Celebrating Pride Month

Celebrate Pride Month and the history, progress and power of the LGBTQIA+ community through a collection of works by College of Arts & Sciences faculty, students and alumni.

*phrasing/descriptions in this article are pulled from the source documentation and may vary.

Book: Racism and the Making of Gay Rights: A Sexologist, His Student, and the Empire of Queer Love (University of Toronto Press, 2022)

by Laurie Marhoefer, Associate Professor, Jon Bridgman Endowed Professor of History

"This beautifully crafted narrative weaves together the story of the relationship of Magnus Hirschfeld and Li Shui Tong with a brilliant analysis of Hirschfeld’s complex but ultimately racist thinking about homosexuality, race, and empire. It’s hard to do justice to the power of this book. Let me just say that once you open it, you’ll have trouble tearing yourself away, and not only because you’ll want to know what happened to Li’s manuscript." - Leila J. Rupp, Professor of Feminist Studies, University of California Santa Barbara

New volume on gender-neutral language sheds light on political controversy in France (UW News, 2022)

In France, a political controversy arose when a gender-neutral pronoun was added to a respected dictionary. This controversy made a new volume co-edited by UW Associate Professor of French Louisa Mackenzie especially relevant. It describes how nonbinary French speakers are changing their language to reflect their identity.

Book: Queer Nightlife, a finalist in the LGBTQ Anthology category for the 34th Annual Lambda Literary Awards (Michigan Publishing, 2021)

edited by Kemi Adeyemi, Associate Professor, Department of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies, and Kareem Khubchandani, Ramón H. Rivera-Servera

“In the stretch between sunset and sunrise, whole worlds come into being. Queer Nightlife is a major declaration about the experiences that come into being and flourish while most people slumber. Over and over again, the essays collected here insist on queer nightlife as a perpetually emergent performance. Simultaneously local and global, regional and transnational, Queer Nightlife provides new affective maps for the study of nightlife and the writing of desire.” - Shane Vogel, Ruth N. Halls Professor of English, Indiana University

Book: The Lyme Letters (Texas Tech University Press, 2021)

By C. R. Grimmer, Communications Manager, Simpson Center for the Humanities / part-time Lecturer, Department of English

The Lyme Letters is epistolary verse that spells out a memoir. R, a non-binary femme character, narrates their experience of disease and recovery through recurrent letters to doctors, pets, family members, lovers, and a “Master.” R, in letter form and repurposed religious texts, also explores the paradoxical experiences of queer non-reproductivity, chronic illness and disability, and the healing that can be found in the liminal spaces between.

Video: Queer Tangueras & Rebellious Wallflowers

UW Dance Professor Juliet McMains explores the rise of same-sex dancing among two groups of women in Argentine tango communities: queer tangueras and rebellious wallflowers.

Essay: “Finally, She’s Accepted Herself!”: Coming Out in Neoliberal Times 

By Stephanie D. Clare, Associate Professor, Department of English

The out gay subject is the well-adjusted, neoliberal subject. This essay investigates contemporary lesbian and gay coming out narratives, tracing how the “problem” with gay and lesbian identities appears therein not as one’s gender or sexual queerness but as one’s (potential) lack of self-acceptance and self-assertion.

Map & Walking Tour: Pioneer Square and the Making of Queer Seattle

Created by UW Department of Geography PhD candidate Julian Barr, this website and walking tour chronicles the development of Seattle’s queer community from the 1890’s to the present in Pioneer Square. Related article: Time & Place: Julian Barr on the Making of Queer Seattle

Book: Sex in Transition: Remaking Gender and Race in South Africa (SUNY Press, 2012)

By Amanda Lock Swarr, Associate Professor, Department of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies 

"This is an excellent book and probably one of the best I've read on the topic. It is highly original and very well researched. For a long time this narrative has been needed in a South (and southern) African context and it's great to see it actually done—and done so well. The material here is insightful and ties together a number of concerns that previously have often only had brief mentions in discourses about sexuality in the region. It's high time that these debates, stories, and political struggles gained greater prominence. Swarr's work will hopefully go a long way towards achieving this. " — Andrew Tucker, author of Queer Visibilities: Space, Identity and Interaction in Cape Town

Video: A Look into the Trans Archive (British Library)

This expert panel, including UW History PhD candidate Adrian Kane-Galbraith, will show that Trans people, in various forms and often with different names to those used today, have always been part of feminist history and the struggle for women’s rights, and will continue to be so in the future.

Videos: Imagining Trans Future

This tri-campus research cluster through the Simpson Center brings cross-disciplinary scholars, artists, and leaders together in conversation around imagining trans futures.Discussions focus on the intersections between critical trans studies and trans knowledge production inside and outside the academy.

The Poetry Vlog: LGBTQIA+ Poetry Communities

This collection features guests who describe their experiences or work as part of the LGBTQIA+ community. Curated by the Simpson Center for the Humanities’s Communications Manager C. R. Grimmer, the Poetry Vlog is dedicated to building social justice coalitions through poetry, pop culture, cultural studies, and related arts dialogues. 

LGBTQ Activisim in Seattle History Project

Through the Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project, representing a unique collaboration involving community groups, UW faculty, undergraduate and graduate students, explore the history of the LGBTQ activism in Seattle and western Washington through video oral histories with activists and introductory essays about key issues and communities.

With Pride: Uplifting LGBTQ History on BlackPast

Explore the history of people of African descent who are also Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, and Queer (LGBTQ). Highlights include the many contributions individuals have made to both African American history and culture and American history and culture. BlackPast.org was started by UW Professor Quintard Taylor.

The Most Famous Trans Comedy Duo of All Time (The Stranger)

In the world of stand-up, April Clark (B.A., English, 2020) and Grace Freud of the comedy group Girl God carry on a legacy that goes back decades — at least according to them.

“We are the most famous trans comedy duo of all time,” Clark said in an interview fresh off a performance at the Netflix Is a Joke comedy festival in Los Angeles.

Queer joy takes center stage at the UW Drag Show (The Daily)

“You could tell that there was so much poetry behind all the performances,” Ash Baldino said. “Even some of the ones that weren't as upfront or were more comedic. It was really cool seeing how people express themselves. The stage has always been an outlet to express myself, and drag is a whole other way of doing that because you’re putting on this persona. It’s really cool to see that in action and it’s also cool to do it.”

UW doctoral student leads effort to change diploma name policy, demonstrating power of trans community (UW News)

In December 2021, UW registrar Helen Garrett announced that, for the first time, the UW would allow graduates to use a chosen first name for their diplomas. The policy change was the result of efforts led by Vern Harner, a doctoral student in the School of Social Work, and a change.org petition that earned over 30,000 signatures, demonstrating the power of the trans community.

What's in a Name?: Metadata, Digital Ethics, and the Making of a British Trans Archive (Europe Now) by UW History PhD candidate Adrian Kane-Galbraith, edited by UW History PhD candidate Taylor Soja

“Had I not been willing to search for subjects using names they explicitly rejected, or identity terms that I deemed inaccurate or pejorative, she would have remained invisible to me. And indeed, it is difficult for me to say whether she would have wanted to be made visible as a subject of trans history.”

LGBTQ Program Crosses Borders (Arts & Sciences)

When Anu Taranath led a study abroad program in Mexico, the focus was on LGBTQ issues. The group also discussed migration, xenophobia, politics, health, and the innerconnections between these topics.

We are here; you have an ally  (Department of Chemistry)

This Pride Month, Chemistry faculty and staff share their stories in three essays and want LGBTQIA2S+ students and postdocs to know that “We are here,” and “you have an ally.”

Ahead of Pride, UW’s Manish Chalana describes the changing neighborhood of Capitol Hill (UW News)

“The fact that gay people can move anywhere is a great sign of progress,” Chalana said. “But gay neighborhoods are still relevant, still needed. They are important for community-building, and for people to have support systems, especially for people who come from places where they weren’t supported, or who aren’t comfortable being out.

Take a course about the history and progress of the LGBTQIA+ community, offered by departments across the College of Arts & Sciences.

• HSTCMP 284: A History of Sex (Laurie Marhoefer, Summer 2022 B-term)
• ART H 270 A: Art/Identity Politics: Issues of Representations in Contemporary Art (Koyla Rice, Summer 2022)
• DRAMA 171 The Broadway Musical (David Scott Armstrong, Summer 2022)
• GWSS 374 A: Introduction to Transgender Studies (Amanda Lock Swarr, Autumn 2022)
• PHIL 114 A: Philosophical Issues in the Law (Amelia Wirts, Autumn 2022)
• GWSS 272 A: Introduction to Gender and Fandom (Regina Yung Lee, Autumn 2022)
• DRAMA 494 A: Special Studies in Theatre and Drama - Performing Social Justice (Jasmine Mahmoud and Nikki Yeboah, Winter 2022)
• CHSTU 356 A: The Chicano Family
• AES 489 Black Cultural Studies
• ENGL 256 A: Introduction to Queer Cultural Studies
• GWSS 315 A: Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Medicine: From the Plantation to the Clinic
• HSTCMP 281: A Queer and Trans History

Please note, this is a sample of the large and diverse body of work relating to the LGBTQIA+ community at the University of Washington. If there is work that you would like to see in this article, please email us at uwartsci@uw.edu.