In our resource launch focused on “Queer Histories - 500 Years in the Making,” we focus on the contributions across history by women and nonbinary folk, especially Black and Indigenous people, in four exemplary works, added to our Resource Portal today.
The Jewish Women’s Archive is a rich collection of stories, profiles, and programming focused on the contributions of Jewish women across history. They have a dedicated encyclopedia of Jewish women focused on LGBTQIA rights. Highlights include a description of Roza van Gelderen and Hilda Purwitsky, an open same-sex couple living in a conservative Jewish community as teachers and writers 1920s South Africa, Betty Berzon, the lesbian psychologist who fought the classification of homosexuality as a disease by the American Psychiatric Assosciation in 1973, as well as profiles on philosopher Judith Butler, co-founder of Black Live Matter Alicia Garza, political philosopher, Marla Brettschneider, as well as dozens more.
Another resource, “Keeping It Real: Our Southern Sisters Loving Each Other,” comes from an icon of civil rights and acclaimed theologian, Ruby Sales. In this moving essay from 2011, which was published through her nonprofit, The Spirit House Project, Sales describes how Black Southern women lived out both their spiritual lives and queer ones, forming a tight network and code of conduct between them. As Sales describes, "When I began in adolescence to explore my sexual identity, several of them took me under their wings and taught me the rules of survival as a young southern black lesbian." Sales writes this history also to counter assumptions of homophobia within Black churches and places blame with white supremacist teachings.
The Jewish Women’s Archive is a rich collection of stories, profiles, and programming focused on the contributions of Jewish women across history. They have a dedicated encyclopedia of Jewish women focused on LGBTQIA rights. Highlights include a description of Roza van Gelderen and Hilda Purwitsky, an open same-sex couple living in a conservative Jewish community as teachers and writers 1920s South Africa, Betty Berzon, the lesbian psychologist who fought the classification of homosexuality as a disease by the American Psychiatric Assosciation in 1973, as well as profiles on philosopher Judith Butler, co-founder of Black Live Matter Alicia Garza, political philosopher, Marla Brettschneider, as well as dozens more.
Baby, You Are My Religion: Women, Gay Bars, and Theology Before Stonewall is an eclectic and academic deep-dive into the culture of butch-femme bars in the mid-20th century. Author Marie Cartier asserts that these spaces represented a new kind of theology and religious institution, and originated institutions like the Metropolitan Community Church, as well as providing the early terrain for gay and lesbian activism.
The last resource is a collection put together by queer illustrator and curator, Syan Rose, called Our Work is Everywhere: An Illustrated Oral History of Queer and Trans Resistance, which showcases the many generations and centuries of queer and trans resistance that counter the dominant Stonewall-centric histories, which place 'gay liberation' activism and visibility from the 1970s onwards. Part of this restructuring of history comes with naming Black, Indigenous and people of colour as originators of queer cultures, joy, community care, healing, and so much more.
We hope you enjoy these new resources and thank the Tegan and Sara Foundation for providing us the funds to add in greater contributions from women and girls.