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LGBTQ Columbia

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LGBTQ Columbia History Initiative

Historic Columbia, in a partnership with South Caroliniana Library and UofSC’s Department of Oral History, created the LGBTQ Columbia History Initiative.  

This interactive project documents the often unseen and untold stories of the LGBTQ+ community through the creation and dissemination of oral histories, historic site interpretation, and archival collections, including:

  • A website with more than 35 oral histories from Columbia’s LGBTQIA+ community, featuring the stories of participants covering all ages, races, sexual orientations and gender identities. 
  • The We’re Here! StoryMap, which identifies more than 250 events, organizations and businesses spread across more than 100 physical locations  
  • The fully processed South Carolina Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Collection at South Caroliniana Library, UofSC 

We're Here!

Preserving Columbia's LGBTQ+ Stories

We're Here! | Preserving Columbia's LGBTQ+ Stories

LGBTQ Columbia Oral History Website

"Each Individual's Right to Be" | A Gay History of the University of South Carolina

Leading Ladies | Female Impersonators on Columbia's Minstrel and Vaudeville Stages

Historic Columbia is committed to telling the stories of all Columbians and linking contemporary audiences with Columbia and Richland County’s diverse and complex past. In 2019, the organization partnered with the Queer Cola Oral History & Digital Archive Project and the Harriet Hancock LGBT Center to begin planning a comprehensive project documenting the often unseen and untold stories of LGBTQ+ life in the Midlands. Two years later, thanks to seed money from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, HC has expanded its Connecting Communities through History Platform to include the history of the LGBTQ+ community.  

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Support Our Work

Your financial support will help Historic Columbia document and preserve the stories of the LGBTQ community.

Donate Today

Support Out Work

There are many ways to volunteer your time for this project. Please get in touch to share your own story, a name of someone we should interview, photographs of LGBTQ places and people, or to be trained to collect oral histories from other LGBTQ community members.

Get In Touch
  • LGBTQ Columbia Steering Committee

    • Graham Duncan
    • Henry Fulmer
    • Alejandro Garcia
    • Harriet Hancock
    • Ed Madden
    • Sheila Morris
    • Todd Shaw
    • Nekki Shutt
    • Travis Wagner
    • Doak Wolfe
  • Project Staff

    • Katharine Allen
    • Logan Cocklin
    • Robin Waites

Thank you to our sponsors!

  • South Carolina Humanities organization logo
  • Nephron
  • Dominion Energy utility logo

  • Free times logo
  • Burnette Shutt McDaniel law firm logo
  • College of Arts and Sciences Logo
  • Art Bar Logo
  • Bottles

Individual Supporters

  • Michelle Baker & Robin Waites
    Robert Barnes & Jerry Kelly
    Maya Belamaric & Carla Pfeffer
    Andres Bernal & Ben Johnson
    Michael Brezicky
    Comunicar, LLC
    Alysia Bridgman & Jennifer M. Coody
    Rosie Craig
    John W. Cullum
    John DeLoache & Brian Todd Miller
    Marge Dorey & Dianne Odom
    Bert Easter & Ed Madden
    A. Jenkins Farmer & Tom Hall
    Dr. April Hames
    Harriet Hancock

  • Todd Herman
    Jamie & Rudy Keller
    Francie Kleckley & Nekki Shutt
    Robert Loomis
    Mark MacDougal
    Sheila Morris & Teresa Williams
    Megan Plott
    Donna Polk
    Lisa Powell
    Lynn Shirley
    Marilyn & Tom Summers
    Samuel C. & Mary E. Baskin Waters Foundation Fund of Central Carolina Community Foundation
    Rev. Dr. Beth Yarborough

This project has been funded in part by a grant from the Terence L. Mills Fund for North and South Carolina of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

  • National Trust organization logo

Oral Histories

LGBTQ Columbia

The LGBTQ Columbia History Initiative, led by Historic Columbia, is documenting the often unseen and untold stories of this diverse community through the creation of a comprehensive resource of oral histories, archival collections, and historic site interpretation.

Learn More

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Historic Columbia

© 2023 Historic Columbia

Administrative Offices
1601 Richland Street
Columbia, SC 29201

Tours
All historic house and garden tours start at the Gift Shop at Robert Mills.
1616 Blanding Street
Columbia, SC 29201

Questions? Call (803) 252-7742.

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