October is Gainesville Pride Month, and last weekend’s “Can’t Drag Us Down” festival was the main event. But the celebration continues at the Matheson Museum of History, where an exhibit titled “Alachua’s Queer History Gallery” explores Gainesville’s LGBTQ+ history.
“Originally, it was intended to coincide with Pride Month,” said Caitlin Hoffmahoney, Matheson’s executive director. “We had a lot of people coming to see this, so we decided to extend it.”
The exhibit is part of a larger collection gifted to Matheson by the Pride Community Center of North Central Florida, which organized the festival last weekend. The offer is valid until November 22nd.
“We decided that the best way to ensure the preservation and public access to important historical items such as the AIDS Quilt was to donate them to the Matheson Museum,” said Tamara Perry Renardo of the Pride Center. the director said.
Gainesville Pride’s first major historic event dates back to 1992 with the Lesbian and Gay Pride Week Picnic. Members of the Ku Klux Klan protested, and Gainesville legend Tom Petty came with his wife to support the community.
Willett Hancock, visitor relations assistant at the Matheson Museum of Art, helped assemble the exhibit. He said his favorite work is a photo featuring two women kissing right in front of the viewer. In the far right corner, members of the KKK stand watching.
“It’s weird that that’s my favorite image,” Hancock said. “I think it’s very interesting to show how far our society has come.”
Mr Hancock said the exhibit was an opportunity to analyze LGBTQ+ history at a detailed level.
“You can paint a broad picture of what happened across the country, but I think it makes more sense when you break it down to a regional level,” Hancock said.
Among the exhibits is an AIDS quilt woven in memory of those lost during the AIDS epidemic.
Executive Director Hoff Mahony’s favorite piece of work is a piece of paper with requests from a hotline called the Gay Exchange Board. These hotlines were active for anonymous members of the community to reach out and try to meet others.
“People were asking about gay bars and where they could go in the community, because in the 1980s you couldn’t go on Facebook,” Hoffmahony said.
Hoffmahony said she’s fascinated by the history that can be uncovered in memorabilia like this, especially if you haven’t gone through all of the switchboard files.
There were also publications such as the Gay Guide to Gainesville that provided information on where it was safe to go.
Marley Preacher, a third-year public relations major, visited the exhibit last week. Her handmade quilts were what stood out to her the most because of their individuality.
“I saw the work and I could tell it was made with love,” Preacher said. “It was, ‘I want to love who I want to love.’ I think that’s all queer people really want to do.”
The exhibit comes at a time when legislation targeting the LGBTQ+ community is on the rise. Preacher said the exhibit shows the great strides the community has made and will continue to make.
“I believe that even though there are many attacks and laws, we still have more support because of the people who worked before us,” she said. Ta. “People fought, and the exhibit shows the community’s activism and strength.”
Preacher, who grew up in the area, believes Gainesville is a unique dot on the map of north-central Florida when it comes to gay culture. While it’s true that Gainesville has been the most active in expressing Pride, Matheson has also collected some art from other nearby communities.
The exhibit will commemorate Ocala with a Pride Festival held on November 11th. One of Ocala’s artworks is a poster for the 1982 “Gay Day” gathering. This is a snapshot taken at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. The darkest period in LGBTQ+ history.
“I think it’s really interesting that an event like this could be held in Ocala at that time,” Hancock said. “This shows that everywhere you go, there is an LGBTQ+ community.”
English major Jorge Torres said the exhibit shows exactly why people who use anti-LGBTQ rhetoric are wrong.
“This shows that gay people have always been a part of Florida,” Torres said. “There is no escape for homosexuals. The more you suppress homosexuals, the greater the backlash.”
He said he hates to say it, but he’s used to hate. Sometimes, when he returns from a night out, someone drives by and yells an F slur.
“I really enjoy it and take it as a compliment,” Torres said. “I’m, well, I’m gay.”
The Matheson has held exhibits about the LGBTQ+ community in the past. Several years ago, they were on Johns’ committee of the Florida Legislative Investigation Commission, which fired and expelled gay professors and students from the university.
Hoffmahony said the museum will continue to represent a variety of voices.
“Our goal is to be a museum for the entire community,” she said. “Our tagline is ‘This is your museum.’ We want everyone who comes to Matheson to see themselves in the exhibits and programs.”