- Historian and author Dick Wagner said that,
"We define ourselves as a society by the stories we tell."
When it comes to Wisconsin's LGBTQ+ history,
that story has long been hidden.
But not anymore.
PBS Wisconsin has produced
an extraordinary two-hour documentary
revealing the larger tapestry of our state's collective past,
featuring remarkable people
and social change that once seemed impossible.
Here's a preview.
[tense music]
- Dick Wagner: London was the world's capital.
Wisconsin newspapers would have a column from London
talking about the arts and political happenings.
Oscar Wilde was the toast of the town.
- Playwright Oscar Wilde
was one of the first global celebrities.
He had even visited Wisconsin on a speaking tour.
But in London in 1895, he was put on trial,
and his homosexuality was exposed in salacious detail.
- Dick Wagner: The coverage reveals
a total negative perception about homosexuality.
"Wilde's Disgrace" and "Shame for Oscar."
One paper ran with the headline, "Wilde Not Yet a Suicide,"
as if he should certainly be one.
[ship blows horn, ship engine hums]
- In La Crosse, Wisconsin, the city's many newspapers
ran updates on Wilde's trial in 1895.
That year, George Coleman Poage was coming of age
and entering La Crosse High School.
[waltz music]
- Ashley Brown: Poage was a very intelligent young man.
We know that he was a voracious reader.
It's not out of the realm of possibility
that he was reading about the trial of Oscar Wilde,
gaining a very clear sense
of what America
and, indeed, what the world thought
about gay men.
- Poage's story reveals the challenges
of telling LGBTQ+ history from a time
when true identity had to be a closely guarded secret,
one Poage would carry his entire life.
- Ashley Brown: Homosexuality very often has been something
that society has viewed as shameful.
And there can be a tremendous silence.
- Poage graduated from La Crosse High School as salutatorian,
then went on to the University of Wisconsin
to study history.
He would make history himself by stepping onto the track.
- Ashley Brown: When he joins the track team,
lo and behold,
he is the first African American on the track team
at the University of Wisconsin- Madison.
*
- Watch Wisconsin Pride online
or on the free PBS app.