History

Laverne Cox makes history as first trans actress to be nominated for Emmy award

Leave a comment

Laverne Cox is the first openly trans actress to be nominated Share on WhatsApp 2 reader comments

Laverne Cox has become the first openly trans actress to ever be nominated for an Emmy award.

The Orange is the New Black star picked up a surprise nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, for her role as inmate Sophia Burset on the show.

She said on Twitter: “Congrats to everyone at

View the Original article

Australian rugby team to make history as first gay team to play professional match

Leave a comment

The Sydney Convicts will become the first gay team to play a professional match Share on WhatsApp 3 reader comments

The Sydney Convicts will make history as the first gay rugby team to play at professional level this weekend.

Taking to the Allianz Stadium in Sydney, the team will this weekend play against Macquarie University in an opening match ahead of the New South Wales Waratahs and the Otago Highlanders game.

The president of the Convicts, Dave Whitaker, has spoken publicly about his joy at the opportunity for the team to show its skills.

View the Original article

StoryCorps OutLoud To Shed New (And Long Overdue) Light On LGBT History

Leave a comment

Dave Isay, founder and president of the non-profit oral history project StoryCorps, long envisioned an initiative focused on the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, a group often excluded from the historical record. “What we’re doing is overdue,” he told The Huffington Post. “We’ve done so well by accident in the last 10 years with these stories, so, by design, I can’t imagine what we’ll find.”

Beginning June 28, StoryCorps OutLoud sets out across the country to record and preserve the stories of LGBT individuals, along with their families and friends. OutLoud is a project undertaken in the memory of Isay’s father, psychiatrist Dr. Richard Isay. Professionally credited for helping to persuade the mental health community that homosexuality is not a mental disorder, Dr. Isay was himself a closeted gay man for many years. He came out to his son at the age of 52 and, in 2011, he married his partner of 31 years, Gordon Harrell, before passing away suddenly from cancer on June 28, 2012.

“I knew then we just had to find the money for this project, no matter what,” said Isay.

It’s fitting that OutLoud launches on the 45th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising. Fifteen years before Isay founded StoryCorps, he produced the first-ever documentary about the riots, “Remembering Stonewall,” which broadcast in 1989.

“When I did the Stonewall documentary, I pitched it to the New York Post, and do you know what they said? They said, ‘We don’t believe in gay people.’ They wouldn’t run anything,” said Isay.

“We’ve come far, but StoryCorps recognizes that we need to take a step back and listen,” said Andrew Wallace, manager of StoryCorps OutLoud. “It is a needed project at this moment.” Wallace, who had previously founded a grassroots oral history project as a student in Colorado, came to StoryCorps with a firm belief in its mission. “To be here, on this national platform, with the resources and the talent StoryCorps has to offer — to be able to direct that toward this project — it feels surreal,” he said.

At an event in New York City on Tuesday, special guest David Hyde Pierce hit on poignant truths with a witty observation: “When I was a little boy, there were no gay people,” he said. “There were no lesbians, bisexuals, transgender people. And so nobody had an questions.”

In 2014, StoryCorps is looking for answers. “I think, if you’re living in certain communities in the South, for instance, I don’t think you’ve really had the chance to tell your story, maybe ever,” Isay said. “There’s something intimate and safe about our format, and we hope that gives those people a chance to speak.”

He continued: “We did one day of recording with an LGBT group in Kentucky and the head of that group said it was the most important thing that had ever happened to the gay community there.”

Since its founding in 2003, StoryCorps, based in Brooklyn, New York, has recorded more than 50,000 interviews with 100,000 participants. Housed at the Library of Congress, the archive comprises the largest single collection of human voices in existence. StoryCorps brings their stories to the masses in weekly broadcasts on NPR, short animated films on PBS and the pages of bestselling books. “Hundreds of years from now, future generations will get to know their ancestors and hear them tell their own stories,” said Isay. Previous targeted initiatives include StoryCorps Legacy and the Military Voices Initiative, among others. StoryCorps has secured about a quarter of the $2 million needed for OutLoud to achieve its goals.

“What we’ll find will be painful at times,” said Isay. “But it’s so important that we get this history down.”

Check out the latest for StoryCorps by Rauch Bros. Animation:

Also on HuffPost:

21 Facts About LGBT Pride You Probably Didn’t Knowof

View the Original article

Stonewall 45: Windows Into LGBT History

Leave a comment

In commemoration of the 45th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, a special walking exhibition is being unveiled on Christopher Street, where the modern-day LGBT revolution first began. “,” on display through June 29, is a series of poster panels in 26 storefronts lining Christopher Street. The posters recount the story of Stonewall and the political, legal, and cultural barriers encountered by LGBT people in these times. The storefront posters incorporate historic visuals including photographs, newspaper clippings, flyers and newsletters.

“” is cosponsored by the Arcus Foundation and the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. For more information visit the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation or The Arcus Foundation.

See a selection of the powerful images on the following pages.

View the Original article