Disabilities and LGBTQ+ Intersection: Frida, Pride, & Identity

IntersectionalityLGBTQ+ Identity & CultureQueer History
Written By Closeted History

In honor of Disability Pride Month, we will be learning about one of my favorite artists and icons, Frida Kahlo. We will explore her life and the legacy she created across the globe in the 20th century. We will start out with a little bit of background about Disability Pride month, the intersections between the LGBTQ+ community and disabilities, then we will focus on Frida and her passions, her paintings, and more.

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📕 TABLE OF CONTENTS 📕

00:00 Start

00:32 Introduction

01:29 Background Information on Disability Pride Month

03:50 Intersections of Disabilities and LGBTQ+ Community

6:40 Frida Kahlo: Introduction & Early Life

10:26 Frida As a Young Adult

14:10 Frida's Image

19:48 Frida's Politics

24:59 Frida's Paintings

28:00 Themes In Her Paintings

33:12 The End of Her Life & Legacy

36:07 Conclusion

📚 Resources Mentioned In the Show

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Hi, welcome to Closeted History! Your number #1 spot to learn the Queer and Trans history you never knew! To learn more, check out our website ➡️ [www.closetedhistory.com] Wanna work with us? Check out our media kit ➡️ https://beacons.ai/closetedhistory/mediakit

My name is Destiny (she/they) and I am the creator behind the podcast. Educator, creative, and fellow LG(B)T(Q)+ community member.

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Full Transcript

Show Introduction:

Hey everyone, this is Destiny Clarke from "Discovered with Destiny," and you're listening to "Closeted History: LGBTQ+ Stories Past," the show where together we out the queer history you never knew. It's all about education, learning, and making the LGBTQ+ stories of the past that have previously been hidden from our society more accessible for everyone.

[Music]

Episode Introduction:

Hello and welcome! I'm so glad that you're here. How are you doing? I am doing all right, thanks so much for coming back for season one, episode four of "Closeted History: LGBTQ+ Stories of the Past." If this is your first time tuning in, welcome, and I hope you stick around to learn more LGBTQ+ history with me. I'm your host, Destiny Clark, my pronouns are she/her, and let's get learning.

So, in honor of Disability Pride Month, we'll be learning about one of my favorite artists and icons, Frida Kahlo. We will explore her life and the legacy that she created across the globe in the 20th century. We're going to start out with a little bit of background about Disability Pride Month and kind of like where it came from, the intersections between the LGBTQ+ community and disabilities, and then we'll focus on Frida, her passions, her paintings, and more.

Background Information on Disability Pride Month:

Alright, so starting with that background information. On July 26, 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed into law the Americans with Disabilities Act, also known as the ADA. The ADA is the civil rights law that protects people with physical or mental impairments that substantially limit their major life activities from discrimination in all areas of public life, including jobs, schools, transportation, and all public and private places that are open to the general public. So, after this legislation, Boston, Massachusetts held the very first Disability Pride Parade event, and thus, Disability Pride Month was born. Since then, many events have been held in honor of Disability Pride, and there was a flag created as well. It was designed by Anne Majel, a disabled woman, and each color symbolizes a different part of the community. I'll leave it linked down below.

People living with HIV are also protected from discrimination by the ADA. This was a really important achievement to many in the LGBTQ+ community, then living at the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. We know that homophobia displayed by the government in our society definitely influenced the way that the AIDS epidemic was handled, but that's another topic for another day. So, while the ADA did offer new protections for disabled people, it very intentionally and explicitly excludes three medical conditions closely associated with transgender people. So, it wasn't until May 18, 2017, in the Black versus Cabela retail Incorporated case where the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania held that gender dysphoria, which was a new diagnosis as of 2013 that describes the clinically significant distress that some transgender people experience, is not excluded by the ADA. And there are several groups that work to protect transgender people and assist with legal processes if you feel like you're still being excluded by the ADA. And I'll link that in the description for you as well.

Intersections of Disability and LGBTQ+ Community:

So, that's just a little bit about Disability Pride Month, kind of where it came from. I want to talk to you about the intersections of disability and the LGBTQ+ community. So, disabled people have long been hidden from history, and unsurprisingly, disabled LGBTQ+ historical figures have also been hidden. Some of the most beloved and well-known LGBTQ+ historical figures also had disabilities. Among them, artists like Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Frida Kahlo, and writers Virginia Woolf, James Baldwin, and Audre Lorde. We know these names well, yet not their disabilities. And there are so many other LGBTQ+ icons, past and present, whose disabilities we ignore or fail to acknowledge as critical to their identities and to ours as a community.

An estimated three to five million LGBTQ+ people have disabilities as of 2019, which is roughly like one in four LGBTQ+ people who have a disability. And even though this data is really helpful to understand context, I do want to acknowledge that there are definitely more people with disabilities that we probably don't know about. Not only is the survey sample from 2019, but it also takes a lot of time, money, and resources to get diagnosed with a disability, then to receive benefits from this disability like Social Security or public accommodations. It takes even more time, money, and resources that not everyone has access to. I would just want to acknowledge that there are probably more people with disabilities that are not included in the survey sample and how our inequitable healthcare system really perpetuates that. But, so, based on the U.S. Trans Survey of 2015, the newer survey samples haven't been released yet, but based on this sample, the proportion of transgender individuals who identify as disabled actually exceeds that of the general population.

So, overall, 39% of trans respondents in this survey admitted having one or more disabilities compared to 15% to 20% of the general population. So, based on this, it's evident that disability issues disproportionately impact LGBTQ+ individuals. This, along with the broader intersections between disability, race, gender, and other marginalized backgrounds, must be a centerpiece in any form of advocacy involving the disabled and the LGBTQ+ community and movements.

So, we've talked about some background information on Disability Pride Month and how disability intersects with LGBTQ+ identities, and now is the moment that you and I have both been waiting for. It's time to talk about Frida.

Frida Kahlo- Introduction & Early Life:

So, when we think of Frida Kahlo, we may think of her art, the iconic dresses and flowers, or maybe her unapologetic and outspoken nature that inspired so many others. But she was so much more than that. Today, we'll explore the identities and impact of Frida Kahlo.

So, we're going to start out with her early life. She was born on July 6, 1907, in Coyoacán, Mexico City, Mexico. And now, let me say her name real slow so that I can do her some justice: Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo Calderón. Hopefully, I did that okay.

Okay, let's do that again. Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo Calderón was the third child born to parents Matilde Calderón e González and Guillermo Kahlo. So, she lived in her family's home, which is referred to as La Casa Azul or the Blue House, with her family and later with her husband Diego Rivera. It was inaugurated in 1958 and serves as a museum that showcases her artwork, her personal belongings, letters that she wrote, and the environment that helped inspire her creations. Her father was of German descent, his original name was Wilhelm or William, but he changed it when he immigrated to Mexico at age 19. He later met and married Matilde, Frida's mother, who was of indigenous and Spanish descent.

So, her father was also a photographer, and she would frequently pose for photos and assist him in his work, and we'll talk more about how this ultimately helped shape her image and lens as an artist later on in the episode, but so she was very close with her father. Many historians claimed that Frida was his favorite child. They both suffered from health conditions at several points in their lives and had to care for one another. He was epileptic and so they both had ailments that caused them pain and hardships in life, and that was kind of like a way that they were able to connect and strengthen their bond.

On the contrary, Kahlo was not close to her mother who she described as “tense, cruel, and fanatically religious Frida described her parents marriage as cold and Loveless at the time of her birth her mother was still mourning the loss of her son who was born and died unfortunately in infancy she was deeply depressed and unable to care for Frida so this created like a really troubling dynamic between them there's much talk about how their relationship was tumultuous but when Frida was visiting the U.S later in her life with Diego she actually wrote her mother and spoke with her very fondly so it's kind of hard to know what their exact dynamic was and why it was that way but I think that like for a lot of us her family life was complicated so when she was six she got polio and she had to be bedridden for nine months she recovered but the disease caused her right leg to grow shorter and it gave her a limp and her father encouraged her to do lots of sports to help her recover so she played soccer she went swimming and even did wrestle which was very unusual at that time for a girl but this wasn't the only instance where she broke gender Norms either

Frida As a Young Adult:

So, as a young adult, she went on to attend the renowned National Preparatory School, also known as UNAM in Mexico City in the year of 1922. And at the time, there were only 35 female students enrolled in the whole school. She intended on going to medical school at this point, and so it was here that she joined a political debate group at her school, and in that group, she met and fell in love with her first sweetheart, Alejandro Gomez Arias.

They were together for three years, and on September 17, 1925, at the age of 18, she was traveling with him on a bus when a tragic accident occurred. So they had been shopping downtown on a great afternoon. When they were on their way home from school, they got onto the bus, found their seats, and as the bus was beginning to turn, it actually collided with a streetcar. And so this accident was catastrophic, it was really tragic, many people died. But Alejandro was able to walk away with minimal injuries. However, biographer Gana and Corey writes, "Kahlo suffered multiple injuries. Her spinal column was broken in three places, her collarbone and two ribs were broken, her right leg had 11 fractures, and the right foot was crushed. Her left shoulder was out of joint, and her pelvis was broken in three places. And most horrifying of all, as medical records document in chilling terms, she suffered a penetrating abdominal wound caused by an iron handrail which entered her left hip and exited through her vagina, and it tore her left lip.

So, she was in devastating pain, and she would write to Alex, as she called him, frequently when she was in the hospital. In her letters, she complained about the ache and about being disabled, asking him frequently, "What is going to happen in 30 years?" or "How am I going to be when I'm 30?" And it's just honestly so heartbreaking to read because she struggled with physical pain the rest of her life. And to make matters worse, Alejandro's parents didn't like Frida, and so they sent him to Europe without even saying goodbye. Frida says during her interviews with Olga Campos in 1949 and 1950, "I was already in a cast after the accident, and Gomez Arias told me that an uncle was going to take him to Europe and that he would not leave me. But he lied to me. I received a letter from him from Veracruz saying he was leaving. It hurt me very much."

So, she ended up spending one month in the hospital, immobile in a body cast, and following this period, many more months bedridden at home. And so it was here that her father built her a custom easel and a mirror for her to paint self-portraits while she was in bed. A really interesting thing that I found out was that at the time, Frida was seriously considering becoming a medical illustrator because the accident had really changed her plans for her life. And as she was planning to go to medical school, she saw becoming a medical illustrator kind of as a way to marry her interest in both science and art. And I thought that that was really cool. But so let's talk about her image a little bit. She used her skills that she learned from her father's photography and its style for her own self-works. So she painted herself, her family, and some of her friends from school. And this is a really important way that we see that her time with her father assisting him in his photography really helped to shape her eye as an artist.

So, Anna Baeza Ruiz, a researcher from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, told DW in an interview, "From a very young age, Kahlo learned to pose for the camera, often gazing straight at the camera with her characteristic defiance. This awareness of the onlooker through the eye of the camera, but also of her own reflection, marks the beginning of her self-made image. Later, she shapes this image through her choice of clothing and her painting, especially in her self-portraits, both driven by her cultural and political commitments." And I think that this really helps demonstrate how her father's photography influenced the way that she was able to depict herself within art because she was already familiar with how to capture the lens of the camera and convey emotion through the photos, and she was able to replicate those skills into her artwork.

Frida's Image:

So an important part of her image was her clothing, the iconic dresses that she wore not only created her well-known image of today, but it was actually intentional to hide her legs because of her disabilities. She was often teased in school, and these experiences began to shape her self-image and identity. I didn't know this before researching about her, and I think that this really provides context for how her disabilities affected her life and ultimately her image.

But these dresses that she wore were those of indigenous Mexican women, which was really uncommon to wear in the city, but she wore them proudly to highlight her indigenous roots. The Tehuana dress comes from the traditional dress of Zapotec women, and it became one of the main features connected not only to Kahlo's work but to her personal fashion as well. And because Zapotec women live in a matriarchal society, their dress came to be a symbol of female power, and thus appealed to Kahlo. She molded and fashioned the garment over time to reflect her own narrative of identity, heritage, and personal history. And her dresses were a really important part of her image.

But what is often not shown is her more fluid presentation. So in 1924, Frida's father took some really great photographs of her dressed in a three-piece suit and tie, and her hair slicked back. She looks really sharp. I'll definitely leave the pictures for you in the show notes and put them over on our Instagram @ClosetedHistory.

So in addition to these pictures that her father took, when her and Diego separated, she painted a self-portrait with cropped hair that shows her in a loose-fitting suit and short clipped hair, hair is lying on the floor around her, and at the top of the painting are lyrics of a song that say, "Look if I loved you, it was because of your hair. Now that you are without your hair, I don't love you anymore."

And I think that this is really important to recognize how she challenged gender presentation norms and expectations, especially during the time of her life. And so she really conveys this unconventional beauty. It's well known that Frida has a monobrow or unibrow and mustache in many of her paintings and photos, and they both represent her rebellious nature and how she rejected stereotypes and gender norms. She has been quoted as saying, "I won't curb my self-expression to meet your expectations of how a woman should look." Snap, snap, Frida.

But so unfortunately, her image has also been kind of capitalized and turned into this corporate image. There is a Snapchat filter where they made like a Frida Snapchat filter, and in the filter, they actually lightened her skin and the mustache. So besides the flower crown, it doesn't really look like her. And then there's also a Frida Barbie doll, and Barbie just represents the epitome of Western beauty standards. So the doll has no unibrow or mustache and of course benefits a huge corporation, which couldn't be further from what Frida believed and stood for. And the sale of this doll actually has been blocked from being sold in Mexico temporarily because there's like a dispute between the relative of Frida's and the company Mattel. And I mean, rightfully so, because Frida definitely wouldn't have wanted to be turned into a Barbie doll. And I think that it's important to note how her image has been really used and replicated to benefit corporations and capitalism, and that she definitely did not stand for that.

Frida’s Politics:

So we can't talk about Frida Kahlo without talking about her politics. I think that oftentimes this part of her identity is left out of the conversation and the representation of Frida. So passion for the revolution was so central to Frida's life that any biographer who ignores her politics is really failing to do her justice. She considered herself a child of the Mexican Revolution, which took place from 1910 to 1920, and she identified with this so much so that she legally changed her birthday from 1907 to 1910 so that she would be associated with the movement. Frida joined the Mexican Communist Party in 1928, and this is where she officially met Diego Rivera. She had seen him before when he was painting a mural at her school years before, but it was here that they formally met. She attended a party where he was also in attendance, and she approached him to ask him to critique her work, and he loved it, and so they quickly fell in love. They got married in 1929, and their marriage often was described as tumultuous. Notoriously, both Kahlo and Rivera had numerous affairs. The openly bisexual Kahlo had affairs with both men, including Leon Trotsky, and women, including Josephine Baker, Dolores Del Rio, and more. Rivera apparently knew of and tolerated her relationships with women, but her relationships with men made him really jealous. And for her part, Kahlo became outraged when she learned that Rivera had an affair with her younger sister, Christina. The couple eventually divorced, but remarried in 1940, and their second marriage was just as turbulent as the first. Their living quarters were often separate, although sometimes adjacent. And so I just wonder about the intimacy of their relationship, how they kind of described it, because we see it as like, "Oh, yeah, they both had a lot of affairs," but I just wonder how they would describe their relationship, especially given the way that language has kind of changed today. But so, actually side note, up until a few months ago, I didn't even know that she was bisexual. I knew of her rocky relationship with Diego and the many affairs that they both had, but I didn't know that she was also having affairs with women. And I think that this goes to show just how much we see bi erasure and LGBTQ+ erasure in general in our history and media because I looked at several sources to kind of get a good glimpse into her life, and there were so many sources that talked about the affairs that Diego had, a few of them also mentioned the affairs that she had, but even fewer mentioned the women that she had affairs with. And so this is one of the many reasons that I love making this podcast because together, we can learn about people's identities and we can help fight back against this erasure.

Alright, so back to politics, though. So, through her communist politics, Frida was a lifelong critic of capitalism and advocate for the oppressed. So, while visiting the U.S. in the early years of the Great Depression, she wrote in her letters to Mexico, "I have seen thousands of people in the most terrible misery, without anything to eat and with no place to sleep. That is what has most impressed me here. It is terrifying to see the rich having parties day and night while thousands and thousands of people are dying of hunger." Kahlo was also a critic of U.S. imperialism in Latin America. Her final public act was to attend a Guatemala solidarity rally in 1954. At the time, Guatemala faced a CIA-led invasion which overthrew its president for redistributing land from U.S. corporations to the Guatemalan people. So, I just want to say that it is very fitting that the last public thing that she did was attend a protest. She is such a badass. And I want to note that Frida's artwork cannot be easily isolated from her communist politics either. She had an explicitly popular and revolutionary theory of art. "I have a great restlessness about my paintings," she said. "Mainly because I want to make it useful to the revolutionary communist movement. I must struggle with all my strength to ensure that the little good my health allows me to do also benefits the revolution. The only real reason to live."

Frida’s Paintings:

Alright, so clearly you can see that she feels very strongly about her politics and the way that it relates to her artwork. So, speaking of her artwork, let's talk about her paintings. Of her 143 paintings, 55 are self-portraits, which often incorporate symbolic portrayals of physical and psychological wounds. She insisted, "I never painted my dreams, I painted my own reality." I actually have a mug that has this quote on it, and I never understood the full context of this until I researched for this episode. This quote comes from her trying to distance herself from the surrealist artists at the time.

When she was 32, she traveled to France to display her art in a show. In her letters to her American lover Nicholas Murray, who was also her photographer, she expresses how her art was poorly handled and her true feelings about the other artists that she was surrounded by. These are Frida's actual words from her letters; they were written in English. She says, "You have no idea the kind of bitches these people are. They make me sick. They are so damn intellectual" (she put that in quotes) "and rotten that I can't stand them anymore. It really is too much for my character. I'd rather sit and sell tortillas than have anything to do with these bitches of Paris." They sit for hours in the cafes, warming their precious behinds and talk endlessly about culture, art, revolution, and so on and so forth, thinking themselves the gods of the world, dreaming the most fantastic nonsense and poisoning the air with theories and theories that never come true. I think it's obvious that she didn't want to be associated with the surrealist artists at the time.

So, the whole reason why she went to Paris for that show, she was displaying a piece called "The Frame," and it's actually the museum that it's in—I'm gonna butcher this because it's French, but I think it's Centre Pompidou, maybe. But it's actually the only museum in Europe to hold a piece of work by Frida Kahlo. So, while she didn't really have a good time in Paris, it's still pretty incredible that this is the only place that holds a piece of art by Frida Kahlo.

Themes In Her Paintings:

Speaking of her paintings, I do want to talk about some themes that are present in her paintings, and these are some of my favorite paintings of hers. I definitely recommend that you look more extensively into her artwork because it's really incredible.

The first theme that I want to talk about is duality, and this comes from "The Two Fridas." It's a painting with two Fridas holding hands, with one that has her heart cut out in a white, modestly dressed attire, and the other is in the traditional dresses that Frida was notably seen in, with a beating heart that's intact. She painted this after her and Diego split up, and it demonstrates the duality of her identities. And I also think that it personally could be kind of like a representation of her bisexuality, like the two sides of herself. And so, I just really love the way that she communicates the duality of her own identity.

The next thing that I want to talk to you about is her views on America. So, we touched on that a little bit once we talked about her politics, but in this particular piece called "My Dress Hangs There," this painting is a result of a conflict. So, her and Diego had been visiting and living in the U.S. for three years because of his work. He was a very famous muralist and came to the U.S. to do a lot of commissions here. But so, Frida desperately missed Mexico, but Diego was enjoying his success and fame in the U.S. So, thus, "My Dress Hangs There" was born. Frida Kahlo was trying to depict the superficiality of American capitalism, and in this painting, it's filled with icons of the modern industrial society of the United States, but implied that society is decaying and that the fundamental human values are destructive. In contrast to this painting, her husband, Diego, he was actually working on a mural in the Rockefeller Center to prove his approval of the industrial progress in America. So, I really just love the juxtaposition of their ideas about America at the time being present through their art.

The next theme that I want to talk to you about is sexuality. So, in this piece called "Two Nudes in a Forest," which was originally named "The Earth Itself," it was a gift that Frida gave to actress Dolores Del Rio, which we talked about earlier that they had a little thing. But so, this actress Dolores Del Rio, she actually resembles one of the women painted. And this painting revealed her ambivalent sexuality that she was never apologetic or shameful about. And the two naked women were sitting in the background of the forest, and the light-skinned woman rests her head on another dark-skinned woman's lap. And in the background, this scene is being watched by a monkey, which is like a symbol of lust in Mexican mythology and an image of sin in Christian iconography. And so, I just love how she very unapologetically creates this image of two naked women being together because she wasn't ashamed of who she was and her bisexuality.

The next theme is reproductive issues. So, in the painting titled "Henry Ford Hospital," which was painted in 1932, it shows a reflection of what Frida felt when she was having either an abortion or a miscarriage. There are six objects flying around her: a fetus, which is the child of her and Diego, she longs to have—the fetus is actually based on a medical illustration, which makes that fact about her wanting to be a medical illustrator even cooler because she kind of is depicting that in her art here. But so, there's the fetus, and then an orchid looks like a uterus, the stomach she holds against the red ribbons, and they look like umbilical cords, and then there's also a snail, which is like the symbol of the slowness of the operation. And this is also the first painting that she used sheet metal as a support because this style of painting was actually indicative of the indigenous painting styles of Mexican artists that she really admired. But it's been debated why this pregnancy was interrupted at the time, and some have even speculated that she wasn't pregnant at this time, but it has been confirmed by clinical history that she had three interrupted pregnancies. She represented the pain and anguish she felt surrounding her reproductive issues through her paintings in a way that's just truly unforgettable.

So, to say that Frida was authentic and vulnerable through her art is an understatement. She presented her reality in such a way that she was able to convey deep emotion through a painting, and it's really astounding to look at her work in all of its deep symbolism and representation of her life.

The End of Her Life & Legacy:

Now, let's talk about the end of her life, her legacy, and how her impact lives on today on a global scale. So, in 1940, Kahlo and Rivera remarried, and their relationship became less turbulent as Kahlo's health deteriorated. Between the years of 1940 and 1956, the suffering artist often had to wear supportive back corsets to help her spinal problems. She also had an infectious skin condition, which led her leg to eventually be amputated because she got gangrene. When her father died in 1941, this exacerbated both her depression and her health again because they were really close with each other. So, she again was often housebound and found simple pleasure in surrounding herself with animals and tending to the garden at La Casa Azul. Here at her garden, she actually kept monkeys as pets and said that they were the children that she could not bear. She also included monkeys in many of her paintings. So, she really enjoyed animals and specifically monkeys because she took care of them like they were her babies.

Kahlo exhibited one last exhibit in Mexico in 1953 at Lola Alvarez Bravo's Gallery, her first and only solo show in Mexico. She was actually brought to the event in an ambulance, with her four-poster bed following on the back of the truck. She was obviously very determined to get there despite her deteriorating health. And so, the bed was then placed in the center of the gallery so that she could lie there for the duration of the opening. Unfortunately, Kahlo died in 1954 at La Casa Azul, and while the official cause of death was given as a pulmonary embolism, questions have been raised about suicide, whether it was deliberate or accidental. And there was never an autopsy completed, so I guess we'll never know. She was 47 years old at the time.

But her last painting, "Viva la Vida," watermelons, is a bright and vibrant celebration of life that features rich color contrast, curves, and angles, and a final message from the author herself. Kahlo put the finishing touches on her watermelon-themed painting just a few days before her death in 1954. She inscribed "Viva La Vida" on the central melon wedge at the bottom of the canvas, which translates to "Long Live Life," just eight days before she died. And in her diary, she penned her final entry, stating, "I hope the exit is joyful and I hope never to return."

The legacy of Kahlo cannot be underestimated or exaggerated. It has brought me great pleasure researching her life and all the things that made her who she was. I hope that I have created a more whole picture of Frida by exploring the multiplicities of her identities. Her legacy continues to live on through her beautiful artwork, revolutionary politics, and meaningful contributions to the world.

Conclusion:

So, this brings us to the end of the episode. Thank you so much for exploring Frida's life with me. It has been an honor to learn about one of my greatest heroes. Today, we explored the different identities of Frida Kahlo, who will forever be an LGBTQ+ icon and figure in LGBTQ+ history. Thanks for joining, and I can't wait to learn with you again.

Thanks for making it all the way to the end of the episode with me. You can find the transcript and all the links listed in the show notes. I'd love to hear what you thought of this episode. You can send me a message on the podcast Instagram at closetedhistory or reach out to me via my website discoveredwithdestiny.com/contact. If you'd like to support the podcast, the best way to do so is to share an episode with a friend and leave a review. I hope you continue to learn more LGBTQ+ history with me in the next episode. And as we embark on our learning journey together, as always, thank you for listening. You are important, and your story matters. Until the next time, friend.

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