Difference between revisions of "Welcome to QueerBio.com"

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<h2 align="center"><em>'''DID YOU KNOW?'''</em></h2>
 
<h2 align="center"><em>'''DID YOU KNOW?'''</em></h2>
<h3 align="center">'''Stonewall Icons'''</h3>
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<h3 align="center">'''Prominent Theatre and Film Critics Who Identify as LGBTQ'''</h3>
[[File:stonewallinn.jpg|200px|link=Stonewall Icons]]
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[[File:lyricists.jpg|200px|link=Prominent Theatre and Film Critics Who Identify as LGBTQ]]
  
<p>If one is looking to mark the beginning of LGBTQ activism in the contemporary era, it begins with the Stonewall Riots that occurred in New York City in 1969.  Though there were LGBTQ organizations around the world prior to this event and there existed newspapers, magazines, and a cultural milieu catering to the community, these tended to be comparatively small, generally unnoticed by the public at large, on the fringes of society, or mostly underground activities.</p>
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<p>Theatre and film critics play an influential role in the community when it comes to cultural development, progress, support, and acceptance.  They publicly evaluate and share their opinions on productions with a view to providing insight as to their quality, enjoyability and contribution to a subject matter.  As such, they are often highly trained and educated in all aspects of theatre or film production, thereby giving them the qualifications to assess their merit and suitability for audiences.  Critics see their profession and subject matter as art forms.</p>  
  
<p>A representation of the growth of the LGBTQ community in the 1960s was the more public existence in America and elsewhere of LGBTQ gathering sites, including LGBTQ bars and clubsNevertheless, these clubs and bars were routinely raided, and its clientele arrested and charged with violating public decency laws.  As the practice of raiding and arresting grew in frequency in tandem with the growth of the existence of such establishments, the patience of the LGBTQ community became taxed.  Nerves became strained at this apparent violation of what was beginning to be viewed as a basic right to gather and associate with like-minded individuals.</p>
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<p>As such, theatre and film critics have contributed enormously to the growth of films and plays that have an LGBTQ theme or component to themBoth the LGBTQ film and theatre industry have flourished in most societies, and this community of critics have played a role in that.</p>
  
<p>When the New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn at 53 Christopher Street on the night of June 28th, 1969, this frustration turned a routine raid on a gay bar into a riot.</p>   
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<p>Criticism can take two forms:  academic studies that attempt to place the production in the context of the development of themes, theory and the industry itself; and popular reviews and opinions designed to sway public interest in the production.  In most cases, the critic is located in only one of these forms.  Although the profession of cultural critic has been around for a very long time, its growth really took off in the 1920s with the rise of print media and recently with digital media.  Blogging and YouTube have popularized the ability to communicate opinions on cultural productions.  Online review forums such as Rotten Tomatoes have taken on an influential role in assessing film and theatre, with both good and bad outcomes.</p>   
  
<p>Active protest continued throughout the week in the city, spread to other large cities in America, and its influence began to spread quickly around the world.  The Stonewall Riot is now considered one of the signature events symbolizing the creation of the contemporary gay liberation movement that had been simmering and growing throughout the 1950s and 1960s.</p>
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<p>One criticism of the LGBTQ film and theatre critic profession is the lack of diversity in its ranks.  Indeed, all of the LGBTQ individuals we have been able to identify are gay men.  There is no representation from the lesbian, transgender, intersex, and other communities.  This can impact the success of productions by these other sexual minority communities since there is no critical support from peers.  The situation appears to couple with the increasing focus on the lack of diversity in the film and theatre communities themselves.</p?
  
<p>Within months of the riot, chapters of the Gay Liberation Front had been established across the United States as a radical group that aligned itself with other marginalized and oppressed groups.  An identical organization was created in the United Kingdom in 1971.  Australia’s first homosexual action group, CAMP (Campaign Against Moral Persecution) was established in 1970 followed by Society Five in 1971. Canada’s first public protest for gay rights, We Demand, occurred in 1971, and the left-leaning Front homosexuel d'action révolutionnaire was formed in France (subsequently morphing into the CUAHR)The Campaign For Homosexual Law Reform began in Ireland and Northern Ireland around the same time.</p>
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<p>Of course, theatre and film producers themselves are often at war with the community of critics, especially in the case of bad reviewsLack of gender balance can add to this air of antagonism.  Logic asserts that there needs to be an aggregated number of diverse reviewers offering different perspectives to add value to cultural profession.</p>
  
<p>This organized activism started to lead to several other important developments and advances for the global LGBTQ communityIn 2016, President Barack Obama named the Stonewall Inn as the country's first national monument to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights.</p>
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<p>We have identified a number of LGBTQ individuals who are prominent film and theatre criticsThey hail from Australia, Canada, France, Great Britain, Russia, and the United States.  To read more and see the complete list, click '''[[Promnent Theatre and Film Critics Who Identify as LGBTQ|HERE]]'''</p>
 
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<p>It would not be possible to identify every individual involved in the Stonewall riots, but several stand out as notable and representative of them all.  We have identified the following individuals who participated in the Stonewall riots and have left a lasting impact on the community.  To read more and see the complete list, click '''[[Stonewall Icons|HERE]]'''</p>
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'''Directory of past 'Did You Know?' Articles''' [[Past 'Did You Know?' Articles|See Here]]
 
'''Directory of past 'Did You Know?' Articles''' [[Past 'Did You Know?' Articles|See Here]]

Revision as of 18:44, 14 July 2019

DID YOU KNOW?

Prominent Theatre and Film Critics Who Identify as LGBTQ

Lyricists.jpg

Theatre and film critics play an influential role in the community when it comes to cultural development, progress, support, and acceptance. They publicly evaluate and share their opinions on productions with a view to providing insight as to their quality, enjoyability and contribution to a subject matter. As such, they are often highly trained and educated in all aspects of theatre or film production, thereby giving them the qualifications to assess their merit and suitability for audiences. Critics see their profession and subject matter as art forms.

As such, theatre and film critics have contributed enormously to the growth of films and plays that have an LGBTQ theme or component to them. Both the LGBTQ film and theatre industry have flourished in most societies, and this community of critics have played a role in that.

Criticism can take two forms: academic studies that attempt to place the production in the context of the development of themes, theory and the industry itself; and popular reviews and opinions designed to sway public interest in the production. In most cases, the critic is located in only one of these forms. Although the profession of cultural critic has been around for a very long time, its growth really took off in the 1920s with the rise of print media and recently with digital media. Blogging and YouTube have popularized the ability to communicate opinions on cultural productions. Online review forums such as Rotten Tomatoes have taken on an influential role in assessing film and theatre, with both good and bad outcomes.

One criticism of the LGBTQ film and theatre critic profession is the lack of diversity in its ranks. Indeed, all of the LGBTQ individuals we have been able to identify are gay men. There is no representation from the lesbian, transgender, intersex, and other communities. This can impact the success of productions by these other sexual minority communities since there is no critical support from peers. The situation appears to couple with the increasing focus on the lack of diversity in the film and theatre communities themselves.</p? <p>Of course, theatre and film producers themselves are often at war with the community of critics, especially in the case of bad reviews. Lack of gender balance can add to this air of antagonism. Logic asserts that there needs to be an aggregated number of diverse reviewers offering different perspectives to add value to cultural profession.

We have identified a number of LGBTQ individuals who are prominent film and theatre critics. They hail from Australia, Canada, France, Great Britain, Russia, and the United States. To read more and see the complete list, click HERE

Directory of past 'Did You Know?' Articles See Here


The goal of QueerBio.com is to be the definitive online biographical reference source for the international LGBTQ community. Its database lists over 16,000 contemporary and historical figures who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, two-spirit, or gender fluid (LGBTQ) and includes artists, sports figures, politicians, entertainers, business leaders, academics, activists, and more. The database is widely international in scope and is an ideal source for research and analysis with full search and sort functionality.

The mission is to inspire, educate, and motivate all generations of LGBTQ individuals and others through a collective knowledge of this international community.

Managing Editors: Mark S. Bonham, Connie Bonello, Gordon Dunbar

Search for a Biography

To search for an individual from the database of over 15,000 biographies, simply type the name in the Search Box located in the top right hand corner of this Home Page and click on GO. Similarly, you can search for a common characteristic such as Country, City, Nobel Prize winners, writers, and so on.

Alternatively, you can view and scroll through the entire list of biographies by viewing the All Biographies section.

Library of Congress Historic Collection - LGBTQ+ Studies Web Archive

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QueerBio.com has been chosen for the Library of Congress Web Archiving Program - Preserving important cultural artifacts by acquiring, cataloging, preserving and serving collections material of historical importance to foster education and scholarship.

Announcing Our New Documentary Project - Being Different: 101 Global LGBTQ Individuals Who Changed the World

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Despite adversity and discrimination, LGBTQ individuals have excelled throughout history. Yet historians and academics have conveniently participated in the heterosexist erasure of these LGBTQ contributions by omitting the LGBTQ status of prominent historical figures from academic and historical documents. Accordingly, there are relatively few comprehensive projects which document and showcase the influence of these LGBTQ efforts.

Being Different: 101 Global LGBTQ Individuals Who Changed The World will be an original documentary outlining the contributions that members of the LGBTQ community have made, individually and collectively, to changing the world.

We are now Crowdfunding to get this project off the ground. We would love to have you as part of our team. You can help us and SUPPORT THIS PROJECT!

SEE THE TRAILER, READ MORE AND CROWDFUND HERE

Our goal is to make QueerBio.com the go-to website for global biographical information on LGBTQ identified individuals. To do this requires a serious commitment of people and resources, so we need your help to fund and help this project grow.


Click here for more information.

Sign Up for our Bi-Weekly Newsletter

Sign up to receive our informative bi-weekly newsletter. Included in the newsletter is the updated 'DID YOU KNOW?' column, a sample of new biographies added since the previous newsletter, and relevant news features pertaining to QueerBio.com.

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Bonham Centre Awards Gala

Annual Awards established in 2007 to recognize individuals or groups that have made a significant contribution to the advancement and education of human rights issues surrounding sexual education. Click here to find out more about the Bonham Centre Awards, past recipients, and present nominees.

Books Available From QueerBio.Com

New books available

A Path to Diversity: LGBTQ Participation in the Working World (Mark S. Bonham, 2017) investigates the current state of employment markets around the world for the LGBTQ community. Included is a discussion of equality in the workplace and why it is important to both the employer and employee, the wage gap, which professions are attractive to LGBTQ individuals and why, and the role of unions and government legislation. A survey of seventy five professions provides a status report for each, and seventy two biographies of influential LGBTQ professionals from around the world is included. 242 pages

READ MORE AND PURCHASE THE PRINT COPY HERE

READ MORE AND PURCHASE THE U.S. KINDLE COPY HERE OR THE CANADIAN KINDLE COPY HERE

Notables: 101 Global LBGTQ People Who Changed the World (Mark S. Bonham, 2015) reveals a group of select global Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) individuals whose accomplishments in their profession changed the world in some relevant way. Included are founders of various social movements, innovators in sports, leaders in business and politics, explorers and discoverers, instigators in religious movements, thinkers in philosophy, infamous villains, creators of new academic fields of study, and risk takers in the arts, culture, and entertainment worlds. 212 pages.

READ MORE AND PURCHASE THE PRINT COPY HERE

READ MORE AND PURCHASE THE U.S KINDLE COPY HERE OR THE CANADIAN KINDLE COPY HERE

Champions: Biographies of Global LGBTQ Pioneers (Mark S. Bonham, 2014) reveals a group of select artists, writers, politicians, lawyers, sports figures, activists, and religious figures from around the world who have helped shape the history of the LGBTQ community. Presented in a convenient notebook format. 114 pages.

READ MORE AND PURCHASE THE PRINT COPY HERE

Order for yourself, and the books also make an ideal gift for friends and family while supporting the development of QueerBio.Com