Rainbow Richmond: LGBTQ History of Richmond, VA

Introduction and Scope

The Gay Community Center of Richmond is pleased to offer this exhibit detailing the LGBTQ history of Richmond, Virginia. While focused on our lives after 1969, the exhibit also includes pre-Stonewall history. We are excited to use this platform to continue our efforts to document our community and its people.

The OutHistory.org Since Stonewall project provided the impetus to this effort, but Richmond has made significant efforts to preserve its LGBTQ history for years. The Cabell Library at Virginia Commonwealth University holds a substantial collection of material on our community's history. The Virginia Historical Society - one of the oldest archives in the nation - annually devotes resources to the collection and cataloguing of documents related to LGBT history.

Richmond is an old place, at least in American terms. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people have always been a part of its history. This exhibit is dedicated to all those who challenged the norms of society, who lived free and honest lives, and who moved us forward - maybe just a little, but always forward.

Exhibit Sections

Before The Rebellion

Early Virginia History: Reconstructing History

The history of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community in Richmond, Virginia pre-Stonewall is often hidden and hard to find, but it wends itself through the historical narrative of the city of Richmond and the state of Virginia. This hidden narrative mirrors the hidden, underground existence of LGBTQ individuals; there was probably no LGBTQ “community” in existence until the 1900s, but “gay” individuals can be found.

The Social and Cultural Elite and the Hidden "Gay" Society

As the 20th Century approached and started, more records can be found about relationships which, seen through today’s constructs, were gay and lesbian. These relationships were still discreet and conducted in private, but some sense of community was developing, with gatherings in private homes and other social/recreational activities.

Since Stonewall

Rainbow Richmond Timeline

Richmond's LGBTQ timleline since 1969.

The Beginnnings of Pride: Standing Up, Speaking Out and Organizing

The initial, public steps of standing up for gay and lesbian rights began with the 1969 editorial by Patch Adams condemning discrimination and continued with the rapid mobilization of the community in Richmond.

Sense of Community: Turned Inward by the AIDS Crisis

While many political activities continued, the AIDS Crisis had an incredibly strong, at times debilitating, influence over the actions of the LGBTQ community during the mid 1980s through the mid 1990s. The LGBTQ Community continued to grow, more people found their voices and came out, but the voices were often muted or drowned out by the overwhelming facts of the AIDS Crisis.

Rainbow Richmond in the Twenty-First Century

Much progress has been made in the years since Stonewall, but even now many challenges remain. Virginia is a conservative state and there are always new battles,and new indignities and new injustices to fight. The Twenty-first century has given LGBTQ Virginians first a law and then a constitutional amendment that prohibits the recognition of our relationships.

Acknowledgments

From Cindy Bray, Editor:

Richmond had a rich, varied LGBTQ history prior to the Stonewall era and a history of activism in the post-Stonewall era. There has been a continuing call for equality, sometimes a whisper and sometimes a roar. Today we owe a great deal to the people in the past who had the courage to stand up, be heard and come out.

Much of the information contained in this exhibit came from reading years of newspapers and newsletters including Our Own Community Press and The Richmond Pride, from the book Lesbian and Gay Richmond by Beth Marschak and Alex Lorch, and from numerous conversations with people who lived the history of Richmond since Stonewall. I owe Beth Marschak and Alex Lorch a great deal for allowing me to use the information contained in their book liberally. In addition to Beth, I have had the pleasure of speaking with several people who have been vital in the history of the community through the years, including Barbara “Bobbi” Weinstock, Stanley Kelsey, Stephanie Myers, Guy Kinman and Neil Parsons, and I look forward to more in-depth conversations with them in the future.

The terms “lesbians and gay men” are used frequently throughout the exhibit instead of LGBTQ, or sexual and gender minorities, in deference to the wording used in the reference materials and the practice at the time. Efforts were made to represent the full spectrum of experiences in the LGBTQ community, but sources were scarce in regards to people of color within the LGBTQ community, transgender people, and the cross-dressing/drag community. We must do better to document their history.

I am compiling this information because I recognize the need for the LGBTQ community to be able to see and recognize ourselves in the history of our community. I personally feel a great depth of gratitude to the men and women who came before me who stood up and fought for their rights as men and women and as gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender people. I live with a partner in a rural area have little fear of intimidation or harassment as a lesbian; I work at the Gay Community Center of Richmond, an organization dedicated to seeking an society free from bias, and have little fear of reprisals, intimidation or harassment. I know I owe the degree of freedom that I enjoy to those who have come before me.

Please Join Me on a Trip Through the History of Rainbow Richmond!

The information contained in this exhibit was compiled by Cindy Bray, Program Director for the Gay Community Center of Richmondand she can be contacted here.