LGBTQ Columbia
LGBTQ Columbia History Initiative
Historic Columbia, in a partnership with South Caroliniana Library and UofSC’s Department of Oral History, created the LGBTQ Columbia History Initiative.
This interactive project documents the often unseen and untold stories of the LGBTQ+ community through the creation and dissemination of oral histories, historic site interpretation, and archival collections, including:
- A website with more than 35 oral histories from Columbia’s LGBTQIA+ community, featuring the stories of participants covering all ages, races, sexual orientations and gender identities.
- The We’re Here! StoryMap, which identifies more than 250 events, organizations and businesses spread across more than 100 physical locations
- The fully processed South Carolina Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Collection at South Caroliniana Library, UofSC
We're Here!
Preserving Columbia's LGBTQ+ Stories
Historic Columbia is committed to telling the stories of all Columbians and linking contemporary audiences with Columbia and Richland County’s diverse and complex past. In 2019, the organization partnered with the Queer Cola Oral History & Digital Archive Project and the Harriet Hancock LGBT Center to begin planning a comprehensive project documenting the often unseen and untold stories of LGBTQ+ life in the Midlands. Two years later, thanks to seed money from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, HC has expanded its Connecting Communities through History Platform to include the history of the LGBTQ+ community.
Support Our Work
Your financial support will help Historic Columbia document and preserve the stories of the LGBTQ community.
Donate TodaySupport Out Work
There are many ways to volunteer your time for this project. Please get in touch to share your own story, a name of someone we should interview, photographs of LGBTQ places and people, or to be trained to collect oral histories from other LGBTQ community members.
Get In TouchThank you to our sponsors!
Individual Supporters
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Michelle Baker & Robin Waites
Robert Barnes & Jerry Kelly
Maya Belamaric & Carla Pfeffer
Andres Bernal & Ben Johnson
Michael Brezicky
Comunicar, LLC
Alysia Bridgman & Jennifer M. Coody
Rosie Craig
John W. Cullum
John DeLoache & Brian Todd Miller
Marge Dorey & Dianne Odom
Bert Easter & Ed Madden
A. Jenkins Farmer & Tom Hall
Dr. April Hames
Harriet Hancock -
Todd Herman
Jamie & Rudy Keller
Francie Kleckley & Nekki Shutt
Robert Loomis
Mark MacDougal
Sheila Morris & Teresa Williams
Megan Plott
Donna Polk
Lisa Powell
Lynn Shirley
Marilyn & Tom Summers
Samuel C. & Mary E. Baskin Waters Foundation Fund of Central Carolina Community Foundation
Rev. Dr. Beth Yarborough
This project has been funded in part by a grant from the Terence L. Mills Fund for North and South Carolina of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Oral Histories
LGBTQ Columbia
The LGBTQ Columbia History Initiative, led by Historic Columbia, is documenting the often unseen and untold stories of this diverse community through the creation of a comprehensive resource of oral histories, archival collections, and historic site interpretation.