The March Goes On

Transgender Pride Flag created in 1999 by Monica Helms.

Even as huge strides have been made in the march for equal rights, homophobia and persecution of LGBTQ+ identified people remains ever-present. The Civil Rights movement, beginning with Title VII anti-discrimination act in 1964, was a turning point for the country. This year is the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots (1969) in which black, transgender women led riots against the police raids occurring in gay bars across New York City. It is marked every year by pride marches that take place in cities across the country.

The first gay minister was ordained by the United Church of Christ in 1972, and since then, many churches have welcomed LGBTQ+ congregants and ministers, while the practice of conversion therapy has been minimized. In 1978, the first openly gay San Francisco politician, Harvey Milk, was assassinated. As the decade turned, the AIDS crisis killed thousands of gay men, in a public health crisis that was largely ignored by the Reagan Administration.

In the 21st century, President Obama repealed the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, allowing gay men and women to serve openly in the U.S military for the first time in history. Legal bans on discrimination in hiring and housing practices on the basis of sexual orientation are now standard practice in most states. More and more celebrities and politicians are speaking up for gay rights on worldwide stages.

The Trump administration has had a complicated relationship with LGBTQ+ citizens, especially as the movement for transgender rights has grown. The administration has been passive to gay rights infractions in Chechnya (Russia) and

Uganda. Being gay is still punishable by death in ten countries. The United States is not one of these, but there are small conservative factions within the U.S. that call for the death sentence for anyone who is not cis-gender heterosexual. Meanwhile persecution and violence are still pervasive, with calls for the repeal of gender-neutral bathroom laws and hate crimes including murder of transgendered people, especially those of color.

Fellow Travelers stands as one of the few operas that have a queer-centric love story. The theater industry has started to diversify their narratives to increase queer representation on stage. This is evident in seminal works such as RENT, Fun Home, Bare: A Pop Opera, Kinky Boots, The Laramie Project, and Angels in America, as well as many new works being developed in theatres across the country today. Brooklyn-based American Opera Projects premiered the first lesbian opera, Patience and Sarah by Paula Kimper and Wendy Larson at Lincoln Center in 1998. Operas telling these stories are still rare, and several companies have begun commissioning more diverse work including New York City Opera, which premiered the opera Stonewall by Iain Bell, in 2019. American Opera Projects also premiered Spears’ own Paul’s Case (2013), and trans-themed chamber opera As One (2014) by Laura Kaminsky.

Beyond homophobia, the atmosphere of fear that saturated every aspect of life depicted in Fellow Travelers, is a reality for many today. While some fear their very livelihood is being threatened by a decade of liberal domestic policies, school-aged children are now practicing safety drills to prepare for armed intruders, and refugees and immigrants are perceived threats to national security. Even communism still “threatens” American democracy on the world’s stage through relations with and sanctions against China. All while a political debate about the world’s climate continues against news reports of increasingly devastating natural disasters. You may not have been alive during the Cold War, but we all can certainly relate to the immediacy of the feeling of fear during that time.

Protests against family separations at the border and ICE arrests in Washington D.C., 2018.

What stories do you feel are important to be told through the arts that are not being told yet? If these stories were described using music, what might that music sound like to convey the emotion of the story?