BLACK HISTORY MONTH
Bayard Rustin Biopic Forthcoming
Netfl ix fi lm will take a closer look at late gay activist
BY MATT TRACY
An upcoming Netfl ix biopic will highlight
the life of the late gay civil rights
icon Bayard Rustin.
The fi lm, which does not yet have
a release date, will recap the tumultuous life
journey of an individual who faced fi erce adversity
as an out gay Black man. Despite playing
a key role in organizing the 1963 March on
Washington and serving as an infl uential advisor
to Martin Luther King, Jr., Rustin was long
ostracized and discredited.
In recent years, however, Rustin has started
earning more respect long after his death in
1987. Governor Gavin Newsom of California
pardoned Rustin last year for a 1953 sodomyrelated
conviction and former President Barack
Obama posthumously honored him with the
Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013.
The fi lm will be produced by the Obamas’
Higher Ground Productions and directed by out
gay director George C. Wolfe, who drew praise
for his work on “Ma Rainey’s black Bottom.”
Dustin Lance Black, who nabbed an Oscar
for Best Original Screenplay for his work on the
Google Doodle Honors Audre Lorde
Late New York-based poet, activist would have turned 87
BY MATT TRACY
Google Doodle paid tribute to the late
lesbian writer, poet, and activist Audre
Lorde on what would have been
her 87th birthday February 18.
The Google Doodle, created to commemorate
Black History Month, featured an informational
video, an illustration created by guest artist
Monica Ahanonu, and words from Lorde’s
children as they remembered their late mother.
Lorde, who succumbed to breast cancer in
1992 at the age of 58, was born in Harlem and
lived on Staten Island with her partner and two
children for more than a decade beginning in
1972. A tenured English professor at John Jay
College, Lorde became known for her life-long
dedication to poetry as well as her non-fi ction
papers, and libraries were a central theme in
her life and work. She also played a role at the
1979 National March on Washington for Lesbian
and Gay Rights.
The Google Doodle emphasized Lorde’s own
words explaining that intersectionality must be
NEW YORK WORLD-TELEGRAM AND THE SUN/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Bayard Rustin speaks before a demonstration in 1964.
2008 Harvey Milk fi lm “Milk,” will serve as the
fi lm’s writer. Out gay producer Bruce Cohen
will also work on the fi lm.
The fi lm represents the latest example of a
broader effort to shine a light on Rustin’s life
and work more than three decades after he
died. Rustin was also the subject of an episode
on HBO Max’s four-part show “Equal,” which
examines key moments in LGBTQ history.
In 2019, audio of Rustin’s interview with the
GOOGLE DOODLE/MONICA AHANONU
A Google Doodle illustration depicting the late Audre Lorde.
embedded within efforts to advance social justice
initiatives.
“There is no such thing as a single-issue
struggle, because we do not lead single-issue
lives,” Lorde noted. “Our struggles are particular,
but we are not alone. What we must do is
commit ourselves to some future that can include
each other and to work toward that future
Washington Blade in the 1980s was aired on the
Making Gay History podcast. In those recordings,
Rustin opened up about the intersections
of his identity as a gay man and a Black man,
explaining that he was driven to focus on his full
identity as a result of his life experiences.
He pointed to a time when a mother told a
child to avoid touching him because he was
Black — and that incident became a motivating
factor for him.
“It occurred to me shortly after that that it
was an absolute necessity for me to declare my
homosexuality, because if I didn’t, I was a part
of the prejudice,” he said. “I was aiding and
abetting the prejudice that was a part of the effort
to destroy me.”
Rustin also did not shy away from his feelings
regarding the way he was treated during
the civil rights movement — and how his sexuality
became a pivotal piece of that treatment.
“At a given point, there was so much pressure
on Dr. King about my being gay — and particularly
because I would not deny it — that he
set up a committee to explore whether it would
be dangerous for me to continue working with
him,” Rustin recalled.
with the particular strengths of our individual
identities.”
Lorde’s work also took her beyond New York
City. She spent roughly eight years living in
West Germany, where she taught poetry at the
Free University in Berlin and continued her
work surrounding feminism, queer issues, and
race and class.
“Audre Lorde was a complicated and passionate
woman,” Lorde’s children, Elizabeth Lorde-
Rollins and Jonathan Rollins, said in a joint
written statement for the Google Doodle project.
“She was as passionate an educator as she was
a fi ghter. It was very important to her that her
work be useful—and she would be enormously
gratifi ed to know that her words are now used
as a rallying cry of people fi ghting for justice
all over the world. She also loved life: she loved
to dance and to hunt for rocks. She loved candy
bars. And she loved the people close to her,
fi ercely.
Lorde’s former Staten Island home at 207 St.
Paul’s Avenue was one of six LGBTQ sites that
were landmarked by the city in June of 2019.
February 25 - March 10, 2 20 021 | GayCityNews.com
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