In the years of taking history classes all throughout elementary to high school I have not discussed any of the topic that were brought up in this past lesson. Why have I not covered Queer History throughout my time in school? Shouldn't this automatically be incorporated into my history lessons? These are issues I have with this not being taught in classes because it is a large part of history. I have been in school for 12+ years and this is the first instance of me being taught about historical movements such as the Homophile movement, and the follow up of stonewall. These large historical movements happened in the 50’s-60’s important and revolutionary times for America so how is this not brought up? I believe it is left out of texts because Queer history is not a majority, meaning it does not apply to heteronormative standards.
What has made queer resistance possible and effective? I think that it is important to study the history of queer activism due to the fact that it has shaped a lot of history even if it has not been shown throughout the textbooks used in regular classes. An example that is not talked about in text books is the Homophile Years where, “Various branches and agencies of the national government in Washington investigated, exposed, excluded, harassed, purged, and spied upon gay Americans.” (D’Emilio, 3) This is not included within the history textbooks which is a larger part of the 50’s and empowered the 60’s movements post stonewall. It is important to look at the way that Americans have been treated that were queer at this time period. The time of the early 50’s did not allow for people to be out, so there was not a visible community available. This was a push for the community since no one truly knew who was out and could be punished with loss of job and social community if out. The use of police presence was around even at the end of 1969 when the raiding of bars was still happening. The active police presence plus the anger of the LGBT+ community created a outrage, especially amongst the drag queens. The way to best describe it would be “It was this problem —how to challenge the regime of the closet — that the Stonewall Riot and its aftermath appeared to solve. The Stonewall generation of gay liberationists crashed through the recruitment barrier and landed in a wide sunlit space that for many, proved far more attractive than the closet.” (D’Emilio 4) This is some of the first very public resistance which was effective. This created a safe space and community for people to come out. The movements also coincided with the civil rights which helped to make the publication of protests wide spread. So, how does this history create a possibility for queer resistance? It allows for the movements that we have today to be around. Had it not have been for these Queer people fighting to break the boundaries there would be no pride, no coming out, and no community.
Why is it important for contemporary queer activists to know and understand queer history? As discussed previously the events in history were important in the formation of todays community. I think another important historical event would be the beginning of pride, “The assimilation of pride into this very marrow of the movement also meant that, even as reformers campaigned for inclusion, activists were willing to to absorb unruly tactics into their repertoire of methods to achieve their goals.”(D’Emilio 12) The formation is something that queer activists should know today so that they know why it started. Post stonewall transformations are also not shown within the textbooks, “There was less discrimination and harassment, greater visibility, and a much larger and more congenial gay world.” (D’Emilio 19) This is yet another reason to understand queer history for queer activists because we are not taught about it within classes. There is no way that I would have known about the details of any of these movements had I not taken this class. The importance of the understanding of queer history is so that we can educate others upon the past. In order for visibility of the past, we must educate so that others can learn from the past and know why being queer is a very valuable and precious thing. Queer history is important to the development of our future to see how hard people fought for what we have today.
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