Browse Exhibits (9 total)
“Gay is Good”: Gay and Lesbian Organizing in DC, 1961-1975
"Gay is Good": DC-based gay rights activist Dr. Franklin Kameny coined this slogan in the 1960s to convince gay people of their dignity and self-worth. As co-founder and leader of the Mattachine Society of Washington, Kameny played a role in dismantling anti-gay federal policies, including those that barred homosexuals from federal employment. Kameny and his fellow activists also challenged the American Psychiatric Association for pathologizing homosexuality. This exhibit explores gay and lesbian organizing in DC, 1961-1975, in its historical and political context.
Community Pioneers: Creators of DC's LGBTQ Communities
In 2003, Rainbow History Project established the Community Pioneer Award to recognize people whose contributions to the LGBTQ communities of greater metropolitan Washington DC merited special commendation. The recipients of this award are chosen for their pioneering work to establish the lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer communities of today's DMV.
Awards have been announced in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2012, 2015, and, most recently 2021.
In December, 2021, Rainbow History Project honored its newest class of Community Pioneers. Due to pandemic conditions, no physical celebration occurred, but a special video presentation was created. It can be viewed on the RHP YouTube page.
Dr. Herman Lynn Womack: First Amendment Pioneer
Dr. H. Lynn (Herman Lynn) Womack was a pioneer in fighting to expand the rights of gay men to have access to gay-themed content. His efforts to fight the use of obscenity laws to prevent gay content from being distributed through the U.S. Mail resulted in key decisions from the United States Supreme Court that expanded First Amendment protections for gay men throughout the United States. This exhibit explores Womack's role as first amendment pioneer, publisher, and gay rights advocate.
Womack was a pioneer in First Amendment Law, Publisher, Educator, & Supporter of Gay Activism.
Gay Liberation Front
Many of the individuals that founded GLF-DC helped fight for civil rights and peace in the 1960s, but found their sexuality at odds with the radical left of 1970.
As Michael Ferri, a founding member of Washington DC's Gay Liberation Front recalls: “We wanted to establish that we were part of the people’s movement, that we were oppressed people, too.” [interview with Rainbow History, 02/05/06]
What started as a letter to the editor of an underground paper grew into two collective houses that worked with other justice-seeking groups, including the Black Panthers and the Gay Activists Alliance, while protecting and celebrating gay sexual identity.
Gay Women's Alternative
The Gay Women's Alternative of DC (GWA-DC) created a safe space for lesbian women in the metropolitan area to socialize and explore relavent issues through a network of social and educational events. The GWA-DC served as an alternative to both the closet and bars to the lesbian community of greater-Washington DC from 1981 through 1993.
The founding members of GWA-DC created a community oriented educational and social resource for lesbians of Washington, DC over the organization's 12-year existence.
The GWA-DC sponsored a diverse range of events that defined it as an organization and provided invaluable social and educational resources to the community.
LGBTQ+ Religion in the Capital
PRIDE: Party or Protest?
Gay Pride is more than 30 years old, but it's hard to get an historical perspective on it. After all, the photos are in color, we remember wearing the clothes, having the haircuts. We were there, so how could it be history?
Nonetheless, it is history, and it's our history. This exhibit, "PRIDE: Party or Protest," is about documenting our lives through our stories and artifacts from events in our lives. This exhibit is about documenting the history of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender communities. Pride is a story that, for the most part, is unwritten. It is a tale taht is still being told, year after year, passed from generation to generation.
In organizing this exhibit, One in Ten and the Rainbow History Project researched and pieced together all the different parts of Pride in Washington, D.C., to tell the story in a cohesive way. There are aspects of telling this story that you may agree with and other parts you might disagree with. As with any good story, it will continue to grow and gain perspective. But this exhibit is a start.
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From January 13 - June 11, 2006, this exhibit was on display at the Charles Sumner School, in Washington, D.C. This online component was adapted from the exhibition panels.
Signs of Pride: DC's Deaf LGBTQ+ Community, 1970-2000
For people who share both Deaf and queer identities, DC has been a hub since at least the 1970s, thanks to its bustling LGBTQ+ community and the presence of Gallaudet University. This digital exhibit traces the history of DC’s Deaf queer community from the 1970s to the early 2000s.
A note on language: The capitalized “Deaf” as an indicator of Deaf cultural identity is a fairly recent development. In fact, much deaf media about deaf queer people in the 1980s and 1990s capitalizes “Gay” but not “deaf.” In most cases, it is impossible to know how people in the past would have conceived of their d/Deaf identity in today’s terms, much like how it is impossible to ascribe today’s labels for gender and sexuality to historical figures. For these reasons, the majority of this exhibit uses the lowercase “deaf” as a wider, more period-accurate term.
Because of the dual discrimination and suppression of the Deaf LGBTQ+ community, records of this history are fragmented. We welcome feedback and suggestions for future collecting from the community. If you know of any other Deaf queer organizations, events, or people that should be included and added to this exhibit, or should be added to the Rainbow History Project's collection, please reach out to the curator at emma@rainbowhistory.org.
The ClubHouse, 1975-1990
This exhibit explores the role that The ClubHouse played in the African American gay community of Washington, D.C. Opened in 1975 by Aundrea and Paulette Scott, John Eddy, Chasten Morell, and Rainey Cheeks, The ClubHouse provided the central focus of African-American gay DC social life for 15 years.