Misplaced Pages

Lea Hopkins

Article snapshot taken from[REDACTED] with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
American LGBT rights activist

Lea Hopkins (born 1944) is an American LGBT rights activist and poet from Missouri, best known for founding Kansas City's pride parade.

Early life

Hopkins grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. She realized she was gay at age 13. In 1962, she graduated from Sumner High School.

Career

Hopkins was the first Black Playboy Bunny in Kansas City, and the fourth overall in the country. She later became a professional model with the Barbizon Agency, and helped her coworkers negotiate for higher pay.

Hopkins has published several books of poetry, and has written for The Kansas City Star.

Activism

Hopkins moved to New York City in the 1970s, and became involved with the gay liberation movement there. She returned to Kansas City in 1974. Shortly afterward, she joined the city's chapter of the Metropolitan Community Church. She also went on to co-found Kansas City's Christopher Street organization and the Gay Injustices Fund.

In 1977, Hopkins organized Kansas City's first pride parade, which numbered about 25-30 people. A few weeks later, in July 1977, she organized a protest against Anita Bryant, who was speaking at a bookstore in the city.

In April 1980 she was featured in Essence. In August 1980, she was a featured speaker at the Southeastern Conference of Lesbians and Gay Men in Memphis, Tennessee. She was again a speaker at the conference in June 1986 in New Orleans.

In subsequent years, Hopkins worked for GLAAD and was an advisory board member of the Lesbian and Gay Community Centre in the neighborhood of Westport.

In the 1990s, Hopkins served as a spokeswoman for GLAAD on "Out There", a public access program by and about queer people from Kansas City.

In 2022, Hopkins was named Grand Marshal of that year's Kansas City Pride parade.

Personal life

Hopkins had one son, Jason (died 1997), whom she conceived with a friend's help.

References

  1. ^ "Hopkins, Lea". UMKC Libraries. November 19, 2017. Retrieved 2023-06-24.
  2. ^ Martin, Mackenzie; Hogan, Suzanne (2023-06-08). "Meet Lea Hopkins, the bold, Black lesbian behind Kansas City's very first Pride parade". KCUR. Retrieved 2023-06-24.
  3. ^ Abundis, Megan (2022-06-11). "Kansas City woman who organized 1st Pride Parade reflects on progress". KSHB 41 Kansas City News. Retrieved 2023-06-24.
  4. Smith, Barbara, ed. (2000). Home girls: a black feminist anthology (Reprinted ed.). New Brunswick New Jersey London: Rutgers University Press. p. 91. ISBN 978-0-8135-2753-6.
  5. "Lea Hopkins helped organize Kansas City's first Pride parade". The Kansas City Star. June 24, 2022. Retrieved 2023-06-24.
  6. Roberts, J.R. (1980). "Black Lesbian Literature/Black Lesbian Lives: Materials for Women's Studies". The Radical Teacher (17): 11–17. ISSN 0191-4847. JSTOR 20709273.
  7. Lady, Chicken (1980). "chicken lady". Off Our Backs. 10 (6): 18. ISSN 0030-0071. JSTOR 25793441.
  8. Buring, Daneel (1997). Lesbian and Gay Memphis: building communities behind the Magnolia Curtain. Garland studies in American popular history and culture. New York: Garland Pub. p. 213. ISBN 978-0-8153-2990-9.
  9. Lady, Chicken (1986). "chicken lady". Off Our Backs. 16 (6): 27–28. ISSN 0030-0071. JSTOR 25795096.
  10. ^ Montalvo, Nasir (2022-12-09). "Kansas City's Gay & Lesbian Variety Show from the 90's". Kansas City Defender. Retrieved 2023-06-24.
  11. Diuguid, Lewis (2007). Discovering the Real America: Toward a More Perfect Union. Universal Publishers. p. 322. ISBN 9781599424217.
Categories:
Lea Hopkins Add topic