This week's sporkful: Pride articles for June

As much pressure as I have felt in trying to stay on top of these various months (and I am not currently planning on anything for August), it has also been kind of affirming for me that I have been able to find material.

As I started July's Disability Pride Month, I thought I had my first duplicate with Harriet Tubman, whom I was sure that I had used for Black History Month.

Going back to check, I had used the Combahee River Raid, not Tubman herself.

Of course, then I had not marked the date on Laverne Cox's post and posted twice, so I ended up having to post an article on July 1st to feel like I was really being complete. I mean, I did have two people with the article on Ellen Corby and Will Geer, but June only has 30 days when some months have 31... I think it ended up being fine.

(I do appreciate that posting about Keith Haring gave me another chance to say something negative about AI. I think that is going to need a separate post.)

Anyway, the wonderful point there is that while Black History Month had men and women and Women's History Month had women of multiple races, and there was at least one queer and one disabled person in the Asian-American and Pacific Islander History Month articles, Pride Month is integrated as well!

(Only Women's History Month has an associated blog post at this time. There are drafts.)

There are men and women and transgender and Black and white and Asian-American, and that for all of these amazing people, I keep finding more.

The consistent message I am going to give is that people matter.

It doesn't even sound that radical, but look around.

My favorite post probably came when I was looking up Blackberri. His story had resonated with me back when I first reviewed him in 2021. I knew he was old, so it wasn't exactly a shock when he died (later that year, in fact), but I was the only person I knew who knew about him. It wasn't overpowering grief, but it was lonely. So then to see -- and I didn't expect to find anything, but I still looked -- a "Happy Heavenly Birthday" article that had just gone up, well, it mattered.

I was also glad to get a chance to spotlight Cleve Jones again, and know that he is still around, though not young. Looking him up after reading And the Band Played On where there was so much death, it seemed like a miracle that he was still alive, at that point 36 years after the book was published. Then it was Jones' book, When We Rise, that gave me the four lawmakers who had gained office before Harvey Milk, even if not as famously.

For the record, those are Elaine Noble, of Boston, first openly gay candidate elected to a state legislature; member of the Minnesota Senate Allen Spear, elected while closet but who came out and continued to serve shortly before Noble's election; Kathy Kozachenko, first openly gay candidate to successfully run for election, in this case to the Ann Arbor city council; and Nancy Wechsler, who along with Jerry DeGrieck was elected to the Ann Arbor city council while closeted, but they both came out while in office and before Kozachenko's win.

See, unless I missed it, Jones had not mentioned DeGrieck, but I planned on looking up the four, and then it turned out that Wechsler, Kozachenko, and DeGrieck were all UMich alumni from the article I found.

Some of the distinctions for the various "firsts" may seem minor, but often there is a progression being made, and steps are being taken all along.

Also, it kind of makes sense that a lot of those firsts are happening in a college town.

Anyway, for that one previous post this year where I listed articles, the title mentioned fighting erasure. In a year where USNS Harvey Milk is being renamed because this current administration can't stand anything short of complete fascist white supremacy, that fight is going to be ongoing.

Don't give up the ship.

June articles

6/1 Alan Turing: https://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/magazines/cheshire/24329394.alan-turing-codebreakers-tragedy-triumphs/

6/2 Little Richard: https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2020/05/little-richard-anti-gay-died-queer-cultural-influence-overshadows-us/

6/3 Troy Perry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_Perry

6/4 Anne Lister: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/581234/gentleman-jack-anne-lister-facts

6/5 Louisa May Alcott: https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/05/little-women-author-louisa-may-alcott-transgender-man/

6/6 Bayard Rustin: https://www.history.com/articles/bayard-rustin-march-on-washington-openly-gay-mlk

6/7 Oscar Wilde: https://interestingliterature.com/2021/02/best-works-by-oscar-wilde-books-stories/

6/8 Blackberri: https://www.queerty.com/blackberri-profile-music-artists-activist-20250530/

6/9 Laverne Cox: https://www.them.us/story/laverne-cox-interview-career-hollywood

6/10 Posted Laverne Cox again :(