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Forbes
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
What Is Queer Food? A Talk With Author John Birdsall
A banner reading 'We Are Everywhere' at a Gay Pride march on Fifth Avenue in New York City, USA, ... More July 1979. (Photo by) In his book released a month ago, What is Queer Food? How We Served a Revolution, writer/historian John Birdsall challenges readers to dive deeply into a chronicle of culture that was quite literally curated and nourished by people having to hide a giant piece of their authentic selves. This important record not only reveals so much more about who these figures were--like James Baldwin, Alice B. Toklas, Esther Eng, Harry Baker, Craig Claiborne, Richard Olney, and James Beard, etc.,--but firmly establishes their rightful places in history, and within the culinary sphere of taste and pleasure that hummed throughout the 20th century. Originally set out to produce more of a memoir, Birdsall was encouraged by his editor, Melanie Tortoroli, to see this project as an opportunity to widen the scope, to create something that hadn't been done before, all while still being able to share a sense of his own perspective and experience within a world he knew well and deeply loved. She encouraged him to take queerness in food in whatever direction he saw fit. Birdsall admits there came a well of freedom upon such an invitation to explore. Cover of Birdsall's new book, What is Queer Food? Released on June 3. Cover illustration by Naomi P. ... More Wilkinson and book design by Sarah May Wilkinson (no relation). The Book The result is a book that is truly the first of its kind, one that spans genres and takes risks. In one way, Birdsall picks up where he left off in his 2013 article, 'America, Your Food is So Gay' for Lucky Peach; and from his 2020 biography of James Beard, The Man Who Ate Too Much, in order to take on this next, much broader project. Nevertheless, Birdsall says, 'I think this book has always been in me.' In an unmistakably beautiful, literary voice, one underscored by the intersection of history, emotion, and experience, What is Queer Food? also asks readers to look at the term 'queer' through a sharper lens; to give it more dimension and nuance, something he said younger generations--like the Gen Zers, who've shown up at his book signings and talks--do with a fluency that his own generation hasn't fully grasped. According to recent research, approximately 30% of Gen Z adults identify as queer and LBGTQ+ (HRC) and, as Birdsall adds, 'generationally, there's more nuance; it is not so narrowly defined as it once was--what queerness can be--as just gay or lesbian.' He offers this statistic while noting Toni Morrison's famous quote upon winning the Nobel Prize for literature about being marginalized; it has become an anthem of sorts, a rally cry, for those otherwise othered and hidden in plain sight. Author John Birdsall at Omnivore Books in San Francisco, June 22. When talking to Birdsall further about how he gathered stories for the book, he admits it was not easy given the amount many of the figures explored had to hide who they really were, therefore leaving very little evidence as to their private lives. 'For me, as a writer and historian, my practice has been using emotion to try to illuminate queer and trans histories that have been obscured," Birdsall said in our recent interview, 'We may have scraps of archival information, but there is so much to fill in,' he added. Unfortunately, things like letters and cards or other memorabilia and souvenirs from meaningful relationships were simply too dangerous to keep for fear of damning consequences. Birdsall tells us that even what we know today of some of James Beard's close connections, for example, are due to an assistant's forethought (or nosiness). In some cases, notes were retrieved from a wastebasket for fear of them being lost forever. To people like Beard---who was so visible and in the public eye--it just wasn't safe to keep anything around that would be considered sentimental. Which made digging for the whisps of memory and experience surrounding the many figures Birdsall explores in the book, all the more impenetrable. He saw it, however, as both a challenge and opportunity. He took the bits and pieces discovered over the last decade and assembled them while further imagining the worlds the figures lived in, and, what those worlds and experiences tasted like, so to speak. From a recent signing in June for Birdsall's new book. Part of his solution was to lean on the emotions he knew must have accentuated real events. For example, Sunday women in apartments in NYC of the 1950s he learned would gather together to listen to Tallulah Bankhead who, as Birdsall described, 'Had the power in her to control her own sexuality and still have a public voice and be a star.' Although there's no record that fully reveals what those gatherings encompassed, Birdsall helps readers wonder on the page about how food must have played a role amidst such powerful moments in time. Friendsgiving, Anyone? Birdsall says, despite how ubiquitous this annual occasion has become, 'Queer people know they really pioneered it. It is taken for granted that we choose our family--even if we cherish and celebrate with our blood families--there's a culture of the chosen family that is really encapsulated there.' For many, at one time, this 'holiday' meant one safe haven when there was no other. So, Birdsall investigates the lives of many in the book while filling in the scenes of places like New York City's Café Nicholson with Edna Lewis; in San Francisco at the Paper Doll Club; in Los Angeles with Harry Baker as he created his bewitching Chiffon cake; or even the author's own home on page 473 of the New York Times Cook Book where Birdsall became enthralled by a golden brioche. Readers journey through the stories on precipices of emotion the figures covered quite likely endured. From deeply satisfying displays of creativity and community around food and taste they built to endless moments of pain suffered under the cloaks of lies thrust upon them. This book, Birdsall believes, creates a foundation for more to come. It's a green light to to sound the alarm. It's a marquee to celebrate the tales of the untold, still sitting in boxes in the attic. With such a revelatory foundation, Birdsall is passing a torch to the next generation to to keep every name in queer food present on our plates, on our restaurant awnings, in our cookbooks, and out of the closet. Signing books on tour, author John Birdsall.
The Guardian
28-06-2025
- The Guardian
From outlaw bushrangers who fell in love to a famous horseman born a woman, Australia's history is full of queer stories
In 1841, Anne Drysdale invited Caroline Newcomb to live with her on her farm outside Geelong. It was a bold move for the time: the full decriminalisation of homosexuality was 156 years away;the legalisation of same-sex marriage, 176 years. In colonial Australia, women did not own property,let alone share one, and the same bed. But for 21 years the couple lived together, building a brick house that still stands today, running a sheep farm and winning agriculture awards, before being buried side by side. In the annals of history, Drysdale and Newcomb's story has remained hidden, like that of many other people who form Australia's LGBTQ+ past. Now, across the country, researchers and advocates are finding and celebrating Australia's queer history. The councils of both the City of Sydney and Yarra in Melbourne are moving towards heritage listing significant LGBTQ+ buildings. In Victoria, Federation University has launched an online digital platform that collates LGBTQ+ stories from the gold rush. 'You often hear this representation as if being queer is a modern invention, but the people have always been here,' says Federation University's head of social science Dr David Waldron, who led the research project. The figures include the infamous bushranger Andrew Scott, better known as Captain Moonlite, a well educated and flamboyant outlaw who fell madly in love with fellow inmate James Nesbitt. Their courtship was conducted between cells, with Nesbitt bringing Scott tea and gifts. After leaving Pentridge prison they lived together in Melbourne before travelling up the country. Starving, freezing and wet, their gang decided to hold up a station in Wagga Wagga after they were refused work. The police arrived, and in the standoff Nesbitt was shot and killed. A newspaper article from the time said when Scott was brought into the room with Nesbitt's body he 'kissed him, and affectionately wept over him'. 'Will he really die?' he asked. 'Oh, he is my only dear friend; but for him, a great many more lives would have been lost.' Captured, convicted and sentenced to hang, Scott wore a lock of his lover's hair to the gallows. The archives are also filled with gender-bending stories, early Australians living their lives, fighting in wars, and marrying people of the opposite gender, all while hiding their sex. In the 1860s Jack Jorgensen was one of the best horsemen in the country. He was big and strong – and filled with frontier spirit. A sharpshooter who wooed women and shouted everyone a drink on Friday, Jorgensen had been born a female. 'It was only revealed when they passed,' Waldron says. 'Because they were quite muscular, their face was quite scarred from a bullet wound … [and] they had a strong German accent, no one had ever realised.' With the gold rush era came a moral panic about 'women in men's clothing', which contrasts with modern panic about 'men in women's clothing', Waldron says. 'Because the fear was, oh, a woman might be able to earn her own income and not need to have a man, or a woman might be in a position of political power and authority, and no one would know,' he says. Issues commonly crop up when researching queer history. Often historians have been quick to conclude that couples are friends, or romantic or sexual connection cannot be proven, says Timothy Jones, president of the Australian Queer Archives. 'In the early 19th century, Anne Drysdale and her partner had a farm down on the Bellarine Peninsula, and there were two women, and there was only one bedroom, and they were buried together,' he says. 'Just by looking at their lives, you can tell that they have a romantic, committed relationship.' In archives, the LGBTQ+ community often appears in sodomy charges, criminal cases and medical records. There aren't as many positive historical artefacts, Jones says. But slowly personal artefacts have surfaced – in scrapbooks, photos and letters. 'Digging around and finding these stories about joyful lives in the past is really, really valuable in providing a different model of seeing … LGBT people,' Jones says. While most of the collection comes after the sexual revolution in the 1970s, it also includes personal papers and letters that give a glimpse of life back in the early 20th century. While finding the history can be hard, celebrating the community is not. At present, both Yarra and Sydney councils have identified culturally significant buildings that will soon be heritage listed. They will join a small number of cities across the globe such as New York and Manchester that recognise important LGBTQ+ buildings with protections. The City of Sydney is proposing to list the Oxford Hotel, Palms and the Universal nightclub, formerly known as the Midnight Shift, as important places. Yarra is set to list The Laird, the former Star Hotel (now the Ozihouse student hostel) and the community radio station 3CR. Sean Mulcahy, co-lead at Rainbow Local Government, says councils are now working with archivists and researchers to 'ensure that histories and stories of significance to the LGBTIQA+ community are protected'. 'We have always told queer stories, but it is only now that we are starting to rediscover them and their connection to places and objects,' he says. 'It's one thing to capture LGBTIQA+ heritage, but it's another thing to be able to protect and celebrate it.'
CBC
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Calgary's 1st gay bar leaves its stamp on country's 2SLGBTQ+ history
Club Carousel, which opened in 1970, was Calgary's first gay bar. It's featured in a Canada Post stamp series, Places of Pride, recognizing vital places for 2SLGBTQ+ in Canada.
Washington Post
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Paris unveils a memorial to LGBTQ+ victims of Nazi regime and other persecutions
PARIS — A memorial to the long-ignored gay victims of the Nazi regime and to all LGBTQ+ people persecuted throughout history has been unveiled in Paris on Saturday. The monument, a massive steel star designed by French artist Jean-Luc Verna, is located at the heart of Paris, in public gardens close to the Bastille Plaza. It aims to fulfill a duty to remember and to fight discrimination, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said.
The Guardian
15-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Faith leaders denounce US book burning as hate-fuelled intimidation
A group of faith leaders in Ohio denounced a recent alleged hate crime in the state, in which a man burned books belonging to a public library. The destroyed books were on Jewish, African American and LGBTQ+ history. 'Unfortunately, this is one of those things that's, like, I'm shocked, but not surprised, every time it happens,' Rev Ryan Wallace of Fairmount Presbyterian told the Guardian in an interview. 'We need to not get complacent. Every time it happens, we have to be there to say, 'this is unacceptable.'' The group of faith leaders gathered on Monday to speak out against the book burning. The informal, inter-faith coalition in Ohio, called the Interfaith Group Against Hate, has been organizing and engaging in political action in recent years, to combat far-right and white supremacist attacks. Wallace said the coalition, which began in 2023, has also been engaging in pro-immigrant advocacy, in response to the Trump administration's heightened offensive on immigrant communities. 'I've seen a lot of this kind of hate. And there's more and more and more of it,' said Wallace. 'And that was part of it, with this interfaith group, to say: let's not pretend like this is just somebody else's problem and that this is happening someplace else. It's happening here.' In early April, far-right social media accounts began circulating videos of a person who entered a public library in Beachwood, Ohio, checked out 100 books and proceeded to burn them. The videos were first identified by Princeton University's Bridging Divides Initiative, a research group tracking political violence throughout the US, who contacted local officials and activists in Beachwood. The officials then contacted the local police department, which launched an investigation. 'I condemn this act, not only because it is a crime against our institutions and community, but also because it is fundamentally un-American,' said Ohio Democratic state senator Kent Smith in a statement. 'There is no place for such hate, censorship, or intimidation in Beachwood, nor this country.' One of the videos, related to the alleged book burning, was shared on a white supremacist Telegram group, which was accessed and viewed by the Guardian. The video shows a number of books in the trunk of a car, related to Jewish, Black and LGBTQ+ history. Among the books displayed in the video are Black Radical by Kerri K Greenidge, Fighting Auschwitz by Polish historian Józef Garliński, Pride and Persistence: Stories of Queer Activism by Mary Fairhurst Breen and The ABCs of Queer History by Seema Yasmin, among others. 'We are cleansing our libraries of degenerate filth,' the Telegram post reads. A second video, shared on social media, shows someone throwing those books into a fire. Researchers identified the books as belonging to the Cuyahoga county public library due to the stickers on the books, according to a police report, as first reported by The county's public library system did not provide a comment. The Beachwood police department launched an ongoing investigation, the department said in a statement to the Guardian. Once the investigation is complete, the city prosecutor will review and determine whether they can charge someone with a crime. 'Our department stands against antisemitism and all acts of bias-motivated crimes,' the Beachwood police chief Dan Grispino said in a statement. 'We are committed to vigorously investigating and prosecuting any hate-motivated incidents within the City of Beachwood. Our priority is to maintain a community that can thrive without the fear of threats of intimidation or violence.' The state of Ohio has a number of far-right, racist hate groups, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) initiative, an independent organization monitoring political violence. Patriot Front and White Lives Matter are the most prominent groups, ACLED reports. 'Since the start of 2023, Ohio has seen some of the highest levels of activity from white supremacist groups of any state,' the organization said in a recent video. The white supremacist Telegram group, where the Guardian found the early April video of the books, belongs to the White Lives Matter in Ohio chapter. White Lives Matter has been designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group. According to videos and posts shared in the Telegram chat, the group places stickers, drops flyers and hangs banners around the state of Ohio, promoting white supremacy. 'Everything beautiful is white,' one sticker will read. 'White people first,' another one reads. The White Lives Matter organization does not just engage in propaganda efforts in the state – it has promoted outright violence. In March 2023, White Lives Matter members arrived at a drag queen event, carrying flags with swastikas on them, shouting racist and homophobic slurs and 'Heil Hitler', according to Later that month, one of the White Lives Matter members firebombed a local church, in response to the church agreeing to host a drag show. The man responsible, who was discovered to have a Nazi flag and memorabilia by the FBI, was later sentenced to 18 years in prison for trying to destroy the church with molotov cocktails. The church sued the White Lives Matter organization and some of its top members last year for damages. There have been other far-right attacks and alarming instances in recent years, according to Rev Wallace. Just more than a year ago, someone desecrated tombstones in a Jewish cemetery in Cleveland with swastikas. And a local football coach resigned in 2023, after he was caught using the word 'Nazi' as a play call. 'Then there was a mosque that I'm very close with – there was a petition going around the community to shut the mosque down because they said they were 'pro-Hamas.' That was all lies,' said Wallace. One of the defining moments for Wallace and the Interfaith Group Against Hate was during last fall's presidential race, when the Trump campaign falsely claimed Haitian immigrants were eating cats and dogs. That's when they realized that the group had to step up their organizing efforts to help immigrant communities in the region. ' As a person of faith, I am called to stand in solidarity with the whole community, and to call for change in our community that reflects our shared values,' he said. The group hopes to donate 1,000 books to the library system, related to Jewish, African American and LGBTQ+ history.
