by Claudia León, Class of 2023, American Studies & Latino Studies/History
Below is a promotional poster for Gays, Bisexuals, and Lesbians of Color (GBLOC)’s Conference, which took place over April 11-13, 1986. It lists six guest speakers: Merle Woo, Gil Gerald, Barbara Smith, Don Kao, Joe Beam, and Margarita Lopez. These were queer writers, activists, and organizers of color who GBLOC members read, studied, and looked up to. While the poster advertises only the guest speakers, the three-day conference also had workshops on a wide array of topics, religious services by representatives of myriad faiths, and dance parties. The workshops mainly catered to queer students of color, but there were also programs for straight people of color, queer white people, as well as straight white people. Examples of workshops, per the Conference booklet, included “Class differences and lesbian, gay, and bisexual people of color,” “Workshop on doing anti-homophobia work in the third world,” and an “Interconnections” workshop, “which will examine the interconnections that exist between racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia as experienced by lesbian, gay, and bisexual people of color.”
GBLOC arose in the early 1980s out of a need to eliminate the detachment that queer students of color felt in majority white organizations. These students were isolated by their white peers, whether intentionally or not, who largely failed to realize the role that their ethnic/cultural/racial identities played in their lives. Oftentimes, they were doubly isolated by their respective ethnic/cultural/racial communities, who failed to acknowledge and thus invalidated their LGBT identities. GBLOC was meant to give these individuals a space that recognized and supported their whole identities, such that people wouldn’t have to “choose sides” with the different parts of themselves. Drawing on their own experiences with overlapping marginalized identities, GBLOC and allies were discussing intersectionality before the term was even coined— by Cornell alumna Kimberlé Crenshaw ‘81 nonetheless. Their conference was an outward-facing manifestation of months of hard work to carve out physical, social, and intellectual spaces for queer students of color; spaces in which they would not have to “check part of themselves at the door,” as was often the case in predominantly white/queer, or minority/heterosexual spaces.
Sources
Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual People of Color Conference Booklet, “Our History, Ourselves, Our Visions, Our Pride.” Cornell LGBT Coalition records, 1967-1999, Box 9, Folder 49. Human Sexuality Collection, Rare and Manuscript Collections. Cornell University Libraries.
Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual People of Color Conference Press Release. Cornell LGBT Coalition records, 1967-1999, Box 9, Folder 49. Human Sexuality Collection, Rare and Manuscript Collections. Cornell University Libraries
Gil Gerald’s Speech on April 12, 1986.
Claudia León is a rising junior in Arts and Sciences studying American Studies with minors in Latino Studies and History. Motivated by their belief in the importance of accessible historical education, they hope to pursue a career as a public historian, focusing on marginalized histories. In-kind, she is excited to gain hands-on experience in archival research and exhibit curation with the Kheel Center. Around campus, you can find her at Temple of Zeus frantically typing into her computer with an iced vanilla latte in hand.