A big thank you to Dr. Debra Michals for sharing some of these resources with me through her US LGBTQ+ History course!
Videos
Why is Pride a Parade? | Origin of Everything
Description
June is Pride Month and if not for coronavirus streets around the world would be filled with the LGBTQIA Community living loud and proud. But how did the New York City Stonewall Riots turn into a month-long celebration? And specifically, how did we get from picketed protests like the Annual Reminder in Philadelphia to massive parades and parties around the world?
Special thanks to our Historian Harry Brisson on Patreon! Join him at https://www.patreon.com/originofevery...
Created and Hosted by Danielle Bainbridge
Produced by Complexly for PBS Digital Studios
Chapter 1 | Stonewall Uprising | American Experience | PBS
Description:
When police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in the Greenwich Village section of New York City on June 28, 1969, the street erupted into violent protests that lasted for the next six days. The Stonewall riots, as they came to be known, marked a major turning point in the modern gay civil rights movement in the United States and around the world.
The Lavender Scare | The History You Didn't Learn | TIME
America's First Trans Celebrity: Christine Jorgensen | Getty Images TV
Description:
In 1953, Christine Jorgensen was the most famous woman in America.
Born 1926, and named George Jorgensen Jr., Christine was one of the first Americans to have gender reassignment surgery.
Having always identified as a woman, but living in a time where little was understood about gender identity, Christine grew up in the Bronx, and was a GI in the US army. Upon being honourably discharged she discovered the work of a Danish doctor called Christian Hamburger, someone who would change her life forever.
Doctor hamburger was the first clinician to diagnose Christine as being not homosexual, but what was then called transsexual. He went on to perform Christine’s initial surgeries in Copenhagen. Before flying back to the USA she decided to call herself Christine, in homage to Dr Christian. Upon her return, in what was an extraordinarily brave move, Christine was open to talking to the press. Polished, eloquent and with a sharp wit, her story captivated the nation - she seized this opportunity to educate. She also went on to tour with a nightclub act, singing her own personal theme song ‘I Enjoy Being a Girl’ and racked up more column inches than the likes of Marilyn Monroe.
But there were still barriers to Christine’s happiness.
She planned to marry a typist called Howard Knox.
But when their engagement was announced Howard lost his job and a marriage was never allowed because Christine’s birth certificate still read male, and couldn’t be changed at the time.
Before her death in 1989, Christine Jorgensen was a leading figure, campaigning for the LGBTQ community and a true vanguard of the 20th century….
Films
Screaming Queens | KQED Truly CA
Description
It’s a hot August night in San Francisco in 1966. Compton’s Cafeteria, in the seedy Tenderloin district, is hopping with its usual assortment of transgender people, young street hustlers, and down-and-out regulars. The management, annoyed by the noisy crowd at one table, calls the police.
When a surly cop, accustomed to manhandling Compton’s clientele, attempts to arrest one of the queens, she throws her coffee in his face. Mayhem erupts — windows break, furniture flies through the air. Police reinforcements arrive, and the fighting spills into the street. For the first time, the drag queens band together to fight back, getting the better of the cops, whom they kick and stomp with their high-heeled shoes and beat with their heavy purses.
For everyone at Compton’s that night, one thing was certain — things would never be the same again.
A film by Susan Stryker and Victor Silverman.
Stonewall Forever - A Documentary about the Past, Present and Future of Pride | LGBTCenterNYC
Description:
Stonewall Forever is a documentary from NYC’s LGBT Community Center directed by Ro Haber. The film brings together voices from over 50 years of the LGBTQ rights movement to explore queer activism before, during and after the Stonewall Riots.
The history of the Stonewall Riots is equally as cherished as it is charged. There are questions of who was there, who “threw the first brick” and who can claim Stonewall. This film doesn’t answer these questions but instead it aims to expand the story of Stonewall by including more voices in its telling.
Stonewall Forever brings together queer activists, experienced and new, to look at the movement for LGBTQ equality before, during and after Stonewall. It highlights trans people, people of color and homeless people who were at the forefront of the movement, and who have often been erased from the narrative. It explores how the activism of today stands on the shoulders of the activists who have come before. And it asks us all to recognize the legacy of Stonewall that remains today, when the struggle for queer rights is far from over.
Stonewall Forever was directed by Ro Haber and created by a predominantly queer and trans cast and crew who are proud to be a part of preserving this legacy.
The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson | Official Trailer [HD] | Netflix
Description:
Who killed Marsha P. Johnson?
She was one of the icons of the gay rights movement in the 1960s, the self-described "street queen" of NY's gay ghetto, and founded the Transvestites Action Revolutionaries with fellow luminary Sylvia Rivera. When Johnson's body was found in the Hudson River in 1992, police called it a suicide and didn't investigate. In David France's new documentary, trans activist Victoria Cruz seeks to uncover the truth of her death while celebrating her legacy.
Watch The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson on Netflix
