Michael McCormick and Joe Devers were Lexingtonians, and McCormick lived on North Broadway between 5^th and 6^th street.  McCormick would own Breezing’s bar, a gay bar in Lexington, on Short and Esplanade.

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.

The materials gifted in this collection come from Daniel Desrochers, a reporter at the time at the Herald Leader, and consist of clippings of articles about Henry Faulkner and the topic of homosexuality.

Danny Matherly talks about his collection of Sweet Evening Breeze items, and then goes into his life as a gay man from Harrodsburg, then a student at Georgetown, and later his life in the gay circles of Lexington.

Now known at the Lexington Pride Center, this collection contains materials spanning decades about PCSO. It is organized by subject and based on the major activities of the PCSO, also known as the Gay Services Organization (GSO) and the Gay and Lesbian Services Organization (GLSO).

In this recording, photographer Blythe (Peggy) Jameson, describes her two projects and gives over prints and negatives.

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.

Paul Michael Brown is a young artist from Owensboro, Kentucky, who moved to Lexington in 2007 to attend Transylvania University. After living in New York for a few years, he has now returned to Lexington to be the new director of Institute 193. In Part two, Brown talks about his experience of growing up gay.

Skylar Davis is the education director at the Headley-Whitney Museum and the cousin of Shea Metcalf. She discusses her interest in queer life, and learning about her cousin, Shea, and her family’s response to her interest in him.

This interview features Greg Stewart, a gay man born and raised in Lexington to a lesbian woman, Ellen, who is interviewed in Day 63. Greg was born around 1963, attending the Millersburg Military Institute and the New Mexico Military Institute. Greg discusses his sexual abuse as a child, his early sexual activities, and affairs at the military schools, including with teachers. He discusses gay life in Lexington in the early 1980s, his relationship with Louis Bickett, and his struggles with alcohol and drug addiction. He also talks about his mother’s bar, the troubled relationship he had with some of his mother’s lovers and his mother, herself. He also talks about contracting and living with HIV in Lexington in the 1990s.

This interview features Ellen Stewart, a lesbian woman born and raised in Lexington. She was born around 1942, and came out as a lesbian woman at the age of 25, after having been married with one son, Greg Stewart, a gay man who is interviewed in Day 64. Ellen Stewart co-opened the first lesbian club in Lexington, The Country, in 1978. It was located at 849 Lane Allen Road. In the interview Ellen talks a lot about the club, why she opened it, and her relationship to softball, as well as The Living Room, Leigh Angelique, and Sweet Evening Breeze.

Freddy Mills has worked for the Kentucky Theatre since 1963. He relates his early years in Lexington, coming to know the gay scene in Lexington, and especially the gay scene of the Kentucky Theatre. Mills talks about his three arrests for obscenity from the soft-core pornographic movies shown at the Kentucky Theatre.

JP Johnson is a librarian at the Lexington Public Library Kentucky Room, and has shared information about Lexington’s gay history from materials in the library.

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.

Tom Brown was the partner of William (Bill) Petrie. They lived on the farm in Grant Co. Kentucky. Bill died in 1995 and Tom continued to live on the farm until he passed away in 2021. Tom is from Louisville, Kentucky and went to Western Kentucky University to study theatre. He worked from 1969 to 1974 in New York (where he went on a date with Harvey Milk). He moved onto the farm in 1974.

William (Bill) Petrie with his partner, actor Tom Brown Petrie, on their Grant County farm. The farm became a rural oasis for many gay men throughout the United States, drawn there by the beauty of Kentucky and Tom and Bill's hospitality. Bill was a prolific painter, tobacco farmer, political activist and passionate gay man living in the rural bluegrass of Kentucky. Bill passed away in 1995. This large collection of artworks and photographs were gifted to FMA after Tom's death in 2021.

Hockensmith brokered the large sale of Faulkner paintings between Greene Settle’s estate and the Carrols of First Southern National Bank. Hockensmith talks about how he met Henry Faulkner, what work he did for Henry, how Henry taught him to “see” his art, exhibits and displays, and Henry’s house on Third Street.

Mark Hurte, originally from Lancaster, entered the Lexington scene on Halloween of 1980 when he went to watch the Rocky Horror Picture Show as a freshman at Eastern Kentucky University. He became known as the drag queen Skyscraper and was close to Bradley Picklesimer, Chris "Serpentina" Sloane, and Bob Morgan. This collections includes a number of photographs from the drag scene of the 1980s, the Sybarite Balls, and his various adventures in Lexington.

This session with Markus chronicles his life with Crossings, the gay bar at 117 North Limestone, including its founding, early activities, and its notoriously cruisy basement. Markus also talks about the Colts leather group, the bar’s all-male persona, cowboy nights, etc.

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.