'Spare change for a starving queen?' Race and Gender Nonconformity in U.S. History

Although the queer and trans activist Marsha P. Johnson is well-known in popular media for her middle name, "pay it no mind," among her contemporaries she is better remembered for lingering on street corners and asking passersby "spare change for a starving queen?" Using a racial capitalist framework, this course examines the history of gender and sexual diversity in the United States from the pre-colonial period to the present. We will read work by historians of sexuality and gender alongside scholars of Black and Brown labor as we ask how U.S. history looks different when we center sexual and gender nonconforming working-class populations.