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Drag ball performer Venus Xtravaganza in 1986.

The Enduring Legacy of ’80s Harlem Drag Balls

More than three decades since "Paris Is Burning" put the underground scene on a world stage, ball culture remains a haven for the queer community.
by Isa Farfan via Hyperallergic on June 24, 2025
David Bowie singing into a microphone wearing a feather boa and tights.

How Pop Came Out of the Closet

Jon Savage’s “The Secret Public” traces the influence of queer artists on a hostile culture.
by Samuel Clowes Huneke via The New Republic on February 14, 2025
A cartoon of a group of effeminate men walking together.

Rise and Fall of the ‘Pansy Craze’

On Jazz Age gay culture and its backlash.
by Margaret Vandenburg via Gay And Lesbian Review on January 2, 2025
Nan Lurie's "Women's House of Detention drawing in Greenwich Village.

How Greenwich Village Became America’s Bohemia

Greenwich Village’s bohemian and queer culture roots lie in its history of incarcerating women, notably via the Women’s Court and House of Detention.
by Hugh Ryan via The Gotham Center on November 20, 2024
A man in uniform holding an honorable discharge certificate from the U.S. Air Force.

How The U.S. Military Built San Francisco's LBGTQ+ Legacy

Many LGBTQ+ veterans settled in the city as it was a common point of disembarkation and a place of gender nonconformity.
by Solcyré Burga via TIME on June 21, 2024
A poster for "The Gay Deceivers" of a naked man holding a pillow, with the tagline "Is he? Or isn't he? Only his draftboard and his girlfriend know for sure."

The Gay Deceivers Was an Early Landmark for Queer Cinema

This 1969 film offers a compelling context for queer cinema and culture prior to the 1970s.
by Ben Railton via The Saturday Evening Post on June 11, 2024
Keith Haring standing shirtless in front of one of his paintings.

Angels with Dirty Faces

How Keith Haring got his halo.
by Zack Hatfield via Bookforum on April 12, 2024
Pubs and Bars having colorful lights and decorations in the French Quarter

Sex, Race, and Gender in Bounce Music Culture

Bounce is defined by its “up-tempo, call-and-response, heavy base, ass-shaking music” and by its transgressively liberatory power.
by Hettie Williams via Black Perspectives on October 25, 2022
Picture of a man at a bathhouse in the early 20th century.

Asking Gay Men to Be Careful Isn’t Homophobia

Public-health officials don’t need to tiptoe around how monkeypox is currently being transmitted.
by Jim Downs via The Atlantic on August 13, 2022
Gladys Bentley

The Overlooked LGBTQ+ History of the Harlem Renaissance

Acknowledging the queer culture of the Harlem Renaissance is essential in order to paint a full picture of the period.
by Olivia B. Waxman, Arpita Aneja via TIME on October 11, 2021
1885 Map of St. Louis

Explore 'Mapping LGBTQ St. Louis'

This digital exploration of the region's LGBTQ community from 1946 to 1992 includes an interactive map and several thematic StoryMaps.
via Mapping LGBTQ St. Louis on September 27, 2021

Love One Another or Die

During the AIDS crisis, different contingents of the LGBTQ movement set aside their differences to prioritize mutual care.
by Amy Hoffman via Boston Review on April 2, 2020

Working, Out

Homophobia at a CrossFit is a good time to remember that gym culture wouldn’t exist without queer people.
by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela via Slate on June 20, 2018

An Oral History of Voguing from a Pioneer of the Iconic Dance

"This is not just a fad. This, for us, was a dance of survival, but it was also a social dance."
by Ja'han Jones via HuffPost on June 4, 2018

The Secret Gay Business Network of Midcentury America

In the 1940s and 50s, a life of business travel represented a sense of freedom for gay men that would have been impossible in earlier decades.
by Livia Gershon, Nicholas L. Syrett via JSTOR Daily on June 21, 2017

What Was Gay?

In a more accepting world, homosexual men can leave their campy, cruising past, but the price of equality shouldn't be conformity.
by J. Bryan Lowder via Slate on May 12, 2015
Fire (the Magazine) cover with bold words fire in red and other visual illustrations.

A Radical Black Magazine From the Harlem Renaissance Was Ahead of Its Time

Fire!! was a pathbreaking showcase for Black artists and writers “ready to emotionally serve a new day and a new generation.”
by Jon Key via Hammer & Hope on November 19, 2024
Photograph of Drag stars: Lady Bunny, Misstress Formika, Sweetie, Anna Conda, Tabboo!

A Nearly Complete Oral History of the Pyramid Club

The Pyramid Club is the stuff of downtown New York legend. In the 1980s, a tiny little dive bar became ground zero for the exploding New York drag scene.
by Michael Musto, Mickey Boardman, Sister Dimension, Linda Simpson, John Kelly, Scott Lifshutz, Steve Buscemi, Lypsinka, Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato, Billy Beyond via Paper on October 24, 2024

Eroticize the Hood

A new book revamps Newark's reputation as unsexy, violent, destitute, defiantly declaring it “a place of desire, love, eroticism, community, and resistance.”
by José Sanchez via n+1 on October 8, 2024
Person in a red veil.

Connecting with Trans History, Rebellion, and Joy, in “Compton’s 22”

Transgender people's reactions to watching oral histories of the legacy of a 1966 riot in the Tenderloin that was nearly lost to history.
by Drew de Pinto via The New Yorker on June 5, 2024
USA. Mardi Gras. New Orleans. 1990.
partner

How Mardi Gras Traditions Helped LGBTQ New Orleans Thrive

The celebrations created space for people to subvert gender norms, as New Orleans' LGBTQ communities built new traditions of their own.
by Lily Lucas Hodges via Made By History on February 13, 2024
LGBTQ+ Pride balloon arch at parade

Who's Afraid of Social Contagion?

Our ideas about sexuality and gender have changed before, and now they’re changing again.
by Hugh Ryan via Boston Review on July 31, 2023
Side-by-side of LGBTQ+ pride flag above fetish shop, and local LGBTQ+ activist Roland Palencia

Searching For Silver Lake: The Radical Neighborhood That Changed Gay America

For decades, these Los Angeles streets have played host to key events in LGBTQ+ history. But gentrification has transformed the area.
by Lois Beckett via The Guardian on July 2, 2023
Fire at the Everard Baths in New York City, May 25, 1977.

Before It Burned Down, This Bathhouse Served as a Haven for New York City's Gay Community

For decades, gay men gathered anonymously at the Everard Baths, seeking sexual liaisons and camaraderie alike.
by Robert Klara via Smithsonian on June 26, 2023
1903 postcard depicts two Black actors, one of whom is dressed in drag, performing a cakewalk in Paris.

The First Self-Proclaimed Drag Queen Was a Formerly Enslaved Man

In the late 19th century, William Dorsey Swann's private balls attracted unwelcome attention from authorities and the press.
by Cari Shane via Smithsonian on June 9, 2023
A woman shows off her pride-themed nails.
partner

Gay Bars Are Disappearing. Their Past Holds Keys To Their Future.

Live entertainment, all genders and straight people are back—and were here in the beginning
by Greggor Mattson via Made By History on June 2, 2023
Mae West

Mae West and Camp

A camp diva, a queer icon, and a model of feminism—the memorable Mae West left behind a complicated legacy, on and off the stage.
by Betsy Golden Kellem via JSTOR Daily on April 26, 2023
A techno DJ.

The Battle Over Techno’s Origins

A museum dedicated to techno music has opened in Frankfurt, Germany, and many genre pioneers feel that Black and queer artists in Detroit have been overlooked.
by T. M. Brown via The New Yorker on April 14, 2023
Production of Oklahoma! where actors in brightly colored clothing dance a square dance in front of a set of rural architecture and farmland.

Behind 'Oklahoma!' Lies the Remarkable Story of a Gay Cherokee Playwright

Lynn Riggs wrote the play that served as the basis of the hit 1943 musical.
by Jennie Rothenburg Gritz via Smithsonian on March 30, 2023
Drag artist Vidalia Anne Gentry speaks against the anti-drag bills in Tennessee.
partner

History Exposes the Real Reason Republicans are Trying to Ban Drag Shows

For decades, conservatives were fine with sexually charged cross-dressing entertainment — so long as it reinforced traditional power structures.
by Rachel Hope Cleves via Made By History on March 9, 2023
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