | Remaking History in Fiction and Nonfiction
I hope you'll join us!
The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you,
Click here or above to watch the September 2020 Lee Wind Video Newsletter.
Transcript
Hi Community,
I'm Lee Wind. It's September 2020, and whoa - six months of sheltering in place. There are fires and smoke, and for the last week it's been really crazy, and there's still this ongoing sense that we have to do more than be allies. We need to be accomplices and help dismantle these systems that are so oppressive.
And in the midst of all of it, in the midst of all of it, some nice things have happened. And I find myself a little self-conscious, awkward, feeling like maybe I shouldn't be talking about the nice things that have happened, even though they're things that I've worked on for a very long time. And I've realized that when the sky is amber, (laughs), when things are difficult, it's important to still share good things, because it's hopeful, and it's nice, and so with your indulgence, I'll share a few nice things that have happened.
It's almost as if I'm a gardener - I'm a vegetarian and not much of a real gardener out in a garden – but I feel like there are projects I've worked on for so long that are flowering and bearing fruit, and that is a lovely thing to celebrate. And so, with your indulgence, I'm going to share three really lovely things that have happened.
She does an amazing job, and she does these great interviews with people, and she did this cool interview with me! So it's very exciting, you can go there, check out the cover, check out the interview, it says a lot about the book, and about why I wrote it, and the importance of putting this nonfiction, these true stories from history, stories of men who loved men, and women who loved women, and people who lived outside gender boundaries. Taking the primary sources and putting them in front of kids and letting kids read it themselves, and how empowering that can be, and that is. And I'm really really excited about that and very grateful to Betsy for the opportunity, and very excited that the book is coming out in April 2021.
So that's the first seed that was planted - oh my gosh - so many years ago. More than ten years ago I started on that journey, so it's very exciting to see that book slowly making its way out into the world with a big cover reveal this week and that interview.
The second lovely thing, is something that came about because of these video newsletters. After the video newsletter I think back in January or February, I was contacted by an editor of the English Journal, uh, journal (laughs) which is published by the National Council of Teachers of English, and they asked me if I would be interested in writing the “Bookended” column, it's sort of like an essay that happens at the end of each of their journal issues, that talks about something about the author's experience in English classes in either middle school or high school. And so I got to write this essay, and it came out this past week, in September.
The first page of my three-page essay in the English Journal September 2020 issue, called "Who's the Monster? (Hint: It's not the whale.)"
So that's something where the seed was planted in February, I guess, and that is flowering now. And that's very exciting because 16,000 middle school and high school English teachers will read that. And so I'm very excited, and it just feels very nice, to reach both librarians - school librarians in particular - and to reach English teachers at this moment feels very very exciting.
And then third thing I want to share is that I have been blogging at I'm Here. I'm Queer. What the Hell Do I Read? for thirteen years. September 15th, 2007 was my very first post, and now it is 13 years later. And that is amazing, and exciting. And actually, I looked it up, Google counted for me, and this post that's going up, is post #2,700. I've done two thousand seven hundred posts on my blog about LGBTQ kid and teen books and culture and politics, and so much more, and you've been here as part of the journey, and I'm so grateful for that.
And just last week we passed three million page loads!
So...
BOOM! (mind blown sound)
Wow! It's very exciting. I'm very very grateful, and very humble[d], trying to come at this from a place of humility, too, because oh my gosh there's so much going on in the world, and that you would allow me to take a little time to share with you some good news that's happened for me, in the midst of all this, is very lovely.
So thank you so much. Stay safe, be kind to yourselves and others, and we're all in this together, and thank you for letting me share.
Until next time, the light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you.
The lovely people at the Broward County Library system in Florida are hosting me online tomorrow, Tuesday June 30 from 1-2pm Eastern/10-11am Pacific to present this inspiring (and yes, empowering) discussion.
The program flyer
Here's the description:
The anniversary of the Stonewall Riots may have just hit 51 years, but LGBTQ history did not start in 1969. Join author and educator Lee Wind and discover Queer lives that were hidden and loves that were secret, going back hundreds, even thousands, of years and from all over the world. Unlock the secret histories of Abraham Lincoln, Sappho, the Pharaoh Hatshepsut, and so many more...
Together with Wind, you will crack the false facade of history as it has been taught and let the rainbow light of true history—the stories of men who loved men, women who loved women, and people who lived outside gender boundaries—shine through.
There are so many ways that textbooks shape the knowledge and prejudices of students - skewing perception and understanding to align with political agendas. In many cases it's silence in the Texas versions - not including the paragraph about post-WWII discrimination against African Americans in the housing market, not including language about gun control related to the Second Amendment, not including the information about Two-Spirit indigenous people that California students finally get to see.
Just think how powerful it is for a female-identified student to come across this:
"These policies only recognized male heads of families, disrupting some traditional societies in which females held leading roles."
And for a gender non-conforming student to come across this:
"The policies also refused to recognize the authority of "two-spirit", what today we might consider lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender Native Americans, who held special roles in some groups.
And consider how loud the silence is for those same students reading the Texas edition, where this language doesn't exists. Where this history is erased.
California and Texas have the same number of female students. The same percentage of gender-nonconforming young people. What's different is the history they're being taught (and how they're being shown whether they have a place at the table, or not.)
There's much more in the analysis, like the Texas version adding a critique of the quality of works produced in the Harlem Renaissance, and it all brings up the same issue: Nonfiction is not unbiased. History is shaped by those who record it, by what's included, and what's left out.
And when textbooks fail to include the stories of women, the stories of people of color, the stories of disabled people, and the stories of women who loved women, men who loved men, people who loved without regard to gender, and people who lived outside gender boundaries, we need to supplement that education as best we can, until all our communities' stories, all of our history, is included, too.
Because only then will everyone know that they have a place in history. A place at the table today. And that will let them know that they, too, can dream of a tomorrow without limits.
And not incidentally, that's what I hope to do with my writing.
The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you,
Lee
Learning this true story from history made me so happy...
More than two thousand five hundred years ago in what today is China, the ruler of the state of Wei, Duke Ling, was walking through an orchard with the man he loved, Mi Zi Xia. Mi Zi Xia picked a ripe peach from a tree and started to eat it. It was so delicious that, after a few bites, Mi Zi Xia gave the rest of the peach to the duke, so he could share it.
The duke was moved by this and said, “How sincere is your love for me! You forget your own appetite and think only of giving me good things to eat!”
Later, as the philosopher Han Fei Tzu tells us in his book of essays written sometime between 260 B.C.E. and 230 B.C.E, the duke fell out of love with Mi Zi Xia and accused him of committing a crime. “After all,” said the ruler, listing reasons to not trust his former love, “another time he gave me a half-eaten peach to eat!”
Duke Ling’s fickle nature aside, the story of sharing the peach, and the symbolism of the love behind that sharing, became famous. So famous that in Chinese the expression "love of the half-eaten peach" [yutao zhipi, 餘桃之癖] was used for over one thousand years as we use the word Gay in English, to describe two men in love.
Isn't that amazing?
Where did I find this, and where can you find out more?
The Chinese of Han Fei Tzu’s Chapter XII: Difficulties in the Way of Persuation [sic], are from Liao, W.K. trans. The Complete Works of Han Fei Tzu. 2 vols. London: Arthur Probsthain, 1959. Accessed online at the University of Virginia’s Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities here. Copyright 2003 by Anne Kinney and the University of Virginia. The 1964 English translation is from pg. 78-79 of “Han Fei Tzu: Basic Writings: Trans. by Burton Watson,” Columbia University Press. The Chinese characters and transliteration for Love Of The Half-Eaten Peach are from page 49 of “Male Homosexualities and World Religions” by Pierre Hurteau, Nov. 2013, Palgrave Macmillan. You can find out more about the expression “love of the half-eaten peach” and its historical use in China in Bret Hinsch’s “Passions of the Cut Sleeve,” 1990, University of California Press, pgs. 20-22, 35, 53, 56, 71, 73-75, 83-85, 89, 93, 95, 147, 161 and 181-182. Thanks for letting me share, and here's to amazing adventures (and lots of love) ahead for us all! Lee
Check out the links and resources and downloadable pdfs on each of the icons as they roll out through the month. And don't miss their great archive of icons - they've been doing this since 2006!
It's a wonderful resource, and I'll be clicking back again and again. Hope you will, too.
A great resource is the 31 days of queer icons highlighted by equality forum. I particularly love their pdf information sheets on each icon - like this one on Katharine Lee Bates, the songwriter who wrote "America The Beautiful" ... and a woman who loved another woman!
And here's the one on Transgender Pioneer Christine Jorgensen!
It's 31 days of history - past and present - and it's a wonderful resource... and a great reason and way to celebrate our LGBTQ history!
After 27 years in a relationship with another woman, Sally Ride came out last week. In her obituary. With the single phrase:
"...Dr. Ride is survived by her partner of 27 years, Tam O’Shaughnessy..."
Now we don't know if Sally identified as a lesbian, or as a bisexual, because she's not around to ask, having died of cancer at age 61 last Monday. But,
"As details trickled out after
Ride's death on Monday, July 23, 2012, it became clear that a circle of
family, friends and co-workers had long known of the same-sex
relationship and embraced it. For many millions of others, who admired
Ride as the first American woman in space, it was a revelation..."
"She had a chance to expand people's horizons and young lesbians'
hope and self-esteem, and she chose not to," he wrote. "She was the
absent heroine."
Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, who in 2003 became
the first openly gay bishop in the Anglican world, noted that both he
and Ride were baby boomers who grew up
"in a time when coming out was
almost unthinkable."
"For girls who had an interest in science and wanted to go places
women had not been allowed to go, she was a tremendous role model,"
Robinson said Wednesday. "The fact that she chose to keep her identity
as a lesbian private — I honor that choice."
I wish Sally had chosen to be a role model for members of our queer community, too. I mean, she was the first American woman in space. The youngest astronaut in space (at age 32!) She was awesome, and what an impact for the good it might have had if she had stood up as authentically herself in front of the world...
What's your take on it? Should Sally Ride have come out before her death?
Namaste,
Lee
ps - I'm glad that we finally know Sally was part of our Queer History! And maybe her partner, Executive Vice President for Content at Sally Ride Science, can develop a new a unit on lesbian and queer youth empowerment.
"The FAIR Education Act requires California schools to take a fair approach by integrating age-appropriate, factual information about social movements, current events and the contributions of people with disabilities and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender leaders into existing history and social studies lessons that already include contributions of both men and women, people of color, diverse ethnic communities and other historically underrepresented groups.
The FAIR Education Act was signed into law on July 14, 2011. Just one day later, opponents of equality filed paperwork to place a referendum on the June 2012 ballot to overturn it. They have until October 12 to collect the more than 500,000 signatures necessary to qualify for the ballot."
and this:
"Who decides what students will learn?
Lessons required under the FAIR Education Act must be age-appropriate and will be developed at the local level, where school districts will decide what's appropriate for each classroom based on parent and teacher input."
Now watch how some of those signatures to repeal the FAIR Education Act are being collected - it's an outrage:
My thanks to Max Disposti of the North County LGBTQ Resource Center for taking this video, and to Equality California for getting the word out on the misleading tactics being used to repeal the law that says that gay history shouldn't be erased.
And if my local California school district is looking for factual information about the contributions of queer people so they can start being fair about teaching history, it would be great if when they're teaching about Alexander the Great, they could mention that Hephaestion was not just his male 'best friend' - but that they were two men in love. If you're going to teach that Alexander the Great married Roxane because he loved her, you should also teach that he loved Hephaestion! (Interested? I've got lots more LGBTQ history here.)
So watch out for this kind of voter fraud - and hopefully we can get our queer stories included in the history and social studies lessons that students learn.
"History should be honest," the Democratic governor said in a written statement. "This bill revises existing laws that prohibit discrimination in education and ensures that the important contributions of Americans from all backgrounds and walks of life are included in our history books.
The bill (which requires public instruction in social science to include the role and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans, as well as people with disabilities and members of other cultural groups, was authored by state senator Mark Leno. It also prohibits teaching from textbooks or other instructional materials that reflect adversely on people because of their sexual orientation.
"Today we are making history in California by ensuring that our textbooks and instructional materials no longer exclude the contributions of LGBT Americans," Leno said in a written statement.
"Denying LGBT people their rightful place in history gives our young people an inaccurate and incomplete view of the world around them,"
This is so important, and such a significant step forwards.
Imagine, learning in school that Shakespeare was bisexual. That Alexander the Great was in love (and not just best friends) with Hephaestion. That President Lincoln was in love with Joshua Fry Speed. I could go on and on... There's so much GLBTQ history that's been suppressed - and now we have a tool towards unveiling and teaching real, queer-inclusive history!
I didn't know that Ghandi, while he was a lawyer in South Africa, left his wife to live with a guy in Johannesburg. The guy was Hermann Kallenbach, a German-Jewish architect.
Pulitzer Prize–winning author Joseph Lelyveld writes in his biography of Ghandi, “Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India,"
“... It was no secret then, or later, that Gandhi, leaving his wife behind, had gone to live with a man."
Homophobic things are being said on many sides of the world, including in this country. The Wall Street Journal's review said in it's first paragraph:
""Great Soul" also obligingly gives readers more than enough information to discern that he [Ghandi] was a sexual weirdo, a political incompetent and a fanatical faddist—one who was often downright cruel to those around him"
(Note to Andrew Roberts, who wrote that review: Being bisexual does not make someone a sexual "weirdo.")
Evidently, the whole idea of this idol of civil disobedience, peaceful protest, and India's transformation into an independent nation being in any way queer is so disturbing that rather than read and discuss the lingering homophobia in the culture, the powers that be would rather ban the book and keep the "dangerous" information away from the public.
"India’s law minister, M. Veerappa Moily, said on Tuesday that “the book denigrates the national pride and leadership,” which he said could not be tolerated. Officials “will consider prohibiting the book,” he added."
The author of the biography writes in this interview in The Times Of India that he personally believes Ghandi and Kallenbach were celibate - in an apologetic tone, as if that would make Ghandi's love for another man somehow 'less gay' - but still says quite clearly:
"I think my discussion of Gandhi's letters to Kallenbach — which have been in the public domain for nearly 20 years — shows very clearly that Gandhi had a deep love for his Jewish friend and wanted him by his side for the rest of his life. He says as much."
And yet, with all the noise about banning this book, and, whatever Ghandi and Kallenbach did or did not do in the privacy of their own home, I have to say:
Ghandi loving a man makes me kind of ridiculously happy.
Ghandi's first name was Mohandas.
A more youthful image of Mohandas Ghandi than I'm used to seeing
The caption is in German: "Gandhi mit seiner Sekretärin Sonia Schlesin und Dr. Hermann Kallenbach kurz vor dem historischen Marsch von Natal nach Transvaal, 1913," from which I gather it is Gandhi on the left, his secretary Sonia Schlesin in the middle, and seated on the right is Hermann Kallenbach. The picture is from 1913.
Mohandas and Hermann, a lawyer and architect, living together in the largest city of South Africa, and... in love.
Ghandi's always been one of my heroes. And now I discover, he's a queer one.
*Delightedly adding another book to my To Be Read pile*
“For a community deprived of its history, GLBT History Month teaches heritage, provides role models, builds community, and recognizes extraordinary national and international contributions,”
said Ora Alger, LGBTA Employees at ED President, U.S. Department of Education.
Every day in October they'll update this video feed below with a new video of a LGBT Icon. So keep checking back to learn and cheer and be inspired!
The videos are brief - like headlines -, and then there's more information on each of the month's icons here where you can click on their "biography" links to learn more.
So, for October 1st's icon, Eric Alva, you learn more than that he was the first US Soldier injured in the Iraq war, who became a national spokesperson for the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." We get powerful quotes like this one:
“I had fought and nearly died to secure rights for others that I was not free to enjoy. I had proudly served a country that was not proud of me.”
Here's what you need to know to put this in context historically. Or queer-storically.
In 1979, in London, there was a fundraiser for Amnesty International. They asked Tom Robinson, "the most prominent gay rock star," to perform for them, even though at the time, Amnesty "refused to acknowledge gay prisoners as human rights cases."
here's one lyric:
Have you heard the story about Peter Wells Who one day was arrested and dragged to the cells For being in love with a man of 18 The vicar found out they’d been having a scene The magistrates sent him for trial by the Crown He even appealed but they still sent him down He was only mistreated a couple of years Cos even in prison they look after the queers
What happened to Peter Wells was a genuine scandal and a reason to be very f[***]ing angry. But, specifically with the Secret Policeman’s Ball, Amnesty had ruled that gays did not count as political prisoners and therefore they didn’t support gay prisoners. That’s why I was singing it and that’s why I was so angry, because I was singing it to an Amnesty audience. Hence the venom. Amnesty asked me to come and perform, OK, well have this then.
I think this was very brave of Tom, and still has so much power today. And Tom and this song were part of the movement that changed things to where Today, Amnesty International DOES fight for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights - because our rights are finally understood as being Human Rights. But we still have a distance to go to get to full equality. There's still a lot to be angry about. We still have to raise our voices to protest injustice. We still have to be proud!
Check out more about Tom Robinson and his performance at the Secret Policeman's Ball here.
My thanks to Daniel for sharing this with me, so I could share it with you!
Sing if you're glad to be gay, Sing if you're happy this way!
(I'm going to be singing that - as an Anthem of fierce pride - all weekend!)
One of the really fun things to do as a GSA (or heck, just as an individual) is to find out about historical figures who were Gay, or Bi, or Lesbian, or Transgender, or Questioning. And yeah, I know that these words for same-gender and same-sex love are new, but there is a lot of history (and herstory) that tells us that a guy falling in love with another guy, and a girl falling in love with another girl, is NOT so new.
So I encourage you to take some time this week and challenge your GSA members (and yourself) to find and share info about historical figures - and current day figures - who are part of our GLBTQ community.
And since it's a game of sorts, allow me to play first. My category: MUSIC.
Tchaikovsky composed the Nutcracker, Swan Lake, and the 1812 Overture... One of the world's greatest classical composers, he was gay.
And check out this quick look at the Gay version of "Swan Lake," by Matthew Bourne - it's set to Tchaikovsky's famous music, and the entire ballet was amazing! (The swans in it are MEN - not a group of ballerinas in tutus!)
Check out Mika's video "Blame It On The Girls." The next line is "Blame it on the boys," but the best (or is it just the "gayest" line in it - is when he sings "he has a face that makes you fall on your knees."
History. OUR history. What a fun way to celebrate yesterday's "National Coming Out Day", and of course, October being GLBT History Month.
After the sections on Queer Evolution and Super-Famous People you maybe didn't know were GLBTQ, I've organized this listing of posts loosely by geography. There's a cool section on hidden gay history in the Bible, and my first Theme week, "LOVE IS..." and more AMAZING stuff (including some Transgender history) that I sure didn't learn in school. Scroll Down and click on the title of the posts to check out all these mind-blowing true stories!
Disclosure: As of July 5, 2020, if you click on a book here on this blog and it takes you to bookshop.org, there is an affiliate relationship in place where 10% of that book order will come back to me, Lee Wind. I hope that works for you. And if it doesn't, no worries. I hope you buy your books somewhere that feels good to you. Thanks!
What if you knew a secret from history that could change the world?
“Get Balanced with Dr. Marissa Pei” Talk Radio show - Lee booked as featured guest on September 25
October 2018 - Publish Date of Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill: Oct 2, 2018
Lambda Literary Festival - panel on Crowdfunding Queer Lit and reading - online Oct 1. Register here.
Star Style Radio Show with Cynthia Brian - Lee featured guest on October 3 program. Listen here.
Pasadena Fall Art Night - YA panel on Oct 12 in Pasadena
West Hollywood Library Teen Read Week - 10:30am October 13
San Gabriel Valley Pride - Authors Tent presentation, 1:00 pm on Oct 13 in Pasadena
Launch Party at Highways - 7:00pm in Santa Monica
Models of Pride - present "Discover our LGBTQ History" and give out free copies of Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill from the Camp Brave Trails booth on Oct 20 in Los Angeles
November 2018
Book Baby Independent Authors Conference - lead networking session "How do you measure success?" in Philadelphia, PA
Presentation and Reading at Palm Springs Public Library on Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill on Nov 7
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