Milwaukee’s African American LGBT community history is not well documented. It should be. Because of our predominantly white male consciousness, the contributions of African Americans to Milwaukee’s LGBT narrative is largely neglected. Back in the day when bars were the sole social centers of the community, a few were black owned. The vast majority, however, were white. During the 1970s in The Factory, then the city’s most popular gay dance bar, the black clientele gathered in the secondary bar in the back, and only on weekends. Other bars discriminated against people of color, often denying them entry entirely. Founded in 1980, the Milwaukee chapter of The National Association of Black and White Men Together (BWMT) played a role in policing Milwaukee gay bars that routinely harassed black patrons. But there is much more to black LGBT history than the routine story of clubs and bars.
Donna Burkett and Manonia Evans, a black lesbian couple, applied for a marriage license in 1971. They had no intention of making history but merely wanted to marry as they believed was their civil right. Theirs was the first same sex marriage application in Milwaukee. It was denied, of course. They subsequently sued but a judge dismissed the case. Last year, one year after Wisconsin’s same sex marriage ban was struck down by the Supreme Court, Burkett was recognized by the Shepherd Express with its LGBT Progress Award.
Milwaukee’s black LGBT artists have made history as well. Over the years, they’ve been showcased at the Milwaukee Gay Arts Center, PrideFest and the LGBT Community Center. Elizabeth Brown was a jeweler and visual artist. I first met her at a metal work and jewelry studio at MATC a decade ago. Feisty and cantankerous, Brown had her share of life’s tragedies. Three of her seven children died (one son lost senselessly to a young man with a gun) before she passed away at age 73. Yet she persevered, expressing her story in silver jewelry and on canvas.
A talented, up-and-coming rapper, Yung LT (Evon Young), a transman, was brutally murdered just a few years ago in January 2013. His killers put a plastic bag over his head until he lost consciousness, beat him, then shot him to death and burned his body. Allegedly, his killers didn’t even know he was trans. Perhaps that’s why we shrugged off the crime as just more urban mayhem. There were no candlelit vigils, memorial T-shirts or protests. It took an outsider, photographer Zoe Strauss, to memorialize Yung LT as part of Postcards from America: Milwaukee, a photo exhibit in 2014 at the Milwaukee Art Museum. I doubt many in Milwaukee’s LGBT community even knew about it, much less saw it.
Meanwhile, the local hip-hop dance world is blessed by an out and proud choreographer, Richard Brasfield. He directs Revamped Dance Company.
In addition to the daily hardships of the city’s black community, these artists experience additional discrimination as gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders. Despite that, or perhaps because of it, they have a particular and uniquely creative vision. Their art inspires and empowers others. We can all learn from them.
