Black History Month – Being Black and Queer

By Teen Health Source

Happy Black History Month!

This month and onward Teen Health Source is dedicating our platform to highlight issues facing the Black community relating to health, relationships, and more. We’ve sat down with Paula, the Volunteer Engagement Worker for Planned Parenthood Toronto’s T.E.A.C.H. (Teens Educating And Confronting Homophobia) program to discuss what it means to be Black and queer, and some of the histories behind the fight for Black queer liberation. 

During this conversation we address some heavier topics like racism, violence, and the AIDS epidemic. We encourage you to take a break when necessary if things feel overwhelming, but understand that while it may be uncomfortable these are important things to learn and talk about when you can. 

Key Figures

James Baldwin, was an American writer whose work dealt with issues of race, sexuality, and class in America. He also played a significant role in the Civil Rights Movement, giving lectures on racial equality across America. Some of his better known works are Go Tell It On The Mountain (1953), Notes of A Native Son (1955), and Giovanni’s Room (1956).

Audre Lorde, was an author, poet, activist, and professor who wrote about her experiences as a Black lesbian, travelling around the globe lecturing on the rights of Black people and the way Blackness intersects with gender, sexuality, class, and disability. Some of her well known works are Sister Outsider (1984), Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (1982), The Cancer Journals (1980) as well as other published collections of her work.

Bayard Rustin, was an American civil rights activist who worked closely with Martin Luther King Jr. during the American Civil Rights Movement, and fought for gay rights in the 1980s. Due to his sexuality he was often a background figure, but was no less influential in his efforts to fight for Black liberation.

Marsha P. Johnson, is someone we did not name directly in our conversation but is often who comes to mind when we talk about the whitewashing of queer-history. She was an American activist and drag queen involved in the Stonewall Riots and early queer liberation efforts. 

Kimberle Crenshaw, is an American civil rights advocate known for introducing the concept of intersectionality to critical theory. Crenshaw’s work has been published alongside other scholars in compendiums such as Critical Race theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement (1996) and in legal journals that feature her article Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics and Violence against Women of Color.

While our conversation focused on American activists, it’s important to note that Canada has its own history of political activism when it comes to racial justice and queer liberation. Stay tuned for more posts on Canada’s Black Queer History! 

Key Terms

We also wanted to define some terms we used that may need further explanation. Some of these, like intersectionality, are explained in our definitions section here, but we’ll define a few that aren’t below. 

• CROWN Act, the C.R.O.W.N. (Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair) Act, was introduced in 2019 to address the various forms of discrimination Black folks were experiencing as a result of their hair being considered “unfit” for workplaces or schools.
• Equity – refers to fairness and justice, addressing inequalities and power imbalances that exist as opposed to equality which assumes everyone just needs the same things to thrive.
• Heteronormative – refers to the idea that heterosexuality is the “norm” and that society ought to be structured around it. Heteronormative thinking can result in things like same-sex marriage bans and anti-trans laws.
• Hierarchy – social hierarchies refer to the order of privilege or access of people within a society. Usually we use this term to think about who has access to things like fair pay, employment, and basic human rights with the most “normative” at the top of the hierarchy.
• Monolith – when talking socially, we mean a group that is seen as having no difference within it. Assuming that all their wants and needs are the same because of one particular part of who they are like their race or sexuality. 
• Other/-ed/-ing – this refers to the way that some people are made to feel different than what we consider “normal.” In conversations about social or political issues, we’re thinking about things like race, sexuality, gender, etc. 
• Queer Panic – similar to a “moral panic”, which describes a feeling of fear that something is threatening the values or well-being of society. Gay/trans panic also refers to a legal defence used by those who enact violence against LGBT people by claiming they were so overcome with fear and surprise by someone being LGBT that they lost control and should receive a less punishing legal sentence. 
• Whitewashing – while we didn’t explicitly use this term, we talked about it. Whitewashing refers to erasing or discrediting the contributions from communities of colour to something. This could be a political event, like the Stonewall Riots, or even a way of speaking, like how we mentioned that a lot of contemporary slang in the queer community comes from Black folks and Ballroom. 
• Womanism – this is a social theory that specifically talks about the experiences of Black women. It was developed in response to streams of feminism that tended to exclude Blackness from conversations about justice and liberation 

Resources

• Click here for more info on TEACH and how to get in touch with Paula to book a workshop!
• 2SLGBTQIA+ Black Indigenous People of Colour Voices in History – The Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexuality 
• Queering Black History Month – House of Anansi

While Teen Health Source focuses on information related to sexual health and relationships, we can still suggest resources and further reading if you have more questions,  feel free to contact one of our peer educators. [Link]

Last updated: February 2023.