Gay bar history in norfolk va

Our history is fading; with each passing year we lose touch with a little bit of who we are. This work is so important in part because it must be done now —we have a particular emphasis in the TQHP about documenting the stories of older LGBTQ folks, which cannot wait. There are so many things you learn about your community only through its oral history, passed down from elders to the younger generations.

We are trying to combat that, and hope to make the interviews we do and the stories we collect publicly accessible as the Tidewater Queer History Project grows. As part of the class each student was charged with writing a short script for a stop on a Queer Walking Tour of our own design, which we actually went on towards the end of that semester.

61 - Shirley’s-Norfolk’s First Lesbian Bar

I wanted to turn Norfolk into a museum of LGBTQ history, and provide a self-guided tour of Norfolk that one could take at their own pace, ideally while physically visiting the location I described. I try to focus on the physical locations where LGBTQ history happened in Hampton Roads, and structure my stories around what happened in those spaces.

My introductory episodes were a little different. For my second episode, the first episode to actually get into the LGBT history of Hampton Roads, I wanted a story that still had a physical artifact that people could go visit. It was a story that had personal meaning for me, was engaging, and best of all it was gay story I knew most people listening to the podcast may have never encountered before.

People my age may not realize this, but it was illegal to own and operate a gay bar for almost 40 years in Virginia! The sheer number of gay bars that operated in-spite of this is honestly inspiring, especially in history of how frequent police raids were on gay bars, and the hostility that LGBTQ citizens faced from the police and private citizens.

Our community has always been resilient. The stories I find in my research illustrate that over and over again. The more research I do, the more fascinating, touching stories come to light. I am also working with the TQHP and other local activists to save Hershee Bar, attending every Norfolk City Bar meeting possible to urge City Council to reverse its decision to demolish the beloved and historic!

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