Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Rainbow History Project Oral History Collection Description An account of the resource Eye-witness accounts of what we’ve seen and experienced provide a valuable resource to researchers and future generations to understand our past and how we arrived where we are today. Each interview in this collection has a narrator telling the story and a documenter guiding the process. Collected since the founding of the RHP, this collection is growing and is open to researchers. All interviews have been digitized and are described in the catalog; only some of them have transcripts available. None of the interviews stream online. To obtain access to an interview, you must request by contacting us directly, providing a brief description of your project and your research interests. Our email address is: info AT rainbowhistory DOT org One of our team will share the file from our Google Drive, and you can listen from home. Please be sure to have "Music Player for Google Drive" enabled on your machine to play the recording. www.driveplayer.com Table Of Contents A list of subunits of the resource. To see all interviews in the collection, click on "Items in the Rainbow History Project Oral History Collection" link below. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Rainbow History Project Various narrators per oral history Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed. Michelle Zavos Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound. No, not yet transcribed Original Format If the image is of an object, state the type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Yes, recording available, 01:30:36 (audio .m4a, 124 MB) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Oral History Interview with Michelle Zavos, 1951- Description An account of the resource Michele Zavos is a highly successful LGBTQ+ and family law attorney based in D.C., who was originally from Pittsburgh. She worked at several different political groups before developing her law practice for working with individuals and talks about her experience being politically involved and what steps got her where she is today. She also discusses her experience being a lesbian in D.C., adopting a child, and navigating the legal field with a queer identity. Abstract A summary of the resource. Michele Zavros was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but lived all over the world growing up. She attended University of Wisconsin for college during the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement - a very politically active time. The events during this time shaped her life path enormously, and she was more interested in political activism than school. She graduated with a degree in history and moved to D.C. in 1974, where she was surrounded by like-minded political groups and was even part of a Marxist study group. She also was taking karate and started a women’s karate magazine called Black Belt Women - but it was not only about karate, but also political. It was around this time that she came out and was just starting to get involved in the lesbian community in Washington D.C. Michele then decided her next step would be to go to law school and she attended to Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law. It was during her time at law school that she became interested in prison work - she worked for the ACLU Prison Project during a summer, which sued prisons nationally for bad conditions and other issues. It was this experience that made her truly understand the deeper-rooted problems in this country. From there, she worked in Georgia in 1979 doing prison work and then moved to Maryland for the Maryland Prison Project. She stayed there for two and a half years, visiting almost every single prison and jail in the entire state of Maryland - but this work was rigorous and took a toll mentally, so she quit. Michele realized that unlike other lawyers she knew, she didn’t care about becoming a millionaire or getting to argue cases before the Supreme Court. She just wanted to help people and liked working for individuals. She got a job at a small, very progressive law firm in D.C. and started doing pro-bono work during the AIDS epidemic. It was also this time, when her and her partner were around 30, that they decided they wanted kids, which was extremely uncommon at the time as a lesbian couple. So, they started a group called the Maybe Baby Group, which later became the Mothers Group. All of those who stayed in the group ended up having kids. They met every Tuesday for 10 years, discussing their experiences being lesbian partnerships with children, but also becoming a close-knit group. Eventually, Michele started her own law firm with one of her previous professors, which she worked at for around 5 years. Their firm represented huge LGBTQ+ organizations in Washington D.C. and engaged in lots of community work. She took a sabbatical from the firm, and during the time she was on a federal judicial nominating commission, and also spent time as the Director of the AIDS coordination project which involved lots of policy work. But this showed her that she wanted to work with individuals again. She went back to developing her practice, handling LGBTQ+ cases and adoption cases, representing people in both D.C. and Maryland. She took several test cases for gay marriage, even arguing one case before the Maryland Court of Appeals that she won - this case meant that Maryland had to recognize gay marriages that were formed outside the state, an important step. She discusses her experiences with several specific cases she worked as an LGBTQ+ and family law attorney, as well as the difficulties she faced being a lesbian lawyer in the 1980s. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 7, 2015 Access Rights Information about who can access the resource or an indication of its security status. Access Rights may include information regarding access or restrictions based on privacy, security, or other policies. The interview belongs to the Rainbow History Project. The RHP release form was used and all rights belong to RHP. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1951 - Present