Advocacy

Police harassment. Housing discrimination. Losing a job. Estrangement from family and friends. These threats remain today. They were even more likely during the 1970s. To face those threats, many people in the queer community established organizations, lobbied political leaders, and fought back against those trying to silence them.  

In 1973, four years after New York’s famed Stonewall uprising, LGBTQ advocates in north-central Indiana pushed for their rights. Some formed a local chapter of the Lambda Society. Offering monthly social events away from the bar scene, the Society sought to show South Bend and surrounding cities that LGBTQ+ people were just that—people.  

Look at the contact information on the bottom. The organizers used only their first names. These precautions were sadly necessary considering the risks to their livelihood—or their safety—should they be publicly outed.  

In 1975, four members of the U.S. House of Representatives sponsored an amendment to the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. That act ended legal segregation against African American people. The 1975 amendment sought to expand legal protections to LGBTQ+ people. Unfortunately, it was not passed.  

Without an online map to show safe spaces for LGBTQ+ people to be open, several physical guides attempted to collect and disperse this vital information. They were similar to what Victor Green attempted in the famous Green Book guides for African American people living under explicit racial segregation. People who owned a Damron’s Guide, or any of the other similar guides, could find information about safe spaces while traveling or even within their hometowns.  

Though a pivotal tool for many people, most guides only included spaces for gay men. Queer women or queer people of color were often left out.  

Safe gay spaces were only partially safe. Neighbors of the Seahorse, a popular drag and gay bar on the west side of South Bend, challenged its right to exist. Although loud music and drunk late-night patrons were a valid concern, the Seahorse had to continuously address code violations like this one.