When pageant winner, performer and trans activist Janice Toy, of Milwaukee, was younger, she said she didn't tell people she was trans because it would have caused her to lose her job.
Today, however, she's vocal about her past and her present: "It's so very important that we share these stories, because they allow people to know that a lot of things they're experiencing, there are other people who have been in the same shoes."
Toy's story is the centerpiece of a website that recently launched: House of History , which features video interviews of two dozen Black LGBTQ Milwaukeeans.
Many of their stories are deeply personal.
Chris Allen, the president and CEO of Diverse & Resilient , shares his memories of being a homeless teenager who faced "a lack of acceptance from my biological parents." During that period, Allen's cousin reached out to him, telling him she loved him and helping him find a place of acceptance at Diverse & Resilient.
And Tyra Neal shares her feelings about the chosen family she's found at SHEBA , a support group for Black trans women: "You've gotta realize I don't get no hugs, no kisses from nobody until I come there, and that means the world to me, and they mean the world to me."
The personal stories shared on House of History are interwoven with historical stories about Milwaukee's Black LGBTQ past, stories that many, or even most, Milwaukeeans don't know about. And spreading awareness of those stories is a key reason historian Brice Smith started the project.
"In doing this work, I'm coming to appreciate how powerful the oral tradition has been within the Black community and the queer community," Smith said. "But then that history can get lost so we're trying to find a way to keep history alive and pass it down to generations."
Here are a few stories of Milwaukee's Black LGBTQ past that were shared by House of History interviewees.
What is the Black Nite Brawl?
For many, the Stonewall Uprising in 1969 — when LGBTQ people fought back against a police raid of a gay bar in New York City — marks the beginning of the gay rights movement.
However, several years before, in 1961, a similar event happened in Milwaukee when four servicemen went to the Black Nite, a gay bar that used to stand at 400 N. Plankinton Ave. After the men started a fight with a bouncer, Josie Carter, a Black trans woman, intervened. As the men left, they promised to return later that night; Carter took that time to rally more than 70 members of Milwaukee's LGBTQ community to come to the bar; when the men returned, a brawl started, resulting in several hospitalizations and arrests.
According to author Diane Buck in an October 2022 presentation to the Milwaukee County Historical Society, "Most people in the United States accept the 1969 Stonewall riots, or uprising that happened in Greenwich Village, New York City, as the catalyst of the gay rights movement. Although it's little known beyond Milwaukee, the catalyst for this gay rights movement happened right here in Milwaukee eight years before Stonewall."
What is Milwaukee's place in the history of ballroom culture?
Ballroom was started by the Black queer community as a space where people "walk" (or compete) in different categories during pageants. It's a place where pageant participants can feel free to experiment with clothing, makeup and different gender expressions. When they walk, participants represent houses, and the members of the houses often become like family to each other.
In his House of History interview , Vincent Morrow remembers being asked by a group of friends to get involved in bringing the ballroom scene to Milwaukee in the 1990s.
Morrow and his friends started a House of Infiniti chapter in Milwaukee with an emphasis on being accepting and celebratory, but also a health and education resource for people in the Black LGBTQ community. Many House of History interviewees credit Milwaukee's ballroom culture with providing the city's Black queer people with health support that was otherwise inaccessible.
Where to learn more about Milwaukee's Black LGBTQ history
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: House of History works to raise awareness of Milwaukee's Black LGBTQ history
Most Popular
Comments / 0