Queer Twin Cities

359 Pages·2010·11.92 MB·English

by  Twin Cities GLBT Oral History Project

Twin Cities GLBT
QUEER
1
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA PRESS
Minneapolis
London
Oral History Project
1
EDITORIAL BOARD OF THE TWIN CITIES GLBT ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
Michael David Franklin Larry Knopp Kevin P. Murphy Ryan Patrick Murphy
• • •
Jennifer L. Pierce Jason Ruiz Alex T. Urquhart
• •
The poem ·�ust Because" is printed by permission of Elise Matthesen;
copyright Elise Matthesen.
Copyright 2010 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota
rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
Ali
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any meaos, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior
written permission of the publisher.
Published by the Un iversity of Minnesota Press
111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290
Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520
http:// .upress.umn.edu
www
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Queer Twin Cities / Twin Cities GLBT Oral History Project.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8166-5320-1 (he : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-8166-5321-8 (pb: alk. paper)
l. Lesbians-Minneapolis and St. Paul Metropolitan Area (Minn.)-History.
2. Gays-Minneapolis and St. Paul Metropolitan Area (Mino.)-History.
l.
'IWin Cities GLBT Oral History Project (Mino.)
HQ75.6.U52M566 2010
306.76' 609776579-dc22
2010026226
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer.
17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vii
Introduction xi
QUEER TWIN CITIES • JENNIFER L. PIERCE
Queering Oral History 1
1
REFLECTIONS ON THE ORIGINS OF THE TWIN CITIES GLBT
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT • JASON RUIZ
Calculating Risk 20
2
HISTORY OF MEDICINE, TRANSGENDER ORAL HISTORY, AND THE
INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARD MICHAEL DAVID FRANKLIN
•
Sexuality in the Headlines 40
3
INTIMATE UPHEAVALS AS HISTORIES OF THE TWIN CITIES
• RYAN PATRICK MURPHY AND ALEX T. URQUHART
The Myth of the Great White North 90
4
CLAIMING QUEER PEOPLE OF COLOR HISTORIES
IN THE TWIN CITIES (A ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION)
• CHARLOTTE KAREM ALBRECHT, BRANDON LACY CAMPOS,
AND JESSICA GIUSTI
Single Queer Voice with Polyphonic Overtones 119
5 A
ELISE MATTHESEN AND THE POLITICS OF SUBJECTIVITY
IN THE TWIN CITIES • MARK SODERSTROM
Two-Spirits Organizing 150
6
INDIGENOUS TWO-SPIRIT IDENTITY IN THE
TWIN CITIES REGION • MEGAN L. MACDONALD
Skirting Boundaries 171
7
QUEER BJ\R CULTURES IN THE POSTWAR
TWIN CITIES • AMY M. TYSON
Sex and the Cities 203
8
REEVALUATING 1980S FEMINIST POLITICS IN
MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL • PAMELA BUTLER
The Gay Land Rush 240
9
RACE, GENDER, AND SEXUALITY IN THE LIFE OF
POST-WELFARE MINNEAPOLIS • RYAN PATRICK MURPHY
Private Cures for a Public Epidemic 269
10
TARGET(ING) HIV AND AIDS MEDICATIONS IN THE
TWIN CITIES • ALEX T. URQUHART AND SUSAN CRADDOCK
Gay Was Good 305
11
PROGRESS, HOMONORMATIVITY, AND
ORAL HISTORY • KEVIN P. MURPHY
CONTRIBUTORS 319
INDEX 321
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Like many collaborative research projects, this one entailed a great deal of
time, effort, and innovative thought from all seven of us on the Editorial
Board of the Twin Cities GLBT Oral History Project. This book is also the
product of many more people who donated their time and talents to the
Oral History Project and to Queer Twin Cities, sorne of whom we want to
officially thank here.
This book and the GLBT Oral History Project would not have been
possible without the efforts of Dorthe Troeften. As a doctoral candidate
in the Department of English at the University of Minnesota in 2003, she
devised a transgender oral history project and persisted to secure Institu­
tional Review Board approval, no small feat. Building on this momentum
over the next few years, she generously mentored people on how to con­
duct, think, and write about oral history as well as how to advocate for
trans participants who shared their lives with us. Indeed, Dorthe exem­
pli:fied what it means to be an activist-intellectual who sees the social
and personal transformative possibilities of oral history: in her work she
reached out to and allied herself with local trans groups, and she never lost
sight of the needs of participants and how they could best bene:fit from oral
history. Her many contributions to the project are deeply appreciated and
vitally shaped this book. Roderick Ferguson advised Dorthe on the initial
summer project and provided important feedback in its early stages.
This project was made possible by funding received from the Uni­
versity of Minnesota, including two Graduate Research Partnership Pro­
gram summer grants, which got the project started by inspiring collabora­
tion between faculty and graduate students in the College of Liberal Arts.
Jennifer L. Pierce received a Schochet Research Award from the GLBT
vii
Acknowledgments
Vlll
Programs Of:fice at the University of Minnesota, and undergraduate stu­
dents Danielle Kasprzak and Joel Kinder were awarded grants from the
Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program. We have been fortunate
to receive the support of several sympathetic administrators at the uni­
versity: Dean Jim Parente, Dean Steven Rosenstone, and Associate Dean
Robert B. McMaster ali granted funds to keep this project going.
Several administrative units and departments at the university were
key in supporting the project, especially the departments of American
studies (and its chair, Riv-Ellen Prell); gender, women, and sexuality stud­
ies (Joanna O'Connell, chair); and history (M. J. Maynes, chair). Colleen
Hennen from the Department of American Studies worked particularly
diligently on logistics; this book would not have been possible without her
help. She kept us laughing throughout the sometimes daunting process of
maintaining funding. Staff and faculty at the Institute for Advanced Study
also provided crucial logistical support, especially Ann Waltner, Susannah
L. Smith, Jeanne Kilde, Karen Kinoshita, and Angie Hoffman-Walter. We
thank the departments ofEnglish, sociology, and anthropology at the Uni­
versity of Minnesota and the departments of American studies and gen­
der and sexuality studies at Macalester College for support of project
activities.
Also at the University of Minnesota, we thank the Schochet Center for
GLBT Studies and the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Ally Programs
Office, in particular Anne Phibbs, whose unflagging support and guidance
for the program have been critical. Jean-Nickolaus Tretter not only was
an interview subject but provided extensive archiva} help. He has been a
friend to this project from its very beginning, as has Beth Zemsky, formerly
with the university.
At the University of Minnesota Press, we appreciate the encourage­
ment and support of senior acquisitions editor for regional studies, Todd
Orjala, and of editorial director Richard Morrison. We are grateful to Bar­
rie Jean Borich, David Churchill, Lisa Duggan, Molly McGarry, and the
anonymous reviewers who supported our initial proposal with the Press.
Anne Enke, who provided thoughtful feedback as an outside reviewer of
our manuscript, improved this work in ways great and small.
Severa} special undergraduate students were crucial in getting the
Oral History Project started and keeping it alive through the years. Ann
McKenzie, our :first intern, started this oral history and worked tirelessly
to keep it active; many of the oral historical sources used in these chapters
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
are the results of her work. We are also thankful to Danielle Kasprzak for
hard work on the Oral History Project and extensive research for this book.
She dedicated countless hours of labor transcribing interviews, among
many other administrative tasks. Her own senior project for the depart­
ments of English and American studies at the University of Minnesota
helped to shape several chapters; she deserves far more credit than this
small acknowledgment. Mike Carioliano helped with the project when he
was an undergraduate at the University of Minnesota, as did Ryan Li Dahl­
strom and Joel Kinder.
Several of our colleagues made intellectual contributions to this book,
including Andrea Robertson Cremer, Caley Horan, Kathleen Hull, Polly
Reed Myers, Tiffany Muller Myrdahl, Tim Ortyl, and N'Jai-An Patters. We
thank them for helping this book take shape. Many activists and important
scholars of gender and sexuality shared their expertise as guest speakers
for the Oral History Project over the years, including Nan Alamilla Boyd,
Hector Carrillo, Lisa Duggan, Anne Enke, Jim Hubbard, Scott Morgensen,
Sarah Schulman, and Susan Stryker. Their ideas are woven through the
following chapters.
Finally, dozens of individuals shared their inspiring, brave, hilarious,
and heart-breaking stories with the Twin Cities GLBT Oral History Pro­
ject. This book is dedicated to them.
INTRODUCTION QUEER TWIN CITIES
Jennifer L. Pierce
us Van Sant's film Milk, a chronicle of Harvey Milk's career and
the first Hollywood portrayal of a gay political movement, pro­
G voked mixed reactions from activists, scholars, and a spectrum
of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT)-identified individuals.
Sorne celebrated the wide exposure of Milk's story, while others criticized
its historical accuracy. In Minnesota, debate focused on two scenes involv­
ing a gay Minnesota teen. In the first, Milk advises the desperate and sui­
cida! young man to get out of town and catch the first bus to San Francisco.
This important scene is structured so that viewers will identify with the
hope of Milk's movement and empathize with the desperation of gay teens
"trapped" in the Midwest. This empathy and identification come full cir­
cle when later in the film the audience meets the "liberated" Minnesotan
working in Los Angeles as a gay activist.
The notion that San Francisco and L.A. have functioned as cities of
gay salvation while the Midwest is the place of gay suicida} despair should
sit uneasily with a Minnesota audience. The Twin Cities, after ali, have a
history of gay radical activism as long and deep that found in coastal
as
cities. The film's use of the "hoy from Minnesota" to position cities like
San Francisco as cosmopolitan sites of salvation in a national geography
marked by intolerance, fear, and repression continues to circulate in our
own time.1 This trope elides the rich and complex traditions of queer orga­
nizing and sociality in the Midwest and other "flyover" states. Further, it
assumes that Minnesota's history has followed a normative gendered and
sexual trajectory in contrast to San Francisco's seemingly more dynamic
and transgressive history.
XI