Reportback: Triangle Queers Bash Back Screening 2025 — Stonewall was an Intifada
Reportback
On June 9th, 2025 queers gathered in Durham, NC for “Stonewall was an Intifada” to bring in Pride Month with a liberatory bang. This event, hosted by Triangle Queers Bash Back (TQBB) with assistance from Jummah 4 All, included film snippets (created a year prior by TQBB) that highlighted queer organizing in amerikkka from the Stonewall rebellion to the late 90’s, a post-screening discussion to learn from this history, and fundraising for Congo, Sudan, and Palestine. In 2024, TQBB came together to do something about the Pride event in Raleigh, NC. Thanks to the efforts of queer organizers that year, Out! Raleigh Pride became the first BDS-compliant mainstream Pride event in open solidarity with Palestine in amerikkka. TQBB decorated the event with banner drops, anti-imperialist propaganda, fundraising initiatives, and an invitation to the first film screening on the 50th anniversary of Stonewall.
This year’s screening was the encore for Trajectories: Liberated Pathways through Makeup, Photography, and Jewelry. As an art exhibit curated by Maya Ghanem and Nashia Ogbuagu, Trajectories was a multi-media project that envisioned personal and structural trajectories without the shackles of colonial oppression. A variety of art, jewelry, and photographs were for sale during the exhibition and the screening, and all funds raised were split between the Panzi Foundation, Darfur Women’s Action Group, and Wonderpuff Fundraising for Families in Palestine.
The night of the screening started out with a group meal before heading directly into the first section, which covered the Stonewall rebellion blow by blow, the birth of the queer movement and its various organizations, power struggle within the movement between liberationists and assimilationists, working together to survive within queer homeless camps on the piers, then finally, the struggle in prison and on the streets against the corporations and institutions denying HIV/AIDS treatment for all. A particular focus is placed on the following organizations: Gay Liberation Front, Gay Activists Alliance, Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, Salsa Soul Sisters, AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, and AIDS Counseling and Education. This hour-long video collage included a broad overview of major queer organizing from the first 30 years of the queer movement in the belly of the beast. Although not entirely comprehensive, the focus on first-hand accounts helped viewers hear directly from those most impacted and embedded in struggle during this time. As the film finished, the room was filled with sniffles and the wiping of tears from viewers being overcome with emotion.
Participants had a short break to digest all of the information shared and feelings brought up before resuming the screening. The next excerpt was a 47-minute video by Julie Perini, entitled “The Gentleman Bank Robber: The Story of Butch Lesbian Freedom Fighter rita bo brown.” Focusing on the vibrant life of militant revolutionary bo brown, the documentary gives valuable insight on the revolutionary struggle in the 1970s, life underground, inside-outside prisoner solidarity, and what a fully-lived embodiment of commitment to struggle looks like. Immediately following this film was another break for digestion and brainstorming on the questions found below.
Over an hour was spent discussing the films, the state of organizing in the triangle, and similarities/differences between the late 20th century and now. Important highlights from our discussion included the loss of true community over the last few decades and the need for movements that go beyond disparate activism. We also highlighted our common need and desire to talk to our peers and organize as tenants and workers, plugging each other into relevant projects in the process. Some avenues that we discussed were building workplace committees with support from our local workers assemblies, through mass work and localized mutual aid projects across the Triangle (Meals for the Masses, Changed Paths, CJAC), Siembra NC, and Triangle Tenant Union.
Linked below is all the materials used for this event. We encourage you to watch the films, peruse the readings, and consider the questions by yourself, with a buddy, or to organize a screening on your own! Stonewall was an Intifada & we owe it to ourselves and our elders to continue the fight to shake off our oppressors. Happy Pride!
Video Links
- Video Collage curated by Benny for Triangle Queers Bash Back
- CONTENT WARNING: throughout, there are mentions of police violence, racism, incarceration, self-harm, homophobia, transmisogyny, all the oppressive forces we struggle to bash back against
Discussion Questions
- How have you seen the tactics and strategies of the queer movement change from 1969, till now? Why did they change?
- Potential followup: What mass organizing tactics presented in the various video clips stuck out to you? What did you think of them?
- What were key factors in turning the Stonewall riot from mobilization to organization? How does this compare to the movement for Black liberation in 2020 and the modern day movement for Palestine?
- Followup: How do we recruit people to the movement when there isn’t a powder-keg issue mobilizing people?
- A commonality between historic uprisings, including the Stonewall uprising, is that they are led by those with the least to lose. As people who do have things to lose, what role do you think we should play in struggle?
- How do you think Sylvia and rita’s criticisms of the apparent lack of actions from many of the members of the queer community applies to the community you see today?
- Do you think the GLF should have contributed money to bail out the Black Panthers? How would you have voted?
- ACT UP, like many organizations, eventually led to infighting and splintering of the movement as people believed different strategies would be more effective. Based on this example and others (e.g., splintering within the Black Panther Party, GLF, etc.) what do you think leads to divisions in movement spaces? How do we move forward and build a movement despite those divisions?
- Follow-up: What factors would you consider when deciding if it is better to stay unified or split with an organization you had issues with? What do you think the driving consideration in a decision like this should be?
Resources
- Letter Writing Instructions for Actionists recently charged or sentenced in amerikkka
- Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries Survival, Revolt, and Queer Antagonist Struggle
- Creating a Movement with Teeth 一 A Documentary History of the George Jackson Brigade
- Come Out! Gay Liberation Front Newsletter Archive
- Sparks Fly: Women Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War in the U.S.
- Mahogany’s Mission (peer support for currently and formerly incarcerated trans women and gender-expansive people)
