Long Beach Pride Parade, 1986, with Emperor Boom Boom. Photo courtesy of the Historical Society of Long Beach.
The history of the LGBT community has not always been an easy one to tell. After all, as one grows older, one realizes that powers dictate history, not necessarily facts or events. For many of the LGBT community, realizing that your identity has largely been ignored or even erased from the halls of history is similar to the disappointment at discovering that Christopher Columbus indeed did not discover the Americas.
Long Beach is taking one step forward to alleviating that blank spot in history.
The history of the LGBT community here in Long Beach is a rich one, but one that isn’t archived, reviewed or—more importantly—accessible. Like many other “small big towns,” the stories and histories within the LGBT community here are not preserved formally. You have to go out and talk to those who have been here for decades, find the small relics and hangouts that have existed all along, and in all senses of the term, do your own research.
And that is exactly what the Historical Society of Long Beach (HSLB) is doing.
Started in July, but officially announced last week, HSLB has launched a project to collect and preserve the history of the LGBT community here in Long Beach, while presenting it three-fold via an exhibition, a compilation of oral and written histories, as well as a documentary.
“The project was first proposed to me a couple of years ago over lunch with Evan Braude, President of the Historical Society at the time,” says Marsha Naify, who previously acted as the Long Beach Lambda Democratic Club’s president for three years and now co-chairs the steering committee for the project. “I think he felt I would be a good person to pitch the idea to given that I could help marshall the financial resources in the community to bring it off, as well as get the LGBT community involved.”
Fast forward two years later and the current executive director of the HSLB, Julie Bartolotto, called Naify to say it was happening.
“The HSLB has been discussing curating an exhibition on civil rights in Long Beach for several years and this project was an out-growth of that discussion,” says Bartolotto. “Our goal is to understand how the LGBT community was formed in Long Beach. Events and issues in Long Beach are often overshadowed by those that take place in Los Angeles. I believe this project will help show that Long Beach had a large role in expanding LGBT rights.”
Along with Naify and Bartolotto, Dr. Kaye Briegel—a retired lecturer from the CSULB history department as well as secretary and long-time board member of the HSLB—will help plan the exhibition, conduct research and coordinate the oral history interviews. Other partners in the project include past and present board members from The Center, the Imperial Court, Long Beach Pride, the Lambda Democratic Club and various members and allies of the LGBT community.
These oral histories, paired with the exhibit itself, aim to help understand how Long Beach became such a LGBT-friendly city through the unwritten stories of those who directly experienced key events, from the city’s first Pride to the battle for marriage equality.
The exhibit—a year-long endeavor entitled “Coming Out in Long Beach—will open February of next year at the Society’s building on Atlantic Avenue along with the permanent records that will be permanently housed there for future researchers and generations.
The documentary will be headed by long-time Pride board member Vanessa Romain, The Center Board Chair Ron Sylvester and former Long Beach Post (one of the original) contributors Denise Penn.
“[The film] will be a story about the struggles in the seventies,” says Naify. “On getting a festival and parade going, our fight for equal rights. The stories of gay couples that have been together for thirty, forty or fifty years and how, in the face of adversity the LGBT community has not only survived, but thrived and today contributes so much to the city of Long Beach.”
Given they are still in the planning stages, the HSLB still encourages members from the community to contribute or volunteer in any way they can. This includes donating articles that are historically important or valuable parts of the LGBT community here in Long Beach. After all, such an historical undertaking cannot be done alone.
“I think this will be the biggest and most ambitious project they have undertaken to date,” says Naify. “But the HSLB has evolved over the years to be an excellent organization today—and I thank them for coming to the LGBT community and taking this on. This is a huge milestone for us. And we are working as a true dream team.”
For more information regarding the project, contact the HSLB at 562-424-2220. To connect with the LGBT History Project and provide your own opinion or suggestions, visit www.facebook.com/LongBeachLGBTHistoryProject or follow/tweet on Twitter @LB_LGBTHistory.
To donate historically valuable materials, contact Letticia Montoya from the HSLB at [email protected]