The U.S.’ history of criminalizing LGBTQ literature
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- Опубліковано 30 вер 2024
- Nearly 100 years ago, a play about a lesbian romance sparked a push for censorship and a police crackdown on similar productions. With U.S. law enforcement sometimes enforcing LGBTQ book bans today, what echoes of this history are we now seeing?
✍️ & 🎥: Chris Vazquez / The Marshall Project
Transcript:
CHRIS VAZQUEZ: The U.S. criminal justice system has a history of banning queer literature. Like, back in 1926, “The Captive” became one of Broadway’s first plays about lesbian characters. Newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst hated it. His newspapers ran articles against the play, which led to a campaign to close “The Captive” and other plays about queerness and sexuality in general. In response, New York lawmakers passed a new censorship law. Police used it to arrest the entire cast of “The Captive” and raided other shows about queerness and sexuality in general, too. Meanwhile, Mae West’s play called “The Drag” was about to make its way to New York. It explicitly argued against criminalizing queerness. Lots of journalists thought the police crackdown was meant to stop “The Drag” from coming to New York. All of this was part of a broader moral panic in which officials created regulations to stamp out traces of LGBTQ life and themes from entertainment in the 1920s and ’30s. And this set the stage for more censorship across the U.S., including in nightclubs where police arrested queer and trans people and imposed employment restrictions. Today, we’re seeing librarians face potential prosecution over queer and trans books, people calling the cops over these banned books appearing in schools, and teachers being forced to resign over all this.
KASEY MEEHAN: We hear just horrific rhetoric… All of that harkens back to other attempts to suppress queer art.
#shorts #pride #pridemonth #theater #history
This is why we have pride.
Also why the first pride had to be a riot
the first amendment is only as meaningful as the government wants it to be.
@@yuvalne womp womp
You forget that time and place restrictions are permitted. The issue is a combination of the pornographic nature of the books in question and the fact that they are being placed in libraries for minors. It's one thing if it's in a book store or public library. However, there are laws that prohibit giving pornographic materials to minors. No one is banning the LGBTQ books from being printed and distributed. It's a prohibition on minors being given access to pornographic materials by schools and mislabeling it as educational. Pornographic materials have always been prohibited from school libraries.
@@ianbelletti6241America is a very big place just that not what they're doing around you doesn't mean it isn't happening
@@sirquagsire971 I didn't say it wasn't happening. I was saying that these removals are about removing things from the grade school libraries that are prohibited to being provided to minors. The big question is not about the reasons for removal but are they going to get carried away and remove texts beyond what they are required to be existing laws. They already got carried away by deeming inappropriate texts educational in favor of LGBTQ all for the sake of inclusion. All that's really required is that the law be followed. If they follow a proper balanced approach we won't have texts put in the hands of minors with pornographic passages and LGBTQ writers will be encouraged to write those scenes in much more subdued manners if they want inclusion in a school library.
@@ianbelletti6241first off I'd argue most queer books outside of romance novels aren't sexual second I don't think a book saying some kids have two dads or some kids have two moms and that's ok should be compared to something like Playboy or Fifty Shades of Gray
"wHy dO We nEeD pRIdE MoNTh?" "yoU qUErs JuSt nEeD to ShUt Up!" "yoU hAVe tHe SaMe rIgHTs aS EvERyboDy eLsE!"
@@connald483 unironically valid, y'all need to chill
@@DaveBemisthen stop calling gov daddy to protect you
@@connald483 womp womp
@@DaveBemisDave, how many queer do you know in places of power?
@ user-vo6py8tv3c found the fash
No cops at Pride.
William Randolph Hearst had problems. Mae West was ahead of her time ,she had a show called Sex and it caused an uproar!😊🎉
I love how you are criticizing 1926 for not having 2024 opinions. By your logic you should have adopted 2124 opinions already. Bigot!
Literally nobody is shocked that you have sex organs.
"Stop the drag from coming to New York"
artfully presented
this is a great video for classes
to help learners understand the history and dynamics of the emotions and ideas expressed in the comment section and in the streets today
Banning queer art paves the way for banning any creative expression not sanctioned.
Vote blue down ballot 🗳️
And still on this same shit 100 yrs later… pitiful! #QUEERLIBERATIONNOW
@@batlover1977 womp wom0
Nope, we have it sooooo much easier now.
@@thewoodweldingfabricator9300 Tell me that when queer teachers stop getting fired and queer books stop getting banned.
We have it much easier than back then but still not easy to where we are equal.
Yeah, everyone in 1926 should have anticipated how their great great grandchildren would think and changed their opinions accordingly. In fact we should anticipate how our great great grandchildren will think and adopt their opinions right now in 2024
Great video 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
I fr see people supporting the book bans saying "well we can't show nsfw content to minors" even when the discussion is Explicitly about books that have Zero Nsfw At All in them, they're so blatantly dishonest. The topic will be about whether teenagers should be able to read a bl manga that is purely romantic fluff with 0 suggestive content and they'll come in like "why do you support showing children nsfw??" they need to be screened for psychosis istg.
Subscribed for the typewriter alone! Love it 😂
🏳️🌈
@@queerulantin6431 👎👎👎👎
🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🏳️⚧️🏳️⚧️🏳️⚧️🏳️⚧️
@@tedmccarron🏳️🌈🏳️🌈 we still love you ❤️❤️
I can’t believe people from 100 years ago saw things differently
You commented 6 times.
@@TurkRoacher I’m glad you can count. I’m impressed
We need more drag shows for little pre pubescent kids!
That's what you took from this?
Weird to be focusing on tandom kids' puberties tbh
I mean if it's a PG one then sure lol
Stealing washington posts thing. eh?.
he used to work for them
@@EmilyPuppet Best to create your own stuff. Don't be a Dave Mustane.
@@Cheyanidexoxo it's just a common format for news people on UA-cam to use bro calm down
Whole lotta cope
Yeah, people don’t like it when others are different from them. Some will go to great lengths just to avoid ever being forced to consider someone who isn’t exactly like them.
Said the default username.
@@turkleton4783 womp womp
@@DaveBemis You’re better than this, Dave.
Queer ppl are thriving, you can cope
Only NOT in the school teachings...
Only what not in school teachings? Queer literature? People in 2024 are really trying to go back to Bush era "Don't ask, don't tell" politics regarding queer people, but why? We aren't just going to disappear because u pretend we don't exist. There is nothing innappropriate about teaching kids age-appropriate basic concepts of sex, puberty, the gender spectrum and sexuality spectrum.
@@ACreeperMaybeclearly queer children are a myth. Queer adults just crawl out of a gay lake as fully formed adults
The only push that ive seen to ban "lgbt" books recently has been books explicitly describing sexual acts in school libraries. To which i fully support.
If there's another example of banning lgbt "art" in society, please share.
If you read the complaints, they are not shy to say "We want this book banned because it depicts lgbtq people in it".
They do it with pride so they tell the whole world why.
@leonmat26 I'm not ignorant enough to think that I know all of the arguments or have heard all of the arguments being made. However, regardless of the sexual identities of the characters involved, the acts being described and that have been read to school boards are sufficient to be pornographic and thus have no place in our schools. Can we agree to that?
If it were on shelves at Barnes and Noble only, I'm fairly sure this wouldn't even be a discussion.
@devildog1989 ... conservative red state Utah school district BANNED the Bible - the King James version - due to gratuitous "vulgarity and violence" so leave your hypocritical high horse in the corral and step into the 21st century... sorry but it'll NEVER be 1860 again...* and as a US Army combat veteran, your thumbnail doesn't impress anyone...
Off the top of my head, Melissa by Alex Gino. There is many more, this is just the first one I thought. These bans are not rightful and protecting children, they are censorship preventing queer children from seeing themselves in media.
@@devildog1989...you seem ignorant...
What if the play was just shit
They would have said it was shit, not called to ban it.
I love how the Marshal Project criticizes 1926 for not seeing things the way we do in 2024. By their logic, we should adopt the opinions of 2126 right away or else we’re bigots
Not actually what's happening. Also, way to just say it was fine cause it's old
I love how The Marshall Project criticizes past generations for not having the views of future unborn generations. According to their logic, they should be adopting the opinions babies born today will hold in 20-50 years
Dont care.
Most of the ones getting removed in school libraries are not safe for kids to like at. In my friends school he found a book where the characters were not doing very family friendly things…
Explicit sexuality are not the end all be all of what queerness in books is. You don’t have all the facts.
@@batlover1977 no like they were smashing each other
There's also other works of literature in schools that aren't super "family friendly" that don't get censored like the queer ones do. Not to mention queer books that people want to censor that are family friendly.
do you know how much straight basically smut I read in school that NEVER got banned? god the amount of times I watched an author try and tow the line between some horny fantasy and young adult books would blow your damn mind but nope if its involves the gay it wrong and must go not to say any of it shouldve been in the schools but those books arent up to be banned nor are ever considered not are they taken into account when people make the arguement "but look at all these coincidentally gay book that are practically smut" when theres leagues more "straigh" doing the same if not worse
Is it called the bible by any chance?
They aren’t “banning” books. Just imposing appropriate age restrictions
Ok sureee
No honey, we see through your bs
I had no problem, as a bisexual person, with having books of the queer lifestyle. However, not explicit material in schools with pictures or descriptions of sexual situations between people. Those, or any type of books with sexual situations have no business in schools of children.
What about sex ed classes? I know you'll probably say "but these aren't in sex ed classes" but you said any book with sexual situations isn't allowed in school at all. Also, what do you define as sexual? Not everyone has the same standards for what is and isn't appropriate at certain ages.
@@spongecakes1986do they teach about masturbation in sex ed? No they don't cause they are meant to teach the process of creating a baby and not pleasure
@@manolispapadopoulos1404You clearly went through sex Ed in an abstinence only state.
@@manolispapadopoulos1404 sex is mainly done nowadays for pleasure, and masturbation is a sexual act. A good sex ed class teaches not just about baby making, but about pleasure and safety. Even if you do decide to only have sex with a partner with the intent to have children, don't you both want to enjoy it?
@@spongecakes1986 enjoyment is secondary, main objective is to have kids
Yes queerness should be against the law
Remember everyone, it's really easy to report hate speech on UA-cam.
Why stop there? Anything that isn’t like me, or anything that I’m not comfortable with should be illegal. Why should other people get to exist if they refuse to live exactly like me?
@@timotheataefree speech when a gay dude says he doesn’t like straight people tho right? Get over yourself
@@bukakkesteakhouse2077depends. Cause usually the same straight people are spreading hate speech
Why? Who is it hurting?
The problem is the pornographic level many of these books go to and the fact that we're putting them in libraries that are for minors.
@@ianbelletti6241 That’s only a problem in the imagination of conservatives, and the people they’ve convinced to listen to them.
@@turkleton4783 I've seen some of the stuff in some of those books. They are written as entertainment and have extremely explicit scenes in there that are quite inappropriate for minors. The only reason they got in to the school library in the first place was because someone with skewed reasoning decided to claim that they were educational or didn't properly review the books. No one is saying that LGBTQ literature can't be in the school libraries but that the ones with strong graphic sexual scenes are too pornographic for minors. Again, time and place is what's important here.
@@ianbelletti6241 Oh good, you’ve seen some of them. That should make it easy to tell me which books and what parts so I can see them for myself. People keep telling me it exists, but they’ve never been able to actually help me find anything specific. Usually they just stop responding.
@@ianbelletti6241 Awesome! So, you can tell me which books and where to find the scenes in question, right? I’d love to see for myself. People keep saying it exists, but they’ve never been able to actually show me so I can see for myself.
@@turkleton4783 no. Because I have only heard excerpts read to school boards. Also, I'm not talking about all LGBTQ books. I'm sure some do not have pornographic passages or read like groomers wrote it. Speech has its limits. Time and place restrictions are permitted. For example, a school board would have reason to prohibit you from telling all the details of the movie you watched the previous night because it has no pertinence to the purpose of the meeting but they can't eject you for airing your grievances against how they are governing the schools. Besides, I'm not a parent myself and am too old to browse grade school libraries to investigate the books myself. I'm dependant on what the kids and parents bring to the school boards as witness to the pornographic nature of some of those LGBTQ books.
Jesus loves you
In fact he loves everyone. No matter what gender or sexuality. But I don't expect that you ever read the bible
Indeed he does. Gay, trans, cis, or straight. He loves us.
@@sebast_8798 you assume a lot with that last statement it's crazy how those three words will bring simultaneously the best and the worst out of people it's okay it was said to Christ before it was said to me
@@ScottRidesHondathe problem is that a lot of people who say it will have the belief that homosexual is sinful. I don't know if you said it to be nice or in a sort of "Jesus loves you despite you being gay" way. That's why people get defensive when you say that. Christianity has been used so many times to put us down that when it gets brought up it puts many of us on edge unless we explicitly know the person talking about it is supportive.
@@ScottRidesHonda Yes I assume ONE thing. And that is that your comment was intended to hurt the LGBTQ community. And if you actually read and understood the bible and it's historic context, you wouldn't try to use Christianity to hurt people.
Based
Edgy
Queer is a slur when used in this sense and the police were only following the law
Queer has been reclaimed and also... they could have just not passed those laws. Like, them following the rules doesn't make them look like the good guys when the rules are inherently set up to discriminate
@@juliusdauksys2183plus that cop directly saying he'd use the law specifically so he could lock up queer people
Men that do not agree with the law do not join the police.
This isn't like Viet vets that got drafted and were threatened with jail if they did not follow orders.
These men joined and stayed with the police willingly and in almost full agreement of the laws passed down.
@@leonmat26 And what’s wrong with it? These plays were illegal and the people voted on the politicians who made them illegal so it was democratic
@@horsermchead2504 oh sorry guys, I didn't realize that marginalizing people was okay if it's a democracy! I wonder if you'd say the same thing if the plays were illegal because they were about black people and why racism is wrong
its shit like this that makes me wish i could move to Canada
Canada probably has history like this too, they’re not innocent
@@Heidihatesfrogs2647but from what I've seen they're way ahead compared to where America is in its queer equality
Canada is just diet USA
Canada unfortunately has some scary stuff going on too. Whether they're going to remain safer or not remains to be seen. Unfortunately there's a rise in far right hatred across the globe right now, and Canada isn't immune.
Don't move here it's shit
Your on the wrong side . And if you don't see it until here after so be it.
Oh no two men kissing 🤯🤯 a woman who was a man🤯🤯 the horror! The absolute fall of these people, surely historians will look back and see the ones hating humans were in the right! Like historians always do! Right?
I’ll pray for you
Funny thing about that, minorities trying to be equal have consistently been seen to be right as time passes, not the people trying to stop equality. So yeah, I'm sure wanting my people to be allowed to exist freely and have our literature published will be seen as wrong
@@insomnialemonloser4969 I will sneeze for you.