Introduction

“Did you actually know that it was forbidden for a deaf person to marry another deaf, thanks to Alexander Graham Bell? Imagine the fury deaf people felt back then and then apply it to homosexuals today.”

This quote comes from a 1998 opinion piece in the student newspaper of Gallaudet University, a university for deaf and hard of hearing students in Washington, D.C. The student writer, Michelle McAuliffe, identified what many Deaf LGBTQ+ people throughout time have known to be true: the Deaf experience and the queer experience have much in common. Many Deaf and queer people share a history of discrimination, isolation, and stigma. However, these communities also share a strong sense of identity, community, and activism.

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.

The Rainbow Alliance of the Deaf banner in the 1987 March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.

The information in this exhibit is drawn from various collections in the Gallaudet University Archives, the archives of the Blade and Gallaudet University’s student newspaper The Buff and Blue, as well as interviews available online and other digital sources (see research guide at the end for more information). All of the images come from the Rainbow History Project’s collection. Visit our StoryMap site to see a map of key locations from the exhibit.