Black Queer History Is Our History

In the US and around the world, binaries and exclusivity dominate the discussions and systems surrounding people and borders. In this episode, Revolutionary Baddies guides an understanding of homophobia and transphobia as white supremacy. Throughout history in many cultures of color there have been non-nuclear families and multiple gender expressions, but that history has been criminalized and divested from. Highlighting the Black Queer Freedom Fighters and the ways they have contributed to this country is imperative to our liberation. When we amplify our histories not just our struggles, we can create a fuller scope of imagining freedom. Icons such as Miss Major, Kuwasi Balagoon, Audre Lorde, and many more have built the movements we know today, while facing patriarchal violence, state sanctioned repression, and invisibility of their queerness. If we are serious about liberation, we must not allow the tentacles of white supremacy stand in our way. “No one is free, until we are all free.” -Fannie Lou Hamer.

Question for our listeners:

What will it take to eradicate homophobia and transphobia from our communities?

What must be transformed to make this possible?

Links for the Show: Season 2. Episode 7

Night School Bar

Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements by Charlene Carruthers

Megyn Kelly, Under Fire for Appearing to Excuse Child Sexual Abuse, Is Back to Transphobia

MAJOR!: Documentary

Survival Is A Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde by alexis pauline gumbs

Rustin(2023) Movie

Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice

Women’s Liberation and the African Freedom Struggle by Thomas Sankara

Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology by Barbara Smith

When God Was A Woman by Merlin Stone