Historian of LGBTQ culture & nightlife. Assistant Professor of American Studies @CSUF. Probably listening to Motown or disco right now. He/him. @GayGuides
Fullerton, CA
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One of the saddest things about losing Leslie Jordan is realizing how few gay men of his generation survived the AIDS crisis. All that talent, fabulousness, and culture we never got to see. Imagine 70,000+ more Leslie Jordan’s. 🏳️🌈
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Let's be honest : The refugees being detained at JFK Airport have gone through more vetting than Donald Trump's cabinet. #Muslimban
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Not to over-romanticize this, but gay people loving Halloween isn’t some accident. Up until the 1970s, most US cities banned same-sex dancing (& serving booze to gays, and even simple touching.) But in the 50s & 60s, some police depts made exceptions for Halloween & New Years
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In high school, I tried out for the football team. Coach Walz took me aside to explain he thought I had real potential on the marching band instead. Thanks, Coach.”
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Just saw a group of undergrads laughing and making fun of a middle age professor blaring Lizzo’s “Boys” while parking his Prius on campus with the windows down. That professor was me.
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As a gay nightlife historian, let me just say that the government using liquor licenses to wage culture war is nothing new
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Today's gay history lesson: One of the most prized possessions of gay men in the 1950s/60s was the Polaroid camera. Instant photos meant gays could avoid commercial film developers, hugely important in an era when male nudity or affection was both stigmatized *and* criminalized
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Of course, we aren’t a true homocracy. We are really a constitutional homopublic.
E.W. Jackson warns that if @PeteButtigieg becomes president, he'll seek to turn America into a "homocracy."
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During the worst years of the AIDS crisis, Angela Lansbury was a staple at AIDS benefits, helping raise millions of dollars to fund AIDS research & patient care. "This illness is robbing us of our friends and our futures. This disease knows no discrimination."
BREAKING: Angela Lansbury, ‘Murder, She Wrote’ and ‘Beauty and the Beast’ star, has died at age 96. nbcnews.to/3ViNlsK
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Gorsuch and Roberts will get all the praise and attention today, but giving a shoutout to these incredible three Justices who rarely fail us and yet get little credit
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—Me, a PhD in history, lecturing in front of students: “So, let’s return to 1692 as the ...”
* 🧠 BRAIN BEGINS TO PANIC. 1692, OK, SO TAKE 16 & ADD ONE SO THAT WOULD BE 17th CENTURY, OR IS IT THE OTHER WAY AROUND, CRAP, NO IT’S 17TH 🧠*
—Me: . . . 17th century comes to a close
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-Boyfriend this morning: plz don’t overdo your outfit today. You’re just proctoring a final exam.
-Me today:
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In 2006, on the floor of the U.S. Senate in front of a photograph of his family, Inhofe spoke that he was “really proud to say that in the recorded history of our family we've never had any kind of homosexual relationship.”
BREAKING -- Former Sen. JIM INHOFE (R-Okla.) has died. the former Tulsa mayor was in the House from 87-94 and the Senate from 94-23.
tulsaworld.com/news/local/fo…
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Anita Bryant, the spokeswoman for the Florida Citrus Commission and a woman who led a successful campaign to undo pro gay rights laws in the 1970s, was pied in the face by a gay activist 45 years ago today. This is after she called gays “human garbage” and recruiters of children
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On Halloween, though, it was possible to get around some of these laws. For example, in cities that banned drag (and enforced it by demanding men not wear clothing deemed “feminine,”) it was easy to defend’s one drag as a simple Halloween costume on Oct 31.
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This wasn’t universally true, of course. The LAPD infamous raided the Black Cat just after midnight hit on New Years in 1967, arresting 16 for “gross indecency” likely for kissing a lover @ midnight. 2 of those arrested had to register as sex offenders for the rest of their lives
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“We’re going to put on a dress anytime we want to.”
So yes we homosexuals love Halloween because it’s campy, silly, outrageous, blah blah. But that’s the point. All this wasn’t legal just a few generations ago.
Go party. Happy Halloween 🎃 🏳️🌈
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Y’all: this was a joke. I’m from Indiana, not Minnesota. I wanted to edit for clarity but Tim Walz called me and said, “don’t pay Elon the $8 for a blue check.”
Thanks Coach. ♥️ #HarrisWalz2024
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|￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣|
IF YOU TEACH MODERN
U.S. HISTORY AND DON’T
DISCUSS THE AIDS CRISIS,
YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG
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#HistorianSignBunny
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One of my favorite moments from Clue is Martin Mull serving drinks.
Farewell, Colonel Mustard ✊🏼
Martin Mull, Comic Actor of ‘Clue,’ ‘Roseanne’ and ‘Arrested Development,’ Dies at 80 thewrap.com/martin-mull-comi…
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Here’s New York Mattachine newsletter (an early gay rights group) informing members the status of those arrested for drag in 1962. The police let them go because….. it was Halloween!
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Political organizing into the 1960s and a growing confidence that they weren’t sick lead gays to more brazenly challenge homophobic laws. As one activist in SF put it in 1973,“We were allocated Halloween and nothing else. Finally, the gay community said ‘Fuck you.’”
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Being an academic is 10% teaching, 10% research, & 80% looking for your phone so you can complete the Duo two factor authentication #twitterstorians
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All joking aside, the gays totally did this. In 1958, the gay magazine ONE won the first LGBT rights case at the Supreme Court. SCOTUS ruled that pro-homosexual writing wasnt automatically obscene, and thus could be sent through the mail. After that, gay print culture FLOURISHED
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I don't think I'll ever get over the fact that in order to get my PhD, I have to turn in my dissertation project . . . in the year 2019. . . . via . . . wait for it . . . a CD-ROM.
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Sorry, but Ruth Bader Ginsburg wasn’t the “Thurgood Marshall of women’s rights.” Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the Ruth Bader Ginsburg of women’s rights.
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As historian @GayHistoryProf documents, we should think really hard about the kind of business Harvey Milk decided to open upon his move to San Francisco in 1972: a gay-friendly (& gay owned) camera shop, serving all the men flooding into the Castro gayborhood. #twitterstorians
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In the 1960s - 1980s, lots of anti-abortion leaders wondered why so many of the activists of the pro choice movement (including Roe lawyers Linda Coffee & Sarah Weddington) were lesbians. (the idea being ‘why would lesbians care about this if they’re not likely to get pregnant?’)
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When we moved to California five years ago, Ky & I had this shared big dream of one day moving to Palm Springs to buy a little midcentury home with a small pool & a view of the mountains. Today, we closed on our little 1959 Palm Springs home. ☀️ 🏡 ☀️ we’re lucky dudes
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If you need to smile right now, just remember that a whole generation of kids grew up learning their ABCs by watching Patti Labelle with the Muppets. It's so so good, especially starting at 1:35.
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Queer history and tech colliding📸🏳️🌈📷🏳️🌈!
There's queer history in everything y'all. It's our job to share it.
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My top research advice: Archives are amazing, but don't buy the academic fetishization of archival research. Microfilm research is good! Can't afford travel? Digitized sources are good! Interlibrary loan is good! There's not one way to produce amazing scholarship #twitterstorians
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The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (with chapters WORLDWIDE) have fundraised MILLIONS of $$ over the past 30+ years for the homeless in the LGBT community, HIV/AIDS research and care, & youth organizations. This is shameful.
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|￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣|
THE AMERICANS WITH
DISABILITIES ACT
IS ONE OF THE MOST
SIGNIFICANT PIECES OF
LEGISLATION EVER
PASSED BY CONGRESS
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#HistorianSignBunny
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I’m a professor of American Studies; I thought I knew Americans. Then, I downloaded Nextdoor. 😳
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As a historian of nightlife, let me say this: YOU SHOULD NOT BE GOING TO THE BARS RIGHT NOW.
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The 23 campuses of California State University, one of the largest public university system's in the nation with nearly 500,000 students, just announced that classes in the Spring 2021 semester (like Fall 2020), will be taught almost entirely online. #twitterstorians
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Fun fact: evangelicals have been trying to start Christian nightclubs for decades. I have an article about this getting published next month 😃
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I went to public grade schools, a public undergrad, a public grad school, and starting in August will be a professor on one of the campuses of the largest public university system in the US with almost 500,000 students. Public schools are awesome.
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After 3 years, I'm about to finish my 250-page dissertation and I still find dangling modifiers, incorrect semicolons + em dashes, run-ons, comma splices, not mention just some atrocious sentences in general. I keep that in mind when grading my students. Writing is a process.
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Just a reminder to humanities educators: in light of #COVID19, it’s totally okay to adjust our syllabi & educate about the moment. No better time to talk about Spanish Flu, cholera, or AIDS, & to use our vital skills like critical thinking & empathy to make sense. Be presentist.
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Sometimes when I’m on a Zoom call in another room, the boyfriend texts me asking if I want a snack but to confirm via coded verbal messages 😂
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|￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣|
ROSA PARKS WAS AN
ANTI-RAPE ACTIVIST BEFORE
THE 1955 MONTGOMERY
BUS BOYCOTT
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In his defense on why he voted to gut the 1965 Voting Rights Act in 2013, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that no longer is there "pervasive, flagrant, widespread, & rampant [voting] discrimination . . . [like] in 1965."
Today's #GAPrimary is clear indication he was WRONG
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But lesbian support and activism in the pro choice movement was largely a result of lesbians knowing precisely what it meant to have your bodily freedom stripped away…
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John Lewis, civil rights champion, marching in the 2014 Atlanta Pride Parade. He made our country a better & fairer place. RIP ✊🏼
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the irony of academia is that the stuff that matters to the university (books, articles etc) will be read by way less folks than the stuff that supposedly matters less (blog posts, podcast, public writing etc). Trust me: that blog post you wrote has been helpful to LOTS of folks
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Sotomayor points to the irony of this case: “Ironically, due to the success of New York’s public health measures,
the Diocese is no longer subject to the numerical caps on attendance [in New York].”
Aka: the temporary caps WORKED.
Just before midnight on the night before Thanksgiving, the Supreme Court blocked New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo from enforcing attendance limits at religious services. The vote is 5-4, with Roberts and the three liberals dissenting.
Here is the ruling: supremecourt.gov/opinions/20…
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My impersonation of every one those animated historical photographs. #twitterstorians
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Just a reminder: The Cal State system (one of the nation’s largest public university systems) decided 98 DAYS AGO to move nearly all classes online. Then, CSU Chancellor White said: “I hope we are wrong."
They weren’t.
Notre Dame is canceling in-person classes and moving them online for at least two weeks after seeing a spike in coronavirus cases.
On Monday, one week after classes began, 80 students tested positive out of 418, or 19% of students tested. on.wsj.com/2YcCyog
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Hi @RuPaul ! You’ve probably seen a billion photos from the 1993 March on Washington, but found these in the Philly archives today. 🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈
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Honestly, I’m withholding judgement of the Mueller Report until I see what citation style he ultimately chose. #twitterstorians
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csuf professor, day 1, year 6.
Up for tenure this year. 😬
equipped with panera sip club & dolly parton’s greatest hits.
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-You: *scared of a President Pence*
-Me, a Hoosier homosexual who lived through a Governor Pence
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It’s helpful to remember that serving homosexuals alcohol was illegal in many parts of the USA for much of the 20th century. The owner of the LA’s Red Raven, a popular gay hangout, got super lucky in 1958 that a judge found no evidence that he knowlingly served “sexual perverts.”
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Everyone making fun of Beto and Booker for broken Spanish when the President *only* speaks in broken English. #DemocraticDebate #demdebate
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As a historian of nightlife, I'm sort of obsessed w/ the origins of bar names. In 1970, doctors amputated dancer Shelly Bauman's leg following a freak accident w/ a confetti cannon. She sued those responsible & used the funds to open a gay bar in Seattle. Its name? Shelly's Leg.
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4 out of every 5 women to cross the Atlantic before 1800 were African. A startling statistic to read this morning. #twitterstorians
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I made it 13 months since moving to California before someone driving past me today yelled “faggot” from their car window. It’s cool, tho; I looked cute. 🏳️🌈 💅🏼
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being a gay historian = trying to read almost every issue of the many gay newspapers from 70s/80s USA. They are by no means perfect sources, but you get a real sense of what a different world these folks were creating for themselves. The optimism on the pages is infectious
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I’m not sure Americans truly understand the ramifications of tomorrow. It’s pretty likely that the Supreme Court will, for the first time, say that public businesses can deny services to someone based on status. Aka “I won’t serve you b/c you’re gay, or Asian, or disabled.”
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The boyfriend just asked me if “Y.M.C.A” was the only hit for the Village People and, based on his annoyance that I’m now just following him around the apartment screaming ”IN THE NAVVVVVVVYYYYYYYY,” I think he regrets the question.
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We owe a lot to those lesbian and feminist activists who fought hard to keep abortion legal in this country for generations
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Was at a rural Texas gas station & the cashier (kindly) asked if was gay & then told me about his son coming out recently and having difficulty in his small town. He ended by saying “you’re so brave wearing that hat.” It was very sweet; this was the hat, though 😆 Motown Pride 🏳️🌈
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In the middle of the 20th century, lesbianism was considered a mental disorder, and psychiatrists (sometimes by force) pushed these women into treatments for their supposed “deviancy,” including w/ electroconvulsive shock, psychoanalysis, drugs, and sometimes even lobotomy
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If you're trying to convince people you respect women, maybe you shouldn't yell over the longest-serving woman in the United States Senate. #KavanaughHearings
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This was was Tina Turner dancing in her 70s. No need to ever be afraid of getting older. I loved you, Tina. You were simply the best.
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Did I print a mask with the image of my mouth from my faculty profile? Yes.
Is it sure to horrify students?
Also yes.
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Opening week 4's online lecture & I might've ruined some of my students' childhoods. #twitterstorians
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My 'Intro to American Studies' students traveled through 400 years of history in 15 weeks, and did awesome. 👏
Title slides from all 29 lectures this semester:
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Today begins my 24-month COVID vaccine trial adventure 😷 💉. I had to promise not to father a child until after Christmas, which I was able to give an UNEQUIVOCAL assurance.
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It might've been helpful to remember that I was wearing a green t-shirt BEFORE recording 45 minutes of my lecture today. #twitterstorians
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Despite the constant threat of bar raids, gays found ingenious ways to protect themselves. When bartenders saw police enter gay bars, some would switch on a select lightbulb on the dance floor. If that certain light was on, it signaled to gays to stop dancing with one another.
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So the extended family threw my grandma a birthday caravan parade, complete with mariachi music. 🚗 ❤️ 🚙 🎂
Happiest Birthday to my grandma, who turns 92 today. Born under the Coolidge Administration & raised during the Depression, she has one hobby: the casino. We were meant to be celebrating in Vegas today, but she's safe in San Antonio instead. To more slot time in the future, Nana!
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Same-sex dancing was illegal even in gay havens like NYC until the 1970s. Some men would grab lesbians at the bar, took them to the dance floor, and just continue; dancing. Why stop grooving just because the fuzz arrived?
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Some women could say no to this treatment. They mightve been able to escape to the big cities where they could more easily find accepting lesbians like themselves that could tell them (correctly) that there was nothing sick about them desiring and loving other women
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Important to remember that Article 6 of the Constitution states that “no religious Test shall ever be required” to hold office in the US. That’s not an amendment; that’s in the actual doc. It’s one of the reasons North Carolina, for example, votes NO (initially) on ratification
Mike Johnson in 2016: "What’s happened, Alex, over the last 60 or 70 years, is that our generation has been convinced that there is a separation of church and state. Most people think that that’s part of the Constitution, but it’s not.”
(It is: See The Establishment Clause).
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