Queer Voices
Queer Voices
February 11, 2025 Queer Voices LGBT History and Houston LGBT Summit
Discover the rich tapestry of Houston's LGBTQ+ history with insights from iconic figures like Judge Phyllis Frye, the first openly transgender judge in the U.S. Prominent voices like Joyce Gabiola, an LGBTQ History Research Collections Librarian, and Brian Riedel from Rice University join us to illuminate the impactful journey of queer organizing in Houston. From the significant contributions of activists like Ray Hill to the ongoing fight against discriminatory laws, we promise you'll gain a deeper understanding of the community’s resilience and the importance of preserving past struggles as we forge a path toward the future.
Embark on a reflective journey through pivotal moments of activism, like the tragic murder of Paul Broussard and the political triumphs of Annise Parker, Houston's first openly gay mayor. As we confront today's pressing challenges, especially for the transgender community, hear firsthand accounts of the evolution of the trans equality movement and the heightened fears faced by trans Texans. We explore the need for unity and intersectionality within the LGBTQ+ movement, addressing the long-standing struggles for trans inclusion and the critical importance of creating inclusive spaces for all voices.
Celebrate the vibrant stories of activism captured by photographer Dalton DeHart, whose lens has documented the community's spirit over the years. From President Clinton to grassroots movements during the AIDS crisis, Dalton's work underscores the power of preserving history for future generations. We honor the everyday heroes who've paved the way for change and share unique experiences from the National LGBTQ Task Force's Creating Change Conference, with stories from Stonewall pioneer Judy Bowenweiner. Join us in honoring the past and embracing the vibrant community spirit as we look toward a more inclusive future.
Queer Voices airs in Houston Texas on 90.1FM KPFT and is heard as a podcast here. Queer Voices hopes to entertain as well as illuminate LGBTQ issues in Houston and beyond. Check out our socials at:
https://www.facebook.com/QueerVoicesKPFT/ and
https://www.instagram.com/queervoices90.1kpft/
Hello everybody, this is Queer Voices, a podcast version of a broadcast radio show that's been on the air in Houston, texas, for several decades. On January 11th, 17 Houston-based organizations serving the LGBT plus community came together to host a summit at the Montrose Center. There were several speakers, sessions and workshops, and our own, davis Mendoza-Duruzman, was there and brings us this report from the plenary session.
Speaker 2:I'm Davis Mendoza-Duruzman. This summit was home to several sessions and workshops around community safety, legislative updates, access to health care and gender-affirming care and more, but the day-long event started with a plenary diving into Houston's powerful queer organizing history. You're about to listen in on a session moderated by the Montrose Center's CEO, avery Bellew, joined by Judge Phyllis Frye, the first openly transgender judge appointed in the United States. Joyce Gabiola, lgbt History Research Collections Librarian at the University of Houston. Brian Rydell, historian and faculty member at Rice University Center for the Study of Women, gender and Sexuality. And Dalton DeHart, longtime community photographer and founder of the Dalton DeHart Photographic Foundation, known for documenting Houston's LGBTQ plus history through photography over the past 35 years. We hope you enjoy this inspiring conversation.
Speaker 3:So our first conversation that we're wanting to have today is to take a moment to look back, because we're not having this conversation about how we care for each other. We're not starting from scratch, right? We have a lot of really important history, and so I am joined here today by some fantastic folks who care for our history, who have been a part of our history, who have lots of really interesting things to share with us that I hope will help us to think about our path forward. So why don't we start with each of you introducing yourselves I'm going to pass the mic down here and then you will have a mic on that end so kind of name pronoun and who you are in community and what you do. Judge Phyllis Frye, would you like to introduce yourself to the room for folks who don't know you?
Speaker 4:Good morning all. My name is Phyllis Frye and my pronouns are judge and your honor, frye, and my pronouns are judge and your honor. I would be remiss, we would all be remiss, if, at the very beginning of this history session, we did not mention the names of Ray Hill, oki Anderson, rita Wanstrom, gary Van Ottingham, marian Coleman, steve Shifflett and others. Those especially and I invite you sometime today, if you have not, to go down that hall where all the banners are that's where you're going to learn about our history. I am one of your history makers and I can tell you about that as we go on, but this was just for introduction, so I'm going to pass it on.
Speaker 5:Good morning everyone. Oh my gosh, I'm sitting next to Judge Fulis-Garay. My name is Grace Gabiola and my pronouns are they them. I work at the University of Houston Libraries as the archivist for the LGBTQ History Research Collection. I'm not sure if I have impacted history Someone said you know what Joyce needs to be invited, so thank you to whomever did that. I'm very happy and honored to be in this room with all of you, and especially on this panel. Good morning everybody. My name is Brian.
Speaker 8:Riedel, my pronouns are he and him. I have the honor of working at the Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality at Rice University, through which I've gotten to know a great many of you who have given your moral histories to preserve our community's history, about which we might hear more later and I'm delighted to be in this honorable environment.
Speaker 7:My name is Dalton DeHart and I suppose most of you have seen my face, at least you've seen my camera. But I'm looking around the room and there are very few people here that I see that I have not actually taken photos over the years. But let me assure you my background is more. I taught school for over 35 years. That was really my career. But then I started taking photos in the community 35 years ago and I was just going to do it kind of as a hobby, but it seemed like, as they say, something happened and I decided that maybe I should continue to do this. So I've done it now for 35 years and I love you very much and I love all of you and I know all these people on the panel and they're fabulous. I think my contribution might be in the realm of Fogos through the history, through the years. What do you want to talk about in a little while?
Speaker 3:Okay, so we'll go to our first question, and this is one that I will ask each of you to answer. So we'll start. We can just go down the line if you like. So, as we've already said, this summit was born out of the need for our community to regroup ahead of the incoming administration. Many of us are having fear and anxiety about what's going to come across the next four years. However, one of the things that's really beautiful again we're not starting from scratch is that Houston has a really rich and unique LGBTQ plus history, and we've already talked about that's displaying the banner project. If you've not seen, I encourage you to do that here on the first floor.
Speaker 3:For decades, we've rallied together to make change, to take care of our own. We've done things like fight the cross-dressing ordinance that existed. We've challenged Texas sodomy law. That's one of the things that this community and Houston did. We protested Anita Bryant, who recently passed away we're still here, by the way. We've campaigned for the Houston equal rights ordinance, which we still do not have. We hold town meeting one, and so on and so forth. So I would ask this For each of you what's one landmark event that shaped our local movement? If you're thinking about all these things, what's one landmark event that you would name and how do you think that shifted the Houston political landscape or lay the groundwork for further work? I'm going to go first.
Speaker 4:Oh Well, I'm going to stand up. Cross-dressing ordinance and the Houston police. I know many of you are relatively new to all this and you do have fears. Well, let me tell you what the fears were back in 1976. Because at that time the Houston police were raiding the gay bars. They were raiding the lesbian bars. They were arresting anybody that they could. I knew of several. Anybody that they could. I knew of several, as I became an attorney later on, people that I represented who were arrested standing in their front yard because the police thought they were soliciting and that's why they were in someone's front yard. They were in their own damn front yard.
Speaker 4:We also had an ordinance that said that if you dressed in clothing that was opposite to your sex you could be arrested, and many were Many were. The police would go into the lesbian bars and I've been told this by several good friends of mine that when the word got into the bar that the police were about to enter the bar, that those women who were wearing pants that zipped up the front, they were subject to being arrested for wearing men's clothing, and so they would immediately unzip, hit the floor, their friends would pull their pants off, they would stand up, put their pants on backwards and have them zipped up the back. That's the stupidity that was going on to keep from being arrested. And in the gay bars, if you were an entertainer, that was fine as long as you stayed on stage or backstage. If you came into the group, you were subject to being arrested.
Speaker 4:And so in 1976, when I came out full time I was 28 years old at the time, scared out of my wits, and my wife Trish and my wife Trish we were married for 48 years before she passed she and I were both scared that every day I went out looking for a job or petitioning against the ordinance, that I could be arrested. And I did petition against the ordinance. There is no reason why today, in 2025, you cannot do the same thing that I did. Get off your butt and go and meet your legislators, who will be sitting in Austin. It doesn't matter whether they are Democrats or Republicans. They need to meet you as an individual. You have to make yourself into an individual. You have to do that.
Speaker 4:We did that back then and that's how I got the ordinance changed. Yes, I got the ordinance changed. The ordinance changed. Yes, I got the ordinance changed. Four years of lobbying city council members for that to happen. In the 90s many of us went to Austin every other year and we would lobby members of the legislature and we had many friends and we educated a lot of unfriends. But you've got to get over this and remember that there were people before you, like myself, who did some scary stuff back then. So get over it and do what you have to do.
Speaker 5:For this question. I thought about events that may be lesser known but have had an impact on our movement in some way, the seemingly smaller things that happened, or the people who are public figures or super activists. I would say that one of the things is the creation of local community publications and broadcast media. Local community publications and broadcast media that certainly has had an impact on our local movement for equality, and part of the impact here is visibility and connection. Local LGBTQ media has given us opportunities to connect with others and to be informed of what's happening in our community and in part through their efforts we know that the community exists beyond our immediate surroundings. So you know we're familiar with current community publications that are in print, but there are much more like earlier publications that I learned about from the archives, such as this Week in Texas, montrose Voice and all of its other names, and lesser-known independent Houston-based publications such as Asulao, which apparently was a publication but also a community space for women in crisis in the 1980s. But also the radio program After Hours certainly had an impact, especially for folks who were not quite out. Who were not quite out and they tuned into the broadcast in secret, literally from their closets, and it gave the community a means to connect, to know that we're not alone and to know that the community exists and our existence is resistance.
Speaker 5:So, um, and I was thinking about that, because I'm supposed to create a large exhibition later this year and I was talking to the library administration about what that would look like, and so I was thinking about power and resistance and joy, and I'm telling our associate dean that, you know, existence, just our existence, is resistance, that is joy, and so just it was. It's all about power, the power of media to have an impact, and I'll mention that I know all about this because folks in our community preserved materials that document this history, materials that document this history. So what has also had an impact on the efforts of local historians? What has also had an impact are the efforts of local historians JD Doyle of Gulf Coast Archive and Museum, now a part of Lover Foundation, larry Crescioni of Bot's Collection, brandon Wolfe and so many community members who generously donated their collections. That is a plug to preserve your own histories. Thank you.
Speaker 8:Thank you, joyce, and I'm going to tell you now what some of us have been able to do with the things that Joyce was just talking about. Everybody knows about Stonewall, right? Yes, how many people are aware of an organization called the Gay Liberation Front? Raise your hands high so you can see each other. How many of you know that there was a chapter of the Gay Liberation Front in Houston? Look what just happened. Front in Houston. Look what just happened. The history that JD Doyle's websites have preserved, that historians in our community have preserved, that publications like Outsmart continue to preserve and that archivists like Joyce make available for the rest of us, not just in the digital form that we can all log into online, but go into the sacred space of an archive and look at it as a print object from the year I was born, 1971. I can't tell you the feeling to know that my community was there doing this right. That means something to me. So we're standing today in a community center that I think we might take for granted the Montreux Center. Thank you for hosting us. Did you know that the first community center in Houston was created by the Houston Gay Liberation Fund? It still stands today If you go to breakfast at Barnum's on Fairview.
Speaker 8:Go a little bit further down the street and see the house with the witch's hat. That's 504 Fairview. Go a little bit further down the street and you'll see the house with the witch's hat. That's 504 Fairview. That's the address of the Montrose Gaze G-A-Z-E. You can see pictures of it in that 1971 newspaper, but you can also read about it on JD Doyle's website. I'd like to tell you a small taste of the people who made that happen. The Houston Gay Liberation Front got a reputation for being too radical in the 80s and that's the history that I was given when I first got here in 1997.
Speaker 8:I was like oh well, radicals Sounds like my people, and so I started learning about them, and it turns out that the first thing I learned about them is that they picketed a gay bar for not allowing black patrons.
Speaker 8:They were anti-racists really early on. As I dug in more, I learned that they also picketed the Rice Hotel where Playboy was recruiting bunnies because they thought it was sexist. I also learned that they had, early on, a women's caucus. I also learned that they had a chapter at the University of Houston, one of the only university recognized student organizations of the Gay Liberation Front in the United States. They knew that youth mattered, they knew that women mattered, they knew that people of color mattered, and they knew it in the 70s. And they made a community center where there was no alcohol because they knew that the bars were toxic for some of us, even though that was the only place that many of us could find each other. They created the solutions that we are still building on today, and so I give you the Gay Liberation Front as a model for thinking about coalition, a cross-difference for common good, and I can't think of a better way of describing what we're going to do.
Speaker 3:Thanks. I want to make sure, joyce, but we don't leave your point about media because I want to make sure folks see Greg's going to hate me for this, but Greg Ju is standing there in the back of the room, started Outsmart Magazine and is never taking that for granted.
Speaker 7:When I look back over the last 35 years probably in 1991, when Paul Broussard was murdered behind heaven at that time, which is now South Beach that was probably a major turning point in our history because after a while because, as you know, he lay there for a number of hours before the ambulance would even arrive and it was only a three-mile ride to St Joseph's Hospital but it took 40 minutes to get there because they didn't want to have anything to do with anybody that might have AIDS or was toxic. So at that time it was a very sad day, but all of the people At that time it was a very sad day, but all of the people and Andrew Edmondson is one of the major ones who wrote about this and talked about it, and that was, I think, a major turning point in our community and to this day we remember what a sad sacrifice that was.
Speaker 7:And finally, after a long while, after the uprising, the people who did it, the 10 people from the woodlands, 17 years old and that sort of thing, who came Paul thought was just wanting directions, but then they jumped out and of course beat him with a two-by-four with nails in it, and that, I think, was their turning point. And the second one I want to just mention is when Denise Parker was finally elected to office. I've taken photos of her at many rallies and of course she was an activist at Rice University even when she was there. And then when she finally got elected after running several times, elected after running several times I had the honor of going to Mossbock Energy, which at that time was under lock and key, but I managed to get up to the office and she reared back in the chair and put her feet on the desk and then the voice reported finally and she had that hanging in her office for a long while. So Anise is one of the major figures in our history because even as mayor, but before that she was really active. So I would say those two are the things that we probably want to remember for a long time to come and continue to build on that.
Speaker 7:And, of course, if you look out here, I look around here, and I see JD and I see Jack and I see Sarah Fernandez and everybody, all of you have been a major figure in the life of this community, and the people at this table, of course, have as well. All I've done is just taken photos of people doing all of these things, and Jerry, jerry Seminoe, as a matter of fact, I first declined to be on this panel because I didn't think I really had much to add to it, because all I did was take photos. And then, thanks to people like Judge Seminoe and others, they said well, I think you probably should tell about some of the wonderful things that we did rather than all the horror stories. So we had many, many wonderful, wonderful events and as we go through this panel, I'll mention a couple, three or four dozen of those maybe.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much A few things I want to say before we go on to the next question that I'm kind of hearing. First of all, I want to say that Mayor Denise Parker sends her love to us today. She could not be with us she's on vacation, otherwise she would be here and she would be facilitating this panel, which she was invited to do. One of the things that we all know to be true is that the history that some of you have shared up and down these tables, we do not learn this in school I know I did not, and we certainly are not now because there's an attack on our inclusion education, and I want to know what that does to a community. When you are, history is not represented, and so we have to re-educate, or just educate, every new generation of our community about our history, and so many of us in this room probably don't know this history, and that's not our fault.
Speaker 3:It's because we were not taught about our ancestors, which we should have been where we went to school, and so it is our responsibility as our community to provide that education which will help us to envision our future. So that's one thing I'm hearing as I hear all of you speak. So, judge Fry, I'm going to go back to you with this question just for you. You've talked a little bit about the cross-dressing ordinance as one particular, very important moment, and I love how you highlighted that it didn't just impact transgender people, but it impacted our entire community, right? So we think that we think trans folks it wasn't just about trans folks, right? So I love how you highlighted that.
Speaker 3:We do know, going into this next four year administration, trans people are being very, particularly scapegoated. They've become the kind of special scapegoat in this particular moment. That's not particularly new, but it feels more intense in this moment and that has many trans Texans particularly afraid. We're also going into a Texas legislative session. We know we love that every couple years. So how would you say the trans equality movement has evolved locally and what would you say to trans Texans? You've already given us a little bit of your wisdom.
Speaker 4:But given our current political climate, Well, you need to remember that back in 76, the trans community was not deemed a part of the gay community. In fact, many of us had to fight for decades before the gay community, then the lesbian and gay community, then the lesbian, gay and bisexual community. Finally, finally, in 2000, well, nationally, 2008, locally, around the late 90s included trans to make us the LGBT community. But we were on our own, fighting constantly with the gay political caucus, actually, and then the LGB political caucus for recognition. It got so bad that one night at a meeting, I just quit. I resigned publicly from the caucus and I didn't rejoin the caucus until Clarence Bagby was our president of the caucus and he made sure that trans were caucus as far as nationally, because trans were not included. By that time, I had gone to the 79 March on Washington and I'd gone to the 86 March on Washington and I'd gone to what?
Speaker 9:86 March on Washington.
Speaker 4:And I'd gone do what? 87. I'm sorry, okay, it was there, thank you. Yes, it was. We were not included. And nationally, I became a national figure. Thanks to the internet. I would get all kinds of articles from different LG organizations around the country and trans were not included. Concluded, and so, finally, after my fight with the local caucus in around 89 or 90, I formed what was called the International Conference on Transgender Law and Employment Policy. And as you were talking about our archives, you need to go into the archives because all five volumes of the proceedings from those caucuses, those conferences, are there.
Speaker 4:And I began on the Internet what was called the filibuster, and I had a very large outreach and I was just blasting people right and left about trans inclusion. And finally, and our biggest opponent was the HRC Human Rights Campaign. They were our biggest opponent. They were our biggest opponent. And sometime in the 90s I don't remember the year, but there was a bill in the United States Congress to be inclusive in employment. It was the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. It didn't pass, but we could not get trans into that act because of HRC and other national gay and lesbian and bi organizations.
Speaker 4:When 2008 rolled around, we had educated enough organizations that when the Employment Non-Discrimination Act was reintroduced, again without trans, I raised such a stake again on the filibuster. And there were so many other people around the country trans people who were active, lesbian, gay and bisexual people who were inclusive and other organizations that had become inclusive that they all united and told HRC that they were not going to support the Employment and Non-Discrimination Act unless trans was included. And that was the moment, 2008, when trans finally became officially part of the community. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act once again did not pass. It wouldn't have passed anyway, but we were included and we've been included ever since and it's nice to be part of the family instead of outside of the family.
Speaker 3:We'll add to that. How many of you have heard or seen in our movement folks who have removed the T from the G L, v? How many of you have seen that Right? So I would just highlight that this conversation is not over, even within our own community, and I would just offer the caution that sometimes, when one part of our community comes under attack specifically and becomes scapegoated, one of the things that some of us can do to make ourselves feel more safe is to distance ourselves from that part of our community and make sure everyone knows how we're different than that part of our community. So we're okay. But that does not keep any of us truly safe. So the way that we're all going to be safe is to insist that we are together, that we are united and that we leave absolutely no one behind and that we resist even those conversations within our own movement to exclude trans folks from our broader community. So now just to pivot a little bit.
Speaker 3:This next question is both for you, joyce, and Brian, as stewards of our history and caretakers of our history. I know that both of you bring an intersectional perspective to this panel through your work. But, joyce, you've named the things that you do, and also your identities as queer and Filipino American, and so sometimes folks get left out of our telling and our retelling. One of my mentors likes to say that when that happens, we have to do what's called an archival intervention intervene into the archive to say who is being left out of this conversation and in our storytelling, and I think that's important to lift up because that continues to impact us today. So can you both talk about why it's paramount to center intersectionality within the LGBTQ plus movement, and are there any events in our local LGBTQ plus history that you feel like really exemplified that dedication to intersectionality? You've already named some of them, but I that dedication to intersectionality. You've already named some of them, but I'm excited to hear more.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I was just about to say that Brian pretty much named some events that happened at the Liberation Front regarding intersectionality. So in general, I just want to say that centering intersectionality helps us to always be aware of the power dynamics in any given room and it helps us understand that folks in the community are not monoliths. We don't use our money for the same causes, we don't vote the same way and we navigate the world differently because of our multiple, marginalized identities, our experiences, how formed our present world feels.
Speaker 5:And it forcesality, it forces us to acknowledge our own power and privilege so that we can use that power for good and to advocate for others, which Brian talked about earlier on the panel. So, and what Avery just touched on, it helps us to be careful not to be exclusionary, and this matters, as we know, when the community fights for our rights, when the community fights for our rights, I guess some of what exemplifies intersectionality. Again, brian mentioned it, but I'll also say that you know the creation of so many community organizations, because they create a community and community brings empowerment. Again, it helps folks not to feel lonely. That's major, because for me, growing up in Southwest Houston, you know, was there anyone around me who was like me? Were there teachers, my classmates, my relatives. Am I really all alone?
Speaker 5:And so later on, when I attended the University of Houston and I discovered Global exists, then things started to change. I came out when I was a student at UH. I held hands with my first girlfriend across campus and at the time I was still very much. I was part of the Filipino Students Association, but I was also part of a sorority, yep, yep. And it was just so powerful to come out to my sorority sisters and eventually to my sisters and my parents, although when I came out to my parents, it happened because of a breakup and it didn't make me feel better, but I was fine.
Speaker 5:Actually, she, the person who broke up with me, is actually my best friend. She's a chef in Boston, but I came back to Texas after living in Boston, los Angeles, san Diego because of this job which, miraculously, was created because of some of y'all in this room, dr Maria Gonzalez, I'm such a fan of the archives, thank you. It came at a very good time because my partner and I have a five-year-old and when we were still living in San Diego he was two and we felt compelled to move back to Texas because we wanted him to grow up around our parents, our siblings, our longtime friends. And so, miraculously, this job existed. It was out there and, oh my god, I thought I didn't get it because I didn't hear from them for a while, but I missed the voicemail message.
Speaker 7:That's why that's my fault.
Speaker 5:I get to do this for a living Every single day. I get to be in community with Brian and Dalton and Judge Fry and all of y' all out there. So, personally, coming from a Catholic Filipino household in Southwest Houston to this speaking here today, oh my God y'all. And I will say that one of the reasons why that inspired me was the work that Arden Eberslayer, that she did with well, I mean really with the lesbians over the age of 50 and With the oral history project, the old lesbians oral history project. I interviewed her for Outsmart, actually in 2010. Thank you, greg, for that opportunity, and so I interviewed her, and because of that experience, I thought this is something that I need to be a part of. I need to help preserve this history, our history, and so that's why I'm here today. I think I got off topic. I'm so sorry. I also want to say, greg, that when I was in college, I saw that Outsmart existed and was like this was amazing.
Speaker 3:Thank you. So same question to you, Brian, about why it's paramount to center intersectionality.
Speaker 8:Thank you. So y'all will forgive me. I'm a teacher, I can't help it. It's a word that came out of the academy and out of legal circles, that has been used in a lot of places, and I wager that some of us have different ideas about what it means. Do I feel the truth in the room? Okay, have you ever been asked by someone to define what intersectionality means? How have you felt? Okay, so here's your basic primer.
Speaker 8:Intersectionality is the theory that my experience as a gay man is not the same as Dalton's because we're of different ages. My experience as a queer person is different from Kevin Anderson's because we experience our race and sexuality at the same time. We cannot compare our experiences of queerness directly because of the different ways that we experience it. It came out of the courtrooms because black women were getting different results from court cases when they were testifying that they were raped than white women. Kimberly Crenshaw should be credited with that, so carry that as your pocket definition for why intersectionality matters. We all have shared experiences of life from different perspectives, and I cannot presume that my solution to solving my queer problems will match your solution to solving your queer problems if we don't start there. Okay. So with that out of the way a plug.
Speaker 4:Thank you professor.
Speaker 8:High praise coming from you. And now I do want to say one more thing. Earlier you raised why taking the T out is a problem. I want to tell you why that's a problem, using the intersectionality analysis, because this is how I respond to it.
Speaker 8:When people say they want to do that as a political move, the belief that it makes it safer is based on the misperception. The misperception is that my gayness is not gendered in other people's eyes. The misperception is that I'm just like. You will save me because my sexual activity is not seen as gender deviant. Think about that for a minute. If I don't look gender deviant, I might believe right, I'm using other people's language, not my own, right. I might believe that I can be safe. And the minute that I do that, the minute I say half a loaf is better than no loaf at all, I've actually cut out my own feet from underneath me. Because then what happens next? I'm on the plate Because my sex life makes me look different in a gendered lens. Do not buy the poison. Do not swallow it. Reject it. Help others reject it. That's why intersectionality matters.
Speaker 3:Thank you, dalton, this next question is for you. You talked about your role with a great deal of humility, I must say, in documenting all of our moments, our important moments of activism, but also important moments of joy and celebration, which is so important. So, and you've been the witness, from behind that camera, to so many of those moments, so how have you seen the community remain resilient through all these ups and downs? You've been the witness, from behind that camera, to so many of those moments. So how have you seen the community remain resilient through all these ups and downs we've been talking about? And is there any moment that you photographed that specifically moved you?
Speaker 7:Yes, I would say that that's absolutely true. It has been my privilege to take photos of many famous people. I was a photographer for President Clinton when he came to town and Hillary when she came to town and all those sorts of things. That's fine, but my main emphasis has always been on all of us, all of you in this audience, all of you. Every person is more important than these major figures because you have been there working to try to change what we have been going through for so long. Now I can name all those events. Oh, and I want to mention Josephine Tishworth, because several of these, but I'll never forget that we had a protest going on down at the Hilton and Josephine, who was in this pirate wheelchair there she is out protesting because HRC didn't include transgender in their program. So Jerry Seminole and many of us were down there and that's very memorable. But let me tell you the most moving and it's very hard to tell you about this because it's very personal.
Speaker 7:I've shot pictures of Montreal softball for 30 years. The most significant event was I took pictures of this is during the AIDS crisis and I had a picture of a young man who played softball and his partner asked me if I had a photo of him so that they could display it at the funeral. And I said, yes, I think I do. So I got that picture and I gave it to him. Got that picture and I gave it to him and then he reported back that when his mother saw this she said that is the most likeness of my son that I ever seen. So that's the most moving thing I've ever shot.
Speaker 7:And many protests. We had all of the marriage equality protests way back in the day when Jerry and Christopher and Mark Eggleston and all of the others were protesting and holding events down in Resurrection MCC Church. One of them is significant and it's been my privilege to be there for well. I used to do between four and five hundred events per year and for 30 years. That indicates that probably I've shot 12 or 15 thousand events. But if you remember, back in the earlier days was film day and film was a far different cry than digital that we all have plus the cell phone that we use most of the time. Back in the film days we didn't shoot as many photos and we had to be very careful to try to see if they would turn out all right.
Speaker 7:And this will be a plug for the Dalton Dark Photographic Foundation and this will be a plug for the Dalton Hart Photographic Foundation. Because of this. The foundation was formed so that these images that were on film 330,000 images could be digitized and put on the website. And if you go to that website just daltonheartcom we've got about, I guess, 200,000 to 300,000 images out there now and we probably have another 700,000 to go, but 330,000 were filmed. So you look at that and it's a far cry different.
Speaker 7:And thanks to the Kellett Foundation, john Kelly was a major figure in our community who was had his archives and had his foundation, and people like Brian real and Denise O'Doherty and a number of others were able to provide a grant so that these could be digitized, and for that I am forever grateful. And people like Sarah Fernandez and JD and all these other historians and Sarah and the banner project, which, if you go up down the hall, you'll see a number of people there. Finally, after how many years, sarah, I Finally agreed to be on one of the panels. I kept saying, no, there are other people in this community that need to be on a panel and then finally I said okay, Sarah, go ahead and you'll see all of the people up here on all those panels and I have to give a shout-out to Avery, since she has been here.
Speaker 3:I want you to know, avery you're a major blessing to our community. Thank you for sharing all those moments.
Speaker 9:We cannot do this panel about archiving, about our history, about the things that we've done in this community, and not shout out Monica Roberts that our trans sisters were dealing with here in Houston. She documented every single person. We lost Every single person Until the day that she passed away. Truth Project, normal Anomaly all of these organizations that are doing work now in the arts, in support in so many different areas, black, brown, everything, and I'm sorry but we had to do it. Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3:So many of us are still drawing strings. So thank you, that was an archival intervention. Thank you for that. So I want to say this as we move in to our next session I want to create some time for us to transition through. It is clear that we stand on the shoulders of giants, and so I hope, as we have this conversation today, that we carry our ancestors with us, whether they are in this room with us or they are no longer in this room with us, and draw strength from them to know that they are gathered this room with us or they are no longer in this room with us, and draw strength from them to know they are gathered around. I'm a very spiritual person. They're happy that we're here today and we're doing this in community right, that we're having queer joy today, and we will do that across this day. Thank you all so much for being here and thank you to our panelists. Thank you so much for your words of wisdom.
Speaker 2:I'm Davis Mendoza de Ruzman. Last month in fabulous Las Vegas, nevada, the National LGBTQ Task Force held their annual Creating Change Conference, and I had the incredible opportunity to attend and learn so much about queer organizing all across the country and meet so many incredible people. I'm excited to share some of the conversations I had with folks throughout my time at the conference, starting with this next interview conducted in the convention hallways with an 80-year-old self-proclaimed Stonewall pioneer and equality for all activist, judy Bowenweiner. From marching at the first Pride Parade in New York City following the Stonewall riots to her interactions with trailblazers Marsha P Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, judy has been a lifelong advocate for trans rights and inclusion, which is why I'm grateful that she was able to stop and speak with me for an interview on Creating Change. I have the distinct pleasure of speaking with Judy Bowen-Weiner, stonewall advocate and transgender activist now residing in Las Vegas. Thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 10:You're so welcome. It's good to be here. It's good to be at any place, at my 81. Yeah, 81, that's incredible. Every day is a blessing. Every day is a blessing. You have to be positive about life.
Speaker 2:I love that. Tell me about your history dating back to Stonewall and even beforehand.
Speaker 10:Well, I grew up down south during the Civil Rights Movement and I was in a racially mixed environment. So basically, I've been around prejudice and hate all my life. Actually, my reason for leaving the South was because of violent actions that I witnessed. So while I was at the University of Tennessee, someone said said, why don't you come to New York to visit? So I said okay. So I moved to Long Island and I was arrested there because I was in a gay club and I was in a beauty pageant called Queen of Hearts, you know, I don't even remember the name of the gay club, but the police broke out the windows and they arrested everybody and they put us all in one big cell. And after that I went back to the club where I was arrested and I met someone from the Gay Activist Alliance who was my lover for a while, philip Rea. He was an opera singer. He did Don Giovanni at Lincoln Center, but he said well, you can live in my apartment in the village right across from the song wall, 16 Christopher Street. So I moved there.
Speaker 10:That's where I went through my complete transformation and I got jobs working in nightclubs. Everything was owned by Mafiosa during those days. So if you looked fairly good, you could get jobs in good clubs and my place, the first place that I went to work, was the Tango Palace and I was a dancer. And then after that I bought a. I had an attorney friend. He said you should get out of here because you're going to be arrested. I said why? He says you're working with mobsters and they were nice to me. So then I didn't think of them as being evil people. So, uh, I started living a self-life because the attorney said you've got to stop letting people know that you're a transsexual or that you're a sex change. That's what. That was the word they were using back then. So I said okay.
Speaker 10:So I opened up this restaurant and then I started publishing a weekly newspaper, the Long Island City News, and it was a nonprofit paper and I raised money so we could send children away to the beaches and to the mountains on weekends with their parents. So I did that for 30-some years and during that time, because of my newspaper, I was appointed to a local community board, community board number two, serving Sunnyside, woodside, long Island City, queens. He's at Woodside, long Island City, queens, and I was the first woman and no one knew that I was a transsexual, but I was the first woman elected president of the Alliance Club because I like doing community service. That's really basically what kept my life going, because I enjoy helping people and, uh, I, since I moved to Vegas, I do a lot of programs here.
Speaker 10:We just finished our sixth year at Jason Flatt Dr Jason Flatt of UNLV and other people working together we raised a lot of money and we buy winter clothing for people who are homeless, and so that's basically my life, and my theory about life is, if you do something good for other people, it comes back to you in different ways. And I don't drink alcohol, I don't smoke or anything like that, so I try to stay healthy. I'm only 125 pounds. I'll be 81 September the 3rd and I work a lot with Jason from the UNLV. We do a lot of programs. Did you want to tell them about yourself?
Speaker 6:Yeah, Hi, I'm Dr Jace Flatt. I work at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and their School of Public Health. I actually met Judy on Facebook prior to moving to Las Vegas. Before me and my husband moved here and then I relocated here and, coincidentally, I live five minutes from Judy and we've become really close friends and doing a lot for the community. She actually inspired our study that's funded by the Alzheimer's Association. It's called the Stonewall Generation Study.
Speaker 10:Thank you so much for that About the documentary that we made for the 50th anniversary of Stonewall. It's called Stonewall Forever Documentary. I flew to New York and I stayed four days doing the documentary for Stonewall for their 50th anniversary, and recently we went back for the 55th Las Vegas Pride but the Stonewall for their 50th anniversary. And recently we went back for the 55th Las Vegas Pride but the Stonewall documentary. Everyone's got to watch this. You'll see basically how we were treated during the raids and everything. Stonewallforeverorg documentary. It's about 15 minutes long but we were only safe in certain areas in New York, like the West Village was considered a safe zone and I knew Marsha and Sylvia.
Speaker 2:Tell me how you met them and your work with them.
Speaker 10:Well, I was at 16 Christopher Street and Marsha was. She lived down the blocks someplace but she had three or four different places that she lived. But Marshall was like a permanent fixture on Christopher Street and she was murdered in 1992. And I found out from public records that she had been hit in the back of the head and Martha was like one year younger than me, so she was about the same age, and I knew that she didn't go swimming because we often talked about going down to the docks but she didn't swim and she was murdered. But during those days a lot of trans people even now a lot of trans people, are murdered because people really don't like something they don't understand and basically a lot of trans people who are black or Spanish get murdered because of racism. Racism in this country is really bad but people just don't always recognize it. But our gay community is under attack because we're different.
Speaker 1:This has been Queer Voices, heard on KPFT Houston and as a podcast available from several podcasting sources. Check our webpage sources. Check our webpage QueerVoicesorg for more information. Queer Voices executive producer is Brian Levinka. Debra Moncrief-Bell is co-producer, brett Cullum and David Mendoza-Druzman are contributors and Brett is also our webmaster. The News Wrap segment is part of another podcast called this Way Out, which is produced in Los Angeles.
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Speaker 1:For Queer Voices. I'm Glenn Holt, Thank you.
