Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons^™

Queer Spaces, Future Places: Conversations With 3 Black Capetonian Femmes On Embodying Liberation, Ivana Onubogu

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Black femme bodies face multi-axial oppressive forces resting on their racialization, gendering, sexuality and possible other factors like socioeconomic status and ability. I interviewed 3 queer-identified Black femmes between the ages of 18 and 35 that are based in or work out of the Cape Town area. Femmes is defined as trans womxn, nonbinary femmes, femme lesbians and femme bisexuals, effeminate mxn, or any other femme-identified queer person. The purpose of this project is to investigate the possibility of a liberated Black queer future as an embodied practice within the context of the Black Capetonian queer community. Participants were selected …

The Future Is Non-Binary: Investigating The Genesis Of The Non-Binary Movement In Amsterdam And Beyond, Sky Karp

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This project examines butch and crossdresser communities in Northern Europe in the late 20th century, and their transformation into the non-binary movement of the last ten years. This research investigates the recent trajectory of gender-diverse communities and evaluates the role of the non-binary moment in the history of gender-diverse people in the Western world. Findings come from interviews with Dutch individuals who identify as non-binary, genderqueer, or otherwise outside of the gender binary, as well as periodicals and other materials related to crossdresser and butch identities from the IHLIA LGBT Heritage Archives and the Atria Institute. This study demonstrates that …

Subversión Del Binario De Género: Descubriendo Las Violencias Ejercidas Sobre Las Personas Trans En Valparaíso, Marie Mendoza

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The key purpose of this investigative work is to identify the types of transphobic violences that are inflicted on Trans people in the specific case of Valparaiso, Chile. In an attempt to understand these violences, this project follows the experiences and understandings of these violence of two trans individuals who live in this city. Following a theoretical framework of gender performativity, and the way in which gender is constructed and repeatedly performed, outlined by Judith Butler, this investigation also analyzes how these violences are derived from the subversion of trans bodies to the gender binary and the cisnormativity of society. …

Elze, Diane, Wendy Chapkis

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Diane Elze is and has been an active member of the LGBTQ community in Portland, Maine for many years. Diane has spent most of her adulthood and professional life participating in activism and advocacy for LGBTQ adolescents. She was involved with the Wilde Stein club at the University of Maine at Orono, where she also founded the Greater Bangor Rape Crisis Center. After being unable to find a job in the Bangor area, Diane moved to Portland where she began working with the MLGPA, the Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and taking a leadership role with Outright, among many other …

Dmt And “The Man Box:” Provoking Change And Encouraging Authentic Living, An Arts-Based Project, Steven Reynolds

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This thesis explores the mind-body experience through an arts-based research approach to examine, and redefine the emotional capacity and usefulness of males through societal determinants that limits and hinders men from living their authentic selves. Through the lens of a metaphoric “Man Box” 112 men participated in a workshop recreating their personal narratives of socialization through, style of dress, coping mechanisms, belief systems and who they should be as men through society's standards. In the “Man Box,” male bonding, and emotional feelings are discouraged, while the objectification of women, material property and physical/emotional strength are encouraged. This research investigates the …

Transgender Digital Embodiments: Questions Of The Transgender Body In The 21st Century, Jessica Fisher

Master of Arts in American Studies Capstones

This thesis looks at an intra-community discourse in the transgender community between “transtrenders” and “transmedicalists” or “truscum.” It observes how these different sub-communities conceive of what it means to be transgender and attempts to contextualize these conceptions within transgender history. This thesis utilizes a brief ethnography of online spaces where transgender community discourse could be found, including Reddit, Twitter, and Tumblr. It discusses the idea of “transtrenders” as cultural appropriators, looks at the role of passing, and wanting to and trying to pass, in the transgender community and in conceptions of who is truly transgender and who isn’t. This thesis …

Dance Of Exile: The Sakharoffs’ Visual Performances In Montevideo (1935–1948), Pablo Munoz Ponzo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis explores the life-work chronology of the dancers and choreographers Clotilde von Derp (whose surname then was Sakharoff) and Alexander Sakharoff, who were exiled in Montevideo, Uruguay, and Buenos Aires, Argentina, between 1941 and 1948. During their stay in the Rio de la Plata region, the Sakharoffs stirred up the art scene by performing extremely detailed dances with great attention to costume design. This thesis begins with a review of the reception of the dancers’ performances by the artistic and cultural circles in Montevideo, arguing that the Sakharoffs’ “queer” trajectory resonated with the Uruguayan artistic community, influencing the creation …

Sage, Johnna Ossie

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Sage explored her highly religious upbringing and relationship with her family. She is of Greek descent and her Greek-American culture played a large role in shaping her identity. Her parents rejected her during her young adulthood due to her sexuality and Sage discussed the impact that the ostracization had on her development. Her positive experience with being a part of a long-term, loving lesbian relationship was one that she frequently came back to during the course of the interview. On top of relationships and religion, Sage also examined her experiences undergoing workplace harassment and feeling unwelcome and unsafe in many …

Ossie, Johnna Conference Paper “Querying The Past: Intergenerational Conversations And Queer Community”, Johnna Ossie

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Paper from a presentation given by Johnna Ossie (University of Southern Maine, Class of 2019)

Talking Bodies: fourth biennial interdisciplinary, international conference

Institute of Gender Studies at the University of Chester, England

April 10 - 13, 2019.

Citation

Please cite as: Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer+ Collection, Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine, University of Southern Maine Libraries.

For more information about the Querying the Past: Maine LGBTQ Oral History Project, please contact Dr. Wendy Chapkis.

Indonesia’S “Fresh Meat”: Lgbtq Activism Amid Political Homophobia And Transphobia, Catherine Cho

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In 2016, Indonesia—the fourth most populous country in the world—received international attention for what the Human Rights Watch calls an LGBTQ “Crisis” (2016). Sparked by high ranking officials publicly declaring homophobic and transphobic sentiments, a wave of intolerance, fear, and hate disseminated throughout the country. Gender and sexual minorities became “fresh meat” for political players—government officials, military leaders, religious figures, and other social agents competed to take a stand against an “impeding” LGBTQ threat. These dialogues catalyzed into action as zealous anti-LGBTQ campaigns staked violence and discrimination against gender and sexual minorities across Indonesia.

The “Crisis of 2016” cannot be …

Harold, They're Lesbians!: Interrogating And Understanding The Histories Of "Lesbians.", Chloe Sheraden

History Presentations

No abstract provided.

Robinson, Betty, Johnna Ossie

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Betty Robinson was raised in Maryland and attended Colby College, the University of Maryland, and Boston University for her Bachelor's, Master's and Doctoral degree, respectively. She worked for many years in workers rights, for the Massachusetts Nurses Association and for the Maine State Employees Union. She worked briefly for the Massachusetts Battered Women Coalition before laying herself off from the position because the program's federal funding was cut. During this time she became involved in the Boston women's movement. After being involved in union work for many years, she decided she needed a change and applied for a teaching position …

Reckitt, Lois Galgay, Johnna Ossie

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Lois Galgay Reckitt was born and raised in Massachusetts. She attended Brandeis University and then Boston University for her graduate degree. After college, she married a man who was in the Coast Guard. They moved to South Portland to the house she still lives in today. She came out at age 33 when she was deeply entrenched in the growing women's movement. She had a rocky divorce with her self-proclaimed feminist husband who blackmailed her when he found out she was a lesbian. In 1971 she became the treasurer for the first National Organization for Women (NOW) chapter in Maine. …

Clark University Lgbtq+ History, Robert D. Tobin, Toni Armstrong, Arai Long, Griffin Minigiello, Students Of "Sexuality And Textuality", Spring 2018, Students Of "Sexuality And Human Rights", Fall 2018, Students Of "Sexuality And Textuality", Spring 2019

Publications

Robert Deam Tobin, editor in chief
Toni Armstrong and Arai Long, co-editors
Additional research provided by Griffin Minigello

and the students of:
"Sexuality and Textuality", Spring 2018
"Sexuality and Human Rights", Fall 2018
"Sexuality and Textuality", Spring 2019

A collaborative research-based catalog by Robert Tobin and his students. This work reports on and narrativizes Clark University's LGBTQ+ history beginning with the Clark Gay Alliance in the mid 1970s, one of the earliest gay student organizations in the country. The vast majority of research for this work comes from materials in Goddard Library's Archives and Special Collections.

Uncovering Alice Bag: An Alternative Punk History, Emily Macune

Scripps Senior Theses

The intention of this thesis is to provide an alternative counter-narrative to the mainstream histories of punk that center white men. By focusing on the contributions of fem queer and POC punks, I aim to legitimize punk music as a form of resistance against systems of oppression that are oppositional to the commodified forms of mainstream punk. Using Alice Bag, as my central case study as a fem queer punk that is often left out of punk historical narratives, I contextualize her work through feminist, queer, and media studies lenses to bridge the gap between academia and forgotten personal experience.

A Spectacle And Nothing Strange, Taylor Z. King

Theses and Dissertations

Working through methods of abstraction and comedic mimicry I choreograph awkwardly balanced sculpture with objects of adornment as a means to defuse personal sensitivities surrounding my experiences of gender, desire, and home. The research that follows is concerned with the adjacent, the in between, above and underneath, because I feel that this kind of looking means that you are, to some degree, aware of what lies at the edges. Maybe this is what Gertrude Stein means to act as though there is no use in a center—because this concerns a way of relating, though there are many things in the …

Degoosh, Milo, May Hohman

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Milo Degoosh is a 28 year old FTM transgender adult. He works at Bard Coffee Shop in Portland, and competes in National Barista competition. He elaborates on how the Queer community has influenced the Barista competition and how he is a Queer figure in this environment. Milo has two moms and big family, all of which have helped him in his transition. He started hormones in 2015 and has had many changes since, such as mood, attitude, and work ethic. Milo participating in the National Campaign for Marriage Equality by knocking on doors. The necessity and cost for transition …

Beck-Poland, Sherry, Ariana Wenger, Johnna Ossie

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Sherry Beck-Poland is 64 years old and lives in Lewiston, Maine with their wife Dee, and two sons, Jacob and Joe. Sherry has dedicated much of their life helping others including fostering over ten children, adopting their two sons, working for DHHS with individuals with PTSD, personality disorders, and other disabilities, as well as their involvement with political activism for marriage equality, and their help in organizing pride in Lewiston.

Sherry has attended the University of Southern Maine for their undergraduate degree where they graduated with honors, then attended Seminary where they received their master’s degree in theology. Sherry is …

Fenton-Snell, Butch, Danielle Fraser, Jarod Wescot

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Butch is 68 years old and was born in Youngstown Ohio, One of 6 children, Moved to Maine in 1980 to be with his husband. Family life was relatively normal for Butch in terms of coming out. However his father was not very emotionally available in general. Butch Knew he was gay from a very young age and did not feel as if he was ever confused about his sexuality. Butch later joined the military and was in the Vietnam War. Continued to move to different states and eventually ended up in Maine later becoming owner of Blackstones in Portland. …

Brushaber, Skip, Jack Barrett, Branden Pratt

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Skip Brushaber is a 71-year old gay man who uses he/his/him pronouns. Skip worked as a nurse and social worker during the AIDS crisis. He was born in Buffalo, New York, on January 9th, 1947. Skip studied English in college but later became a nurse and social worker. He lived in New York and Pennsylvania before moving to Portland in 1980. He helped found the AIDS Project in 1983, a group in Portland that helped support individuals dealing with AIDS, and founded and wrote for Our Paper throughout the 80s, an LGBTQ paper aimed at covering issues related to queerness …

Kawamoto, Eric, Cosette Holmes, Tiana Cope-Ferland

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

This interview with Eric Kawamoto reveals a journey of self-discovery in Chicago, L.A., Boston, and Portland; an intersection between being Asian American and being queer; and survival of AIDS as a result of reserve. Kawamoto places these personal themes among his account of the LGBTQ+ and Asian American communities’ overarching struggles, like the fight for domestic partnership benefits, representation of Asian American gay men, and spreading awareness about Japanese American internment in California.

Citation

Please cite as: Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer+ Collection, Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity in …

Mckenzie, Ellen, Caroline Wheeler, Marwa Ibrahim

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

This interview features Ellen McKenzie, an African-American lesbian woman living in Portland, Maine. Having lived in Portland for almost her entire life, Ellen can provide insight on growing up in one of the only black families in her community, the intersections between race and sexuality, co-parenting children from a spouse’s previous marriage and generally navigating the world and her career as a queer woman of color. Throughout this interview, we hear a lot about her childhood and her family’s history as civil rights activists in Maine, her relationship with her spouse and and co-parenting their children with both her spouse, …

Cusack, Ralph, Hannah Cain

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Ralph Cusack was born in Maine and has lived most of his life in the state. He is one of the founders of The Harbor Masters of Portland Maine, men’s leather club, and an active member of the leather community and a navy veteran. This interview covers his participation in the Harbor Masters of Portland, Maine, living through the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 80s, his participation in many years of gay pride events and the march on Washington in 1987, owning the gay bar Blackstones in Portland, ME, and his service in the US Navy.

Citation

Please cite as: …

Hopkins, Susan, Ysanne Bethel

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Susan Hopkins is a 53-year-old member of the LGBTQIA community, living in Westbrook, Maine. Susan grew up with her family on the small island of Vinalhaven in Penobscot Bay, hearing tales of her anti-racist bisexual aunt. A self-identified feminist in her adolescence, Susan recognized that she was not straight early on, but did not feel safe to come out in her small community. Going to the University of Maine, Orono, Susan experienced her first lesbian relationship and taste of chosen family. Eventually, Susan found herself at the Howard University School of Law, where she interned at Whitman Walter Clinic in …

Leveille, Lee, Student Interviewer

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Lee Leveille is a 30-year-old Californian transplant that grew up in Sumner and Greene, ME. S/he works as an intentional peer support specialist in central Maine and is currently finishing up his/her bachelor’s in Psychology and Community Studies at the University of Maine at Machias. S/he is an active member of his/her local synagogue after beginning the conversion process to Judaism in 2016.

Lee considers him/herself to be a transgender butch, or someone who lives simultaneously as both a butch woman and transman. His/her pronouns are thus conditional in order to provide him/her with the flexibility to adapt to different …

Elias, Richard, Benjamin Cornwall

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Richard Elias grew up in Northern Maine and moved to Portland at a young age. In this interview, we discuss: coming out as a gay man, his family life, his experience with Portland gay bars (The Phoenix, Roland’s and Blackstones), some of his travel stories, his love for dancing, and the effect of the AIDS epidemic on his life.

Citation

Please cite as: Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer+ Collection, Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine, University of Southern Maine Libraries.

For more information about the Querying the Past: …

Ward, Jeffrey, Benjamin Cornwall

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Jeffrey Ward, from Northern Maine, talks about his experience interacting with the Portland LGBTQ community and his experience coming out as a gay man at the age of 47. Some subjects include: his experience with the Casco Gay Men group, Portland Pride Parade, The Front Porch, Blackstones, his involvement in the Methodist Church, his family life, and how he met his partner of 16 years.

Citation

Please cite as: Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer+ Collection, Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine, University of Southern Maine Libraries.

For more …

Quezada, Alzenira, Wendy Chapkis

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Alzenira Quezada, also known as Lady Zen, is a queer artist, singer and performer. Quezada was born to Brazillian parents and raised by white adoptive parents who were members of the Church of the Nazarene, a branch of evangelical Christianity. She was cut off by her adoptive parents when she came out at 17. She studied music at Evergreen College in Washington State. She grew up in Arkansas and spent many years in Portland, Maine before moving to Mexico where she currently resides. Quezada owns a production company in Mexico and also works at a queer run bar. Her current …

Hart, Bunny, Johnna Ossie

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Frederica 'Bunny' Hart was born in 1930. She spent the first nine years of her life living with her grandparents in Boston. Her mother died when she was three. When she was nine her father remarried and the family moved to Newton Center. She graduated from Junior College in 1950 where she studied History and English. From there, she traveled to New York City to look for work. Bunny first started dating women in the 1950s while she was living in New York. She worked as a stage manager in NYC in a time where it was very difficult for …

Male Same-Sex Relations In Socialist China, Wenqing Kang

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.