#alphabetsouparchives

Detroit’s Diplomat

The Diplomat was a premier drag show venue in Detroit, Michigan, during the 1950s and 1960s. In the pre-Stonewall days, female impersonators and drag queens would gather at the Diplomat for both entertainment and community, solidifying its reputation as a cultural hotspot. Bookie and Morre, the owners of the Diplomat, annually released a review of the drag queens in their show, one of which is featured here. Even though the Diplomat was located in Detroit, it widely influenced Midwestern lgbtq+ culture. This Diplomat Review is part of our new digital collection, the Eldon Murray Papers, which is currently available through the UWM Digital Collections website.

The Diplomat Review can also be located in the Eldon Murray Papers, UWM Manuscript Collection 256, Box 11, Folder 3. For more information, look at our finding aid here. 

2, 4, 6, 8...

These buttons come to you from our collection of LGBTQ+ buttons and pins assembled from the donations of multiple individuals. There are lots of commemorative Milwaukee PrideFest buttons, pins from the Milwaukee AIDS Walk, and a number of political buttons...but there is plenty of queer sass to go around as well. 

HAPPY PRIDE Y’ALL!!

PrideFest Milwaukee may be done, but the UWM Archives will be celebrating our LGBT collections all month!  

Pride isn’t just for gays and lesbians, it’s for everyone in the LGBTQIA2 communities.  This includes bisexuals and others who refuse strict heterosexual and/or homosexual personal identification.  In the 90s, the Bi-Definition group worked to promote visibility and education on bisexual issues and build a more cohesive community.  These “Bifocals” cartoons and this poetry were found in issues of their quarterly publication called Bi All Means!

Celebrating LGBT Milwaukee and and archival research with the Encyclopedia of Milwaukee Project!

Recently, we paired with the Encyclopedia of Milwaukee (EMKE) Project to promote their entry on the history of queer culture and politics our fair city.  The article, “LGBT Milwaukee” is written by Dr. Cheryl Kader, retired Senior Lecturer, Women and Gender Studies, LGBT Studies at UWM, and it debuts today, October 13th! We worked with Dr. Kader’s manuscript to select documents from our collections to build an exhibit that celebrates the article’s launch. Read the full article here

#TBT: The AIDS Memorial Quilt Comes to Milwaukee

Originally the brainchild of activist Cleve Jones, the AIDS Memorial Quilt started with one panel in memory of a loved one lost to AIDS, Marvin Feldman. Other activists and friends began to add their own panels, and in June of 1987, Jones and company formally organized the NAMES Project. The Quilt made its debut at the the October 11, 1987 National March on Washington for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Washington, D.C. where it was displayed on the National Mall. Completed, it was larger than a football field and contained  8,288 panels.

The AIDS epidemic impacted tens of thousands of people nation-wide, so it’s only natural that the AIDS Memorial Quilt made a visit to Milwaukee in 1991.The above footage comes from Milwaukee’s Local Access LGBT television program, Tri-Cable Tonight.You can watch the full video here. Don’t stop there, though! 

#AlphabetSoupArchives!

Let’s take a second to talk about alphabet soup. While many are familiar with “LGBT” (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) or maybe “LGBTQIA” (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual), the full acronym is often disputed. Wesleyan University is offered LGBTTQQFAGPBDSM ( Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Transsexual, Queer, Questioning, Flexual, Asexual, Gender-fuck, Polyamorous, Bondage/discipline, Dominance/submission, and Sadism/masochism). The process of understanding, defining, and unifying queerness is a challenge as dynamic as the community itself. Parallel to these negotiations of identity and belonging is the sister struggle of representation and documentation. How many repositories have sought to document queer community building beyond the ‘L’, the ‘G’, the ‘B’ and the ‘T’? Or, more realistically, beyond the ‘L’ and the ‘G’?

So, Tumblarians and Tumblarchivists, share your #AlphabetSoupArchives!