Our History Too

maybe you didn't know, but now you do

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Timelines

I'm not done with the Katrina Haslip zine, yet. There's some typography, editing, and layout issues we're trying to work out before sharing.

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Today is Katrina Haslip's birthday. She worked with the ACT UP Women's Committee (Maxine Wolfe), lawyer -- Terry McGovern, and others to change the CDC's definition of AIDS to include symptoms that impact women like chronic pelvic inflammatory disease, vaginal candidiasis, sores, chronic itching and yeast infections. She advocated for studies to include and center women.

In Bedford Hills Prison, she helped co-found ACE -- a group that educated about AIDS and provide buddies to incarcerated women who were living with AIDS. Katrina was also a Black Muslim woman living with AIDS, but she wasn't recognized by the government. Though the CDC didn't expand the list to all the symptoms she and other activists wanted, her dedication helped add some symptoms to the list. She died in Dec. 2, 1992 and the definition was changed in 1993.

I'm working on a zine about her that I'll publish this week. Here's a transcribed speech she gave at the CDC in ATL on Nov 19, 1990.

Thank you, Katrina.

Listen to her speech on youtube.

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1:21:56 Osh Smith: I know people, who would rather not know and if they do know. They’d rather act like they had no idea that it’s happening. 

Dr. Rashaan CEO/Founder Blaqout: In 2016, the CDC released a statistic that said that unless something changes, one out of every two black men in this country of any age who has sex with men, regardless of how they identify, they will contract HIV in their lifetime.

I think it's easy to hear things like, "Oh, HIV is no longer a death sentence," and just stop your learning, your education there. I do agree that HIV is no longer a death sentence

if you know your status, (laughs) if you're able to access the care that you need, and if you're able to be adherent to that care. Yes, then HIV is a longer death sentence, but I've lost too many friends to know otherwise. 

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Nothing Without Us

Nothing Without Us: Trailer

Nothing Without Us: The Women Who Will End AIDS - USA | 2017 | 67 mins; DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Harriet Hirshorn; PRODUCER/EDITOR: Mary Patiern

Can be watched on Kanopy for free.

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"Safe 'T' Lessons: HIV Prevention for the Transgender Community" (1996)

An educational film created by the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center to help trans people navigate HIV and STI prevention strategies.

Interviews cover topics that are still relevant today.

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AIDS Activist, Katrina Haslip , 33

Katrina Haslip (1956–1992) was an outspoken activist for HIV/AIDS awareness and prison reform, dedicated to advocating for the rights of incarcerated women living with HIV/AIDS. After being sentenced to prison in the 1980s, she was diagnosed with HIV. During her time behind bars, Haslip saw how women, particularly Black women, were often neglected in the battle against AIDS. As a former sex worker, her experiences and insights fueled her commitment to fighting for marginalized communities impacted by the epidemic.

Work:

✊🏿 Advocacy for Women with HIV/AIDS – While in prison, Haslip co-founded the ACE (AIDS Counseling and Education) Program to support women affected by HIV/AIDS, a health issue that policymakers often ignored. She dedicated her life to breaking the stigma associated with HIV.

✊🏿 Challenging the CDC's Definition of AIDS – Haslip challenged the CDC's definition of AIDS, which focused mainly on men's symptoms. She demanded that conditions affecting women, such as cervical cancer, be included to ensure women receive proper healthcare.

✊🏿 Activism After Prison – After her release, Haslip continued her advocacy work with groups like ACT UP and the Women’s Caucus. She fought for better healthcare policies for women living with HIV/AIDS. Though, she worked 3 jobs at once (and one offered health insurance), she feared that using her job's insurance would kick other employees off the insurance plan because of her "preexisting condition".

Documentaries/Podcast

Prison (Interview Women) Bedford Hills and A.C.E (2 videos 30ish min a piece)

Blindspot: The Plague in the Shadows | Playlist| Full Episodes

Nothing without us: The women who will end AIDS

Memorial video:

Memorial tape for Katrina Haslip, an AIDS activist for prison issues who died of AIDS in December 2, 1992 (11 min)

Newspaper clippings:

Conversations: Katrina Haslip; An AIDS Activist Who Helped Women Get Help Earlier

Katrina Haslip Dies; AIDS Worker Was 33

Books:

The Invisible epidemic : the story of women and AIDS by Corea, Gena Internet Archive

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I was looking for clips of Blackberri (the activist and musician). He appeared in several documentaries in the 70s and 80s, but I didn't realize he was in Tongues Untied or that he had his own album in 1981.

"From early on as well, it was clear Blackberri was born to make music. He picked up the harmonica at age nine, and soon was playing just about any song that came out of the radio. His love for music was temporarily derailed in 1965 when Blackberri was drafted into the US Navy. Life took another turn for the worse when a shipmate turned Blackberri in for being gay, and he was discharged."

--Outword Magazine 2017, Blackberri Interview

Blackberri passed away in 2021.

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Weekly Town Talk

Alexandria, Louisiana • Sat, May 11, 1929

Life of Peter Stratford, Woman Who Married Another Woman, Is Revealed OAKLAND, Cal., May 6.-(By A. P.)

A grave in potter's field yawned here for "Peter Stratford," a woman who for years masqueraded as a man, married another woman and worked at jobs varying all the way from heavy manual labor to writing critical essays with a sufistic tint. No one claimed the body. "Peter Stratford" revealed his secret to a physician before "his" death Thursday.

Dozens of letters found among her effects at Niles, Calif., showed glimpses of a personality deeply immersed In the lore of Sufism, a cult which centuries ago arose as a reform faction of Mohammedanism.

These were studied in an attempt to learn her life history. *Peter Stratford" it was believed, was born in New Zealand, the daughter of a member of the British royal guards. Several years ago she appeared in New York as Deresley Morton, writer and literary critic. And then "Peter Stratford" appeared, wooing Mrs. Elizabeth Rowland as "Stratford" lay ill in a Kansas City hospital.

"He" and Mrs. Row. land were married there in 1925. Some of the letters were love messages to women, some were expositions of the Sufistic cult and some were personal and business missives. Some of them indicated literary achievement and some were incoherent but the thick sheaf of letters found in a trunk in her hotel room cast an insight into the incredible life of a woman who for years worked and lived with men without ex| citing suspicion concerning her sex.

*Missing from the article, a cogent description of how Peter only lived this life because he was influenced by SJWs.

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I posted about Word is Out a couple of weeks ago. It was a groundbreaking documentary staring 26 lesbian men and women. Dennis Chiu was one of the interviews. One thing you can't escape is the honesty and sincerity he gives with each answer.

Greg Youmans contacted Dennis Chiu for the book, Word is Out: A Queer Film Classic.

Queer Film Classics Review by Roxanne Samer

Review:

"While Chiu appears a bit unsure of himself in the final film, Youmans notes that Chiu seems confident in the video pre-interview. The archive does not definitively explain why this is, but as Youmans concludes,

“Whatever the explanation, the person in the video pre-interview, with his impassioned critique of white, Western racism and imperialism, seems unassimiable to the argument and ideology of the final film.”[11]

In many ways, stories such as these affirm what many of us already believe we know about the overwhelming whiteness and racism of gay liberation. In other ways, however, thanks to Youmans' adroit analysis, they reveal such conversations as having happened at that time, not merely decades after the fact."

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Maria Yemarianfere & family

Maria's daughter and granddaughter discuss what it was like learning their mother/grandmother was lesbian.

Lucy Winer profiles gay senior citizens (eight men and women) living diverse lives. Released in 1985, Silent Pioneers, shows people discussing their lives as out gay people in the 1980s.

Watch the full documentary on youtube.

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Lorraine Hurdle (1922-2014) was a Black lesbian woman who served in the United States Women’s Army Corps (WAC) in Germany during World War II. Pictured dated as being from 1939.

Lorraine's papers were donated to the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender (GLBT) Historical Society, San Francisco CA.

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'Person' Avoids Term in Jail HACKENSACK (AP). -

A 42-year-old Chicago person in the midst of a sex change operation has escaped a jail term because a judge wasn't sure where the sentence should be served. After pleading guilty to a 1973 burglary charge, Jacinto Arnold Emanuel was given 90-day suspended jail sentence Monday by Superior Court Judge Fred C. Galda, who called the case one of the most unusual he's seen in 27 years on the bench. Dressed in a faded denim jump suit and wearing a beret over his blond, curly hair, Emanuel said he began the sex change process three years ago and soon will have the final operation to become a woman.

A sheriff's officer ordered Emanuel to remove the beret while in the courtroom, but the judge said it was all right for ladies to wear hats. Emanuel put the beret back on. His lawyer asked for a nonjail sentence because the county has no appropriate place to keep Emanuel. He said the $306 in merchandise taken by Emanuel was recovered before his client jumped bail and fled to Chicago. After sentencing, the judge said Emanuel could be processed through the courts instead of having to go to the main jail building housing male inmates.

Galda also offered to have sheriff's officers carry Emanuel's suitcase. Emanuel declined the offer.

This story also appeared in Jet Magazine.

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Jet Magazine - March 1981

Kaiema Harvey never approved of her husband's gambling, but then he won $1m dollars in the New York State Lottery. James Harvey played the lottery under Kaiema's name. They planned to use the winnings to buy a home and adopt children.

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In 1967, Nikolai Ursin, shot this short independent film which was a slice of life look at a trans woman's life. I've searched through newspaper archives to try and identify the start of the film, but haven't had any luck.

She had the same dreams that many women do, which is to settle down with a partner who appreciates her and who she can appreciate.

According to this bio, Ursin was a film student (MFA '71) at UCLA and was partners with artist Norman Yonemoto when he filmed Behind Every Good Man. Nikolai passed away in 1990, Norman passed away in 2014.

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Tenika Watson

In 1982, singer, Teddy Pendergrass, was involved in a car accident that changed his life forever. The car wreck would leave, Pendergrass, an entertainer known for his singing and dancing, paralyzed. Immediately, reporters began reporting on a "mystery woman."

Pendergrass met Tenika Watson at a popular club and offered her a ride home. Within days of the wreck, the press dug into Tenika's background reporting that she was a transsexual, deadnaming her, discussing her gender affirmation surgery, and sex work that she'd done in the previous 5 years.

Tenika's headshot appeared in newspapers all around the country.

As people read the news they probably weren't thinking about how much the story through her life into a tailspin.

Tenika Watson: Living beyond Pendergrass’ tragedy

Philly Gay News: I read a Jet article with the headline, “Teddy’s Transsexual Passenger,” in which they call you a “confessed transsexual.” It seems like it really tilted the trajectory of your life, your modeling career, etc. 

Tenika Watson: Tilted it? It destroyed it. I was told so by potential employers and it really made me doubt myself. It was a tough time. I had one reporter come to my house and try to force her way in the door. There were some very ugly things printed. I had to move out of the city. Which is sad because I love this city. I love the people, I love the neighborhoods … There are so many places to hide!

Ms. Watson wrote a book called, My Life is No Accident: A memoir by Tenkia Watson. Tenika is also a self-taught painter.

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Ebony - Dec 1977 - Page 19

This is a letter a reader wrote to Ebony magazine apologizing for rumors she believed about Donna Summer. She sincerely wanted to apologize for believing a rumor that Summer was male and that her child wasn't her own.

Donna appears in Ebony Magazine Oct 1977 issue to clear up rumors about her child and her gender.

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BLK VOL. 3 NO. 6, Published & Edited by Alan Ball - June 1991

Full issue here. I appreciated Joe's answer about being bisexual and practicing safe sex.

Joe Simmons (aka Thomas Williams) passed away in 1995.