“Families where they had someone in the gay community who had a collection of stuff related to the community, and after his death, they got rid of everything in his life they disapproved of.”
“There was always that going on,” said Bohr. Other materials in the library - housed in the same building as LGBT advocacy group Indy Pride, a law firm and a tattoo parlor -were acquired under similar circumstances, he said. It inspired him to ramp up his collection. “His family just trashed all of it,” Bohr says. In 1995, Bohr, now 66 and a retired auditor, began acquiring materials after an acquaintance died and his family threw out photos of the 1970s local LGBT scene that he had taken. The collection has been 20 years in the making.
Subtle and not-so-subtle reminders were all around the city, from a panel at the National Association of Basketball Coaches aimed at gay and lesbian athletes to the throng of fans looking for late-night eats at Downtown Olly’s, a 24-hour diner and gay bar.Īnd there was the weekend’s national anthem, performed by four athletes from the Final Four schools “in the spirit of solidarity and united as one community,” as the stadium announcer introduced them.īut for a true understanding of the history of LGBT culture here, there is perhaps no better space in and around the state capital than the Gonzalez Library, on E. Out Magazine named the city 'One of the Best Places to Travel in 2018.' Check out the guides below to learn that the Hoosier. Mike Pence signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law, prompting national backlash over its potential to aid discrimination against gay men and lesbians. Indy’s PRIDE celebration has been ranked a ‘Top Ten Pride’ event in the country according to the Gay Travel Herald and Gaycation Magazine featured Indy’s PRIDE Festival as one of their ten must-visit events. In the hours leading up to the Final Four, Indianapolis was the focus of two of the nation’s biggest news and sports stories of the moment. He deadpanned, “I always thought there could be good fundraising money with that.” “If you were on stage in a dress in Indiana between ’85 and ’92, we’ve got tapes on you,” says Michael Bohr, the library's founder. Less than two miles away, a cramped basement library sat empty, except for the photos of penises, kissing lesbians and drag queens that overflowed its narrow aisles.įor decades, the Chris Gonzalez Library and Archives, with a collection of almost 10,000 materials, has been the unofficial home of the city’s rich and relatively unknown LGBT history. INDIANAPOLIS - Last weekend, tens of thousands of college basketball fans headed to Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium, the site of this year’s Final Four.