37. The Life of Pauli Murray: My Gender is Imp, Part 2

In this episode of History is Gay, Leigh and guest host Aubree
Calvin return to the story of Pauli Murray, an important African
American lawyer, and activist who is finally getting the
historical attention they deserve. In their time, Murray was a
labor rights, civil rights, and women’s rights activist, and
broke significant barriers all while facing sexism and racism. In
addition to having a brilliant legal mind, they were a writer,
poet, and priest, and had time to be friends with Eleanor
Roosevelt. Pauli Murray should be in every U.S. History book in
every K-12 school.


So, if Pauli Murray was so important to so many movements, why
has history largely forgotten them? Leigh and Aubree try to
answer that in this two-episode series. In this second part of
our first-ever two-part episode, we look at what made Pauli
queer, and try to get a handle, as best we can, on their gender
identity.


We also get the opportunity to speak with amazing activist,
lawyer, and reproductive justice advocate Preston Mitchum,
previously Policy Director at URGE (Unite for Reproductive and
Gender Equity) and current Director of Advocacy and Government
Affairs at The Trevor Project, on his own personal history coming
to Pauli Murray’s story, how they influenced him as a Black queer
man, and continues to inspire and influence current and future
generations of queer civil rights attorneys all across the
country.


Preston can be found online at www.prestonmitchum.com, on
Instagram @preston.mitchum, and on Twitter @prestonmitchum.


Our wonderful guest host for this episode, Aubree Calvin, can be
found at www.aubreecalvin.com or on her podcast Southern
Queeries. You can also hear Aubree in previous episodes, which
you can check out by clicking here!


Outline
0:00 – Introduction
4:49 – Why Do We Think They’re Gay?
7:19 – Looking at Pauli’s Relationships
14:21 – How do we talk about Pauli’s gender?
36:17 – Interview with Preston Mitchum
1:12:16 –1:14:173 – TW: Discussion of sexual abuse, rape, and
assault
1:16:40 – Pop Culture Tie-In
1:18:13 – How Gay Were They?
1:22:40 – Closing and Where to Find Us Online


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