Happy Pride!
I haven't been super active this month celebrating. Work is unusually busy and personal writing has been hard to accomplish on my personal time. I did briefly go into DC last week, but I was there to celebrate the first day of summer at the Smithsonian. I haven't even watched "Angels in America" (mostly because I have no idea where my DVDs are - and no I won't rent or buy it online). I have been reading Hungerstone by Kat Dunn, which is an updated take on Carmilla - one of the earliest examples of vampires and sex (particularly feminine sexuality) in the Western cannon.
However, there was one item I recalled that I wanted to look up for Pride.
Several months ago, I published a blog post featuring my Antarctica travel journal for 11 November, 2025. Within that entry, I included the following paragraphs:
"We sat with W.A.R, Su, and SN at lunch. I again had a sandwich with salad. We talked a bit about LGBTQIA+ history. Su had gone to Virginia Tech and were part of the Denim Protest. The LGBT+ alliance and allies wore denim in solidarity for gay rights during a week in January 1979. At the time, the school and community retaliated against the students. Virginia Tech recently celebrated the 45th anniversary."
I recall thinking about how it might make an interesting blog post for Pride Month. Fast forward six months, and I am sitting down to write this post. I go to look up the Denim Day Protest and I get barely anything. The key words Denim Day are most often associated with an event in April that raises awareness on sexual assault.
I tried a couple of different search options and even used AI (ugh!) to help aid my search. Not even a wiki page popped up.
The one of the few webpages that I saw mention it was a post on the Virginia Tech Alumni Relations site. It confirms that between January 15-19th, 1979, a small number of Gay Student Alliance members wore all denim and that they "endured ridicule, taunting, verbal and physical assaults."
The post was from 2019 or the 40th anniversary of the original protest.
I did a little more digging and was able to find a timeline of LGBTQ+ History at Virginia Tech which includes a little more information on the Denim Day Protest. The website has transcripts to interviews from people who participated and records of responses to the protest.
I'm disappointed that I hadn't written more of that conversation down. I remember that she went into great detail about what lead up to the protest and the community's and school's brutal response to the handful of students who were trying to live their lives. She had explained why they had chosen denim and what it meant to the community in the 1970s.
I didn't record any of it. I thought there'd be more information on the Internet. Wikipedia has an article on everything. Why wouldn't it have an article on this one protest?
At least there is an archive being created on the LGBTQ+ history at Virginia Tech. I can read what other people remember from 40 years ago that I wasn't able to capture from one conversation at the bottom of the world.
But the limited information is still disheartening.
Part of why there might not be as much information is that a lot of LGBTQ+ history from before the 1990s has been lost. Between differing ideas on what it meant to be LBGTQ+ through the centuries (see the ancient Greeks and Romans for some of the best examples), relatives burning queer family members' personal writings to prevent scandals, and the huge loss of a recent generation to the AIDs pandemic, LGBTQ+ history is a patchwork quilt eaten by moths. There are those who are working to dig into LGBTQ+ history and preserve it for future LBGTQ+ people (because despite what some may think, queer people have always existed and we will continue to exist without any regard to social propriety).
However, LGBTQ+ history, like other vulnerable groups' histories, is always on the cusp of being suppressed. In 1933, The Institute of Sexology was targeted by the newly elected German government (three guesses as to who was their leader and the first two don't count). During it's just over 20 years in existence, the Institute collected and researched LGBTQ+ history. They recognized transgender and intersex individuals (though by an outdated terms) along with educating people on sexual and reproductive health.
Everything was destroyed on May 6th, 1933. The loss of research and history is still being felt.
And it's not just LBGTQ+ history being suppressed, even in the United States. Over the past year, our national parks and lands have had to remove references to slavery, violence and genocide against first nations people, and other topics deemed "not beneficial to American history" (whatever that means). Some of these places are fighting back (it's kind of hard not to mention slavery when discussing why Harper's Ferry is a National Park) and ensuring that history is preserved.
But how much is still lost?
I wish I could provide you with a better summary of that conversation. I have vivid memories of bits and pieces of it, but memories (no matter how vivid) are fallible. I don't have that person's contact information to ask them for an interview and I'd feel a bit weird asking for a blog post.
But if LGBTQ+ and other vulnerable groups' histories are to be preserved, it's up to the individuals to share that with the next generation. I'll hopefully never forget that conversation from 11 November, 2025 on a ship in Antarctica. By writing this blog post, I am sharing that an event called the Denim Day Protest did happen at Virginia Tech in 1979 and the reaction to it. I am sharing current links to the sources I was able to find. I am sharing that I knew someone who was part of making history.
Because history is happening every day.
In our age of social media and near instant news sharing via the Internet, so much information is being preserved in the digital space. And though we like to think the Internet is forever (and in many ways it is for any embarrassing photos posted in high school or college and that poorly thought out tweet you vomited out while black out drunk at 3:00am), it isn't. The digital space is just as prone to destruction and loss as paper and stone are. Most of what is preserved on the Internet is from passionate individuals who are happy to (perhaps overshare) their interests.
I seem to be one of those people.
Anyway, I hope everyone who participated had a Happy Pride. I'm going to go finish my book.
Until next week.
If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please, like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope y'all like hearing from me.
No comments:
Post a Comment