black Archives - Q Spirit

John T. Graves: Black gay clergyman was founding president of nation’s first LGBTQ group in 1924 (Society for Human Rights)

by Kittredge Cherry | | Dec 1-15, Saints

John T. Graves was a black gay clergyman and first president of the Society for Human Rights, the oldest documented LGBTQ-rights organization in the United States. It was founded 100 years ago in 1924 in Chicago. Graves’ historic role proves that the LGBTQ-rights...

Grant-Michael Fitzgerald: Pioneering black gay Catholic brother advocated LGBTQ rights in 1970s

by Kittredge Cherry | | Nov. 1-15, Saints

Grant-Michael Fitzgerald was an openly gay African American Roman Catholic brother who advocated for LGBTQ rights in the 1970s and ‘80s. He was diagnosed with AIDS and died in a Wisconsin hospice on Nov. 10, 1986 at age 39. Renowned black gay professor and minister...

Carl Bean: Black LGBTQ church founder who sang “I Was Born This Way”

by Kittredge Cherry | | Saints, Sept 1-15

Carl Bean was founding archbishop of the Unity Fellowship Church Movement in the black LGBTQ community, early AIDS activist and Motown singer of the 1977 gay-liberation anthem “I Was Born This Way.” He died Sept. 7, 2021 at age 77 after a long illness. Bean (May 26,...

Black Madonna of Czestochowa becomes lesbian defender Erzuli Dantor

by Kittredge Cherry | | Aug 15-31, Saints

The Black Madonna of Czestochowa, one of the most famous Catholic icons, is the model for a Haitian Vodou goddess who protects lesbians. Traditional images of Erzulie Dantor, the Vodou defender of lesbians, are based on the Black Madonna of Czestochowa, whose feast...

Bayard Rustin: Gay saint of racial justice and non-violence

by Kittredge Cherry | | Aug 15-31, Jan 1-15, March 16-31, Saints

Bayard Rustin was a black gay activist and the genius behind the civil rights movement. He became the chief organizer of the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington where where Martin Luther King gave his historic “I Have a Dream Speech.” A follower of the Quaker faith...

Pauli Murray: Queer saint who stood for racial and gender equality

by Kittredge Cherry | | July 1-15, Nov 16-30, Saints

Human rights champion and queer saint Pauli Murray is a renowned civil rights pioneer, feminist, author, Episcopal priest and lawyer whose legal arguments were used in landmark Supreme Court decisions outlawing racism and sexism. Murray was arrested and jailed for...

Marsha P. Johnson: African American transgender woman at Stonewall Uprising

by Kittredge Cherry | | Aug 15-31, July 1-15, June 1-15, Saints

Marsha P. Johnson was an African American transgender woman activist and one of those credited with starting the Stonewall Rebellion that launched the modern LGBTQ liberation movement. A lifelong Christian, she was nicknamed “the Saint of Christopher Street” during...

Saints of Stonewall inspire LGBTQ justice — and artists, authors and film makers

by Kittredge Cherry | | Calendar, June 16-30, Saints

LGBTQ Pride celebrations are rooted in sacred resistance — when queer people fought back against harassment at New York City’s Stonewall Inn, they launched the modern LGBTQ liberation movement on June 28, 1969. Their bold rebellion against government...

Uganda Martyrs raise questions on religion and LGBTQ rights

by Kittredge Cherry | | June 1-15, Saints

Tough questions about homosexuality, religion and LGBTQ rights are raised by the 45 Uganda Martyrs whose feast day is June 3. In 2024 their feast day falls two months after Uganda’s Constitutional Court upheld one of the world’s harshest anti-LGBTQ laws, including the...

The Two Rebeccas: Queer black pair founded Shaker religious community in 1800s

by Kittredge Cherry | | May 15-31, Saints

Preacher Rebecca Cox Jackson and her longtime companion Rebecca Perot were queer African American women who founded a Shaker religious community in Philadelphia in the 1800s. Known as “the two Rebeccas,” they lived together as ministry partners for more than 30 years...