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Fam,

October is LGBTQIA+ history month and, though it is essential to make space for queer & transgender, gender nonconforming, and intersex (TGNCI) voices every day, we’re taking this month to learn together about some beautiful Black folks you may not have heard of before. We begin with Gladys Bentley.

“From the time I can remember anything, I never wanted a man to touch me. . . . Soon I began to feel more comfortable in boys’ clothes than in dresses.” Gladys Bentley — in Ebony magazine

Gladys Bentley (1907–1960) was a popular blues singer during the Harlem Renaissance whom many folks today have never heard of. Gladys’s story is as powerful as those of many of our heroes from that time—but their bold ways of living out and proud meant they were left out of quite a few history books.

The Harlem Renaissance era was really queer and pushed boundaries when it came to gender and sexuality. It was clear that Gladys was one of the fiercest advocates for being authentic and embodied in their queerness, despite many Christian Black folks asserting that was an abomination. Gladys was a powerful performer who was also known for rocking fly tuxedos and top hats, openly flirting with women in the audience, using improvised lyrics that were provocative and racy, self-identifying as a “bulldagger,” and challenging patriarchal ideologies in their music.

The Harlem Renaissance began to dwindle in the late 1930s, so Gladys moved to California, where they sang at gay clubs in San Francisco and Los Angeles. As the McCarthy era began, homophobia and transphobia began to increase dramatically, so Gladys and others in the community found it much more difficult to take up space as Black queer and TGNCI artists. There were laws put in place that didn’t allow “cross-dressing”, hundreds of employees were being fired nationwide, and violence and hate crimes were increasing. Queer and TGNCI folks were shamed, prosecuted, and chastized as sexual deviants and perverts—and as a result, many were forced into the shadows. During this time, Gladys was no longer dressing in “men’s clothing”, was said to have married a man, and changed their image to avoid being targeted or harmed.

However, Gladys still found ways to be vocal about their identity and whom they chose to love. In a Chicago Times article, they stated that they had not renounced queer love. When asked about photos of a man and woman on the dresser, they replied, “That’s my husband [pointing to the male] and that’s my wife.” Gladys passed away in 1960 due to flu complications.

Gladys Bentley deserves to be remembered. Let this be a starting point to go and learn more about them and share this with someone you think Gladys’s story will inspire. For the rest of October, M4BL will continue to celebrate and honor several Black queer and TGNCI folks from our history. Stay tuned, fam.

With Black love,
Movement for Black Lives

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