This Week in History
Happy Birthday!
- No birthdays this week!
Did you know?
- Nazis arrest Kurt Hiller
- U.S. President Truman Creates Loyalty-Security Program
- Anti-discrimination bill introduced into U.S. Congress
- ACT UP demonstrates on Wall Street
Announcing the LGBT Direct Action Bibliography, Chronology, and Inventory, co-published by OutHistory and Queer Pasts, documenting 600+ LGBT direct action protests from 1965 to 1973!
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OutHistory Highlights
Alexander Hamilton and John Laurens: 1777-1783
Hamilton's letters to Laurens recall that he and Laurens inhabited a world that was not divided between “heterosexual” and “homosexual,” a world in which same-sex love and intimacy was not considered tainted by “sexuality.”
Christopher Michael Elias: Sexuality and the Modern American Gossip Magazine
The growth of gossip magazines and tabloids during the first half of the twentieth century was partially fueled by the industry's embrace of sensational topics such as murder, violence, crime, and corruption. But no subject seemed to attract more attention than sexuality, especially sexual...
Marc Stein: Boutilier v. Immigration and Naturalization Service (1967)
This feature commemorates the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Boutilier v. Immigration and Naturalization Service, which upheld the deportation of Clive Michael Boutilier, a Canadian citizen and U.S. permanent resident who was classified by the INS as “afflicted with...
Queering the Economy: Stories from Queer Economic History
Writing about queer bars and drag culture in the 1972 classic Mother Camp, Esther Newton observed that queer communities had “an economics but no economy.” In this exhibit, Jeffrey Escoffier and Christopher Mitchell address the economics of gay bars for the early "closeted" LGBT community...
Peter Sewally/Mary Jones, June 11, 1836
Two historians, Jonathan Ned Katz and Tavia Nyong’o, present and analyze the story and visual depiction of Peter Sewally/Mary Jones, a Black transgender person in New York City, in 1836.
Gene Pearson, the Canadian Nightingale
In November 2019 I purchased a collection of cards and photographs dating from the 1920s. The cache included fourteen items concerning a performer named Gene Pearson, who was a professional female impersonator and singer. This paper will discuss these documents and will attempt to outline a reconstruction of the life and artistic contribution of Gene Pearson.