Introduction
July 2021 -- It is beyond imagining, in this dual crisis of pandemic and injustice, what is lost when any segment of our community is dismissed -- by those with power to spare or end life -- as not mattering. For many LGBT people of color, the multiplication of bigotries they experienced thrust them across the boundaries of race, gender, and religion. Here are some first-person recollections from gay and lesbian African-Americans in our area, from oral histories collected by the Northwest Lesbian and Gay History Project between 1997 and 2002.
At least two of the narrators are no longer alive. All have lived with purpose, in ways both inconspicuous and notable. All heeded the impulses of the heart, to make positive change or fix what is broken. Each of them touched many other lives in an interlocking network of commitment and compassion.
Note that the stories in this section, like all narratives that emerge from the oral history process, are a snapshot of the narrators' reflections and opinions at the time of the interviews, which took place between the mid-1990s and the following decade. Some have passed away, but those who remain with us still live lives of involvement, and their evaluations of past experience continue to evolve.
Originally published in:
Seattle Gay News. Friday, June 26, 2020: pp. 19-22.
http://www.sgn.org/sgnnews48_26/pdf/Section%201%2006-26-20WEB.pdf
photos this page: Unsplash.com / photographers noted
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clay banks
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