The 80-year-old Black trans woman had faced down hate, violence, and adversity after coming out as a teen. Trans activist Miss Major Griffin-Gracy had been organizing on behalf of the trans community long before the night of Stonewall. Mo'Nique played Ma Rainey in HBO's film Bessie. The film also marked the final film appearance for the late Chadwick Boseman. Viola Davis recently starred in the Netflix adaption of August Wilson’s play Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, a fictionalized story based on her real-life character. "Wear my clothes just like a fan, talk to the gals just like any old man." "I went out last night with a crowd of my friends, it must've been women, 'cause I don't like no men," she sings in the song. Rainey later was rumored to have had an affair with singer Bessie Smith and her song “Prove It On Me Blues” became a bisexual anthem with its blatant references to same-sex attractions. She married William “Pa” Rainey, from whom she took her name, although the couple later divorced.
Born Gertrude Pridgett in 1886 or 1882 depending upon the source, Rainey got her start early singing and dancing as part of a traveling minstrel show as a young teen. Known as the “Mother of the Blues” for her role in bringing the musical genre to a wider audience, Rainey also made her mark standing up to the racist patriarchal system that sought to exploit her singing and identity. Ma Rainey was a liberated bisexual Black woman during a time of segregation and Jim Crow laws. He gave an empowering but controversial speech in 1986 claiming “the new n***ers are gays,” bringing a civil-rights focus to the gay rights movement at the height of the HIV crisis. Later in life he turned his activism to advocating on behalf of the LGBTQ+ community. King felt about gayness except to say that I'm sure he would have been sympathetic and would not have had the prejudicial view,” Rustin wrote in 1987. He served 50 days in jail following his 1953 arrest when he was found having sex with two men in a parked car in Pasadena, California, although he was fully pardoned from that last year. King - they believed he was detrimental to the movement. He also had many Black detractors within the movement who found him too gay to be so closely associated with Dr. Edgar Hoover, the infamous director of the F.B.I. Martin Luther King and helped organize the 1963 March on Washington, making him a target not just for racist whites but also J. Honestly, when I’m faced with stuff like that, it drives me even harder because I know what’s possible and I know that it takes courage and audaciousness to do anything excellent.”Ĭivil rights activist Bayard Rustin was a key confidante of Dr. “There are always going to be people who are going to hate on your shit or tell you it’s not possible or tell you that you can’t do it. She also made clear in an Out cover story last year that she’s not one to back down from the good fight. Her activism has always sought solutions to the broader intersectional battles of social and economic justice, police brutality, sexual and gender identity, and racial bias and bigotry.
While fighting racial injustice alone was important, it could not separate itself from the struggle to protect and amplify queer Black lives. When Black author and activist Alicia Garza helped created the Black Lives Matter movement with community organizers Patrisse Cullors-Khan and Opal Tometi following the Trayvon Martin killing by George Zimmerman in 2013, she was adamant the movement reflect the diversity of Black queer identity.