Who would you want to see featured on our money
HEROES
and why? Tweet your selection to @bostonpride or gram it with the tag @boston.pride.
Queer as a Three-dollar Bill Artwork:
MB Jones
With the Treasury Department’s recent proposal to recognize Harriet Tubman and her heroic work by placing her on the front of the twenty-dollar bill, as well as to include other pioneers in the suffrage and civil rights movement on the backs of the five- and tendollar bills, Boston Pride got to thinking about the many contributions of queer people from diverse backgrounds throughout our nation’s history, from the struggle for social justice to the creation of art and the advancement of science. Accordingly, we asked members of the community “If you could place any LGBTQI individual from US history on the nation’s currency, who would it be and why?” Here are their responses:
“James Baldwin because he was an African American gay man who was a literary genius. He captured his life of being gay through his writing. I also appreciate how open and fearless he was in talking about race in America.” – Julia Golden, Assistant Director of Diversity & Multicultural Affairs and LGBT Liaison, Salem State University
“I feel obligated to select someone socially respectable, so as not to upset the masses. Someone just provocative enough to honor the legacy of the people that gave me the rights I enjoy today, but not so near the edge to be offensive. But our history is not and has not been about making society comfortable. It has not been about fitting into traditions, but rather demanding traditions be changed or abandoned to ensure our equal treatment and rights…So I’d pick Joseph A. Sonnabend. While not an American citizen, was pivotal in the fight for and expansion of patient's rights, specifically as it relates to the treatment and research of the AIDS epidemic.” – Demetrius Tuck, Talent Agent, Boston 124 | Boston Pride 2016
“Abraham Lincoln, but since he’s already on the five-dollar bill, I’d say Eleanor Roosevelt. Not only is she a bad-ass bitch, but it’s about time we had more women on our paper money.” – Sister Luvinya Always, The Boston Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence
“A tireless warrior for the underdog, Barbara Jordan was a trailblazer in the Civil Rights Movement. As the first known lesbian elected to the United States Congress, she ushered in the active participation of women of color, lesbians, and other marginalized people in politics and activism on a national scale.” – Erin O’Fallon, Gay4Good & Queeraoke Host “All the transwomen of the Stonewall Riots for their courage and unwillingness to be pushed around for the good of a community that has ultimately forgotten them.” – Keelin Godsey, Physical Therapist, Cape Cod
“Harry Hay’s story is steeped in 20th-century history. In the early 1950s he founded the Mattachine Society and publicly fought police entrapment and prosecution of gay men; in the 70s he founded the Radical Faeries, and explored the idea that gay men had a unique consciousness and purpose in society. He was a dedicated leftist, an early member of the Communist Party, an anti-war and environmental activist, a supporter of Native American rights, and labor unions. Heck, he even dated Grandpa Walton (Will Geer). Doesn’t get more American than that.” – Tony Grima, Board Member, The History Project
