Listen to the episode here.

This week, Angie and Theresa share some incredible stories.

Angie kicks things off with the story of Stormé DeLarverie. She is credited with throwing the first punch at the Stonewall Uprising, but did she?

Theresa pivots and takes us to South Africa to tell the story of Simon Nkoli, the gay activist who campaigned for gay rights and against Apartheid.

This episode pairs well with:

Stonewall

The Pink Triangles

Transcript

Theresa: Hi, and welcome to the Unhinged History Podcast. The podcast where two absolute people who are banana puddings of the brain are going to join forces after compulsively learning history stories and tell each other the stories we’ve only recently learned. I’m host one, I’m Teresa, and that over there, that’s host two. 

Angie: How dare you banana pudding my brain? I’m the Santa chocolate pudding. My name’s Angie. You know, I realized that 

Theresa: 20, 30 years from now saying things like, that’s crazy, that’s insane. We’re going to be like, ooh, can you believe we talked like that? That didn’t age well. We were othering people. And so I’m trying to be mindful of when I use those words. I love that for you. I mean, will I stick with it unclear? 

But all I can do is start with something, right? Folks, we’ll check back next week and see how she’s doing. It’s just going to be mindless wearing. 

I will have forgotten words that could be profane and jump directly into the absolutely offensive. Liz, your truth. I am not trying to stop you. Look, I am nothing if not consistent. So here we are. There you go. Proud to know you. That makes one of us. 

No, I’m joking. I love myself. Can you put your crap together today, please? No, absolutely not. Don’t tell me what to do. 

But that said, that delightful unhinged. I’m sorry. What? I think we’re going to transition sharply and abruptly into it being your turn. That’s rude. You like that? Or you don’t like that? Whatever. I guess I go first this time. You do, actually. That was one of the reasons why I decided to pull the e-brake in the middle of this conversation. 

Angie: So you’re saying if you went first, we’d still be going? Are you buying clear? Are you sure to buy time for yourself? 

Theresa: No, I’m not doing my notes in the other screen. Yeah, they’re done. They’re done. I will take none of your lip. All right then. 

Angie: Hold on. I need to make sure I didn’t have a paragraph before this. Okay. I didn’t. Do you know the story of Stormy De La Vare? 

Theresa: Okay. So in passing, yes. I might be conflating them with another human. Do they have a suspicious death link to them? No. Okay. Then I am definitely confusing them with somebody else. Carry on. All right. 

Angie: So I’m going to tell you their story. My sources are the Queer Saints Project. There is not a ton of information on them there, but it is a really wonderful page. And I thought it was really fun that when I opened it, have you been to the Queer Saints Project? 

Theresa: Negative. If I have, I’m not recalling it. So let’s just go on that delightful assumption. 

Angie: Okay. So I’m just going to briefly tell you that it is a site dedicated to members of the community that are like the pillars that the community stands on, right? 

From time immemorial. And each page is like a slide that has a stained glass version of them. And then like a short little maybe one or two paragraph biography, like little blurb about the person. And then at the bottom of the page, you can click left or right. And it takes you to the next person. So when I did William Dorsey Swann, the Queer Saints Project was one of my sources for him. 

Okay. And I did not realize that just one page back was this individual and it made my whole day to make that connection. Like, oh, that’s super fun. So the Queer Saints Project, not a ton of information, but a really wonderful source. Nonetheless, and you can learn about a lot of really cool people there. 

So highly recommend it. There is the, sorry, I didn’t write the part out. The black alphabet.org very similar to the Queer Saints Project in that it doesn’t have a ton of information, but opens the door to a lot of people, a lot of stories. Their title is called A Resolute Voice in the Shadows of History. And I just love that for her. There is this one was a wild. SormyDilarvy.com by one individual called Chris Starfire. Unclear if Chris Starfire is their actual name, but this individual has put years and years and years of research, of genealogy research, of local small town newspaper research to try to collect a very unreliable story for me. Okay. There’s the National Parks website. 

Theresa: You know what? Get your Pingo cards out because this just made my day. I knew it would. 

Angie: There is a documentary series that’s on YouTube now, but I don’t think it was, it wasn’t originally made for YouTube called In a Life Documentary Stories from the Gay Experience. There’s is titled A Storm Life or a Stormy Life, depending on how you want to pronounce it. They pronounced it storm. 

Others pronounce it stormy, just how nicknames work, right? Yeah. So there’s that. Then there’s the StormyDilarvy, the woman who may be through the first punch at Stonewall, Facing History and Ourselves by Zach Yanowitz. 

And this is from January or June 23, 2025. And the organization of Facing History and Ourselves mission quote is pretty fabulous. I’m going to read it to you. Facing History and Ourselves uses lessons of history to challenge teachers and up to racism, antisemitism and other forms of bigotry and hate. And I was like, it’s really cool. 

Theresa: Exactly. I mean, yeah, I think that we should all attempt to deconstruct our views in the same way. Right. 

Angie: And then recently I used the Legacy Project Chicago before when I did the door register story, but I didn’t include who they were. And I think it is really important that I share with you there about us to help bring their project to light because it is really important. It says the award winning Legacy Project is a Chicago based cultural and educational nonprofit dedicated to researching and promoting the contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, gender and queer people who have made the world, who have made to world and history, who have made to world history and culture. It is driven by a core of historians, biographers, educators, youth advocates, social advocates and community and business leaders who share a commitment to ending the redaction of the LGBTQ contributions from shared human history. So this is a huge group of people working to actually share the history of, you know, like humanity. Right. 

So big fan of their work. So now that all that’s out of the way, the Stormy Delarbury was born on December 24th in 1923 or maybe 24. There seems to be some disagreement on their birth date. Sources suggest that is because her birth would not be one that would have been recorded. It is very likely, according to the sources, that she was the product of a black domestic worker in New Orleans and the white homeowner. 

Theresa: Okay. But this is interesting because we’re talking about somebody from modern time. And saying their birth would not have likely been recorded. 

Angie: That’s what they think. Because this is 1923, we are Jim Crow South and they are at least half black. And in a situation of changed financial. Right. The mother is a domestic worker. So it’s a little bit, shouldn’t be this way, but it is that that’s just how they think that it played out. Now I mentioned earlier, she preaches her name as Storm. You know how nicknames go. People, people change it. 

People pronounce it different, whatever. She doesn’t care. And one of my favorite things about her is that she is probably one of the most unbothered humans on the face of the planet to ever exist. You call her what she wants, you get what you see. It is what it is. 

Go back today. Like in her interviews, they’re so cute because she’s just like, I’m just here, babe, doing my thing. I love you. So I’ll let you say Chris Starfire, who has done all this research to try to place together her life, believes that her earliest known name is actually Ziva Hublitz. She did not remember her birth parents at all. But what she does remember is that she’s a foster adopt. 

Or so some sources say. This Chris Starfire believes that there was a couple called Harvey and Rose Hublitz that adopt this young lady about six years old. And they first show up together on a 1930 Nebraska census record. Her name at the time is Ziva M. Thomas. And years later. So on that 1930 census record, she shows up as a border on the record in the home. 

Theresa: So not a direct descendant or a tribute a family member. Okay. Right. 

Angie: However, by the 1940 record, she has listed as their daughter with the same name, the Hublitz name. Now, like I said, Chris Starfire does years of research to try to put the story together because stories for all of her delightful qualities is the worst narrator of her own life. So whatever the reason you want to choose her safety and safety of her loved ones, painful traumatic memories, whatever the case, she reinvents herself several times over and tells the story differently, depending on who she’s talking to. 

Theresa: We’ve had several humans that, you know, are reinventing themselves on the regular. 

Angie: Our bunzies. Um, I don’t know what her, her reason is, but it really seems to be the case for marginalized people to do that. Have you ever noticed that like all the characters that we’ve had have been in a situation where like changing their entire life and being the most unreliable narrator might have been the most safe way for them to live? 

Theresa: You know, that’s, I’ll have to look at the list with that question in mind, but I right now I could make a case for it. So carry on. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, now in the, excuse me, in the YouTube interview that I watched 

Angie: with her, she says that her father paid for her education and that she was largely raised by her grandfather in New Orleans. That’s not what Chris Starfire discovers, but that’s what for me says. Either way, the white kid, her quote, not mine, her, her quote, the white kids are beating me up, the black kids are beating me up. Everybody was just jumping on me for being a Negro with a white face. Oh, her words. So she has this, this moment in her life where she is either talking to her adopted father, Harvey, or her grandfather, but the gist is that individual says to her, if you don’t stop running, you’re going to be running your whole life. And she says, she’s about 15 at the time. That’s the moment she stops running if you haven’t run the day since. Like she’s just going to be her and you’re going to accept it or not. She doesn’t care. I kind of love that. 

Yeah. There is a moment though, and this part is sad, but then made me laugh so hard. There is a moment where as a young person, she is beat up and left hanging on a fence by her leg. Her brother would find her and she would carry the injury for the rest of her life. Like she had a limp and she in fact would refer to her leg brace as Jonah. And I was like, what was Virginia Hall’s prosthetic leg, Cuthbert? 

Theresa: Cuthbert. I was laughing too hard. I’m like, so Cuthbert’s not the only one that’s got a name. It made me smile just knowing that she’s like, oh, that’s just Jonah. Anyway, she had started singing young and she has this wonderful deep voice. And regardless of the shoes raised in Nebraska or New Orleans, it doesn’t matter because in the early 40s, she leaves home probably because she is now realized she’s about 18. She has realized she definitely has feelings for the same gender. 

Okay. And she is now facing some anti-gay abuse. This is the South and she is half black. So she is not having an easy go. 

So the smooth sword makes a ton of sense for me. She notes that during this time she rides horses in the circus. Okay. 

Let your truth. Now the creator of the Stormy website offers a ton of research into what they can find on Viva Hublitz saying that she also worked in this like traveling show called the Wonder Shows of America from Max Goodman. What we know for sure though is that that show was run by a woman called Reneal Golden and that a one Stormy Dale, a known alias of storms worked for them for at least three years. So it sort of makes sense that all this work that this Chris Starfire did adds up to be her actual life, but who 

Theresa: knows how exciting that need to come up with that lead and to realize, oh snap, I was right. Right. 

Angie: And the website actually talks about like the moment she made the connection that or they made the connection that that is actually probably very much the case. A couple of articles show up in local newspapers over the coming years talking about Viva Hublitz visiting home or other things like worth mentioning in small town newspapers. But one of them states that she had been seen professionally under the name Stormy Dale. So, okay, there’s another like point to probably this. This is probably the true story. By the 1960s, there appears to be a break with the family and she has last noted in a local newspaper in her mother’s obituary. But rewind a little bit. In 1943, she met the love of her life, a woman called Diana, who happened to be an aerialist and they would have 26 years together. 

Theresa: Okay. So this is giving some sick, freed and Roy vibes. It’s like you’re a gay lion tamer. What a coincidence. I’m a gay lion tamer. How fun. 

Angie: Yeah. Uh, now I did say, as I’ve repeated this multiple times, she’s an unreliable unreliable narrator. She did claim to have spent some time riding the jumping horses to the Ringling Brothers. 

She may have also worked as a bodyguard for some mobsters, but eventually, which is wild, she finds her niche as the MC and singular female member of the touring group called the Jewelbox Review. She does this from like 1955 to 1969. So she is knocking it out of the park. This is America’s first racially integrated drag show where she is the sole drag king. 

Whoa. And she’s amazing. She doesn’t care one lick if it ruins her reputation. 

Like all of her friends are professionally like, Oh, we don’t do it. Oh, don’t do it. Like let’s do your reputation. 

But I don’t care what you’re doing my thing. Um, she would say like they worried enough for her. So she didn’t have to do that sort of thing. Um, her quote about was though, it was all very easy. All I had to do is just be me and let their, let the other people use their imagination and never changed me. 

I was still a woman. So when she would do the show, she would do the show wearing these trademark, just amazing tailored suit, a penciled in mustache. fashion. She had this husky deep voice that people just loved. Her show was unprecedented and people ate it up. Like she was definitely the favorite star of the show. Like people came to see her. This show will often perform at the Apollo in Harlem where she would rub elbows with Queens of Jazz, like Diana Washington and Billy Holiday. Or she’s in Washington and Billy Holiday. Like she’s smooching. She knows what’s up. Now she talks about being arrested a couple of times for the whole not wearing three articles of clothing that your gender thing. Yeah. Um, because I thought she might have actually been a drag queen. She’s just like, oh lame. 

Theresa: Okay. Well, I’m honest. I guess I’m glad to hear that it’s applied across genders. I suppose. 

Angie: Yeah. At least in this case, it seems across the board. Now on one occasion, the officer that’s like citing her on this, and he is raffling her and he’s like, you can’t even tie a bow tie correctly. 

Like, what do you think you are? And she’s basically something to the effect of like, well, why don’t you come down to her every night and then tie it for me? But if you’re so good at it, um, she goes on to say that he was actually a really good man, was just simply doing his job and he made it a point to teach her how to tie a bow tie. And to this day she could, or to that day of her interview, she could tie a perfect bow tie every time in the dark with no mirror. 

Theresa: Because of what he did for her. I like that he was like, look, I’m doing my job. This sucks. But the rabbit ears are first and then you tuck under and you pull pot. I don’t know what that is. That ain’t it. 

Angie: This is a mess. Really help you. And I just think that’s like the super cute that she’s like, well, then fix it. If you’ve got a problem, you can tell me how to fix it. Now, by the end of the sixties, our King finds herself firmly established in New York City and is a regular at the Stonewall Inn. Now, Theresa has mentioned this incident several times over the years, but in case you don’t know, or this is the first time you’re turning in, the Stonewall Inn is a popular day bar in lower Manhattan. And, um, on the night of, or rather the early morning of June 20th, 1969, police rabies establishment, and it all goes to hell in a hand basket from there. 

Theresa: And we, I did like a full deep dive on Stonewall itself. And since then have done like humans who are at Stonewall. Yes. 

Angie: And you want the deep dive because Teresa’s deep dive is magnificent. It is episode 74 gets titled, everybody needs kick lines. 

Theresa: And if you have information on the drug dealing or the acid dealing bartender, Maggie Jigs, send that to us, email us. I want more info on her and cannot find it. 

Angie: She, she’s her unicorn when you find her, you can feel so better. 

Theresa: I’m not going to say she’s my Roman empire, but I think about her and smile. That’s awesome. I love that for you. 

Angie: Um, now at this, when they raid all sorts of inappropriate things are happening. Like female patrons being inappropriately frisked. There’s chaos everywhere. The crowd’s done and they’re chanting things like gay power and belting out. 

We shall overcome. People start hurling pennies, beer bottles, all things of the police wagon, because right people are being arrested and they’re thrown into the value wagon. But then a handcuffed woman, widely reported to be stormy snatched after a cop cracks her on the head with baton. She breaks free from the escort and starts fighting back. In what becomes one of the most iconic moments in her history, she was dead at the crowd and says, why don’t you guys do something? Yes. 

Theresa: Okay. She’s the, okay. Carry on. Now I’ve connected all the dots. 

Angie: Um, and, and they did the uprising goes on. Did she throw a first punch? No one can say for sure, but she was aptly there in the mix, giving everything she had and honestly good for her. Now in her interview, there are sources that say it was definitely her. She started it. She threw the first punch fast. 

The whole bit. She says she was there. She knows who did it. It wasn’t her, but she’s not telling. So again, someone’s being an unreliable narrator here. It might have been her, it might have been everybody else. 

Who knows? But either way, she was there. She gets cracked. She’s not playing games. Handles her business. Lover to death for it. Whether or not she threw the first punch, her actions earned her the nickname of the Rosa Parks of the gay community and the guardian of the lesbians. 

Theresa: First, so much. And this is why she has the St. Hood stained glass window. 

Angie: Okay. She is what is in that time considered the butch lesbian. Um, she, I wouldn’t, in her interview, she doesn’t seem any bigger than like a normal average sized woman to me. She certainly keeps her hair short. She dresses like a man, at least in the idea of like, she’s comfortable. Like her hair is short. She wears men’s sunglasses, that sort of thing. But at no point does she ever say, I’m a man. She’s very much, I’m a woman. 

Theresa: This is just my life. Sun glasses. Yeah. Okay. Carry on. I mean, I’m just, and I suppose there are sunglasses that are more feminine. Yeah. All right. 

Angie: She’s not think aviators, but like the bigger aviators that are definitely from it, from Ram space like that. But like, she’s just doing her thing. Like she’s not trying to be about anybody else’s business, but her own. 

And I love that. But from there, her involvement in their liberation movement is sealed and she works towards it for the rest of her life. Unfortunately, her partner, Diana, would die shortly after Stonewall. And that’s the point when she basically quit show business. She spends the 80s and the 90s working as a bouncer for a number of popular lesbian bars. She works as a volunteer street patroller for her community, because our girl does not mess around with intolerance or bullying, which she called ugliness. 

And we can’t have none of that. Sources say that in her obituaries, it says, quote, she literally walked the streets of downtown Manhattan like a gay superhero. She was not to be messed with by any stretch of the imagination. She dies aged 93. On May 24th, 2014, people remember her as caring, super protective mother confessor. One of my sources said that she worked as a bouncer till she was 85. 

Theresa: Okay. Now I would have trouble taking an 85 year old bouncer seriously regardless of many other factors. 

Angie: I’m just going to assume her sheer presence was enough. Like we know who she is. We just going to mind our will behave, ma’am. 

Theresa: I mean, I say that and I realize my great grandmother was four foot nothing. And could shut it down by just saying, which Jesus appreciate you doing that. No, Nana, I’m, you know what? Uh, I’m going to go sit down and read some scripture. I’ll be back. Bye. Uh, yeah. 

Angie: She, like I said, she works as bouncer to say five and she simply just cared, believing that because she was cared for in her youth, she had to care for others as well. There are photos of her in this amazing suit that appear in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She has a style icon and a trailblazer for the gender nonconforming. The Stonewall National Monument that was unveiled on the 50th anniversary of the riots, which she called a rebellion not a riot. It’s her name in the inaugural 50 Pioneer Trailblazers and Heroes. Would you care to see some photos? Yes, please. 

Theresa: At your earliest convenience. 

Angie: It is truly my earliest convenience because the share button has, there it is, I’ve gone missing for a moment. OK, so these images here are from the Bloom Chicago session. And I’ll see if you can see her as I’ll let you describe it. 

Theresa: They are black and white photos and they are stunning. However, grainy as hell. He has a halo of textured dark hair that goes around her face. I can only assume it is that curly texture. 

Angie: Big smile. 

Theresa: Yeah, likely a bow or flower or a fascinator of some sort in her hair. And it is kind of a honestly that she could rock that today and it would be in fashion because it is a two piece set maxi skirt that has a lot of volume and fluff to it. And then it’s like a crop top halter thing that goes over. 

Yeah, like I I am not into fashion and it shows. But fantastic. She’s fabulous. 

OK, so. This is her iconic look right here. OK, now she is showing a image of the storm in this blue suit. 

Tux suit, I should say, with the darker pearlized buttons, the black bow tie. She has kind of a rat pack as quality to her in this. Image deep widow’s peak as well. 

Angie: Yep, and you can see the same same glorious textured hair and doing her thing nose with up. So, yeah. Oh, my story. 

Theresa: All right, well, I’m going to take us a very different space and time. OK, well, same roughly same time. Truly, we are heading to South Africa, though. Oh, OK, so I’m going to tell you the story of Simon Coley. All right, my sources. I’ve got two from South African History Online, Simon Coley and the past laws in South Africa from 1800 to 1994. The conversation has an article titled Simon Coley’s fight for clear rights in South Africa is finally celebrated 24 years after he died by Gibson Coop. OK, so, uh, Simon’s born November 26, 1957 in Sweto. 

Sweto, I should have looked up to Crowns this last part. Gutin, which is the largest black township in South Africa. Now it’s ruled by a white minority who had enforced apartheid. And for those of you playing at home, that is a system of racial segregation. 

He’s one of four children and his family lived in extreme poverty and segregation as well. Right. OK. Now, at the time, they suffered under strict past laws. Now, these laws required, uh, where they regulated everything around daily life, where a person lives, works, where they’re allowed to travel. 

And it seems that these laws also prevented families from living together as a complete unit. It’s pretty dastardly. Yeah. Like, and I get if you’re a minority ruling class, you want to destabilize the people underneath you so they can’t rise against. And what better way, however, that is awful. 

Angie: Shouldn’t be the thing at all. We don’t figure out how to play next. 

Theresa: Yeah. Now, so much so that some of Simon’s earliest childhood memories include hiding from the police with his family to avoid prosecution. Right. So that’s that’s lovely. And that old game of hide and seek. Yeah. Yeah. 

The one with the repercussions more than you’re it. Right. Now, his parents ended up separating in early childhood. And at that point, he’s sent to live with his grandparents in the orange free state. 

His grandparents are tenant farmers, and he’s made to work alongside them on the farm under the strict governance of the farm’s white owner. Right. So we’ve got going now. Now, he realizes at an early age that his best way out of this is to get an education. So he enrolled at school while continuing to work on the farm. Okay, you did a buddy, which I love this forward thinking when he turned 13. He’s facing pressure from grandparents and the white landlord to quit school and work full time on the farm. 

Angie: Well, I got Calculus homework to do. Yeah. 

Theresa: So he’s fearful of losing this education. And as a result, he flees to Johannesburg and it’s there that he reunites with his mom, her new husband, and they’re living in the township of Sabonakeke and continued schooling under their guidance. Good for him. Which it. 

Yeah, I am stoked as opposed to just ending up on the street losing education as well. Yeah. During his teenage years, he starts to discover his sexuality and ends up coming out to his family at the age of 20. 

Okay. Now, he’s met with a lot of fear and anger because they don’t really know or understand much about homosexuality. And this results in his mother and stepfather taking him to priests, traditional healers and a psychiatrist trying to change his orientation. Yes, that’ll do it. Yeah. Why? I mean, why not? Here’s a T try that. 

Angie: Well, I guess here’s the T try that’s better than talk therapy. Yeah. 

Theresa: So when let’s, you know, rewinding a tiny bit at age 19, Simon meets Roy Shepherd through a pen mail, a pen pal magazine. Shepherd is a white bus driver from Johannesburg. 

Okay. And they began a romantic relationship that would end up with them both becoming lifelong partners. Good for him. 

Now, Shepherd’s family, they had no problem with the homosexuality, but it is kind of an issue when they see him involved with a black man and they kind of stand up to that. Of course. You know, it’s not going to be easy sailing. 

Now, the Shepherd’s family’s refusal to accept the relationship and Coley’s family and their attempts at conversion tactics really kind of put a hindrance on this couple, as you would expect. Yeah. Okay. Now, to combat that they vowed to commit suicide together if they’re not allowed to see each other. 

Angie: I hate this. You’re adults. Go do your thing. Yeah. 

Theresa: Now, upon, here’s where things shift because upon discovering this heartbreaking plan, Simon’s mother accepts her son’s sexuality and relationship convincing the two of them to abandon their pack. Okay. Which there’s redemption arc, which I’m here for. And by chance, the psychologist that Simon’s family took him to was a gay man who supported Coley and Shepherd. So a gay man running conversion therapy. 

Angie: You know, if you can’t beat him, join him, if you can’t join him, beat him. 

Theresa: I don’t know. Yeah. Either way, it sounds like things are coming, you know, coming together and he proposed that the two could just live together in secret with Simon posing as a servant. 

Angie: I hate that, but I guess if the story fits. 

Theresa: Yeah. It’s a path forward and if it beats getting attacked with sticks. Yeah. Okay. Now, Simon’s life had always been just ravaged from the apartheid state. You know, when you think about him hiding from with his parents to avoid prosecution to the overcrowding in his home and to his relationship with his partner Roy. Now, as a result, he starts to develop this innate understanding of these injustices that are faced by South Africans in this entire system. He sees everything as systemic. 

Okay. Now, in 1980, he’s attending a secretarial college in Johannesburg and he joins his first resistance group. And this is the Congress of South African students or COSIS. He soon became secretary for the group’s transvole division. 

I don’t know what transvole is, so please don’t ask additional questions. Now, he knew his sexuality. What was that? I was going to, but I will not. I mean, you can and we’ll both sit there, scratch our heads together. 

Angie: But I’m like, oh, I just look that up. I’m going to Google it. All right. Good. 

Theresa: Because I it’s vol with two A’s, by the way. Now, he knows the sexuality is probably going to be an issue within the freedom movement because homosexuality is not exactly well liked. And he’s got a couple of lenses of separativeness that he’s working with. And he’s also aware that his fight for democracy and his fight for equality are linked and that in order for him to commit himself to the struggle, he’s going to have to honor his truth. 

Angie: The trans vault in South Africa was central to several, several major political and social movements, primarily characterized by African resistance to British rule and subsequent anti-apartheid, by the ANC and Indian community. 

Theresa: So that’s a lot of explanation that doesn’t necessarily provide additional clarity. 

Angie: Not at all. I think it’s just the name of the group. 

Theresa: Okay. Moving right along then. No, about that. You’re fine. I mean, it just means a lot to do deeper digging to discover that nuance to go. 

Angie: Oh, yeah, that’s why it makes sense. 

Theresa: So when you think of his sexuality and his work with the Congress of South African students, this leads to a ton of debate debates. But ultimately, Coley is permitted to retain his position. He also becomes a member of the Gay and Lesbian Association of South Africa that goes by the acronym GASA. Now, he’s attempting to reconcile both sides of this activism. He finds that in doing so, this is kind of a bummer, he finds that GASA is predominantly white and they’re also very apolitical because they’re going to lean into their privilege and their privilege doesn’t necessarily care about these issues affecting the black humans in their network, which honestly is a very privileged thing. If you have the opportunity to be apolitical, stop and ask yourself why? Yeah, yeah, you’re right. 

Now, GASA tends to disagree with his anti-apartheid work and they refuse to support him on issues of race relation. And Coley ends up looking at this like this is super important. This is pivotal to the entire issue. Okay, yeah. 

That there needs to be an intersexuality among all of these struggles. And in 1984, during a protest march against rent increases in his area, police intercepted the protesters, pure gasped them and then open fire, killing around 20 people. 

Angie: Yeah, that’s going to help the rent. 

Theresa: Yeah, that’s that’s how you set down rebellion, especially when at a funeral for the fallen on September 23rd, 1984, police arrived at the cemetery and arrested 22 political leaders who were in the same group. And then when they were involved with the protest, Simon being one of them. Couldn’t just let them have the funeral. No, why not? You know, like why? We know they’re all going to be there. 

It’s a great gathering opportunity to get them all in one swoop. Yeah. Simon’s detained for nine months before the state even lays charges. Wow. So much for a quick and speedy trial, but I’m applying our law book to them, which apples and oranges. 

Yeah, okay. Now, notably, no, no, Koli and 21 others are arrested. They’re part of the United Democratic Front or UDF, which the government sees as a threat to the state. 

Choking. So tag them as terrorists and said, move on. I mean, it’s a playbook we see, you know, very commonly. Kind of over and over again. Now, when they laid the charges, the charges are severe. Koli and his peers are charged with treason, possibly with the death penalty. 

So cool time. And this is the beginning of the Delmas treason trial, which would become one of the longest running trials in South African history. It goes 240 days in court. Cool. 

Angie: Imagine that jury duty problem. Yeah. I’m out. 

Theresa: Now it’s going to end up being two years from the date of his charges to when he’s released on bail. And another two years before the trials declared invalid and all charges against him are dropped. He’s acquitted. Okay. 

But that’s still a lot of life lost. Uh-huh. Yeah. Now, his detention doesn’t go well with the predominantly white gossa. 

And they decided to refuse to support him and they throw him out of the association. Cool. You’re supposed to be there to help. Yeah. Now it’s at the same time, but remember, they’re the apolitical group. I guess that’s true. 

Yeah. It’s at the same time that his sexuality becomes known to his fellow prisoners because he’s still in jail at this time. We know he gets out because I dropped a spoiler there. This ends up getting a huge debate going and they’re arguing that Coley should be tried separately from everybody because his sexuality is going to further condemn them all if they’re all tried together. That’s stupid. 

They’re saying you’ve got two strikes against you. We only have one. Right. You’re by yourself now. I see the logic. 

I hate it. And. Now, ultimately, the prisoners come to realize that Simon sexuality doesn’t mean a ton in the grand scheme against apartheid. And they have nothing to do with it. Right. They’re, but they’re, they’re trying. Everyone’s trying to survive. Yeah. So ultimately, because in listening to and realizing there’s a huge intersexuality here or intersectionality that they decide to stand trial together. Okay. 

Which I really appreciated. It’s 1988, two years after his release from detention and following the acquittal that he found the gay and lesbian organization of Witwater strand. Nope. Witwater. Wit. 

The organization of Witwatersrand. The acronym being glow. Okay. Which is much better than GASA. Agreed. Now, glow is both a reaction to GASA’s apolitical standpoint because they have the privilege of being white and his solution of trying to reconcile both this destruction of apartheid and advancing the rights of people in the LGBTQ. Okay. 

It also is the first gay and lesbian organization to function in black township surrounding Johannesburg. Oh, wow. Okay. 

That’s cool. So glow ends up including a number of black leaders and supported more than just the white communities in the LGBTQ communities. It’s really kind of looking all at, you know, at everyone here and with success in glow. 

So, Kole travels extensively. He’s discussing with other organizations leaders and him and there’s another person mentioned named Julia Nickel and they really push what glow is doing to an incredible way. They’re really trying. They’re making sure that South Africa’s new constitution includes rights for the LGBTQ plus community. Awesome. Which, yeah, like let’s let’s pin those in ink. 

And it’s his activism that led South Africa to being the first country in the world to do this once the country had achieved democracy. Wow. Okay. Which I hadn’t known until this. 

Angie: Yeah, I wouldn’t have even thought had never crossed my mind. Yep. 

Theresa: So this means members of the alphabet mafia have it in like this is just part of part and parcel of their their framework. They have the right for adoption work, family rights. This is extended to their community as well. And it’s protected under the supreme law. That’s awesome. 

He would become the first openly gay activist in the country to meet with Nelson Mandela. Okay, which hit it buddy. Yeah, you would think that that would be the case. 

And so to hear it called online. Oh, yeah, of course. Now in 1990, together with another glow member named Beverly Disti, Kole organizes the country’s first gay pride march in Johannesburg. 

Which, okay. Feels late when you think about when we had our first pride marches, but when you see everything else they’re doing, they were busy. Yeah, stuff going on. 

Yeah, they were. I think if we could do it backwards and get rights and trying for everyone in this community ahead of having a march, I think that would be better when I’m honest. Yeah. 

Angie: And when it becomes part of your constitution. Yeah. Yeah. 

Theresa: At the beginning of the March, Simon Coley would say this, with this March, gays and lesbians are entering the struggle for a democratic South Africa where everyone has equal rights and everyone is protected by the law black and white men and women gay and straight. Good for him. Mm hmm. 

Thank you, buddy. It’s that same year. He also found the Township 8th Project, which sought to educate gays about the disease and counteract the epidemic, which had begun in the 80s. Working with glow, the project became a forum and resource for gays in the townships to learn about the disease and grant them access to treatment. 

That’s awesome. In 1994, South Africa’s democracy is born and Coley continue to grow the community by establishing the national coalition for gay and lesbian equity, which connected organizations supporting gay rights across the country. So he just kind of networked everybody together. Yeah. 

Some point here’s where things kind of take a turn. He contracts HIV himself and would fall victim to the disease that he fought against through a many of his things like the Township 8th Project. Now he died due to HIV related illnesses on November 30th 1998 in Johannesburg. He was 41 years old. 

And at his funeral, the pride flag was draped across his coffin. Okay. What about his partner? You know, I did not look that up, but I will say that there’s been, I’m going to end it on this note. Despite him not having popped up pretty prominently in anything I’ve researched previously, there’s been a huge growing wave of interest in his life. There’s a South African Museum. 

Museum. There’s a South African musician, Majola, who sings about queer love in one of the country’s most widely spoken languages there. And his 2017 album called Boette Sissy has a song dedicated to Simon. It’s also noteworthy. 

I know. Isn’t that neat? I’m going to have to hunt this down. If I can find it, I’ll send it to you. Okay. It’s also noteworthy that a South African artist, came out as Koli the Vogue Oeuvre at Market Theatre in Johannesburg. That’s pretty cool. And I’ve got pictures. 

Angie: And I’ve got pictures. This is my favorite. I don’t know why that is not at all what I was expecting. It is a average size black man with the short, frappe hair. He’s got on a really fabulous gold chain. And then I can’t tell for sure, but he’s got a t-shirt on with the fist 

Theresa: and a black vest on it. With the black power fist and then like a black leather vest over it. Okay. 

Angie: That is a leather vest. For whatever reason, I’m looking at it and I thought that with the shirt and the vest, that’s the one thing. There’s buttons everywhere. He’s got a really sweet smile. Yeah. Yeah. A really sweet man. Great facial hair. Oh my God. That picture is straight out of the 80s. 

Theresa: It is. So this is when they did their first Pride March. So he’s holding a bullhorn. There is a purple-ish background behind him. 

Angie: He’s got a bright pink, what looks like maybe a lanyard. Yeah. Probably got his name in there. First thing again, great facial hair. Really sweet face. He looks like he was a very sweet man. 

Theresa: But that is the story of Simon Coley. What a dull face. I love him. And if you love dull faces and learning about stories from areas of history or time or geography that you’ve never thought to reach out about, rate, review, subscribe, send this to another dull face. We need more of those. Let’s be honest. 

Angie: Honest to goodness. And on that note, goodbye. 

Theresa: Bye. Bye.