LGBTQ+ History Month & Tarrant County Pride

The purpose of The Compass Rose is to raise awareness of Special Collections' resources and to foster the use of these resources. The blog series also reports significant new programs, initiatives, and acquisitions of Special Collections. 

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) History Month was created in 1994 by Missouri high school teacher Rodney Wilson and is celebrated every October. To honor this month, we are sharing the early history of Tarrant County Gay Pride Week. The first Pride events were held to commemorate the Stonewall Uprising in New York City, which took place in June 1969. Stonewall was a watershed moment for the Gay Liberation Movement in the United States. Gay Pride events occurred in the years following Stonewall and are usually celebrated throughout the month of June.  

Local activists founded the Tarrant County Gay Pride Week Association (TCGPWA) in 1981. The TCGPWA’s website states, “The first gatherings were at Forest Park’s Shelter House, a place to gather, out in the open, in public, where we could be exactly who we were, without discrimination, without judgment and without fear.” The TCGPWA is the second oldest Pride organization in Texas.  

Gary Taylor, also known by the stage name Raina Lea, was largely responsible for the first Tarrant County Pride events in the early 1980s. Taylor was a gay rights activist who was involved with Tarrant County Pride, the Tarrant Lesbian and Gay Alliance, and the Tarrant County gay church movement. Raina Lea, a name inspired by the actress Ruta Lee, performed weekly including performances at benefits for education, community outreach, and AIDS awareness. She became an extremely important figure in the LGBTQ+ community of Tarrant County. The TCGPWA credits Raina Lea for calling “gatherings of her Gay Brothers & Sisters, her family.” 

After Stonewall, activists like Gary Taylor helped make advances in civil rights for the LGBTQ+ community. Beginning in 1969, activists had secured some legal protections against discrimination, but with the rise of the AIDS. epidemic, the LGBTQ+ community faced another fight. Organizations like AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), which formed in 1987, were established to help fight the AIDS pandemic. Prior to the formation of ACT UP, the Dallas Gay Alliance created the Gay Urban Truth Squad (GUTS) in an effort to spread public awareness about AIDS. Despite efforts to increase medical research and funding toward finding solutions to the epidemic, the government remained silent. Even when treatment did become available it was only an option for those who could afford it. It wasn’t until 2003 when the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief was announced that HIV/AIDS treatment was widely accessible in the United States. LGBTQ+ activists were not only fighting for equal rights through legislation but fighting for their lives. After a hard-fought battle, Taylor died of complications from AIDS in 1991.  

Pride celebrates the activists from Stonewall onward. Tarrant County Gay Pride Week takes place each October. Today’s Pride events include parades, educational programs, concerts, and a variety of other activities. These events often memorialize those lost to HIV/AIDS and bring attention to how the epidemic has impacted the LGBTQ+ community. Gary Taylor, also known by Raina Lea, was instrumental to the creation of the Tarrant County Gay Pride Week and made a lasting impact on the gay rights movement in Texas. 

For more information about the Tarrant County Gay Pride Week Association visit their website. 

• LGBTQIA+ LibGuide 

• Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Archive at the University of North Texas 

• LGBT History Research Collection at the University of Houston Libraries 

• Austin History Center LGBTQ Subject Guide 

• LGBTQ+ collections at the Texas A&M University Libraries’ Cushing Memorial Library and Archives 

• The Dallas Way 

• Library of Congress 

• Wearing Gay History 

• Making Gay History: The Podcast 

• National Park Service – LGBTQ Heritage 

• Digital Transgender Archive