C R O S S R O A D S
Community for LGBTQ People of Color at UW-Madison
About the Queer People of Color (QPOC) Resource Guide
This guide was created by the Crossroads Initiative, a collaboration
between the Multicultural Student Center and LGBT Campus Center
at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. We have compiled reference
lists that highlight books, articles, movies, organizations, and websites
& blogs that feature the experiences of queer people of color (QPOC) .
By no means are these lists comprehensive; they are simply a starting
point for identifying QPOC resources. This guide and the materials
within it do not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement,
recommendations, or favoring by the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Please visit our websites for a more extensive list of resources. If you
would like to contribute to this guide, please feel free to submit your
additions to:
Sheltreese McCoy, Crossroads Coordinator
University of Wisconsin - Madison
716 Langdon Street
123 Red Gym
Madison, WI 53706
sheltreese.mccoy@wisc.edu
msc.wisc.edu/crossroads
facebook.com/universityofwisconsincrossroads
Table of Contents
1. About the Crossroads Initiative.......................................................................2
2. Books, Academic Articles & Research Studies...........................................4
3. Films & Movies....................................................................................................12
4. Organizations.....................................................................................................18
5. Websites & Blogs...............................................................................................21
6. National Conferences.......................................................................................24
7. Faith & Spirituality.............................................................................................26
DISCLAIMER:
The opinions and views expressed in this resource
guide do not necessarily reect the opinions or
views of the University of Wisconsin-Madison
and do not constitute or imply its endorsement,
recommendations or favoring of these
organizations or individuals.
Introduction
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About the Crossroads Initiative
Crossroads is a community for LGBTQ students of color. The initiative
is a “Uniquely Wisconsin” approach to addressing the intersectional
realities of our students’ lives. This initiative, at the University
of Wisconsin- Madison, bridges together the work of both the
Multicultural Student Center and the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and
Transgender Campus Center to address the needs of students living in
the intersections of race, sexuality, gender, and other layers of identity.
The Crossroads Initiative aims to:
Support students in being
their whole selves.
Develop the leadership capacities
of LGBTQ people of color.
Foster cross-community allyship.
Sample Programs & Resources offered by Crossroads:
1. Reel to Real - A series of lm screening events and talk backs
featuring queer people of color.
2. Rooted Discussion Group - Bi-weekly discussion group.
3. Potlucks - Social events featuring home cooked food to
bring together students, faculty and sta.
4. Web 2.0 - Social media and web resources.
5. Student Advising - One on one advising.
6. Trainings and Workshops - Leadership building
opportunities.
Introduction
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In our Students words...
“Having Crossroads at UW Madison has provided me with a space where
I can nally feel comfortable and relaxed discussing issues that I face
being a queer person of color. It also provides me with lots of laughs
and opportunities to connect with queer leaders of color outside of the
university.”
- Matt, University of Wisconsin-Madison Student
“For me, Crossroads is the moment when I began to embrace my sexuality
in a social manner. Before I came to Madison I had never sought out
social support from Queer people. I was determined to change this when
I came to Madison. When I came to the LGBT Welcome event at Union
South at the beginning of the semester and met Treese, I felt so safe and
encouraged by her and the other QPOC people at the event. Crossroads
for me is the only social space in this city where I feel like I can be
myself. It has been a space where I can receive validation for some of my
experiences as a gay man of color generally and as a gay man of color in
Madison. Crossroads has been a space for unfettered intellectual growth.
There is no pretense in that space. I do not have to step lightly in that
space. Lastly, through Crossroads I have met so many people who I believe
will become lifelong friends.”
- Cort, University of Wisconsin-Madison Student
“Being able to work on the Crossroads initiative has given me livelihood. It
is something that I have become passionate about and has honestly given
me a reason to wake up in the morning. It has allowed me to connect
with other individuals who identify as a queer person of color. It provides
a space for people to make deep connections on an otherwise isolating
campus.”
- Eric, University of Wisconsin-Madison Student
“For me, Crossroads is a “center” through which I have gained solid
perspective. In fact, I found it to be a space where the complex
perspectives-- of under-represented and minoritarian people-- stand as
politically-charged acts. I found that what I value most is the sensational
love, personal stories, conscious-raising and queer of color recognition,
that can be hard to nd elsewhere. Crossroads has been the space where
I feel most at “home” in a place that feels strange, backwards and out of
touch. To me, our social gatherings become “coming home parties,” where
I can be in solidarity and build kinship. It taught me that I can be—both—
in academia, but “not of it.” In that I am reminded--as an academic-- that
a valid and viable politics of the inside must always be reective of the
elsewhere, outside.”
- Cherod, University of Wisconsin-Madison Student
Introduction
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Books, Academic Articles & Research Studies
The following readings are by, for, or about queer people of color. This is not a full
and complete listing, our resource library is always growing. If you would like to
submit a resource to the list, please contact Crossroads Coordinator Sheltreese
McCoy, sheltreese.mcc[email protected].
Appropriating Blackness: Performance and the Politics of Authenticity
Author: E. Patrick Johnson (Duke University Press, 2003). Performance artist
and scholar E. Patrick Johnson’s provocative study examines how blackness is
appropriated and performed—toward widely divergent ends—both within
and outside African American culture.
Beautiful Bottom, Beautiful Shame: Where “Black” Meets “Queer”, Author:
Kathryn Bond Stockton (Duke University Press Books, 2006). Shame, Kathryn
Bond Stockton argues in Beautiful Bottom, Beautiful Shame, has often been
a meeting place for the signs “black” and “queer” and for black and queer
people—overlapping groups who have been publicly marked as degraded
and debased.
Changing Ones: Third and Fourth Genders in Native North America,
Author: Will Roscoe (Palagrave Macmillian, 2000). Gender diversity—in the
form of third and fourth gender roles—is one of the most common and
least understood features of native North America. Such roles have been
documented in over 150 tribes throughout the continent.
Contested Issues in Student Aairs: Diverse Perspectives and Respectful
Dialogue, Editors: Peter Mark Magolda and Marcia B. Baxter Magolda (Stylus
Publishing, 2011). Contested Issues in Student Aairs augments traditional
introductory handbooks that focus on functional areas (e.g., residence life,
career services) and organizational issues.
Crip Theory: Cultural Signs of Queerness and Disability, Author: Robert
McRuer (NYU Press Academic, 2006). Both disability studies and queer
theory are centrally concerned with how bodies, pleasures, and identities
are represented as “normal” or as abject, but Crip Theory is the rst book to
analyze thoroughly the ways in which these interdisciplinary elds inform
each other.
Culture centers in higher education: Perspectives on identity, theory, and
practice, Editor: Dr. Lori Patton (Stylus Publishing, 2010). This book oers
the historic background to their establishment and development, considers
the circumstances that led to their creation, examines the roles they play on
campus, explores their impact on retention and campus climate, and provides
guidelines for their management in the light of current issues and future
directions.
Cultural Erotics in Cuban America, Author: Ricardo L. Ortíz (University
of Minnesota Press, 2007). Ricardo L. Ortíz addresses the question of
Cuban-American diaspora and cultural identity by exploring the practices
in such U.S. cities as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York. Highlighting
various forms of cultural expression, Cultural Erotics in Cuban America
traces underrepresented communities responses to the threat of cultural
disappearance in a hegemonic U.S. culture.
Books, Academic Articles & Research Studies
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Desiring Arabs, Author: Joseph A. Massad (University of Chicago Press, 2007).
In the past, Westerners viewed the Arab world as licentious, and Western
intolerance of sex led them to brand Arabs as decadent; but as Western
society became more sexually open, the supposedly prudish Arabs soon
became viewed as backward. Rather than focusing exclusively on how these
views developed in the West, in Desiring Arabs Joseph A. Massad reveals the
history of how Arabs represented their own sexual desires.
Disidentications: Queers of Color and The Performance of Politics, Author:
Jose Esteban Muñoz (University of Minnesota Press, 1999). There is more to
identity than identifying with one’s culture or standing solidly against it. José
Esteban Muñoz looks at how those outside the racial and sexual mainstream
negotiate majority culture—not by aligning themselves with or against
exclusionary works but rather by transforming these works for their own
cultural purposes.
Gay Hegemony/Latino Homosexualities, Author: Manolo Guzmán
(Routledge, 2005). The book argues that gayness is a social formation
structured by the racial distinction between blackness and whiteness in
the United States and that, as such, the formation gayness is not racially or
nationally innocent. Thus, Latinidad, thoroughly shaped by mythologies
of racial syncretism, provides a perfect contrast in teasing out the racial
undergirding of American gayness.
Global Divas: Filipino Gay Men in the Diaspora, Author: Martin Manalansan
IV (Duke University Press, 2003). A vivid ethnography of the global and
transnational dimensions of gay identity as lived by Filipino immigrants
in New York City, Global Divas challenges beliefs about the progressive
development of a gay world and the eventual assimilation of all queer folks
into gay modernity.
Impossible Desires: Queer Diasporas and South Asian Public Cultures,
Author: Gayatri Gopinath (Duke University Press, 2005). By bringing queer
theory to bear on ideas of diaspora, Gayatri Gopinath focuses on queer female
diasporic subjectivity, Gopinath develops a theory of diaspora apart from the
logic of blood, authenticity, and patrilineal descent that she argues invariably
forms the core of conventional formulations.
Q & A: Queer in Asian America, Editors: David L. Eng and Alice Y. Hom
(Temple University Press, 1998). The writers, activists, essayists, and artists who
contribute to this volume consider how Asian-American racial identity and
queer sexuality interconnect in mutually shaping and complicating ways.
Queer Latinidad: Identity Practices, Discursive Spaces, Author: Juana María
Rodríguez (NYU Press, 2003). According to the 2000 census, Latinos/as have
become the largest ethnic minority group in the United States. Mainstream
news and in popular culture suggest a Latin Explosion at center stage, yet the
topic of queer identity in relation to Latin@ America remains under examined.
Queer Latino Testimonio, Keith Haring, and Juanito Xtravaganza: Hard
Tails, Author: Arnaldo Cruz-Malavé (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007). The story of
a Latino runaway youth who ends up homeless in the streets of New York in
the late 70s and partners the 1980s Pop artist Keith Haring during some of the
most productive years of his brief life, as told to the author and retold by him.
Books, Academic Articles & Research Studies
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Queer Nations: Marginal Sexualities in the Mahgreb, Author: Jarrod Hayes
(University of Chicago Press, 2000). In this incisive postcolonial study, Jarrod
Hayes uses literary analysis to examine how Francophone novelists from the
Maghreb engaged in a diametric nation-building project.
Queer Race: Cultural Interventions in the Racial Politics of Queer Theory,
Author: Ian Barnard (Peter Lang International Academic Publishers, 2004).
One of the rst extended and theoretically informed investigations of queer
theory’s racial inscription, Queer Race understands race as inextricably
sexualized, as sexuality is always racially marked. The book critically explores
intellectual and political deployments of the term “queer”, gay pornographic
videos about South Africa, contemporary literary representations of interracial
gay desire, the writings of Gloria Anzaldúa, and Jerey Dahmer’s criminal trial.
Queering Mestizaje: Transculturation and Performance, Author: Alicia
Arrizón (University of Michigan Press, 2006). Queering Mestizaje employs
theories of postcolonial cultural studies (including performance studies, queer
and feminist theory) to examine the notion of mestizaje—the mixing of races,
and specically indigenous peoples, with European colonizers—and how
this phenomenon manifests itself in three geographically diverse spaces: the
United States, Latin America, and the Philippines.
Red on Red: Native American Literary Separatism, Author: Craig Womack,
University of Minnesota Press; 1ist Edition (1999). In an unconventional and
piercingly humorous appeal, Womack creates a dialogue between essays on
Native literature and ctional letters from Creek characters who comment
on the essays. Through this conceit, Womack demonstrates an alternative
approach to American Indian literature, with the letters serving as a “Creek
chorus” that oers answers to the questions raised in his more traditional
essays. Topics range from a comparison of contemporary oral versions of
Creek stories and the translations of those stories dating back to the early
twentieth century, to a queer reading of Cherokee author Lynn Riggs’s play
The Cherokee Night.
Some of Us Did Not Die, Author: June Jordan (Basic Civitas Books, 2009).
Some of Us Did Not Die brings together a rich sampling of the late poet June
Jordan’s prose writings. The essays in this collection, which include her last
writings and span the length of her extraordinary career, reveal Jordan as an
incisive analyst of the personal and public costs of remaining committed to
the ideal and practice of democracy.
Social Justice Sexuality Project, The Social Justice Sexuality Project is one
of the largest ever national surveys of Black, Latina/o, and Asian and Pacic
Islander, and multiracial lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.
With over 5,000 respondents, the nal sample includes respondents from
all 50 states; Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico; in rural and suburban areas,
in addition to large urban areas; and from a variety of ages, racial/ethnic
identities, sexual orientations, and gender identities.
http://www.socialjusticesexuality.com/
Take Out: Queer Writing from Asian Pacic America, Eds. Quang Bao and
Hanya Yanagihara. Showcasing new work, Take Out captures the freshness
of contemporary expressive culture in queer Asian Pacic America. It brings
together established and emerging artists to dene their personal and
Books, Academic Articles & Research Studies
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collective vision as gays and lesbians. The visual, literary, and performance
works in this anthology probe a variety of topics —inter-generational
relationships, domesticity, pop culture, camp, Hollywood, fairy tales, and Asia.
Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times, Author:
Jasbir Puar, Duke University Book Press (2007). Jasbir K. Puar argues that
congurations of sexuality, race, gender, nation, class, and ethnicity
are realigning in relation to contemporary forces of securitization,
counterterrorism, and nationalism. She examines how liberal politics
incorporate certain queer subjects into the fold of the nation-state, through
developments including the legal recognition inherent in the overturning of
anti-sodomy laws and the proliferation of more mainstream representation.
These incorporations have shifted many queers from their construction as
gures of death (via the AIDS epidemic) to subjects tied to ideas of life and
productivity (gay marriage and reproductive kinship).
That’s So Gay!: Microagressions and the Lesbian Gay Bisexual, and
Transgender Community, Author: Kevin Nadal (American Psychological
Association, 2013). A thought-provoking review of the literature on
discrimination and microaggressions toward LGBT people.
The Feeling of Kinship: Queer Liberalism and the Racialization of
Intimacy, Author: David L. Eng, Duke University Book Press (2010). David L.
Eng investigates the emergence of “queer liberalism”—the empowerment
of certain gays and lesbians in the United States, economically through
an increasingly visible and mass-mediated queer consumer lifestyle, and
politically through the legal protection of rights to privacy and intimacy.
Eng argues that in our “colorblind” age the emergence of queer liberalism
is a particular incarnation of liberal freedom and progress, one constituted
by both the racialization of intimacy and the forgetting of race. Through
a startling reading of Lawrence v. Texas, the landmark legal decision
overturning Texas’s antisodomy statute, Eng reveals how the ghosts of
miscegenation haunt both Lawrence and the advent of queer liberalism.
The Zuni Man-Woman, Author: Will Roscoe (University of New Mexico
Press, 1992). The Zuni Man-Woman explores a fascinating Native American
tradition that until recently has been almost entirely overlooked—the role of
the berdache or two spirit (a term preferred by many contemporary native
people), a status that once existed in tribes throughout native North America.
Tropics of Desire: Interventions from Queer Latin/o America, Author: José
Quiroga (NYU Press reference, 2000). From its sweaty beats to the pulsating
music on the streets, Latin@ America is perceived in the United States as the
land of heat, the toy store for Western sex. It is the territory of magical fantasy
and of revolutionary threat, where topography is the travel guide of desire,
directing imperial voyeurs to the exhibition of the esh.
Unruly Immigrants: Rights, Activism, and Transnational South Asian Politics
in the United States, Author: Monish Das Gupta (Duke University Press Books,
2006). Das Gupta oers an ethnography of seven South Asian organizations
in the northeastern United States, looking at their development and politics
as well as the conicts that have emerged within the groups over questions of
sexual, class, and political identities.
Books, Academic Articles & Research Studies
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Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay and Lesbian Liberation, Author:
Urvashi Vaid (Anchor, 1996). Since the decade to lift the ban on gays in the
military, the emergence of gay conservatives, and the onslaught of anti-gay
initiatives across America, the gay and lesbian community has been asking
itself tough questions: Where should the movement go? What do we want?
Why I Hate Abercrombie and Fitch: Essays on Race and Sexuality, Author:
Dwight McBride, NYU Press (2005). Why hate Abercrombie? In a world rife
with human cruelty and oppression, why waste your scorn on a popular
clothing retailer? The rationale, Dwight A. McBride argues, lies in “the
banality of evil,” or the quiet way discriminatory hiring practices and racist ad
campaigns seep into and reect malevolent undertones in American culture.
McBride maintains that issues of race and sexuality are often subtle and
always messy, and his compelling new book does not oer simple answers.
Instead, in a collection of essays about such diverse topics as biased
marketing strategies, black gay media representations, the role of African
American studies in higher education, gay personal ads, and pornography, he
oers the evolving insights of one black gay male scholar.
With Her Machete in Her Hand: Reading Chicana Lesbians, Author: Catrióna
Rueda-Esquibel (University of Texas Press, 2009). Esquibel starts from the
premise that Chicana/o communities, theories, and feminisms cannot be fully
understood without taking account of the perspectives and experiences of
Chicana lesbians. She engages in close readings of works centered around the
following themes: La Llorona, the Aztec Princess, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz,
girlhood friendships, rural communities and history, and Chicana activism.
Women with Mustaches and Men without Beards: Gender and Sexual
Anxieties of Iranian Modernity, Author: Afsaneh Najmabadi (University of
California Press, 2005). Drawing from a rich array of visual and literary material
from nineteenth-century Iran, this groundbreaking book rereads and rewrites
the history of Iranian modernity through the lens of gender and sexuality.
Najmabadi provides a compelling demonstration of the centrality of gender
and sexuality to the shaping of modern culture and politics in Iran.
Jasbir K. Puar, “Monster, Terrorist, Fag: The War on Terrorism and the
Production of Docile Patriots,” Social Text 72 (Volume 20, Number 3), Fall
2002, pp. 117-48.
Naber, Nadine. “Arab American Femininities: Beyond Arab Virgin/
American(ized) Whore,” Feminist Studies [College Park] 32.1 (Spring
2006): 87-111.
David L. Eng, Judith Halberstam, and José Esteban Muñoz, eds., Special
Issue of Social Text:“What’s Queer about Queer Studies Now?” (#84/85)
(October 2005)
“Queer Puerto Rican Sexualities.” Special Issue of CENTRO: Journal of the
Center for Puerto Rican Studies
FICTION
Book of Salt: A Novel, Author: Monique Truong (Houghton Miin Harcourt,
2004). In Paris, in 1934, Bình has accompanied his employers, Gertrude Stein
Books, Academic Articles & Research Studies
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and Alice B. Toklas, to the train station for their departure to America. His own
destination is unclear: will he go with “the Steins,” stay in France, or return
to his native Vietnam? Before Bình’s decision is revealed, his mesmerizing
narrative catapults us back to his youth in French-colonized Vietnam.
Funny Boy, Author: Shyam Selvadurai (McClelland & Stewart, 1997). Arjie
Chelvaratnam, at the age of 7, prefers dressing up in a sari and playing bride-
bride with his girl cousin to cricket. He is forced out of the world of the girls.
A lonely outsider, he attaches himself to various sympathetic adults, whose
own trajectories and dilemmas reveal to Arjie the diculties of following one’s
desires.
Giovanni’s Room, Author: James Baldwin. David, a young American man
whose girlfriend has gone o to Spain to contemplate marriage, is left alone
in Paris and begins an aair with an Italian man, Giovanni. The entire story is
narrated by David during “the night which is leading me to the most terrible
morning of my life,” when Giovanni will be executed.
NON-FICTION
Borderlands/La Frontera: the New Mestiza, Author: Gloria Anzaldúa (Aunt
Lute Books, 1987/2012 4th edition). Rooted in Gloria Anzaldúa’s experience
as a Chicana, a lesbian, an activist, and a writer, the essays and poems in this
volume profoundly challenged, and continue to challenge, how we think
about identity.
Crazy Brave: A Memoir, Author: Joy Harjo (W.W. Norton & Company, 2012).
In this transcendent memoir, grounded in tribal myth and ancestry, music
and poetry, Joy Harjo, one of the leading Native American voices, details her
journey to becoming a poet.
I Rise: The Transformation of Toni Newman, Author: Toni Newman
(CREATESPACE, 2011). “I Rise”, is the true story of Toni Newman’s
transformation from an eeminate, conicted male to a proud, educated
transsexual. You will follow Toni on her rise from a “sissy boy,” a scholarship
student, a business professional, an escort, a drag queen, a NYC prostitute, an
LA dominatrix, and nally, a transsexual attending law school in order to help
her transsexual sisters in need.
Knockturnal Emissions, Author: Carolyn Wysinger. Knockturnal Emissions
is collection of timely thoughts on issues facing our community from the
perspective of a QWOC (Queer Woman of Color.) The author explores issues
ranging from police brutality, gender bias and cultural dierences and gives
us the opportunity ask ourselves important questions about the community
we live in.
Sister Outsider, Author: Audre Lorde (Crossing Press, 1984/2012). In this
charged collection of fteen essays and speeches, Lorde takes on sexism,
racism, ageism, homophobia, and class, and propounds social dierence as
a vehicle for action and change. Her prose is incisive, uninching, and lyrical,
reecting struggle but ultimately oering messages of hope. These landmark
writings are, in Lorde’s own words, a call to “never close our eyes to the terror,
to the chaos which is Black which is creative which is female which is dark
which is rejected which is messy which is. . . .”
Books, Academic Articles & Research Studies
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The Fire Next Time, Author: James Baldwin (Vintage, 1963). At once a
powerful evocation of James Baldwin’s early life in Harlem and a disturbing
examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the book is an intensely
personal and provocative document. It consists of two “letters,” written on
the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, that exhort
Americans, both black and white, to attack the terrible legacy of racism.
ANTHOLOGIES/COLLECTIONS
A Lotus of Another Color: An Unfolding of the South Asian Gay and Lesbian
Experience, Author: Rakesh Ratti (Alyson Publications, 1993). This is an
extremely important collection of works on gay and lesbian themes from
South Asia for two reasons. Firstly, the genres are authentic, and not ltered
through the lenses of Western scholars. Secondly, it successfully relates the
context in which homosexual identity is constructed in South Asia.
Among the Blood People: Politics and Flesh, Editor: Thomas Glave (Akashic,
2013). Each essay in the volume reveals a passionate commitment to social
justice and human truth. Whether confronting Jamaica’s prime minister on
antigay bigotry, contemplating the risks and seductions of “outlawed” sex,
exploring a world of octopuses and men performing somersaults in the
Caribbean Sea, or challenging repressive tactics employed at the University
of Cambridge, Glave expresses the observations of a global citizen with the
voice of a poet.
Colored Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Still Not
Enough: Coming of Age, Coming Out, and Coming Home, Author: Keith
Boykin. “For Colored Boys”, addresses longstanding issues of sexual abuse,
suicide, HIV/AIDS, racism, and homophobia in the African American and
Latino communities, and more specically among young gay men of color.
The book tells stories of real people coming of age, coming out, dealing
with religion and spirituality, seeking love and relationships, nding their
own identity in or out of the LGBT community, and creating their own sense
of political empowerment. This collection includes writers who are African
American, Latino, Asian American, British, and Jamaican. Their ages span over
ve decades from young to old, and they represent all parts of the country
and a wide cross-section of occupations, including students, published
authors, recording artists, reality TV stars, military veterans, doctors, and
lawyers.
Out! Stories from the New Queer India
Editor: Minal Hajratwala. In Bengalaru, a law student falls in love as the
nation’s highest courts decide whether his love is legitimate. In Mumbai, a
lm star and a parent discuss their own journeys of “coming out” as advocates
of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender movement. In rural Kerala,
two girls row a small boat and feel their hearts opening. These are the lives
of queer Indians today: poignant, gripping, and occasionally even hilarious.
Through their original and unforgettable stories, penned by the community’s
master storytellers as well as emerging writers, Out!oers a glimpse beyond
the closet doors - and into the lives and dreams of India’s most misunderstood
minority.
POETRY
Consensual Genocide, Author: Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha. Tracing
bloodlines from Sri Lanka’s civil wars to Brooklyn and Toronto streets, these
Books, Academic Articles & Research Studies
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erce poems are full of heart and guts, telling raw truths about brown girl
border crossings before and after 9/11, surviving abuse, mixed-race journeys
and high femme rebellions.
Love Cake, Author: Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha. In Love Cake, Leah
Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha explores how queer people of colour resist and
transform violence through love and desire. Refusing to forget the traumas of
post 9/11 Islamophobia, and Sri Lanka’s civil war, Love Cake documents the
persistence of survival and beauty - especially the dangerous beauty found in
queer people of colour’s lives. Piepzna-Samarasinha maps the complicated,
luscious joy of reclaiming the body and sexuality after abuse, examines a
family history of violence with compassion, and celebrates the beautiful
resistance of queer people of colour in love and home-making.
When the World As We Knew It Ended Author: Joy Harjo
Collected Poems of Audre Lorde, Author: Audre Lorde
Directed by Desire, Author: June Jordan. June Jordan wrote from her
experience in a woman’s body and a dark skin, though never solely ‘as’ or
‘for.’ Sharply critical of nationalism, separatism, chauvinism of all kinds,
as tendencies toward narrowness and isolation, she was too aware of
democracy’s failures to embrace false integrations. Her poetic sensibility was
kindred to Blake’s scrutiny of innocence and experience; to Whitman’s vision
of sexual and social breadth; to Gwendolyn Brooks’ and Romare Bearden’s
portrayals of ordinary black people’s lives; to James Baldwin’s expression of
the bitter contradictions within the republic.
Dialectic Poetry of Claude McKay, Author: Claude McKay
The Weary Blues, Author: Langston Hughes
Vox Angelica, Author: Timothy Liu. In Liu’s text the ascent, the ecstatic
apprehension of the divine (he is a religious poet, there are no two ways
about it, though perhaps there are twenty) can be eected only by a demonic
insistence upon abjection, upon the descent. He shrives himself, and his
poems show the marks of the lash--they are the lash--and his vision is
naturalized to a degree that would astonish his predecessors, that astonishes
us. This is a shocking poetry, and the shock is not of recognition, but of
estrangement. It makes an unfamiliar claim upon us, the claim of apostasy.
--Richard Howard, from the forward
ZINES
Fag School #1 (2003) by Brontez Purnell http://qzap.org/
Moonroot
http://loneberry.les.wordpress.com/2011/09/moonroot-inner-margins-lq.pdf
The First 7-inch was Better: How I Became and Ex-Punk Nia King (2008)
QZAP.org
On Being Hard Femme#1(2009) by Jackie Wong. QZAP.org
From Here to There and Back Again (2005) by Shannon Perez Darby
QZAP.org
Books, Academic Articles & Research Studies
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Academic Articles & Research Studies:
Battle, J.,Pastrana Jr. J., & Daniels J. (2013). Social Justice Sexuality Survey.
New York, NY. Retrieved from http://www.socialjusticesexuality.com/
Misawa, M. (2010). Racist and homophobic bullying in adulthood:
Narratives from gay men of color in higher education. New Horizons in
Adult Education and Human Resource Development, 24(1), 7-23.
Misawa, M. (2004). The intersection of race and sexual orientation in adult
and higher education: Creating inclusive environments for gay men of
color (Doctoral dissertation, University of Alaska Anchorage).
Misawa, M. (2009). Where is our citizenship in academia? Experiences
of gay men of color in higher education. Adult and higher education in
queer contexts: Power, politics, and pedagogy, 111-126.
Poynter, K. J., & Washington, J. (2005). Multiple identities: Creating
community on campus for LGBT students. New Directions for Student
Services, 2005(111), 41-47.
Films & Movies
The following lms & movies are by, for, or about queer people of color which
have been or will be featured in our Reel to Real lm series on campus. This
is not a full and complete listing, our resource library is always growing. If
you would like to submit a resource to the list, please contact Crossroads
Coordinator Sheltreese McCoy, sheltreese.mccoy@wisc.edu.
Almost Myself (T Joe Murray Videos, 2006), Director: Tom Murray. After
nding a most unusual web site that was seeking funds to help reverse a sex
change, lmmaker Tom Murray set out on a fascinating cross country journey
to explore just a small part of the vastly diverse transgender community.
And the March Continues! (Frameline, 1997), Director: Guadalupe San
Miguel. And the March Continues combines documentary and narrative forms
to present a history of the lesbian movement in Mexico from its origins to
the present. Testimonies from Mexican lesbians and movement leaders give
impressions of daily life in their country.
B.D. Women (Women Make Movies, 1994), Director: Campbell X. B.D. Women
is a wonderful celebration of the history and culture of Black lesbians. Lively
interviews feature Black women talking candidly about their sexual and
racial identities. These contemporary views are cleverly interwoven with a
dramatized love story, set in the 1920s, in which a sultry romance develops
between a gorgeous jazz singer and her stylish butch lover.
Be Like Others (Wolf Video, 2008), Director: Tanaz Eshaghian.
Attracted to members of the same sex, yet forced to live in the shadows for
fear of retribution, some young Iranian men and women are taking the only
course legally open to them. Desiring what one man calls “a decent life,” they
pursue the drastic measure of having gender reassignment surgery, obtaining
the psychiatric note of permission a doctor needs to proceed.
Films & Movies
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Black is...Black Ain’t (California Newsreel, 1994), Director: Marlon Riggs. The
lm traverses the country interviewing African Americans young and old, rich
and poor, Northern and Southern, rural and urban, gay and straight, as they
discuss the numerous, often contested denitions of Blackness.
Black/Womyn: Conversations with Lesbians of African Descent (Harriet’s
Gun Media, 2011), Director: Toina M. Black./womyn.:conversations… features
interviews with close to 50 out, Black lesbians including Poet/Author Cheryl
Clarke, Filmmaker/Activist Aishah Shahidah Simmons, Poet/Author Staceyann
Chin, Filmmaker Michelle Parkerson, Artist Hanifah Walidah, Hip-Hop Duo KIN,
and Author Fiona Zedde.
Boys from Brazil (ITC Entertainment, 1993), Director: John Paul Davidson.
The lm follows a group of Brazilian prostitutes over two years as they work
not only the streets of Rio, but those of Paris, Rome and Milan.” The twist is
that these prostitutes are gay, transsexual and transvestite [sic].
Brincando el Charco (Women Make Movies, 1996), Director: Frances Negron-
Muntaner. In a wonderful mix of ction, archival footage, processed interviews
and soap opera drama, “Brincando el Charco” tells the story of Claudia Marin,
a middle-class, light-skinned Puerto Rican photographer/videographer who is
attempting to construct a sense of community in the US.
Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin (PBS, 2003), Directors:
Nancy D. Kates and Bennett Singer. This feature-length portrait unfolds
both chronologically and thematically, using interviews and traditional
documentary techniques, as well as experimental approaches.
Brother to Brother (Wolfe Releasing, 2004), Director: Rodney Evans. Brother
to Brother is the story of Perry a young black artist kicked out of his family
home for being gay. Trapped between the worlds of the black community and
the gay community, Perry searches for a connection in the real world.
China Dolls (Lindeld, N.S.W. Film Australia, 1997), Director: Tony Ayres.
China Dolls probes the uncomfortable reality of racial stereotyping and
discrimination in the gay world through interviews with Asian men who talk
frankly, and often humorously, of their experiences of living within a “double
minority.”
Coming Out Coming Home (Asian & Pacifc Islander Family Pride, 1996),
Asian & Pacic Islander Family Stories, a 44-minute color video (DVD) featuring
interviews of one Filipino and three Chinese families and a dialogue among
parents of these gay children. Speaking in English, the families talk about
shame, grief, love, growth, the importance of family and how they handled
their conicts around homosexuality.
Cruel and Unusual (Outcast Films, 2006), Director: Dan Hunt. This
documentary focuses on ve trans women, three incarcerated and two
recently released from prison. According to the lm, transgender people are
more likely than average to be imprisoned, and when in prison often face
sexual violence from other prisoners.
Fire (Zeitgeist Films, 1996), Director: Deepa Mehta. With both husbands
ignoring their spouses’ emotional and sexual needs (albeit with reasons that
Films & Movies
- 13 -
are totally opposite from each other), it is only a matter of time before Radha
and Sita look to one another for comfort and to satisfy their own passions.
For Straights Only (NA, 2001), Director: Vismita Gupta-Smith. When her
brother comes out to her as a homosexual, the lmmaker is motivated to
survey the conditions and attitudes encountered by gays and lesbians in
India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and the rest of Southern Asia.
Gulabi Aaina (The Pink Mirror) (Solaris, 2003), Director: Sridhar Rangayan.
Said to be the rst Indian lm to focus on Indian transsexuals, the story
revolves around two transsexuals and a gay teenager’s attempts to seduce a
man. The lm explores the taboo subject of transsexuals in India.
Honored by the Moon (Women Make Movies,1990), Director: Mona Smith.
In this upbeat and empowering videotape, Native American lesbians and
gay men speak of their unique historical and spiritual role. Within the Native
American community, homosexuality was traditionally associated with
the power to bridge worlds. Interviews with leading activists and personal
testimony attest to the positive and painful experiences of being Native and
gay.
I Exist (Arab Film, 2003), Directors: Peter Barbosa and Garrett Lenoir. Gay
and Lesbian Middle Easterners who live in the United States must frequently
combat the negative stereotypes revolving around both their sexuality and
their race. This award-winning lm features interviews with a variety of young
men, women and their family members who share with viewers some of the
experiences, joys and sorrows of this diverse community.
James Baldwin (PBS, 1989), Director: Karen Thorsen. The life, works and
beliefs of the late writer and civil rights activist are recounted: what it is
to be born black, impoverished, gifted, and gay in a world that has yet to
understand that “all men are brothers.” James Baldwin tells his own story in
this emotional portrait. Using rarely-seen archival footage from nine dierent
countries.
A Jihad for Love (First Run Films, 2007), Director: Parvez Sharma. Parvez
Sharma’s A Jihad for Love marks one of the very rst documentaries to
examine the occasional overlaps between Islam and homosexuality. Evincing
great sensitivity to both the subject matter and the interviewees, Sharma
hones in on a transcontinental group of homosexual individuals who attempt
to reconcile their faith in the Koran with their non-heterosexual identities.
Juchitan, Queer Paradise (NA, 2002), Director: Patricio Enriquez. The
extraordinary real-life story of Juchitan, a town in southern Mexico where
homosexuality is completely accepted as a third gender. Though located in
the land of machismo, the town of Juchitan in southern Mexico is a haven for
gay men and transsexuals. The lm proles three very dierent gay men.
Khush (Women Make Movies,1991), Director: Pratibha Paramar. Khush, taken
from the Urdu meaning “ecstatic pleasure,” deals with the lives of South Asian
lesbians and gay men as they negotiate their existences in Britain, North
America, and India. In their interviews, men and women explore what it
means to be queer and of color in their particular locale. What emerges from
the interviews is a sense of a commonly held identity, across geographical
boundaries, based in their collective experiences of isolation and dierence.
Films & Movies
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Latino Beginnings (Logo TV, 2005), Distributor: Logo TV. Find out what
it’s like to be a minority within a minority. This documentary takes an in-
depth look into the lives of gay Hispanics, a culture ingrained in religion and
machismo.
Looking for Langston (Sankofa Film & Video Productions,1989), Director:
Isaac Julien. In this lyrical and poetic consideration of the life of revered
Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes, award-winning British
lmmaker Isaac Julien invokes Hughes as a black gay cultural icon, against an
impressionistic, atmospheric setting that parallels a Harlem speakeasy of the
1920s with an 80s London nightclub.
Madame Satã (Wellsping Media, 2002), Director: Karim Ainouz. Loose
portrait of João Francisco dos Santos, also known as Madame Satã, a
sometime chef, transvestite, lover, father, hero and convict from Rio de
Janeiro.
Milind Soman Made Me Gay (Tilotama Productions, 2007), Director: Harjant
Gill. “Milind Soman Made Me Gay” is a conceptual documentary about desire
and notions of ‘home’ and ‘belonging’. The lm employs a unique mix of
visual elements along with voice over narration to juxtapose memories of the
lmmaker’s past against stories of three gay South Asian men living in the
diaspora.
Mosquita y Mari (Wolfe Releasing, 2012), Director: Aurora Guerrero.
Mosquita y Mari is a coming of age story that focuses on a tender friendship
between two young Chicanas. Lost in their private world of unspoken
aection, lingering gazes, and heart-felt confessions of uncertain futures,
Yolanda’s grades begin to slip while Mari’s focus drifts away from her duties at
a new job.
Noahs Arc: Jumping the Broom (LOGO Films, 2008), Director: Patrik-Ian
Polk. As Noah and Wade prepare to marry in Martha’s Vineyard, the personal
problems of their friends - and the unexpected arrival of rapper Baby Gat -
threatens to permanently end their relationship.
Paradise Bent: Boys will be Girls in Samoa (Re Angle Pictures, 1999),
Director: Heather Croall. This is one of the rst explorations of the Samoan
fa’afanes, boys who are raised as girls, fullling a traditional role in Samoan
culture. The lm shows how in the large Samoan family there may be one or
two fa’afanes who are not only accepted, but appreciated.
Pariah (Focus Features, 2011), Director: Dee Rees. Alike is quietly but rmly
embracing her identity as a lesbian. With the sometimes boisterous support of
her best friend, out lesbian Laura, Alike is especially eager to nd a girlfriend.
At home, her parents’ marriage is strained and there is further tension in the
household whenever Alike’s development becomes a topic of discussion.
Paris is Burning (Miramax Films, 1990), Director: Jennie Livingston. Filmed in
the mid-to-late 1980s, it chronicles the ball culture of New York City and the
African-American, Latino, gay, and transgender communities involved in it.
Many members of the ball culture community consider “Paris Is Burning” to be
an invaluable documentary of the end of the “Golden Age” of New York City
Films & Movies
- 15 -
drag balls.
Pecah Lobang (NA, 2008), Director: Poh Si Teng. Pecah Lobang explores what
it’s like to be a Muslim transsexual sex worker in Malaysia. The documentary
revolves around Natasha, a Muslim Mak Nyah, who refuses to live life as a
man. Unable to secure employment because of discrimination, Natasha turns
to sex work and lives in constant fear of the police and religious authorities.
Pick Up the Mic (Rhino Films, 2005), Director: Alex Hinton. A Queer Hip-Hop
fast-paced documentary on the world of queer rappers. Featuring searing
public performances and raw, revealing interviews, the lm captures an
unapologetic underground music movement just as it explodes into the
mainstream - defying the music industry’s homophobia in the process.
Rites of Passage (Part 1)(NA, 2011), Director: Je Roy. Filmed in Bangkok,
Rites of Passage (Part 1) documents the story of Maya (Mohammad) Jafer,
a 42-year old Indo-Muslim transsexual female, who underwent gender
reassignment surgery in early 2011. This lm follows her through the
moments leading towards and during her surgery, capturing her in times of
utmost vulnerability and ecstasy.
Shinjuku Boys (Women Make Movies, 1995), Director: Kim Longinotto.
Shinjuku Boys introduces three onnabes who work as hosts at the New
Marilyn Club in Tokyo. Onnabes are women who live as men and have
girlfriends, although they don’t usually identify as lesbians. As the lm follows
them at home and on the job, all three talk frankly to the camera about their
gender-bending lives, revealing their views about women, sex, transvestitism
and lesbianism.
Still Black: A Portrait of Black Transmen (K.R. Zeigler, 2008), Director: Dr.
Kortney Ryan Zeigler. “STILL BLACK: A Portrait of Black Transmen is brought to
life by the stories of six thoughtful, eloquent and diverse transmen. Preachers,
teachers, students and activists educate us simply by making their presence
known. Each man brings a colorful and complex richness as he describes his
relationship to himself, as well as others in his life.
Strange Frame: Love and Sax (Wolfe, 2012), Director: Georey Blair Hajim.
At the end of the 26th century, the price of a ticket o a decimated poisoned
Earth was a debt that was supposed to last for a couple of generations. Broken
promises and predatory lenders turned that price into perpetual debt slavery.
Spin forward two hundred years to the beginning of the 29th century.
Stud Life (Wolfe Video, 2012), Director: Campbell X. Stud Life takes the viewer
into a slice of life of an urban gay scene where casual sex, and drug taking
is not treated as deviant behaviour. Where gender is up for grabs but desire
follows very strict rules. JJ and Seb inhabit a world where white queers are
familiar with Black street culture and reject the mainstream “G.A.Y” world. This
is Stud Life.
Tal Como Somos/ As We Are (Juneteenth Productions, 2007), Director: Judith
McCray. Tal Como Somos (Just as we are) examines the impact of stigma
on gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals trying to live and identify
dierently than others in a traditional culture that values religion, machismo,
and family.
Films & Movies
- 16 -
The Aggressives (Image Entertainment, 2005), Director: Daniel Peddle. Logo
explores the lives of six New York City women who assume the category
of “aggressive” through masculine roles, behavior, and dress. Each woman
denes their gender roles in unique and profound ways through footage that
includes intimate interviews and clips from talk shows and drag balls.
The Body of a Poet (Women Make Movies, 1995), Director: Sonali Fernando.
An imaginary biopic, The Body of a Poet centers on the eorts of a group
of young lesbians of color to devise a tting tribute to one of this century’s
great visionaries. Its genre-bending celebration of the life and work of Audre
Lorde, black lesbian poet and political activist, daringly meshes diverse media
conventions and techniques as it explores Lorde’s trajectory from birth to
death.
The Hunting Season (GLBO, 1989), Director: Rita Moreira. Brazil’s gay and
lesbian population are being slaughtered in a ghastly series of hate crimes.
Intercutting scenes from Hollywood movies (The Deer Hunter and Cruising),
director Moreira stops people on the streets of Sao Paolo for a quick health
check on the state of the nation. “They should be killed,” is the most common
reply.
The Salt Mines (Frameline, 1990), Director: Susana Akin. The Salt Mines
explores the lives of Sara, Gigi and Giovanna, three Latino transwomen
who for years have lived on the streets of Manhattan supporting their drug
addictions through prostitution. They made their temporary home inside
broken garbage trucks that the Sanitation Department keeps next to the salt
deposits used in the winter to melt the snow. The three friends share the place
known as “The Salt Mines” with a varied community of homeless people.
Tongues Untied (California Newsreel, 1989), Director: Marlon T. Riggs. Marlon
Riggs’s Tongues Untied rises above the ‘deeply personal’ — far above it — in
exploring what it means to be black and gay. Angry, funny, erotic and poetic
by turns ( and sometimes all at once), it jumps from interview to confession,
music video to documentary to poem.
Transgression (A10 Films, 2011), Directors: TJ Barber, Toni Marzal, Morgan
Hargrave and Daniel Rotman. Transgression focuses on transgender
immigrants to the United States and their experiences in the American
immigration detention system.
Two Spirits (Riding the Tiger Productions, 2011), Director: Lydia Nibley.
“Two Spirits” interweaves the tragic story of a mother’s loss of her son with a
revealing look at a time when the world wasn’t simply divided into male and
female and many Native American cultures held places of honor for people of
integrated genders.
U People (U People LLC, 2009), Director: Hanifah Walidah. What do you get
when over the course of 2 days in an unassuming brownstone in Brooklyn
with 30 women across sexualities and transfolk of color? History.
Woke Up Black ( Mary, F. Morten, Keisha Farmer-Smith, Aparma-Smith, Aparna
Sharma, Marisol Ybarra, 2011) Dir. Mary F. Morten. “Woke Up Black” followed
ve black youth for two years. During this time we witnessed interactions with
family members, educational institutions, and the legal and judicial system.
Films & Movies
- 17 -
We saw the social networking that is critical to the successful development of
these youth and we provided a rare opportunity to hear youth speak out on
some of the important and potentially life- altering topics of the day. The lm
underscores the humanity that we all share with each other regardless of race
or age. For some of the youth proled, despite extraordinary circumstances,
they remain hopeful.
Organizations
The following is a growing general overview of organizations, individuals
and groups who are organizing and educating on issues pertaining to queer
people of color. This is not a full and complete listing and is to serve as a
starting point for identifying potential speakers, frameworks or resources. Our
resource library is always growing, if you would like to submit a resource to
the list, please contact Crossroads Coordinator Sheltreese McCoy, sheltreese.
mccoy@wisc.edu.
* This list does not constitute or imply endorsement, recommendations or
favoring by the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
API Equality- LA, http://www.apiequalityla.org, Founded in 2005, API Equality-
LA has been a tireless advocate in the Greater Los Angeles Asian and Pacic
Islander (API) communities for fair treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
transgender (LGBT) people and marriage equality for same-sex couples.
Asian Pacic Islander Pride Council, http://www.apipridecouncil.org, The
Asian Pacic Islander Pride Council is a network of Asian and Pacic Islander
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer organizations and alliances whose
mission is to provide and cultivate support, resources and advocacy to the
Asian Pacic Islander, LGBTQ, and mainstream communities of Southern
California.
Audre Lorde Project, http://alp.org, The Audre Lorde Project is a Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual, Two Spirit, Trans and Gender Non Conforming People of Color center
for community organizing, focusing on the New York City area. Through
mobilization, education and capacity-building, they work for community
wellness and progressive social and economic justice.
Banyan Tree, http://www.banyantreeproject.org, The Banyan Tree Project is a
national community mobilization and social marketing campaign to end the
silence and shame surrounding HIV/AIDS in Asian and Pacic Islander (A&PI)
communities.
Black Transman Inc, http://blacktransmen.org, Black Transmen Inc. is the rst
national non-prot Organization of African American transmen solely focused
on acknowledgment, social advocacy and empowering transmen with
resources to aid in a healthy female to male transition.
Brooklyn Boihood, http://bklynboihood.com, Brooklyn Boihood is a collective
that champions healthy masculinity, intersectionality of identities and anti-
misogyny for bois* of color all over the world.
Brown Boi Project, http://www.brownboiproject.org, The Brown Boi Project
Organizations
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is a community of masculine of center womyn, men, two-spirit people,
transmen, and our allies committed to transforming our privilege of
masculinity, gender, and race into tools for achieving racial and gender justice.
DeQH (Desi lgbtQ Helpline for Queer South Asians), http://www.deqh.org,
DeQH is a coalition based in the U.S. DeQH oers free, condential, culturally
sensitive peer support, information and resources by telephone for LGBTQ
South Asian individuals, families and friends around the globe.
Elements (Queer Womyn of Color), http://www.ourelements.org, The mission
of Elements (Queer Womyn of Color) is to create and to sustain a safe space for
LGBTQ womyn to connect and dialogue while increasing visibility, promoting
holistic healing, and addressing key issues within our communities that will
move us towards a more just society.
FIERCE, http://www.ercenyc.org, FIERCE is a membership-based
organization building the leadership and power of lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth of color in New York City.
hotpot! Philly, http://hotpotphilly.wordpress.com, hotpot! Philly is a
Philadelphia-based gathering working to build community for Queer Asian +
Pacic Islander lesbian, bisexual women, trans*, gender variant/queer/non-
conforming identied folks through social gatherings, political action and
good food.
Incite!, http://www.incite-national.org, INCITE! Women, Gender Non-
Conforming, and Trans* people of Color Against Violence is a national activist
organization of radical feminists of color advancing a movement to end
violence against women of color and our communities through direct action,
critical dialogue and grassroots organizing.
KICK, http://e-kick.org, KICK – The Agency for LGBT African Americans, a
Michigan non-prot business, was founded in 2003 with the help of Detroit
LGBT residents. Together, their aim is to continue to implement LGBT arming
programs, services, projects and special events; and to partner with other
social justice organizations and allies with similar beliefs.
KUE-LA, http://kue-la.org, Korean-Americans United for Equality (KUE) is
an alliance of multigenerational straight and LGBTQI Korean-Americans
committed to promoting sexual and gender equality.
Muslims for Progressive Values (LGBTQ Rights Division), http://mpvusa.
org, portfolio/lgbt/ Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV) is an inclusive
community rooted in the traditional Qur’anic ideals of human dignity and
social justice.
Make the Road, http://www.maketheroad.org/whoweare.php, Make the Road
New York (MRNY) builds the power of Latino and working class communities
to achieve dignity and justice through organizing, policy innovation,
transformative education, and survival services.
National Black Justice Coalition, http://nbjc.org, The National Black Justice
Coalition is a civil rights organization dedicated to empowering Black lesbian,
gay, bisexual, and transgender people.
Organizations
- 19 -
National Center for Black Equity, www.centerforblackequity.org,The mission
of the National Center for Black Equity is to promote a multinational LGBT
network dedicated to improving health and wellness opportunities, economic
empowerment, and equal rights while promoting individual and collective
work, responsibility, and self-determination.
(NGLTF)National Gay and Lesbian Task Force , http://www.thetaskforce.
org, The mission of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is to build the
grassroots power of the LGBT community. They do this by training activists,
equipping state and local organizations with the skills needed to organize
broad-based campaigns to defeat anti-LGBT referenda and advance pro-LGBT
legislation, and building the organizational capacity of our movement.
NQAPIA (National Queer Asian Pacic Islander Alliance), http://www.
nqapia.org, The National Queer Asian Pacic Islander Alliance is a federation
of LGBTQ Asian American, South Asian, Southeast Asian and Pacic Islander
organizations. NQAPIA seeks to build the capacity of local LGBT AAPI
organizations, invigorate grassroots organizing, develop leadership, and
challenge homophobia, racism, and anti-immigrant bias.
Pipeline Project, http://www.lgbtpipeline.org, The Pipeline Project is a
recruitment, retention, and leadership advancement initiative. The initiative’s
goals are to produce programs and engage in activities that together
represent a long-term eort to increase the number of people of color
working within the nation’s LGBT rights, service and advocacy sector, and
ultimately increase the level of diversity in the leadership of our movement.
QWOCMAP (Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project), http://www.
qwocmap.org/festival.html, Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project
(QWOCMAP) promotes the creation, exhibition and distribution of new lms/
videos that address the vital social justice issues that concern queer women
of color and our communities, authentically reect our life stories, and build
community through art and activism.
Queers for Economic Justice, http://www.q4ej.org/, Queers for Economic
Justice is a progressive non-prot organization committed to promoting
economic justice in a context of sexual and gender liberation. Our goal is to
challenge and change the systems that create poverty and economic injustice
in our communities, and to promote an economic system that embraces
sexual and gender diversity.
Salga NYC, http://salganyc.org, The South Asian Lesbian & Gay Association of
New York City (SALGA) serves to promote awareness, tolerance, acceptance,
empowerment and safe spaces for sexual minorities and people of all gender
identities, who trace their heritage to South Asia or who identify as South
Asian.
Satrang LA, http://www.satrang.org, Satrang is a cultural, social, and support
organization providing a safe space to empower and advocate for the rights
of the South Asian LGBTIQQ community in Southern California through
education, networking, and outreach. Satrang works toward ending gender
and sexuality based prejudice.
Organizations
- 20 -
Trikone, http://www.trikone.org, Founded in 1986 in the San Francisco Bay
Area, Trikone is a registered 501(c)(3) non-prot organization for Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) people of South Asian descent, who
trace their ethnicities to one of the following places: Afghanistan, Bangladesh,
Bhutan, India, Maldives, Myanmar (Burma), Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and
Tibet.
Two Spirit Collective, https://www.facebook.com/pages/First-Nations-Two-
Spirit-Collective, The First Nations Collective came together out of a shared
commitment to social justice work with an intersectional approach that
honors their full selves through education, bearing witness to each others’
lives, and personal and spiritual sustainability in the larger social justice and
LGBTQ movement.
Unid@s, http://www.unidoslgbt.com, The mission of Unid@s, the National
Latina/o Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender (LGBT) Human Rights
Organization is to create a multi-issue approach for advocacy, education and
convening of and for our communities.
Unity Coalition, http://www.unitycoalition.org, The Unity Coalition is an
advocacy organization that was created in 2002. Unity provides opportunities
to contact your lawmakers, policy work, community building, and trainings
for Latin@s who identify as LGBTQ.
Websites & Blogs
The following is a growing general overview of websites & blogs pertaining
to queer people of color. This is not a full and complete listing, our resource
library is always growing. If you would like to submit a resource to the list,
please contact Crossroads Coordinator Sheltreese McCoy, sheltreese.mccoy@
wisc.edu.
* This list does not constitute or imply endorsement, recommendations
or favoring by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Opinions and views
expressed on these sites do not necessarily reect the opinions or views of
the
University of Wisconsin-Madison.
ALLGO, http://allgo.org, A Texas statewide organization for queer people of
color that advocates social change and preserving queer Latina/o culture and
art.
Blac(k)ademic, http://blackademic.com, Critical essays by Black Transgender
PhD Dr. Kortney Ryan Ziegler.
Black Girl Dangerous, http://www.blackgirldangerous.org, Black Girl
Dangerous is a place where queer women and trans* people of color can
make our voices heard on the issues that interest us and aect us, where we
can showcase our literary and artistic talents, where we can cry it out, and
where we can explore and express our “dangerous” sides: our biggest, boldest,
craziest, weirdest, wildest selves.
Cherrie Moraga, http://www.cherriemoraga.com, Cherrie L. Moraga is a
Websites & Blogas
- 21 -
playwright, poet and essayist whose plays and publications have received
national recognition. In 2007, she was awarded the United States Artist
Rockefeller Fellowship for Literature.
Colorlines News, http://colorlines.com/gender-sexuality, Colorlines is a
daily news site where race matters, featuring award-winning investigative
reporting and news analysis.
Globalqueerdesi, http://globalqueerdesi.wordpress.com, This blog has
essentially come out of the need in the diaspora for a one stop destination for
information and resources pertaining to queer issues.
Ignacio Rivera, http://www.ignaciorivera.com, Ignacio C. Rivera is a Two-
Spirit, Black-Boricua Taíno queer performance artist, activist, lmmaker,
lecturer and sex educator.
Imam Daayiee Abdullah, http://daayieesplaceonnerpeace.com, Daayiee
Abdullah is a gay Muslim who has been ghting against discrimination and
hatred towards homosexuals and muslims alike.
Isis King, http://www.kingisis.com, Isis King, an artist hailing from Prince
George County, Maryland, is a graduate of the Arts Institute of Philadelphia.
She became the rst woman of transgender experience to compete on
America’s Next Top Model.
Janet Mock Blog, http://janetmock.com/blog, After publicly proclaiming her
identity as a trans woman, Janet focused her eorts on speaking about the
struggles, triumphs and portrayals of girls and women like herself.
Jose Antonio Vargas, http://joseantoniovargas.com, Jose Antonio Vargas is
a journalist, lmmaker, and the founder of Dene American, a campaign that
seeks to elevate the immigration conversation.
Kenyon Farrow, http://kenyonfarrow.com, Kenyon Farrow has been working
as an organizer, communications strategist, and writer on issues at the
intersection of HIV/AIDS, prisons, and homophobia.
Kokumomedia, http://kokumomedia.com, KOKUMOMEDIA is a multimedia
production company that uses music, lm, literature, and philanthropy to
illuminate the experiences of TGI (Trans*, Gender Non-Conforming, Intersex)
people of color.
La Bordena Nube Brillante, http://nube-brillante.tumblr.com, The Tumblr of
Sam Andazola, a Trans Chicana from El Paso (La Chuca/Chucotown), Texas.
Laverne Cox, http://lavernecox.com, is an American actress, reality television
star, television producer, and transgender advocate.
Malika’s Indian Transgender Blog, http://malikatv.blogspot.com, News, Views
and Articles of interest for the Transgender Woman.
Mia Mingus, http://leavingevidence.wordpress.com, Mia Mingus is a queer
disabled transnational adoptee writer, community educator and organizer
working for disability justice and transformative justice responses to child
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sexual abuse.
Paulina Helm Hernandez, http://southernsonnewground.org, Paulina is also
a founding member of the national First Nations/Two Spirit Collective, a queer
& trans indigenous movement-building cadre. She currently sits on the Vision
and Strategies Council of Kindred Southern Healing Justice Collective.
Pauline Park, http://paulinepark.com, Pauline Park is a Korean American
transgender activist. She is the chair of the New York Association for Gender
Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA) a statewide transgender advocacy organization
that she co-founded in 1998.
PinayTG, http://pinaytg.blogspot.com, This is the online journal of Naomi
Fontanos, a transgender (TG for short) Filipina (Pinay for short) human rights
defender.
Queer and Present Danger, http://aqueerandpresentdanger.tumblr.com,
A Queer and Present Danger a place to sort out challenges and write about
them and how we construct our relationship to include and accommodate our needs.
Queer Asian Pacic – Islander Alliance, http://qapa.org, QAPA is committed
to providing a supportive social, political, and educational environment for
lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, and questioning people of Asian and Pacic
Islander heritage in the Boston and New England area.
Queer People of Color Tumblr, http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/queer-
people-of-color, The Tumblr tags of anything and everything ‘queer people of
color.’
Social Justice Sexuality Project, http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/
studies/34363, The Social Justice Sexuality Project (SJS) is one of the largest
national surveys of Black, Latina/o, Asian and Pacic Islander, and multiracial
lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.
Sonya Renee, http://www.sonya-renee.com, Sonya Renee is a National and
International poetry slam champion, author and educator and founder of the
intersectional international movement, “The Body is Not An Apology.”
TransAPIvoices, http://www.youtube.com/user/transAPIvoices, This is a
collaboration channel of trans and gender non-conforming (gnc) Asians and
Pacic Islanders (API). This channel is for trans/gnc API individuals to share
their narratives and experiences of how they navigate and negotiate their
identities.
Trans Griot, http://transgriot.blogspot.com, News, opinions, commentary,
history and a little creative writing from a proud African-American
transwoman about the world around her.
Urvashi Viad, http://www.urvashivaid.net, Urvashi Vaid is a lawyer,
community organizer, writer and attorney who is a leader in the LGBT and
social justice. She is currently Director of the Engaging Tradition Project at the
Center for Gender and Sexuality Law at Columbia Law School.
Visibility Project, http://www.visibilityproject.org, A national portrait + video
Websites & Blogas
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project dedicated to the Queer Asian American Women, Trans, and Gender
non-conforming communities. The Visibility Project breaks barriers through
powerful imagery and storytelling.
Wu Tsang, http://wutsang.com, WU TSANG is a Los Angeles based lmmaker,
artist, and performer.
Zuna, http://zunainstitute.org, Through a national eort, Zuna advocates
for Black lesbian position on national issues and brings a collective Black
lesbian community into a national presence. Through community organizing,
training, and networking. Zuna will focus on eliminating barriers to a better
quality of life for Black lesbians. These barriers may be based on, but not
limited to, sexual orientation within Black communities, race within the LGBT
communities, and the impact of being Black, lesbian, and female within the
larger society.
QPOC National Conferences
The following is a growing general overview of national conferences
pertaining to queer people of color. This is not a full and complete listing, our
resource library is always growing. If you would like to submit a resource to
the list, please contact Crossroads Coordinator Sheltreese McCoy, sheltreese.
mccoy@wisc.edu.
* This list does not constitute or imply endorsement, recommendations
or favoring by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Opinions and views
expressed on these sites do not necessarily reect the opinions or views of
the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
New England Queer People of Color Conference, Spring, Brown University.
The New England Queer People of Color (QPOC) Conference strives to provide
visibility, liberation, and empowerment for queer-identifying people of color
in the North East Region of the United States. qpocne2015.wordpress.com/
Queer People of Color Conference (University of California Colleges and
Universities), Spring, University of California - Santa Barbara, Location Varies
Annually. Queer People of Color Conference aims to create a space for queer
communities of color and allies to come together to engage in meaningful
dialogues focused on the intersections of the multidimensional identities of
queer people of color (QPOC).
careerqueerscalifornia.blogspot.com/p/conferences.html
BlaqOUT Conference, Spring, [email protected], University of
California - Riverside. Through this conference, we hope to create safe and
courageous spaces that foster the discussion of issues relevant to those who
self identify as Black/African American or of African communities on the LGBT
spectrum. Various workshops, keynotes, and activities will be designed to
unite our communities.
blaqoutucr.blogspot.com
Upper Midwest Queer People of Color and Indigenous Peoples Conference,
Spring, University of Minnesota Twin Cities. For and by QPOC communities
in the Upper Midwest(Minnesota, Wisconsin,Iowa, this rst annual QPOCC
seeks to empower marginalized communities through education, advocacy,
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and community building. midwestqpocc.wordpress.com/2014/08/15/upper-
midwest-queer-people-of-color-conference-2015/
Queer and Asian Conference, Spring, [email protected], University
of California - Berkeley. Each year, QACON brings together more than 400
attendees from all across the U.S. for a weekend of queer & Asian celebration,
empowerment, education, and community here on the UC Berkeley campus.
https://www.facebook.com/queerasianconference/
Wisconsin Queer People of Color Conference, University of Wisconsin -
Madison. The Wisconsin Queer People of Color Conference is a statewide
gathering of self identied Q/TPoC people and their allies. WQPOCC is an
opportunity to explore the unique needs and interest of the community.
Registration Fee: $25.00. msc.wisc.edu/QPOC
Mainstream Conferences with QPOC Sections
Asterisk Trans* Conference, Spring, University of California - Riverside.
Join us for a college conference to build community for trans* people and
allies, to address trans* health and well-being, and to provide education and
resources for trans* youth advocates. Organized by Asterisk of UCR and the
LGBT Resource Center, with support from The California Endowment, the
conference welcomed over 350 participants in 2015. People of all gender
identities and expressions are welcome to attend.
http://asteriskconference.blogspot.com/
Creating Change Conference, Spring, Location varies annually. Creating
Change is for you if you are: an activist and organizer in your community,
campus or workplace; a board member, sta member or leader in a LGBT
organization, community center or foundation; an elected or appointed
ocial; a change agent for justice, freedom & equality for all. In other words,
Creating Change has something for everyone! featuring over 340 workshops
creatingchange.org
Black Transman Inc Conference, Spring, Dallas, Texas. Black Transmen, Inc
is making a reputation as a beacon to a movement that is removing barriers
and building coalitions that will help enhance the quality of life for thousands
of people. The Annual Advocacy Conference will address disparities with
resolutions, featuring comprehensive training workshops on leadership,
alliance and community building, a Career Fair and a Health and HIV/AIDS
Fair. www.blacktransmen.org
The Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Ally College Conference
MBLGTACC, Spring, location varies annually. MBLGTACC has been held each
February since 1993 to promote leadership, activism, networking, diversity,
health, and empowerment among Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender,
Intersex and Allied students, sta, and faculty around the United States and
Canada. It is the largest and oldest regional LGBT college conference in North
America. https://saapps.illinoisstate.edu/dos/mblgtacc2015/
Philly Trans Health Conference, Summer, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
PTHC proudly oers a space for Trans* people and our allies, families, and
providers to come together to re-envision what health means for Trans*
people. The focus of this unique conference is promoting transgender health
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and wellness in mind, body, spirit, and community.
www.trans-health.org
Southern Comfort Conference, Fall, Fort Lauderdale Florida (2015-2017) A
support & education conference for families of gender variant loved ones.
We started last year with a 4 hour group support session and had such a
great response that we now have a full day of speakers, panels and activities.
southerncomfortconference.org
Student Social Justice Training Institute, location varies annually. Past
participants have found SJTI to be an intense experience designed to deepen
understanding of the dynamics of oppression at the individual, group,
cultural, and systems levels through the lens of race and racism.
www.sjti.org/home_student.html
Faith & Spirituality
The following is a growing general overview of religious and spiritual
organizations pertaining to queer people of color. This is not a full and
complete listing, our resource library is always growing. If you would like
to submit a resource to the list, please contact Crossroads Coordinator
Sheltreese McCoy, sheltreese.mccoy@wisc.edu.
* This list does not constitute or imply endorsement, recommendations
or favoring by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Opinions and views
expressed on these sites do not necessarily reect the opinions or views of
the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
MUSLIM
Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity
facebook.com/TheMASGD
The Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity works to support,
empower and connect LGBTQ Muslims.
Muslims for Progressive Values
mpvusa.org
MPV establishes and nurtures vibrant progressive Muslim communities.
They do this by creating opportunities for religious discourse, volunteer
and community activities, and cultural events bringing together the arts,
spirituality and social activism
LGBT Muslims
islamandhomosexuality.com
This website discusses the issues surrounding Islam and sexual, as well as
gender, diversity. The site oers diverse and positive perspectives from varies
individuals, organizations, and does its best to give historical background to
these modern issues.
CHRISTIAN
The Fellowship
radicallyinclusive.com
The Fellowship is a coalition of Christian churches and ministries which
recognize the need for networking, accountability, fellowship and resource
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facilitation.
Unity Fellowship
unityfellowshipchurch.org/mainsite
Founded in 1982 by Archbishop Carl Bean, Unity Fellowship is a non prot
organization dedicated to serving LGBTQ People of Color in the Los Angeles
area.
Many Voices: A Black Church Movement for Gay and Transgender Justice
manyvoices.org
Many Voices is a Black church movement for gay and transgender justice,
they envision a community that embraces the diversity of the human family
and ensures that all are treated with love, compassion, and justice.
United Church of Christ
ucc.org
The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a distinct and diverse community of
Christians that come together as one church to join faith and action.
Metropolitan Community Churches
mccchurch.org
Metropolitan Community Churches are on a bold mission to transform hearts,
lives, and history. MCC believes in Do justice, show kindness, and live humbly
with God.
Gay Church Organization
gaychurch.org
Gay church organization is a LGBTQ Church Directory. It features the largest
welcoming and arming church directory in the world.
CATHOLOCISM
Dignity USA
dignityusa.org/frontpage
DignityUSA envisions and works for a time when Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and
Transgender Catholics are armed and experience dignity through the
integration of their spirituality with their sexuality, and as beloved persons of
God participate fully in all aspects of life within the Church and Society.
Reconciling Works
reconcilingworks.org/
Reconciling Lutherans is a program of ReconcilingWorks for individuals.
People of every age, class, color, ethnic origin; people of all sexual orientations
and gender identities; people who are single, married, divorced, separated,
blessed or partnered; people who are temporarily-able, disabled, or of
diering abilities.
JUDAISM
Interfaith Family
interfaithfamily.com
Interfaith Family provides resources for how to learn about Jewish life,
practices and customs.
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ATHEIST/AGNOSTIC
Patas
patas.co/
Founded in February 14, 2011, the Philippine Atheists and Agnostics Society
is a trailblazer of critical thinking, free thought and scientic inquiry in the
Philippines.
Black Nonbelievers, Inc
blacknonbelievers.wordpress.com/
Black Nonbelievers (BN) is a 501 c3 non-prot fellowship of nonbelievers
headquartered in the Atlanta area that is dedicated to providing an
informative, caring, festive and friendly environment. It strive to connect with
other Blacks (and their allies) who are living free of religion and irrational
beliefs, and might otherwise be shunned by family and friends.
INTERFAITH
Institute for Welcoming Resources
welcomingresources.org/about.htm
The purpose of this ecumenical group is to provide the resources for multiple
denominations whereby churches become welcoming and arming of all
congregants regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity.
Faity & Spirituality
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The Crossroads Initiative is a “Uniquely Wisconsin”
approach to addressing the intersectional realities of our
student’s lives. This initiative bridges the work of both the
Multicultural Student Center and the LGBT Campus Center to
address the needs of students living in the intersections of race,
sexuality, gender, and other layers of identity.
Website: msc.wisc.edu/crossroads
Facebook.com/UniversityOfWisconsinCrossroads
QPOC Resource Guide, 3rd Edition, 2015-2016 Academic Year
Principal Contributors: D. Nebi Hilliard, Sheltreese D. McCoy, Susan Yang, Houa
Lee, Damien Outar
Cover Art & Booklet Design: Chelsea O’Neil
