A gift to the LGBTQ+ community of Greater Cincinnati

This project began more than 20 years ago, when Michael Chanak Jr., a retired P&G employee and community activist, and Phebe Karen Beiser, former head of the Ohio Lesbian Archives and a community activist, kept getting questions from the press and the community about the timeline of Greater Cincinnati Pride.

Their answers grew into this archive. It draws on contacts and interviews with more than 100 LGBTQ+ people over the years, and on the collections of the Ohio Lesbian Archives. It is a work in progress. It isn’t perfect, and it will never be finished.

Carrying the story forward

Today the archive is cared for by Rusty Lockett, known to many as Sister Lustee Raw’ket of the Cincinnati Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Rusty has been part of Cincinnati Pride planning since 1998, is a founding member of the Cincinnati Sisters, and was honored as a Cincinnati Pride Marshal in 2011. Having taken on the stewardship of this site, Rusty is committed to keeping it growing in the spirit in which it began:

• Fair and even-handed. No single version of events gets the last word. When accounts differ, they appear side by side, with where each one comes from. When we get something wrong, we correct it openly.
• Grounded in evidence. Every addition is tied to a document, a photograph, or a first-hand account, so readers can weigh the evidence for themselves.
• Inclusive of everyone who was there. That means the women, people of color, and trans and gender-diverse people whose stories have too often been left out, and the quiet years and small gatherings as well as the big parades.

This history belongs to the community that lived it. If you were there, your memory belongs here too.Share it with us.

A note on history

Always remember, history is often told from the perspective of the person telling the story.

Accounts of the same event often disagree, about who was there, how many came, and what happened. Where they do, we try to show the different versions and say where each comes from. Older sources use the language of their time: “gay,” then “gay and lesbian,” then “GLBT,” and today “LGBTQ+.” We keep each source’s original wording.

Thank you

With thanks to Phebe Beiser, Bruce Beisner, and Michael Chanak, who compiled the original timeline; to Bruce Beisner’s May 2003Greater Cincinnati GLBT News history of the first Pride; to Ryan Goellner’s 2011 Xavier University history of Cincinnati’s GLBTQ community; to Scott Knox, Richard Jazwinski, Edward Hicks, George Vanover, Peggy Weyand and everyone else who shared memories and documents; and to the Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library for preserving and digitizing The Independent Eye.