If you’re not familiar with the name William Dorsey Swann — you should be. Swann was an African American man born into slavery who became America’s first self-described “drag queen” and an originator of ballroom culture . A pioneer of the queer liberation movement, Swann often put himself in danger in order to take a stand for queer rights. William Dorsey Swann was an American gay liberation activist. Born into slavery, he was the first person in the United States to lead a queer resistance group and the first known person to self-identify as a "queen of drag". #BlackHistoryMonth pic.twitter.com/IFLbM9TcD6 — zae (@itszaeok) February 4, 2021 Swann’s impressive history was all but forgotten in the mainstream consciousness until author and journalist Channing Gerard Joseph started researching his extraordinary life in 2005. Joseph wrote a book on Swann, slated for publishing in 2022, called House of Swann: Where Slaves Became Queens. In an article for The Nation magazine, Joseph...
