Oral History with Ra Amin

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A lifelong DC resident, Ra Amin discovered D.C.’s LGBTQ community while a student at University of Maryland in the 1980s through bars like Tracks, Lost and Found, and Badlands. This led him to discover the city’s Black LGBTQ community at Bachelor’s Mill and he attended the first Black Pride in 1991 at Banneker Field. During the HIV-AIDS epidemic, Amin worked for the DC Department of Corrections and Department of Health working with communities most affected by HIV-AIDS. Through this work, he became a trained massage therapist and partnered with Whitman-Walker Health and Us Helping Us to provide massage therapy for people living with and treating HIV and AIDS. After a bicycle accident left him unable to work in 2015, he rededicated himself to community involvement and living authentically as part of the LGBTQ+ community. He became an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner and member of the ANC Rainbow Caucus and a volunteer with the Rainbow History Project.

Attached photo provided by Ra Amin

Emma O'Niell-Dietel

Recorded Zoom Meeting

01:14:29