Being Explicit: Creating Space by and for LGBTQ+ Youth of Color
the stories being told, from the curators of Hide/Seek to the director’s suggestion for an LGBTQ Teen Night, to public programs. It takes so many people to make it work, and it unfortunately has often fallen on the backs of LGBTQ educators of color to do the heavy lifting. Brooklyn Museum, as with many institutions, is still learning, growing, and experimenting; the museum is definitely not without its faults, and we, too, have encountered considerable resistance and hurdles internally and externally in this process. But like many other art museums shifting their exhibitions and programs to be reflective of their communities, the Brooklyn Museum has become a space where, especially for those of us in teen programs, we can constantly challenge our understandings of what it truly means to champion marginalized voices within a colonialist institution and inscribe historically and socially the shared future that we hope to create. We all have our part to play in the revolution. Being explicit, bold, and brave through centering—by way of staff, programs, and exhibitions—the experiences of the most marginalized groups––across all identities––is crucial if museums aim to reflect the shared culture—past and present—of all people. 1 The shooting at Pulse nightclub on July 12, 2016, was the deadliest act of violence against LGBTQ people and the deadliest single-gunman mass shooting in the United States at the time. Forty-nine people were killed and fifty-eight were injured by gunman Omar Mateen, who was reported to have frequently made homophobic, racist, and sexist comments in the past. The night of the shooting was the club’s Latin night; nearly all the victims were Lantinx. 2 LGBTQ+ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and more/ other. For the purposes of this essay, I will use the acronym “LGBTQ” (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer), however terminology and corresponding acronyms are regional, cultural, and constantly shifting. This acronym is meant to include all identities that sit outside the socially accepted norm of cisgender individuals (male or female identity and sex assigned at birth) and of heterosexual orientation— including lesbian, gay, bisexual, pansexual, asexual, intersex, two spirit, transgender, gender nonconforming, questioning, and queer. For a glossary of related terminology, see Human Rights Campaign glossary of terms, http://www.hrc.org/resources/glossary-of-terms. 3 For a full report on violence against LGBTQ communities, including a timeline of the LGBTQ rights movement and resistance work alongside anti-LGBTQ legislation, see “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and HIV-Affected Hate Violence in 2016,” National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, http://avp.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06 /NCAVP_2016HateViolence_REPORT.pdf. 4 “LGBTQ Census Advocacy, 1990–2017,” National LGBTQ Task Force, http://www.thetaskforce.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/LGBTQ -Census-Advocacy.pdf.
5 “The Report of the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey,” National Center for Transgender Equality, http://www.transequality.org /sites/default/files/docs/usts/USTS%20Full%20Report%20 -%20FINAL%201.6.17.pdf. 6 See LGBTstats, Williams Institute Data Blog, https:// williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/lgbtstats/. 7 Colleen O’Connor, “Pediatricians See Growing Number of Cross-Gender Kids like Coy Mathis,” Denver Post, March 2, 2013, http://www.denverpost.com/2013/03/02/pediatricians -see-growing-number-of-cross-gender-kids-like-coy-mathis/. 8 L aura Donnelly, “Rise in Child Transgender Referrals,” Telegraph, April 7, 2015, http://www.telegraph.co.uk /news/health/news/11519603/Rise-in-child-transgender -referrals.html. 9 Z achary Pullin, “Two Spirit: The Story of a Movement Unfolds,” Native People’s Magazine, http://www.nativepeoples .com/Native-Peoples/May-June-2014/Two-Spirit-The-Story-of -a-Movement-Unfolds/. 10 See, for example, John Noble Wilford, “A Mystery, Locked in Timeless Embrace,” New York Times, December 20, 2005, http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/20/science/a-mystery -locked-in-timeless-embrace.html. 11 In 2000 the US Census allowed respondents to check more than one box. Prior to that point, the only way to account for multiple racial/ethnic identities was to check the boxes marked with the terms “mulatto,” “quadroon,” or “octoroon,” racist and outmoded terms representing a person with one black parent and one white parent; one black grandparent; or one black great grandparent, respectively. For a complete history of the term “mulatto,” see “A Historical Look at Racial Classification & Representation through Cinema, Law and Census,” Evoking the Mulatto, http://www .evokingthemulatto.com/historicalmapping/map.html. 12 “Growing up LGBT in America: HRC Survey Report Key Findings,” Human Rights Campaign, http://assets.hrc.org// files/assets/resources/Growing-Up-LGBT-in-America _Report.pdf. 13 O’Connor, “Pediatricians See Growing Number of Cross -Gender Kids like Coy Mathis.” 14 “Statistics You Should Know about Gay & Transgender Students,” PFLAG NYC, http://www.pflagnyc.org/safeschools /statistics. 15 Nick Adams, “Honoring Known Cases of Deadly AntiTrans Violence in 2017,” GLAAD, https://www.glaad.org /blog/glaad-calls-increased-and-accurate-media-coverage -transgender-murders; “Violence against the Transgender Community in 2017,” Human Rights Campaign, https:// www.hrc.org/resources/violence-against-the-transgender -community-in-2017. 16 Jennifer Clement, “What It Was Like to Be Basquiat’s Lover,” Vulture, December 15, 2014, http://www.vulture .com/2014/12/what-it-was-like-to-be-basquiats-lover.html. 17 Ernest Hardy, “Basquiat’s Relationship to Contemporary Queer Black Art Explored at the Schomburg,” Mandatory, February 6, 2016, http://www.mandatory.com/living/950423 -basquiats-relationship-contemporary-queer-black-art -explored-schomburg. 18 Donald Albrecht with Stephen Vider, Gay Gotham: Art and Underground Culture in New York (New York: Skira Rizzoli Publications, 2016), cover flap. 19 Cheri Ehrlich, in conversation with the author, July– November 2017. 20 Becky Alemán, in conversation with the author, July 27, 2017. 21 “Brooklyn Museum LGBTQ Teen Night Planning Committee 2016 Evaluation Report,” Strength in Numbers Consulting Group. 22 Richard Sandell and Eithne Nightingale, Museums, Equality and Social Justice (London: Routledge, 2012), 1–9.
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