So, insisting on pride and LGBTQ visibility was a way to reverse that,” says Conor Moynihan, a curatorial fellow at the RISD Museum, who explains that the term queer, once a derogatory label, has been reclaimed as an umbrella phrase implying a resistance to the heteronormative status quo.Īfter Stonewall, from the 1970s on, art became a safe space where overtly gay, lesbian, trans, queer and nonconforming ideas, subjects and images could be freely explored. “Pride was a reversal of shame, and there was long shame around being gay or gender-nonconforming. The Stonewall rebellion, commemorated every June since 1970, ushered in an era of pride and openness, which gained traction and visibility, in part, through art and visual culture.
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Their efforts quickly drew allies, and five days of heated protests ensued. Fed up with decades of discrimination and emboldened by civil rights gains made by other marginalized communities, the Stonewall’s customers resisted arrest and began rioting in the streets. The well-documented tipping point was June 1969, when a routine police raid on the Stonewall Inn - a bar in Greenwich Village known for drawing a gay, lesbian and transgender crowd - unwittingly gave rise to an ongoing groundswell of LGBTQ activism.Īt the time, homosexuality was illegal in 49 states, gays and lesbians were barred from working for the federal government, and police treated cross-dressing as a punishable crime. June 20, 2021Homosexuality and gender fluidity have appeared as subjects in art for millennia, but for modern Western cultures, it wasn’t until the late 20th century that artists could treat such themes overtly, without fear of censorship, ostracism or even arrest. Photo courtesy of the Leslie-Lohman Museum, Peter Hujar Archive, LLC Top: Gay Liberation Front Poster, 1970, by Peter Hujar.
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Study for Portrait of John Edwards 1986, 1987, by Francis Bacon.