This Day in Queer History

On this day in 1928, the Chicago Defender ran an ad for Ma Rainey's Prove It on Me Blues. The lyrics were unmistakably about women loving women, and she dared the world to say something about it.

On this day, Reverend Magora E. Kennedy was born in Albany, New York. A Black lesbian, historian, and Yale-educated chaplain, she became a leader in the National Stonewall Rebellion Veterans Association.

On this day, gay Marine veteran Oliver Sipple saved President Gerald Ford from an assassination attempt in San Francisco. The media's outing of his sexuality turned heroism into a privacy battle he never wanted.