Oral history interview with Carlene Cheatam

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Carlene Cheatam moved from New York to Washington, D.C. with a friend in the 1970s to try and find a job. Through that process, she began digging out a community through softball, which led to her beginning to be political active. Cheatam was first involved with organizing through the Black community. She was involved with the creation of the National Black
Independence Party and involved with Operation PUSH. The D.C. Coalition of Black Gays was her entrance into queer issues in an organizing lens. She would go to the coffeehouse to hang out with other queer people and be social, talk about political issues and rights. She was a member of Saphire Sapphos, a queer women’s group. This was the first time being political in her life, and Cheatam was one of the few women politically active in queer issues at the time. This meant she easily slipped into leadership roles in these organizations. She was co-chair of both the D.C. Coalition and the Eleanor Roosevelt small Democratic Club. Despite all of these roles, Cheatam views herself as an organizer not a political person. She prefers to make things work, to do work, than to play the political game.

In 1983, she coordinated the annual DC Capital Pride, working on outreach to people of color in the community. Previously, the event had been mostly white people, and she was looking to change that. After her experience there, she contributed and worked on outreach for the Black Pride Experience. Cheatam describes this job as her favorite, stating she is proud of her work and success with this job. The initial objective of the organization was to raise money to HIV/AIDS organizations that were helping the black community. She was the coordinator in 1991, and raised $11k to give to HIV/AIDS organizations. Cheatam also mentioned that she thinks the current administration of this organization does not see the value of giving back, focusing instead on throwing a party and using the money raised for that.

After organizing, she worked for D.C. Mayor Williams. She worked on his campaign and worked in his administration as gay and lesbian outreach director and then in the Department of Human Services. Cheatam mentioned that she believes they were not utilizing the office in the best way, instead prioritizing politics over real outreach efforts. When asked about men and women working together, she talks about it being more difficult for women to fit into organizing and queer spaces. She talks about women having children or other responsibilities. Men, even gay men, have privilege. They take over social situations, etc. She also talked about intersectionalist and hierarchy in media. She stated that we needed an Ellen before we could have a black gay person on tv.

1976-00s

African-American lesbian experience, DC Coalition, community building, Black Pride, Capital Pride

Yes

Yes, recording available