Revisionist History

One of the complaints that some gays and lesbian have about the transpeople is that “We haven’t paid our dues”, that we have not been politically active until just recently. They claim that it wasn’t until around 2000 that we started demanding to be included into ENDA. However, they keep forgetting that we were out protesting for our rights even before Stonewall in 1969, the Compton Riots were in 1966, three years before Stonewall.

An example of revisionist history is this month’s editorial in Metroline, one of the largest LGBT magazines in the northeast, in an editorial, they completely wrote us out of Stonewall…

As we enter the Pride month I for one hope the community takes a moment to reflect back on all the effort put forth by gay men and women in the past to secure the freedom and acceptance we currently enjoy today. Fighting during a period in time where it was hazardous to one’s physical health to be on the forefront. Stonewall was not simply an activist protest where they went home afterwards and partied. They were beaten and dragged away to jail by the police. It was a time when fag bashing was an accepted method of controlling homos and keeping them out of the neighborhood. There were no drag queens there at all. It was gay human beings simply standing up for being who they were. Making a stand even though they fully knew the dangers of doing so. That’s true courage no different than that on a battlefield.

This was in New England Blade…

Besides Sylvia Rivera, these transgender individuals — among others — are veterans of Stonewall: Marsha P. Johnson, Daria Modon, Miss Major, China Fucito, and Storme DeLarverie. When riot control police arrived at the Stonewall to rescue officers trapped inside the bar and break up the demonstration, a group of drag queens formed a chorus line, kicked up their heels, and taunted police by singing, "We are the Stonewall girls / We wear our hair in curls / We wear no underwear / We wear our dungarees / Above our nelly knees!" And throughout the first night of the riots, police singled out many transgender and transsexual people and gender non-conformists, including butch women and effeminate men, often beating them. If it were not for the Stonewall veterans — including drag queens, trans people, and transsexuals alongside gays and lesbians — we would not have the community assets and organizations we have today, from GLAAD and GMHC to Lambda Legal Defense and the Sylvia Rivera Law Project.

There is a difference between the two versions. The second article was written by Bet Power, a trans-man who…

“is the director and curator of the Sexual Minorities Archives, a national collection of LGBTI literature, history, and art since 1974, located in Northampton, Mass.”

Now you can see why some people in the trans-community do not trust the gay and lesbian communities and for that reason Trans-Pride came about