Face the Rainbow
As previews once again flood my timeline for the upcoming 2nd season of The L Word: Generation Q, I am again faced with the glaring realization that even after increased diversity in media, the Black Live's Matter movement, and every queer space calling for "POC to the front", white washing in the LGBT community is still alive and kicking. From the appropriation of the term "stud" last year to literally having no representations of studs, black femmes, black trans folx and other black queers within mainstream shows, I am left wondering why we are still fighting for space and to be seen within our own community. Black queers have been undeniably out in the thick of advocating for rights within the community, the protest organizers, the one's who threw the brick, who started the riot and who influence the change. Stormé DeLarverie, known as "the stonewall lesbian", was a black lesbian singer and drag king who threw the first punch and started the uprising now known as the "Stonewall Riots" back in June of 1969. Followed by Marsha P. Johnson, a black transwoman and activist, who showed up promptly to the cookout and threw the first brick to fight back against the the violence, discrimination, and injustice of the NYPD. The Stonewall Riots are known to not only be the first Pride, but the events that lead to the gay liberation movement and the fight for LGBT rights in the United States.
