Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Philly, Are You Planning To Recognize The 50th Anniversary Of The Dewey's Sit In?

Ever since I was first sent notice of it by Dr. Susan Stryker, I was excited to learn and talk about the Dewey's Lunch Counter Sit In and Protest that involved African-American gender variant kids in April- May 1965.

Every since this came to light, there have been attempt to whitewash and gaywash the protest and erase the African-American gender variant kids completely out of the story,.

And I'm not having it.

This is one of the first instances of a protest centered around gender identity issues that involved people of color  

And that is worth celebrating, especially with the 50th anniversary of this event looming

I hope that on April 25, 2015 that we will see at that site where  Dewey's once existed members of the Philadelphia LGBT community coming together to commemorate this event in trans history

That's right I said trans history.  The protest was driven by Dewey's refusal to serve young patrons dressed in  'non-conformist clothing.'   This was a first ever protest that was sparked by gender variant issues and an ultimately successful one.

So Philly, hope you're planning a nice event on that date.

No comments: