An early luminary of the gay movement, Elijah Hadyn Clarke was raised in Hindman, attended Eastern Kentucky University, and upon graduating, joined the Army. In April 1965, while working in the Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon, Lige helped organize the first openly gay picket in front of the White House—four years before the Stonewall Riots. He and his partner Jack Nichols went on to become prominent activists and pioneering gay journalists. They moved from D.C. to New York City in 1968. In 1970, they co-founded GAY, the first weekly newspaper in the U.S. to cover politics and culture from a gay perspective. It became the most profitable gay newspaper in the country. Tragically, Lige was murdered just before his 33rd birthday while on a trip to Mexico in February 1975.

The Kentucky Fairness Alliance (KFA) was an LGBTQ rights activist organization from 1993-2013. KFA was initially formed in response to conservative efforts to re-establish Kentucky's sodomy statute in 1993,  and its members worked alongside the Louisville-based Fairness Campaign, founded in 1991. In its early years, the organization focused its efforts on combatting anti-LGBTQ legislation as a lobbying presence. However, in 1995, KFA expanded their mission to become a "statewide, grassroots organization" consisting of local chapters and with a focus on education of the public about LGBTQ issues like marriage equality, housing and employment discrimination, and hate crimes towards LGBTQ people. The organization advanced this mission through the dual labor of the KFA Education Fund and the KFA Action fund. A landmark moment in KFA's struggle was the passing of Fairness Ordinances in Lexington and Louisville in 1999. The organization went on to be involved in many local fights for LGBTQ rights until its 2013 merger with the Fairness Campaign, which continues this important work today. 

The bulk of this material relates to Womin Energy, a Lexington-based lesbian newsletter published from April 1977 to June 1979. There are also materials from other local lesbian groups, like Amber Moon Productions, as well as national lesbian groups and publications.

This is a collection of material from the Lexington Chapter of Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. The material dates to the mid-1990s when the chapter was founded. It was given to me by the current president of the chapter, Linda Angelo.

Terry Mullins and Bill Chandler are a couple who live in Lexington, Kentucky. Terry Mullins is director of Moveable Feast—a non-profit that delivers meals to people in Lexington with AIDS. Terry was also a bartender at Crossings when it first opened in 1989. They were heavily involved in many gay organizations, including the Tri-State Gay Rodeo Association, the Lexington congregation of the Metropolitan Community Church, and a gay acting group called Act Out. The pair has been together over twenty years.

The material included here was gifted by Shelbi Clarke Rhein, and mostly represents material related to her brother, Lige Clarke, an important early gay rights advocate originally from Hindman, Kentucky. These items were mailed to me by Rhein on October 19, 2019. Rhein was born in Hindman, Kentucky. She is the older sister of Lige Clarke. She is the mother of New York based artist, Eric Rhien. This material was sent to me over the course of 2019 as I was writing my article on Lige Clarke.

Edwin Hackney was a social worker and lifelong gay activist. In the early 1980s, he implemented the Gay Services Organization Gay Line which later became GLSO Pride Center. He was a founding member of AVOL Kentucky, which in the early days was a volunteer mobilization effort to do whatever it took to care for those suffering from HIV disease when resources were scarce. He gave mental health help to the volunteers who were aiding the sick. He also served as an officer for NALGAP (National Association of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Addiction Professionals and their allies).

Jill Raymond delivered this material during her visit to the Faulkner Morgan Archive on January 15, 2019. It includes material from her time imprisoned for refusing to cooperate into the investigation of Susan Saxe and Kathy Power.

This interview features Sydney and Bobbi Smith, lesbians who moved to Lexington, KY in 1977 and 1978. In the interview they talk about the Saxe-Powers scandal, women’s and lesbian movements in Lexington, including off-hand manor (where Jill Raymond lived) and other women’s collectives, early activism in the Gay Services Organization and the Lesbian and Gay Pac. They also talk about lesbian meeting places, discussion groups, and publications.