Shoulders to Stand On

Do You Know Your History?

Do you have a story, memory or photograph about the gay community and/or being gay in Rochester, NY you would like to share? If so, please add your comment to any blog post or email us at share@shoulderstostandonblog.org.

Events in Gay History - June

by Evelyn Bailey

Excerpted from the June 29, 1971 issue of the Empty Closet

GAY  PRIDE WEEK in New York City began on Friday, June 18 and consisted of 10 days of plays, movies, workshops, dances, suppers and marches.

Thursday, June 24 a candlelight march to City Hall was held in support of the City Council bill for fair employment for gay people.  Several people were arrested.

Friday, June 25 several dances and a community supper were held.

Bob Osborne

by Evelyn Bailey

In last month’s Shoulders To Stand On article we looked at HOW and WHAT the Gay Liberation Front was.  This month we will look at who the people involved in the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) were.  We need to remember the times in which the GLF was established. 

The year was 1970.  A Richard Nixon was President.  U.S. troops invade Cambodia (May 1). Four students at Kent State University in Ohio slain by National Guardsmen at demonstration protesting incursion into Cambodia (May 4).   This was the year the Beatles broke up, the year Jimmy Hendrix and Janis Joplin died of a drug overdose at the age of 27, the year of Midnight Cowboy, Love Story, Airport, the year IBM introduces the floppy disk, the year Maya Angelou wrote I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and the year of the 5th Dimension’s Grammy award winning song Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In.

Onto this stage steps Bob Osborne, the original founder of the Gay Liberation movement in Rochester.  Bob had a flair for revolutionary rhetoric.  His early writings in the first three Empty Closets carried with them the spirit of the turbulent 1960s.

Events in Gay History - May

by Evelyn Bailey

May 1
1976 - Christopher Street magazine debuts.
1982 - Scientific American publishes an ad from the Lesbian and Gay Associated Engineers and Scientists. Science News refuses to run the ad.
1984 - Advocate Men magazine debuts.
1986 - Lesbian Ann Bancroft becomes the first woman to reach the North Pole by dogsled. The trip, which started from Ellesmere Island, took her two months.

Gay Liberation Front

by Evelyn Bailey

Over the next three months, Shoulders To Stand On will honor the Rochester Gay Liberation Front (hereafter referred to as the RGLF), forerunner to the Gay Alliance of the Genesee Valley.

Who or what - you might ask – was the Gay Liberation Front? To answer this question we need to take a trip back in our LGBT history.

The event that most authors seem to identify as having the most influence on the beginning of the gay liberation movement was the Stonewall riots of 1969. It would be a mistake to consider this event as the origin of the concept of gay liberation or the origin of a sense of community and gay pride.

Do You Know Your History?

Do you have a story, memory or photograph about the gay community and/or being gay in Rochester, NY you would like to share? If so, please add your comment to any blog post or email us at share@shoulderstostandonblog.org.

GLSEN and GSA's

by Evelyn Bailey

It is not only individuals who have provided us with Shoulders To Stand On, it is also organizations, agencies and groups. This month Shoulders To Stand On will look at  GLSEN Rochester and Gay Straight Alliances (GSA’s) in the Rochester area. 

GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, is the leading national education organization focused on ensuring safe schools for all students. Established nationally in 1995, GLSEN envisions a world in which every child learns to respect and accept all people, regardless of sexual orientation or genderidentity/expression.  Founded as a local group in 1990, the Gay and Lesbian Independent School Teachers Network (GLSTN) began as a volunteer group of 70 gay and lesbian educators.

Events in Gay History - April

by Evelyn Bailey

April 1
1970 - The Advocate estimates that there are approximately 6,817,000 gays and lesbians living in the United States.
1985 - The first classes are held at the Harvey Milk School for gay, lesbian and bisexual youth, a New York city-funded institution. Harvey Milk is the first gay high school in America.

Rochester, NY Pride Parade 2008

Midge Costanza: A Tireless Worker for Gay, Women and Civil Rights

by Evelyn Bailey

In this month’s Shoulders To Stand On column I want to focus on a Rochester, NY lesbian who had a tremendous impact on gay rights, women’s rights and civil rights – Midge Costanza.

Midge Constanza's parents, Philip and Concetta Granata Constanza, emigrated from Sicily to upstate New York, where they went into the sausage-making business. Margaret Costanza, who was nicknamed Midge, was born on November 28, 1932 in LeRoy, New York and grew up in Rochester. After graduating from high school and holding various clerical jobs she became the administrative assistant to a Rochester real estate developer.

Women Who Contributed to the Gay Rights Movement

by Evelyn Bailey

March is Women’s History Month.  We begin with a couple of local Rochestarians, and move on to those who are recognized nationally for their contribution to the gay rights movement.

Dr. Karen Hagberg is a founding member of the Gay Liberation Front at the University of Rochester (UR), precursor to the Gay Alliance of the Genesee Valley (GAGV).  Karen helped organize the first LGBT Dance at the UR and participated in the first public action for gay rights in Rochester.