Gender, Law, and Memory: How LGBTQ+ Houston Moves Us All Forward In-Person
The 2025 Texas Legislature saw more than 200 anti-LGBTQ+ bills – the highest count of any regular session in Texas history. Most of these bills specifically targeted gender identity and expression. To put this most unusual session in context, this talk offers a history of Houston’s 1861 cross-dressing ordinance: who has been prosecuted under it, the activists who fought it, and what that history might mean for us now in our seemingly new frontier of gender diversity.
A native of North Carolina, Brian Riedel has called Houston home since 1997. In his role as Associate Director for the Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Rice University, he connects community conversations and academic resources through teaching, research, and public events. He is currently working on a book manuscript, 'Sex, Race, and the City: New Histories of Houston,' a history of the city that centers its sexual and racial past. Outside these pursuits, he enjoys spending time with his husband and their two dogs. You can learn more about him at https://profiles.rice.edu/faculty/brian-riedel.
This is event is hosted by the Houston History Research Center. For more information, please visit: Houston History Research Center
- Date:
- Saturday, June 14, 2025
- Time:
- 2:30pm - 4:00pm
- Time Zone:
- Central Time - US & Canada (change)
- Location:
- Meldrum Room (1st Floor)
- Locations:
- Houston History Research Center
- Age Group:
- Adults All Ages
- Categories:
- History Research Centers