By Rhys Wright, Jodie Walls, Amy Blay, Lexie Knight
When history is written, it’s often the most marginalised people whose experiences are left out. Even histories of the LGBTQIA+ community are not immune to whitewashed narratives that obscure queer people of colour. To celebrate this year’s Black History Month, we’d like to share some books that focus on trailblazing Black LGBTQIA+ people.
The Famous Lady Lovers: Black Women and Queer Desire Before Stonewall by Cookie Woolner
Race, gender and sexuality historian Cookie Woolner, explores the lives of Black “lady lovers,” as women-loving-women were referred to, in the decades before the Stonewall uprising.
Through cabarets, speakeasies, literary salons and more, Black lady-lover communities grew and flourished. While examining songs, newspapers, reports, memoirs and studies, Woolner recounts the often-overlooked lives of influential queer Black figures such as Gladys Bentley, an openly lesbian, cross-dressing blues singer, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, a bisexual poet, journalist and activist and others she encountered in her archival explorations.
The Famous Lady Lovers is an easily digestible, well-written and fascinating tribute to the Black lady lovers who helped pave the way for modern queer Black women – a truly fantastic addition to queer history publishing.
Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry by Imani Perry
Lorraine Hansberry, who sadly passed away at the age of thirty-four, was an American playwright and author. She is an often-forgotten figure who helped to shine a light on the stories of queer, Black women.
Following the success of her play A Raisin in The Sun, she became an activist. Although married to a man, she identified as a lesbian and joined the Daughter’s of Bilitis, which was one of America’s first lesbian organisations. In letters she wrote to their publication, she wrote about racism, homophobia and misogyny.
Perry’s work explores the impact of Hansberry’s writing and pays homage to her beliefs that were ahead of her time. It also dives into Hansberry’s friendships with two prominent figures: Nina Simone and James Baldwin. This book has won many awards, including the Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQIA+ nonfiction and the 2019 PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography.
The book begins by exploring her upbringing as a child in Chicago before diving into the rest of her life. Perry’s storytelling of these events is brought to life with the clever addition of quotes from Hansberry and her works.
Miss Major Speaks: Conversations with a Black Trans Revolutionary by Miss Major Griffin-Gracy and Toshio Meronek
Miss Major Griffin-Gracy is a figure who has lived through decades of history-defining events. From participating in the Stonewall uprisings to providing nursing care during the AIDS crisis, she has spent a lifetime at the forefront of liberation movements.
At the same time, her experiences as a Black trans woman have taught her how to survive and thrive while being marginalised in more ways than one. In a series of frank and insightful interviews with her friend Toshio Meronek, Miss Major tells stories from her remarkable life and reflects on how future generations can continue the struggle for liberation.
Miss Major’s first-hand perspective on transphobia and racism shines a light on how much and how little has changed during her lifetime. She’s unafraid to call out the hypocrisy and transphobia she sees in some major LGBTQIA+ organisations and non-profits.
Throughout her interviews with Meronek, she never loses focus on collective liberation and community organising. She often draws on her past experiences as a sex worker and a victim of the prison industrial complex to show how different systems of oppression are all interconnected. It all makes for a book that’s entertaining, thought-provoking and unforgettable.
Transitional: My Story by Munroe Bergdorf
Munroe Bergdorf, a Black model and transgender activist, pulls together the moments of her life and transition that have made her the woman she is today in Transitional. Separated into six sections, each representing different elements of her growth and transition, Bergdorf’s memoir tells a story that is both eye-opening to the Black, queer experience and a relatable recollection that every reader can find something within.
For me, the most notable element of Monroe Bergdorf’s memoir is how she chooses to bridge the gap between Black, queer readers and her other readers. Stating that “[transitioning] is not a process that only trans people go through: transitioning is universal. We all do it,” Bergdorf creates a lens through every reader to understand her story, making the literature widely accessible and allowing the story of a Black, queer woman to reach anyone. In doing this, Bergdorf makes a statement that her story, along with many others’ will not be overlooked and that Black, queer women deserve the same attention to their lives as everybody else.
Transitional is not a memoir to be missed; Bergdorf explains that “We are all born into involuntary identities…” and tells an empowering story about how to form the life you want, regardless.