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Category: LGBTQ History

6-16-22

The AIDS Epidemic in Tennessee: Grassroots Advocacy in the Three Grand Divisions

It was known as the Gay Disease...It was a scary time…You didn’t know if you could shake hands, if could touch, if you could just be in the same room as someone, we didn’t know for a long time how it was. Or if you had to be gay to get it. It was very bizarre at first. -Tommy Lawson (Nashville Community AIDS Activist)[1] By Philip Staffelli-Suel The acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic emerged in Tennessee in the early 1980s as in the rest of the co... Read More

Posted by Joseph Pagetta

LGBTQ History Tennessee History

6-30-20

Pride and the Legacy of Penny Campbell

By Dakota Elliott Last year, more than 25,000 people attended Nashville’s Pride parade in the city’s downtown. Between the parade and the other events held for the two-day Pride festival, more than 75,000 people joined in celebration of the LGBTQ community, making it the most attended Pride Festival in Nashville’s history.1 The 2019 festival was important for another reason as well: it marked the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Inn riot in New York City, whe... Read More