#miss major griffin-gracy

[emma-dennehy-presents]

Celebrating Black Queer Icons:

Miss Major Griffin-Gracy

Born on October 25, 1940, Major is a trans women well known as a leader in the broader trans community and an activist, with a particular focus on black and incarcerated trans women. Major grew up in Chicago's South Side and participated in the local drag scene, during her youth. Major described the experiences as glamorous, like going to the Oscars. While she did not have the contemporary language for it, Major has been out as a trans women since the late 1950s. This made her a target of criticism, mistreatment, and violence, even among her queer peers. Majors transition, especially getting her hands on hormones, was largely a black market affair. Given the lack of employment opportunities for black trans women at the time, she largely survived through sex work and other criminalized activities. At some point Major moved to New York City and established herself amongst the cities queer community, despite the prejudice against trans women. She participated in the 1969 Stonewall Uprising. Later, after getting convicted on a burglary charge, Major was imprisoned with men at Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, NY. There she met Frank "Big Black" Smith, a participant in the 1971 Attica Uprising at Attica Correctional Facility. He treated Major, and her identity as a woman, with respect and the two built a friendship. Smith also taught Major a good bit about advocating for herself and other trans women being mistreated by the US Justice System. Major was released from Dannemora in 1974. Major moved to San Diego in 1978 and almost immediately began working on community efforts and participating in grassroots movements. Starting by working at a food bank, she would go on to provide services directly to incarcerated, addicted, and homeless trans women, and would provide additional services after the AIDS epidemic started. In the 1990s Major moved to the San Fransisco Bay Area, where she continued her work, alongside organizations like the Tenderloin AIDS Resource Center. In 2003 Major became the Director of the Transgender Gender Variant Intersex Justice Project, shortly after its founding by attorney and community organizer Alexander L Lee, a trans man. The group works to end human rights abuses in the California Prison System, with a focus on trans, intersex, and gender variant POC. The position has since been passed on to Janetta Johnson, a previously incarcerated trans woman who mentored under Major. She is the focus of the 2015, award winning, documentary Major!. Major has five sons, two biological and three runaways she adopted, after meeting them in a California park. Her oldest son, Christopher was born in 1978, and her youngest, Asiah (rhymes with messiah) in 2021. At 82 years old Miss Major Griffin-Gracy continues to be an active member of her community and an advocate for our rights as trans people.

Haven't settled on which yet, but Willmer "Little Ax" Broadnax or Victor J Mukasa will be next!

#celebrating black queer icons #black history #black history month #black history is queer history #black history is american history #abolish the police #abolish prisons #decriminalize sex work #miss major griffin-gracy #major! #really disappointing to find out she doesnt show up in Popular Tags #stonewall inn #stonewall riots #stonewall uprising #transgender gender variant intersex justice project

[transbookoftheday]

Miss Major Speaks: Conversations with a Black Trans Revolutionary by Miss Major Griffin-Gracy and Toshio Meronek

The future of Black, queer, and trans liberation explored by a legendary transgender elder and activist

Miss Major Griffin-Gracy is a veteran of the infamous Stonewall Riots, a former sex worker, and a transgender elder and activist who has survived Bellevue psychiatric hospital, Attica Prison, the HIV/AIDS crisis and a world that white supremacy has built. She has shared tips with other sex workers in the nascent drag ball scene of the late 1960s, and helped found one of America’s first needle exchange clinics from the back of her van.

Miss Major Speaks is both document of her brilliant life–told with intimacy, warmth and an undeniable levity-and a roadmap for the challenges black, brown, queer and trans youth will face on the path to liberation today.

Her incredible story of a life lived and a world survived becomes a conduit for larger questions about the riddle of collective liberation. For a younger generation, she warns about the traps of ‘representation,’ the politics of 'self-care,' and the frequent dead-ends of non-profit organizing; for all of us, she is a strike against those who would erase these histories of struggle.

Miss Major offers something that cannot be found elsewhere: an affirmation that our vision for freedom can and must be more expansive than those on offer by mainstream institutions.

#miss major speaks #miss major speaks: conversations with a black trans revolutionary #miss major griffin-gracy #toshio meronek #transfem #trans book of the day #trans books #queer books #bookblr #booklr

[the-cimmerians]

Signal boost for any folks in the Santa Barbara area who might be interested.

#Black Trans Futures #carcerality and abolition #Miss Major Griffin-Gracy #Lavelle Ridley #Toshio Meronek #Eric Stanley #Abolitionist Black Trans events #Black History Month

[haveyoureadthistransbook]

Miss Major Speaks: Conversations with a Black Trans Revolutionary by Miss Major Griffin-Gracy and Toshio Meronek

goodreads

Miss Major Griffin-Gracy is a veteran of the infamous Stonewall Riots, a former sex worker, and a transgender elder and activist who has survived Bellevue psychiatric hospital, Attica Prison, the HIV/AIDS crisis and a world that white supremacy has built. She has shared tips with other sex workers in the nascent drag ball scene of the late 1960s, and helped found one of America’s first needle exchange clinics from the back of her van.

Miss Major Speaks is both document of her brilliant life–told with intimacy, warmth and an undeniable levity-and a roadmap for the challenges black, brown, queer and trans youth will face on the path to liberation today.

Her incredible story of a life lived and a world survived becomes a conduit for larger questions about the riddle of collective liberation. For a younger generation, she warns about the traps of ‘representation,’ the politics of 'self-care,' and the frequent dead-ends of non-profit organizing; for all of us, she is a strike against those who would erase these histories of struggle.

Miss Major offers something that cannot be found an affirmation that our vision for freedom can and must be more expansive than those on offer by mainstream institutions.

Mod opinion: I haven't read this one yet, but I desperately hope I will find a copy someday and get around to it.

#miss major speaks #miss major griffin-gracy #toshio meronek #polls #trans lit #trans literature #trans books #lgbt lit #lgbt literature #lgbt books #history #interviews #non fiction #memoir #to read

[wannabeaesthete]

I’m Still Here: LGBTQ+ activists and celebrities then and now ✨

Lily Tomlin, Lani Ka’ahumanu, André De Shields, and Miss Major Griffin-Gracy

#lily tomlin #lani ka’ahumanu #andre de shields #miss major #miss major griffin-gracy #lgbtq elders #lgbtq moodboard #pride 🌈

[gayingawaythepray]

#gay liberation movement #gay liberation #queer liberation #black lives matter #stormé delarverie #miss major griffin-gracy #marsha p. johnson #sylvia rivera #pride #lgbtqia+ #lgbtq+ #lgbtq #lesbian #bisexual #pansexual #transgender #trans #intersex #aromantic #asexual #infographic #art #digital art #photoshop #photoshop art #photoshop artist #artists on tumblr #artist on tumblr #annemarieyeretzian

[annemarieyeretzian]

#gay liberation movement #gay liberation #queer liberation #black lives matter #stormé delarverie #miss major griffin-gracy #marsha p. johnson #sylvia rivera #pride #lgbtqia+ #lgbtq+ #lgbtq #lesbian #bisexual #pansexual #transgender #trans #intersex #aromantic #asexual #infographic #art #digital art #photoshop #photoshop artist #artists on tumblr #artist on tumblr #annemarieyeretzian

[jaymesdoodles]

I remember when I was out for a little over two years, I was going into high school. I joined my GSA because I wanted to interact with others in my community that weren't just my friends. I joined and there were about 4 or so other members. They were all seniors. I remember just being able to talk to them about my identity and just enjoy being around other queer people was super important to me.

This is when an opportunity arose. We were invited to go to an lgbtq+ leadership organization. This org would be holding an event where we could go camping for a whole weekend. Just to talk with other queer people, learn stuff about leadership, and learn about our history. So we could bring this back to our communities.

I was so excited. I was young and I couldn't wait to interact with more people in our community. I went to the meeting they held to learn about the event more. I got to me other queer people. Get out of my comfort zone. It was amazing. Being in a space were I was able to be myself completely was wonderful.

During that meeting we talked about stuff that would happen that weekend. There was one that, that I wasn't expecting, that I was over the moon excited for. I never thought I'd get an opportunity like this.

One of the speakers that would be at the event, would be lgbtq+ activist and someone who was at the stonewall riots, Miss Major Griffin-Gracy.

The weekend ended up being amazing. I got to meet so many cool people. It was so exciting and fun. I really got to ge myself but also learn more about myself. I loved it. But something I'll never forget was meeting Miss Major.

We watched a documentary that was about her life. I remember crying and crying. We were here. We existed. We are still fighting. It was a surreal experience to watch that movie while she was in the room with us.

At the end we got the chance to talk to her. I remember being nervous, like I am for everything, she reassured me I was okay. I told her thank you for everything thats she had done for the community and that I was still struggling trying to find myself, but hearing her story helped. She told me to take my time and I was allowed to take my whole life. I got to give her a hug and I remember feeling so safe.

This is the photo I got to take with her. Meeting her and experiencing that weekend will probably be one of the most important moments in my life.

This is something I wanted to share with y'all. It's such an important and special moment I wanted to share with everyone <3

#Please let me know if i did the image description correctly #image description in alt #lgbt #lgbtq #lgbtq+ #queer community #pride month #miss major griffin-gracy #miss major #jaymes talks #this is something i really wanted to share with everyone :)

[ilickedanenvelopeandilikedit]

*herself

QUEEN

#Miss-major Griffin-gracy #troyboys bullshit

[hashtagloveloses]

in preparation for pride month 2023 people should know that miss major griffin-gracy, one of our surviving veterans of Stonewall, wrote a memoir that just came out. it’s called Miss Major Speaks, and if your library doesn’t have it/have it on order, you should buy it to support her retirement.

if you want to learn more about her, you should also watch the documentary about her life, MAJOR!, which is really wonderful.

#pride #pride month #pride month 2023 #queer history #lgbt history #stonewall #original post

[radiofreederry]

Happy birthday, Miss Major! (October 25, c. 1940)

Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, an early campaigner for trans rights, was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago. Assigned male at birth, Griffin-Gracy came out as trans in the 1950s and was a regular in Chicago's drag ball scene. After being expelled from school and falling out with her parents, Griffin-Gracy came to New York City, where she earned money through sex work and became a regular at the Stonewall Inn, which was more welcoming to trans women than other gay bars in the city. She was present for the Stonewall Rebellion, and played a large role in the gay rights movement which grew out of it. After leaving New York, Griffin-Gracy spent many years in California, where she continued her activism and outreach work, serving as executive director of the Transgender Gender-Variant & Intersex Justice Project. Later in life, she settled in Little Rock, Arkansas, where she lives today, continuing her activism well into old age.

#birthdays #miss major

[morhath]

Oh I’m very very interested in your nonfiction book recs 👀

EDIT: ykw I'm gonna make this a little more organized

I listed a bunch in this post (the last question) but lemme see if I have any additions because I know I was kinda trying to keep it short when I wrote that. (But that being said, that post is the Top Faves Of All Time, so go for those first.)

Freaky medical shit I also liked:

The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years by Sonia Shah

The Barbary Plague: The Black Death in Victorian San Francisco by Marilyn Chase (I just read this a few weeks ago and OOUUUGGHHHHHH IT'S LITERALLY JUST. LIKE THE RESPONSE TO COVID.)

The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic—and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson

Political shit I also liked:

Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century edited by Alice Wong

The Viral Underclass: The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide by Steven W. Thrasher

Immigrants, Evangelicals, and Politics in an Era of Demographic Change by Janelle S. Wong

History I also liked:

Triangle: The Fire That Changed America by David Von Drehle

The Hamlet Fire: A Tragic Story of Cheap Food, Cheap Government, and Cheap Lives by Bryant Simon (between those two you can tell I was on a bit of a "workplace tragedies caused by lax regulations and bad management" kick)

The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore (I think everyone knows about this book, including it for completeness)

Promised the Moon: The Untold Story Of The First Women In The Space Race by Stephanie Nolen

The Women's House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison by Hugh Ryan

Butts: A Backstory by Heather Radke (this is nowhere near as fun and cute as you'd assume from the title)

Memoirs I also liked:

The Less People Know About Us: A Mystery of Betrayal, Family Secrets, and Stolen Identity by Axton Betz-Hamilton (I read this before I really got into nonfiction and it was WILD, I tell people about it all the time)

The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui (this one is a graphic not-novel-I-guess-memoir)

Know My Name by Chanel Miller

Other:

Playing Dead: A Journey Through the World of Death Fraud by Elizabeth Greenwood

A False Report: A True Story of Rape in America by Ken Armstrong, T. Christian Miller

Lost Feast: Culinary Extinction and the Future of Food by Lenore Newman

It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror by Joe Vallese

AND here are a few on my TBR that I'm really excited for! I decided not to categorize them because they're almost all history:

Silk and Potatoes: Contemporary Arthurian Fantasy by Adam Roberts

Refusing Compulsory Sexuality: A Black Asexual Lens on Our Sex-Obsessed Culture by Sherronda J. Brown

All the Young Men by Ruth Coker Burks

The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara by David I. Kertzer (I am actually partway through this right now but in a bit of a dry/confusing section)

The Broadcast 41: Women and the Anti-Communist Blacklist by Carol A. Stabile

The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History by Kassia St Clair

A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell (have just barely started this)

Time to Dance, a Time to Die: The Extraordinary Story of the Dancing Plague of 1518 by John Waller

The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyŏng: The Autobiographical Writings of a Crown Princess of Eighteenth-Century Korea by Lady Hyegyeong

Miss Major Speaks: The Life and Times of a Black Trans Revolutionary by Miss Major Griffin-Gracy

Too Hot to Touch: The Problem of High-Level Nuclear Waste by William M. Alley, Rosemarie Alley (I'm in the middle of this but it's surprisingly, um. not exciting.)

Going Postal: Rage, Murder, and Rebellion: From Reagan's Workplaces to Clinton's Columbine and Beyond by Mark Ames

Pressure Cooker: Why Home Cooking Won't Solve Our Problems and What We Can Do About It by Joslyn Brenton, Sinikka Elliott, Sarah Bowen

Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder

The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World by Virginia Postrel

Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

Medieval Gentlewoman: Life in a Gentry Household in the Later Middle Ages by Ffiona Swabey

Hitler's First Victims: The Beginning of the Holocaust and One Man's Fight to End It by Timothy W. Ryback

I am soso normal and have very normal interests that are not at all grim :)

#long post #life #reading #books #tempestclerics #my book recs

[emma-dennehy-presents]

Celebrating Black Queer Icons:

Tourmaline

Tourmaline (formerly known/credited as Reian Gossett)is a trans woman that actively identifies as queer, and is best known for her work in trans activism and economic justice. Tourmaline was born July 20, 1983, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Tourmaline's mother was a feminist and union organizer, her father a self defense instructor and anti-imprisonment advocate. Growing up in this atmosphere allowed Tourmaline to explore her identity and encouraged her to fight in what she believes in. Tourmaline has earned a BA in Comparative Ethnic Studies, from Colombia University. During her time at Colombia U, Tourmaline taught creative writing courses to inmates at Riker's Island Correctional Institute, through a school program known as Island Academy. Tourmaline has worked with many groups and organizations in her pursuit of justice. She served as the Membership Coordinator for Queers For Economic Justice, Director of Membership at the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, and as a Featured Speaker for GLAAD. Tourmaline also works as a historian and archivist for drag queens and trans people associated with the 1969 Stonewall Inn Uprising. She started doing this after noticing how little trans material was being archived, saying that what little did get archived was done so accidentally. In 2010 Tourmaline began her work in film by gathering oral histories from queer New Yorkers for Kagendo Murungi's Taking Freedom Home. In 2016 Tourmaline directed her first film The Personal Things, which featured trans elder Miss Major Griffin-Gracy. For the film Tourmaline was awarded the 2017 Queer Art Prize. Tourmaline served as the Assistant Director to Dee Rees on the Golden Globe nominated historical drama, Mudbound. Tourmaline has co produced two projects with fellow filmmaker and activist Sasha Wortzel. The first was STAR People Are Beautiful, about the work of Sylvia Rivera and Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries. The second was Happy Birthday, Marsha, about Marsha P Johnson. Happy Birthday, Marsha had all trans roles played by trans actors. Tourmaline's work is featured or archived in several major museums and galleries. In 2017 her work was featured in New Museum's exhibit Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon. In 2020 the Museum of Modern Art acquired Tourmaline's 2019 film Salacia, a project about Mary Jones. In 2021 the Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired two of Tourmaline's works for display in Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room. Tourmaline is also the sibling of:

Che Gossett

Che Gossett is a nonbinary, trans femme writer and archivist. Gossett specializes in queer/trans studies, aesthetic theory, abolitionist thought and black study. Gossett received a Doctorate in Women's and Gender Studies, from Rutgers University, in 2021. They have also received a BA in African American Studies from Morehouse college, a MAT in Social Studios from Brown University, and a MA in History from the University of Pennsylvania. Gossett has held a fellowship at Yale, and currently holds fellowships at Harvard, Oxford, and Cambridge. Gossett's writing has been published in a number of anthologies and they have lectured and performed at several museums and galleries of note, including the Museum of Modern Art and A.I.R. Gallery. Gossett is currently working on finishing a political biography of queer Japanese-American AIDS activist Kiyoshi Kuromiya.

I originally intended to do separate profiles for Che Gossett Tourmaline, but could not find sufficient information about Che Gossett, beyond their credentials and current academic activity. That means that this will be the last of these write ups for a bit. I plan on picking it back up in October for the US's LGBT History Month and UK's Black History month. With time to plan ahead and research more I hope to diversify my list geographically and improve formatting. I plan on starting to include cis icons as well, like Rustin Bayard. If you come across this or any other of these posts Ive made this month I would love feedback and suggestions for figures you would like to see covered.

#celebrating black queer icons #black history #black history month #black history is queer history #black history is american history #queer history #tourmaline #che gossett #trans film #trans history #stonewall inn #stonewall uprising #stonewall riots #queer #lgbtq #trans #transgender #nonbinary

[petervintonjr]

"The moment that I was questioned as a transgender woman raising a child I became a feminist."

Say hello to activist Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, 82 years old as of this writing and not about to ease up in the fight for trans rights. She faced many hurdles during her life --including homelessness and incarceration-- and it's these challenges that fuel her determination to this day. In 1969, Majors fought the police at Stonewall, right alongside Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson (see Lesson #94 in this series), and to this day expresses doubt that the promises of Stonewall have truly been kept --particularly in this cynical and opportunistic age of "corporate Pride." ("Who invited the motherf**kers from Home Depot?") In the 1970's, having herself been an inmate at New York's notorious Dannemora prison and Bellevue Hospital's so-called "queen tank," Griffin-Gracy provided direct services to trans women dealing with addiction and incarceration. In the 1980's she took it upon herself to care for people impacted by HIV/AIDS.

In 2005, Miss Major joined San Francisco-based Trans Gender Variant and Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP) as a staff organizer, and later as executive director, to lead the group's efforts advocating for incarcerated trans women. She has often spoken out against the prison system, which she says contributes to the incarceration of transgender individuals, particularly trans people of color and those with low incomes.

Now 82, Miss Major, known to many simply as "Mama," resides in Little Rock, Arkansas, where she continues to be a vocal activist. She founded and administers the House of GG, a retreat center for trans people and their families.

Read an absorbing interview with Miss Major from just this past week at: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/black-trans-activism-miss-major-griffin-gracy-stonewall/

just out this year: Miss Major Speaks: Conversations with a Black Trans Revolutionary by Miss Major Griffin-Gracy and Toshio Meronek - https://www.versobooks.com/products/2787-miss-major-speaks

#black lives matter #teachtruth #dothework #pride month #pride #miss major

[read-alert]

Another crosspost from my Instagram! This time for the Trans Day of Visibility!

Full titles under the cut

Poetry

Bluff by Danez Smith

Even This Page is White by Vivek Shraya

[Insert Boy] by Danez Smith

Maiden, Mother, Crone: Fantastical Trans Femmes ed by Gwen Benaway

Giving Birth to Yourself: Poems for Combat by Kai Cheng Thom

Falling Back in Love with Being Human: Letters to Lost Souls by Kai Cheng Thom

Fantasy

Lead Me Astray by Sondi Warner

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

Out of the Blue by Jason June

Celestial Monsters by Aiden Thomas

Historical

Self-Made Boys: A Great Gatsby Remix by AM McLemore

Most Ardently: A Pride and Prejudice Remix by Gabe Cole Novoa

The Companion by EE Ottoman

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White

Horror

Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White

Romance

I Think of You Often by Sienna Eggler

Their Troublesome Crush by Xan West

Drag Me Up by RM Virtues

Nonfiction

Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity by Julia Serano

Self Organizing Men: Conscious Masculinities in Time and Space by Eli Clare and Jay Sennet

A History of My Brief Body by Billy-Ray Belcourt

Miss Major Speaks: The Life and Times of a Black Trans Revolution by Miss Major Griffin-Gracy and Toshio Meronek

Indigiqueerness: A Conversation About Storytelling by Joshua Whitehead and Angie Abdou

The Appendix by Liam Konemann

Captive Gender: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex by Nat Smith, Eric A Stanley, and CeCe McDonald

Making Love With the Land by Joshua Whitehead

Graphic novels

Cheer Up: Love and Pompoms by Crystal Frasier

Across a Field of Starlight by Blue Delliquanti

Lumberjanes: Up All Night by ND Stevenson, Grace Ellis, and Shannon Watters

Trans authors but (to my knowledge) no trans characters

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

All the Dead Things by Bear Lee

Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi

Miscellaneous

The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester by Maya MacGregor

Catnip by Vyria Durav

#queer books #trans books #queer reads #trans reads #queer lit #trans lit #bookblr

[kithj]

i thought it would be fun to share what i’m reading for pride :-)

pageboy by elliot page

i have been a lifelong fan of elliot page, one of my first celebrity crushes (alongside anna paquin in xmen) & if you’ve ever watched any of his other work like gaycation or there’s something in the water, you know he is very articulate & deliberate with his words & that definitely translates into his writing as well. i’m about halfway through and really enjoying it, his writing is again very deliberate and snappy, and i like how he reflects on the history of where he grew up and interweaves it with his childhood & present day. one of my favorite passages so far is when he's reminiscing about playing pretend as a boy:

"Those were some of the best times of my life, traveling to another dimension where I was... me. And not just a boy but a man, a man who could fall in love and be loved back. Why do we lose that ability? To create a whole world? A bunk bed was a kingdom, I was a boy."

stone butch blues by leslie feinberg

i’ve read this collection many years ago as a teen/early 20s and it’s actually been really hard for me to reread. i got through the first 3 chapters and had to set it aside because it was really affecting me. maybe because i’m older… anyways, not sure if i’m going to finish this reread since i don’t really think i’m in the right headspace to handle it. however there’s a lot of Leslie Feinberg’s writing available online, i’ve shared some previously and you can find them here :-) sbb is also available for free on hir website, and i do still recommend it, just be aware of the content before you start reading.

honorable mentions follow because i haven't gotten the books in the mail yet 😭

miss major speaks by miss major griffin-gracy

this book just came out this past month, and i'm waiting for my copy to arrive. i'll just share the description here:

Miss Major Griffin-Gracy is a veteran of the infamous Stonewall Riots, a former sex worker, and a transgender elder and activist who has survived Bellevue psychiatric hospital, Attica Prison, the HIV/AIDS crisis and a world that white supremacy has built. She has shared tips with other sex workers in the nascent drag ball scene of the late 1960s, and helped found one of America’s first needle exchange clinics from the back of her van. Miss Major Speaks is both document of her brilliant life–told with intimacy, warmth and an undeniable levity-and a roadmap for the challenges black, brown, queer and trans youth will face on the path to liberation today.

you can donate to miss major's fundly here

the persistent desire: a femme-butch reader edited by joan nestle

i've read some of the essays in this anthology previously, but i have a really hard time reading the scanned pages on my laptop (hurts my head) so i bit the bullet and ordered my own copy from a used bookstore. it was suspiciously cheap compared to where i've seen it elsewhere, so fingers crossed it's the real deal. i'm excited because the shop noted that it had previous wear & potential writing in the margins from the previous owner and i look forward to seeing the thoughts of the person before me :-)

i really like reading older lesbian literature, though it makes me sad sometimes that a lot of the lesbian bar culture no longer exists. i wish i could go back and talk to some of the women and butches that lived through it.

hijab butch blues by lamya h

this is next on my to-read list, i think i might jump over to this one since i've set sbb aside for now. i'll just paste the description again:

When fourteen-year-old Lamya H realizes she has a crush on her teacher—her female teacher—she covers up her attraction, an attraction she can’t yet name, by playing up her roles as overachiever and class clown. Born in South Asia, she moved to the Middle East at a young age and has spent years feeling out of place, like her own desires and dreams don’t matter, and it’s easier to hide in plain sight.

To disappear. But one day in Quran class, she reads a passage about Maryam that changes everything: when Maryam learned that she was pregnant, she insisted no man had touched her. Could Maryam, uninterested in men, be . . . like Lamya?

i'm excited to read this one and get my own copy eventually. a lot of the butch literature i've read has been from white butches (primarily leslie feinberg & ivan coyote) & i look forward to reading a new perspective. kitty tsui is also another butch whose work i really like, she has an essay in the persistent desire and i know that one has made the rounds on tumblr before.

anyways just felt like sharing ! i haven't been able to do anything for pride this year so i'm trying to fill the void a bit with reading a lot of gay/lesbian literature. hope you all are having a safe and happy pride :-)

#personal