Black History Month

Black History Month

How Jesse Jackson helped bring gay rights to the Democratic mainstream

In 1984, the Reverend Jesse Jackson brought gays and lesbians into the Democratic Party as part of the "Rainbow Coalition."

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Meet America’s first openly gay professional baseball player

Glenn Burke (1952-95) was the first and only major league baseball player to come out as gay.

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The ‘Godmother of Rock & Roll’ was a black lesbian

“All this new stuff they call rock ’n’ roll, why, I’ve been playing that for years now.”

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Remembering the legacy of Bayard Rustin

Openly gay in an era far different from today, Rustin took his place among leaders of the 1963 March on Washington.

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Chicago’s first black mayor was a gay rights champion

He was the first mayor to headline a gay-rights rally, and he established the city’s first office on gay and lesbian issues.

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How a bi black dancer from St. Louis helped the Resistance liberate France from Nazis

Josephine Baker became a celebrity in France. When Germany invaded, she used her skills for espionage.

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Before Moonlight: 10 films that celebrate the African American LGBT experience

Best of all, you can stream them all right now.

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Meet 4 historic icons who made the Harlem Renaissance ‘as gay as it was black’

"Nobody was in the closet. There wasn't any closet."

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Audre Lorde criticized exclusionary feminism decades before it became a big issue

The infighting and erasure that still plague progressive movements, including the Women's March, is nothing new. It's time we learned from the past.

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In 1928, the ‘Mother of the Blues’ recorded an amazing lesbian anthem

She was singing about how she could "talk to the gals just like any old man" over 40 years before Stonewall.

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