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Seeking Stories of Queer California: A Hidden Histories Online Exhibit

Joseph Hansen, letter to the Los Angeles Times editor, 1984

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"The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe,” said the French novelist Gustave Flaubert. Poets, novelists, playwrights, and creative writers of all kinds have been interpreting the world around them through writing for millennia. LGBTQ+ authors use their writing to ask questions about themselves and their world, to reveal themselves or hide themselves, to connect with other members of the community, and to understand what they believe.
Contents of this tag:
Contents of this tag:
1. Sisters at March on Sacramento, 1988
2. Joseph Hansen, letter to the Los Angeles Times editor, 1984
3. Prop 8 What Should We Amend Next?, 2008
4. Joseph Hansen, “Why I wrote Early Graves,” circa 1987
5. Lesbian Wedding, 1987
6. Lesbian parents and their children at the March on Washington, 1993
7. A Proud Mom, 1989
8. Ron Douglas (left) and Jack Wilson cut their wedding cake at the private marriage ceremony, 1970
9. Rally for marriage equality day of decision, 2008
10. Jeff Horton, Larry Pickens and their son at Los Angeles gay pride, 1995
11. The World Book of Naders, undated
12. Black Lesbian Newsletter, December 1982
13. It's Cake, for God's Sake, 2017
14. Gay Fathers Group, 1981
15. Gay Marriage Case in Court, 1979 Rob Brown, Herald Examiner Collection/Los Angeles Public Library. Photograph caption reads, "From left, attorney David M. Brown, plaintiffs, Anthony Corbett Sullivan, Richard Frank Adams. Sullivan and Adams are married, Adams a US citizen and Sullivan an Australian citizen. Both were issued a marriage license in Bolder [sic] Colorado and were married in Bolder [sic]. When Sullivan reapplied in Los Angeles in November 1975, the District Director of Immigration and Naturalization Service an immigrant visa. 'You have failed to establish that a bona fide marital relationship can exist between two faggots', Dist Director."
16. Intertwined, 2007 Artist: Luciano Martinez. As real and imagined borders separate same-sex partners, the artist considers a new obstacle Gay Latino men face: gay marriage. Intertwined addresses the forbidden love between two men, sometimes complicated by geographic and cultural differences, trapped by an invisible cell that confines yet separates them. The prison-like bars that separate the lovers in the artwork are not only geographic, racial, and cultural but ominously political, highlighting the cross-national restrictions on gay marriage and the difficulties of recognizing same-sex partners within conservative societies. Part of the exhibit "At the Heart of It: LGBT Representation at Self Help Graphics", curated by Ruben Esparza.