Timucua two-spirits
Two-spirits had necessary duties among the many Timucua, together with tending to the injured and dealing with the useless. It is a colorized model of a Sixteenth-century engraving by Theodor de Bry, mentioned to be based mostly on a misplaced portray by Jacques le Moyne. Picture courtesy of the Nationwide Park Service.
“Two-spirit” is a contemporary time period for Native American individuals who belonged to a 3rd or non-binary gender. Traditionally, most native peoples within the present-day US and Canada had a number of gender roles that have been distinct from the roles of women and men. The Timucua of what’s now the Jacksonville space have been no exception; actually, the earliest substantial data of two-spirit individuals in come from the Timucua on the time of the French colonization of Florida within the 1560s.
The time period two-spirit doesn’t check with an individual’s organic intercourse (their bodily anatomy), however to their gender, which is characterised by social roles and varies from tradition to tradition and individual to individual. Among the many Timucua, two-spirits had duties and a method of gown that distinguished them from women and men. Like ladies, they wore skirts and saved their hair down; additionally they wore their very own colour of feathers.
Timucua two-spirits carrying baskets of meals harvested by the ladies. Engraving by Theodor de Bry.
Timucua two-spirits’ duties included transporting provides and weapons and carrying the wounded and useless from battle. Additionally they tended to the sick and ready the useless for burial, indicating they performed a job of deep religious significance in Timucua society. Along with the two-spirit gender position, modern Spanish sources point out that same-sex relationships between women and men have been widespread and accepted among the many Timucua nicely into the colonial interval.
Jacksonville’s rainbow blues
Johnnie Woods and Little Henry from the Indianapolis Freeman, January 26, 1918.
Demolished by 1915, the Airdome stood on the positioning of the present primary constructing of the Clara White Mission.
Within the first many years of the twentieth century, Jacksonville was an epicenter of blues, jazz, and ragtime music. The neighborhood of LaVilla, particularly, was later dubbed the “Harlem of the South” for its vibrant Black musical and efficiency tradition. All through the interval, LGBTQ performers performed essential roles in cultivating Black music and bringing it to mass audiences.
The primary recognized occasion of the blues being sung on stage anyplace on the planet occurred in Jacksonville, and the efficiency has an LGBTQ connection. In April 1910, Professor Johnnie Woods carried out on the Airdome on Ashley Road in LaVilla. In the course of the present, Woods, a ventriloquist, had his dummy “Little Henry” get drunk and sing the blues in an act reviewed by the Indianapolis Freeman. Along with his ventriloquist act, Woods was additionally a faucet dancer and “feminine impersonator,” or drag performer. There’s no proof Woods himself was queer, however his gender bending act definitely pushed the envelope.
Ma Rainey circa 1923. Courtesy of Wikimedia.
In 1906, legendary blues singer Gertrude “Ma” Rainey moved to Jacksonville to affix Pat Chappelle’s LaVilla-based Rabbit’s Foot Firm alongside along with her husband William. As a part of one of many largest Black vaudeville troupes, the Raineys traveled extensively all through the South and past, spreading the recognition of the blues as a musical type. Ma Rainey, generally known as the “Mom of the Blues,” was bisexual and invoked same-sex romance and cross dressing in a number of of her songs. Reportedly, Rainey was arrested in 1925 after police raided a raucous occasion and located her and her refrain women in a state of drunken undress. Researchers recommend the incident impressed Rainey’s 1928 music “Show It On Me Blues,” through which she sang:
*They are saying I do it, ain’t no person caught me
Certain bought to show it on me;
Went out final evening with a crowd of my pals,
They need to’ve been ladies, ‘trigger I don’t like no males.*
–Ma Rainey, “Show It On Me Blues,” 1928
A 1928 commercial for Ma Rainey’s “Show It On Me Blues” exhibiting Rainey flirting with two women whereas a policeman watches from the shadows.
Considered one of Rainey’s reported lovers was Bessie Smith, who Rainey introduced into the Rabbit’s Foot Firm in LaVilla within the 1910s. Smith, later generally known as the “Empress of the Blues,” was brazenly bisexual and had relationships with a number of ladies, together with a tumultuous affair with chorine Lillian Simpson.
LGBTQ within the Navy
Sarah Davis, an aviation machinist’s mate within the Navy WAVES, at Naval Station Vero Seashore. Davis had her first relationship with a girl whereas serving within the WAVES. Courtesy of marinersmuseum.org.
For the reason that days of US founding father Baron von Steuben, LGBTQ individuals have served with distinction in all branches of the US army. Jacksonville turned a serious army metropolis in 1940 with the institution of Naval Air Station Jacksonville, then and now one of many largest naval air bases. This was adopted in 1942 by a serious sea base, Naval Station Mayport. As well as, Jacksonville turned a serious hub for the Navy WAVES, the Navy’s ladies’s department who helped workers the bases whereas the boys have been wanted for sea obligation.
Identical-sex relations have been grounds for interrogation and discharge within the US Navy within the Forties, and data from army interrogations showcase the breathtaking injustice LGBTQ service members confronted. The data additionally supply a glimpse into homosexual life in Jacksonville on the time. Vital numbers of LGBTQ service members served in Jacksonville in the course of the conflict, and the presence of sailors and WAVES from everywhere in the nation allowed for secret events and gatherings. This was doubtless the primary time in Jacksonville historical past that LGBTQ individuals may collect in an organized approach.
A neighborhood man recognized by the pseudonym Tom Bell, who later served within the Military, hosted events for homosexual and lesbian service members at his residence. A neighborhood lesbian recognized pseudonymously as Doris additionally hosted events at her place. Different events have been held at Downtown’s Lodge Roosevelt (now the Carling residential tower). Till this level, Jacksonville had few if any homosexual bars or venues, and these events for LGBTQ service members prefigured the later golf equipment that began popping up in Jacksonville after the conflict.
LGBTQ individuals have been in a position to serve brazenly within the US army since 2011. Right now, the Navy has essentially the most LGBTQ service members of any department with 9.1% of the Navy being LGBTQ.