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Aaron Eichorst shares his experiences growing up as a Mennonite and his complicated relationship with the Mennonite Church after coming out. He discusses the gay community in Charlottesville and several gay bars that are now closed, including the Silver Fox, Club 216, and Escafe. Aaron also describes his experiences as an art teacher and deciding when and how to be out with his coworkers and students.
Alan Cohn and Joe Montoya are a gay couple - one of the first to be legally married in Charlottesville in 2014. They discuss how they met and how they each grew into their identities. They moved to Charlottesville in 1991 for professional opportunities, and they describe their experiences with the Charlottesville queer community. They discuss the process of having a child via surrogate and the legal complications around custody, including the decision to get married as soon as it became legal.
Catherine Gillespie and Andre Hakes are a married lesbian couple who live in Charlottesville. In their interview, they discuss the process of adopting their child and their protracted fight for custody in the legal system. They were the first couple to get married in Charlottesville when it became legal in 2014, and their marriage followed years of activism around marriage that they describe. They also share their experiences of queer community in Charlottesville and discuss gender presentation and transgender issues today.
Charlene Green is a Black lesbian who came to Charlottesville in the late 1980s to attend the University of Virginia for graduate school. In her interview, she discusses her experiences coming out, especially as a Black woman at a women's college, and her experiences with the Black gay community in Charlottesville. Charlene has held a number of jobs in the Charlottesville area, including with Albemarle County Public Schools and the City of Charlottesville's Human Rights Commission, and she discusses her time in those roles.
Charley Burton is a Black trans man from North Garden, VA, just outside of Charlottesville. He tells his story of growing up in a rural Black community, then struggling with his gender and sexuality and recovering from drug and alcohol addiction. Charley transitioned as an older person, and he discusses his transition process and his work creating community for other Black trans people in the Charlottesville area. He speaks about the murder of Sage Smith, a young Black trans woman in Charlottesville, and about becoming a Black man, especially after the Unite the Right rally of August 2017.
Claire Kaplan is a lesbian who worked in the Maxine Platzer Lynn's Women's Center at the University of Virginia for a long time. In this interview, she discusses her work at UVA, including her role in founding UVA Pride (the first group for LGBTQ+ employees at UVA). She also shares her story of coming out and her activism in Los Angeles before coming to Virginia. Additionally, she discusses her Jewish identity and her memories of the Unite the Right rally in August 2017. She describes the process of adopting her daughter with her wife and her experiences with the Charlottesville and UVA queer communities more broadly.
