THE RELEVANT QUEER: Kiyoshi Kuromiya, Gay Pioneer & Rights Activist

“I became involved in a lot of human rights activities, which all stemmed from my sexual orientation as much as anything.”

TRQ: Kiyoshi Kuromiya, Born May 9, 1943

Author and activist, Kiyoshi Kuromiya is most known for his role in the civil rights, anti-war and gay rights movements. Kuromiya as an aide worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr and was a delegate to the Black Panther Convention. He helped found the Gay Liberation Front and edited ACT UP’s Standard of Care, the first guideline for medical treatment for those with HIV/AIDS. 

Kuromiya was born the Heart Mountain internment camp for Japanese Americans in Wyoming on May 9, 1943. Forced into relocating in concentration camps, Japanese American families lost their jobs and property, and kept the belongings they could carry. After World War II ended, Kuromiya’s family returned to Monrovia, a suburb of Los Angeles, after the U.S. government disbanded the camps. 

By age 9, Kuromiya realized he was gay and started looking for information wherever he could find it. He once explained, “I think it was about ’52, ’53, ’54, the early ’50s. There wasn’t much literature. The only thing I could find, because I didn’t have access to the adult section at the Monrovia Public Library in Monrovia, California, I’d go to the county library and Kinsey’s report on sexual behavior in the human male had just come out, and so at about nine years old I found a copy on the open shelves in Duarte Public Library.” 

Kuromiya graduated with honors from Monrovia High School in 1961 and enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania. His involvement in the civil rights movement began there. In 1962, he joined the Congress of Racial Equality restaurant sit-ins in Maryland. 

As Martin Luther King Jr.’s personal assistant, Kuromiya’s commitment to the civil rights movement grew. When King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech in March 1963, Kuromiya attended while participating in the March on Washington. 

In March 1965 he marched with black students to campaign for voter registration in Montgomery, Alabama where he suffered injuries from police violence. On July 4th of that year, Kuromiya joined gay pioneers like Frank Kameny and Barbara Gittings in Annual Reminders, early gay rights rallies at Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. 

1968 proved to be a turbulent and impactful year. King, who had recently organized the Poor People’s Campaign, was assassinated on April 4th in Memphis. In the immediate days afterwards, Kuromiya took care of King’s children. Later that year, he protested the use of napalm in Vietnam by announcing he would burn a dog in front of Penn’s Van Pelt Library. Thousands of people turned up to the protest and found Kuromiya’s note: 

“Congratulations on your anti-napalm protest. You saved the life of a dog. Now, how about saving the lives of tens of thousands of people in Vietnam.” 

Under the name Dirty Laundry Corporation, Kuromiya also protested the national draft by designing “FUCK THE DRAFT” posters widely used in activist protests at the time. Following, the FBI surveilled Kuromiya. 

The Black Panthers endorsed gay liberation as a platform for their 1970 convention. Kuromiya spoke at the Black Panther Party’s Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia as an openly gay delegate. 

From 1974 to 1977, Kuromiya developed, fought and survived lung cancer. In 1978, he joined Buckminster Fuller to start the Critical Path Project, which sought to leverage technology to improve the global human condition. After contracting AIDS in 1989, Kuromiya learned everything possible about the disease. He also used the Critical Path Project to serve people living with AIDS/HIV with a newsletter, library, and 24-hour phone hotline. Kuromiya also helped start ACT UP Philadelphia to raise awareness of AIDS. 

Kuromiya worked tirelessly to make sure that people of color and women were included in researching AIDS/HIV treatments. In 1997, he joined in a successful lawsuit against the Communications Decency Act, which criminalized “offensive” sexual material. “Someone might find material that we find important offensive,” he said in court. “I don’t know what ‘indecent’ means. I don’t know what ‘patently offensive’ means in terms of providing life-saving information to people with AIDS, including teenagers.” 

Wise 2 In 1992, he published Cosmography: A Posthumous Scenario for the Future of Humanity, which he co-authored with Fuller. 

Kuromiya died from AIDS-related complications on May 10, 2000. In 2019, Stonewall inducted him onto the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor in Stonewall Inn’s national monument. 

About the Authors

Troy Wise is currently a PhD student at UAL Central St Martins and teaches fashion and graphic design at London College of Contemporary Arts. His background is in marketing and is founder and co-editor of Image Amplified. He lives in, and is continually fascinated by, the city of London.

Rick Guzman earned his most recent MA at UAL Central St Martins in Applied Imagination in the Creative Industries. He currently holds two MA’s and an MBA in the New Media, Journalism and International Business fields. Co-editor at Image Amplified since its start, he lives in London, is fascinated by history and is motivated by continuing to learn and explore. 

Sources:

ACTUP NY

Encyclopedia

FirstMonday

Legacy Project Chicago

LGBT History Month

NY Times