LGBTQ+ History Hub

This hub is a work in progress. Have some resources to add? Let us know!

In This Hub

Introduction

Cambridge is a well-known leader in LGBTQ+ rights. The city was first in Massachusetts to perform gender-affirming surgery in 1972, and in 2004 it became first in the country to grant same-sex marriage licenses. City government has also seen many “firsts,” from the first openly gay Black mayor (Kenneth Reeves) in 1992, to the first openly lesbian city councilor (Katherine Triantafillou) in 1993 to the first openly lesbian Black mayor (E. Denise Simmons) in 2008. Since the mid-20th century, many of its residents and organizations have been vocal advocates for queer and trans rights alongside those of women, people of color and immigrants.

Despite a lack of publicly recognized, concerted efforts to advance LGBTQ+ rights before the past century, queer and trans Cantabrigians were present and active in many aspects of the city’s life since its founding. From stories of prominent residents, such as members of the Longfellow family to those whose experiences are not widely known, especially women, Bipoc individuals and members of the transgender community, these citizens have shaped all aspects of Cambridge and its history indelibly.

Articles + Presentations

Cambridge Named Third-Queerest City in America, by Kyle Scott Clauss, bostonmagazine.com, 11 January 2016.
Cambridge Ties the Knot, Michael M. Grynbaum and Jessica R. Rubin-wills, The Harvard Crimson, 17 May 2004
City Council Proposes Changing Zoning Code to Promote LGBTQ+ Inclusion, by By Lola J. DeAscentiis and Kelly A. Olmos, The Harvard Crimson, 7 March 2024.
City of Cambridge LGBTQ+ Commission presentation (2023)
How we create LGBTQ+ and other kinds of community in The People’s Republic by Rayshauna Gray, cambridgeday.com, 24 June 2024
Kate’s Café LGBT Dinner Relocating to New Venue by Nathan Lamb, Somerville Cambridge Elder Services, 14 March 2018.
Marking 20 years of marriage equality in Cambridge by Beth Folsom, Cambridge Day, 20 May 2024.
Preserving the LGBTQ Legacy of One of America’s Most Historic Homes by Anya Gruber, Atlas Obscura, 26 June 2023.
Sarah Boyer’s ‘Coming Out, Becoming Ourselves’ takes Daughters from secret society to acceptance, by Madeleine Aitken, Cambridge Day, 31 March 2024.
Selected images from the 1970 Gay liberation demonstration at Cambridge Common, Jeff Albertson Photograph Collection, 8 August 2024.
“The Absolute Majority of the Population”: Women in Twentieth-Century Cambridge
The Historic Harvard Campus Building That Once Housed a Feminist Takeover by Carson Bear, National Trust for Historic Preservation, 19 January 2018.
The Marquee by Lost Womyn’s Space, 12 November 2014.
The Queerest House in Cambridge by Hilary Iris Lowe, The Public Historian, Vol. 41, No. 2 (MAY 2019)
“With Ready Eye”: Margaret Fuller and Lesbianism in Nineteenth-Century American Literature” by Mary E. Wood, American Literature, Vol. 65, No. 1 (Mar., 1993).

Archival Material

“Alice Wolf addresses the Cambridge Lavender Alliance,” Susan Fleischmann, Digital Collections of The History Project.
Being Trans in the 1980s – Nightlife, Digital Transgender Archive, no date.
Surgery shifts sex of woman, Boston Herald, 31 August 1972. The operation was performed at Cambridge City Hospital.
Cambridge Historical Commission: Lois M. Bowen Collection. Bowen (1914-2002) was a professional photographer and business owner. Together with her partner, Elizabeth Stearns (1913-1992), she opened Marshall Portrait Studio in Harvard Square in 1947. This business operated it until 1954, when the two women opened Cambridge Camera and Marine in Brattle Square, which was in business until 1995. View select images on Flickr.
Cambridge Viewpoint: Do You Think Barney Frank Should Resign?, Cambridge Community Television, 27 November 1989
“Gay is good” car, Cambridge Historical Commission collection. The photograph was taken in front of Christ Church on Garden Street, likely in the 1970s.
Gay liberation demonstration at Cambridge Common photographs, Jeff Albertson Photograph Collection, 1970.
First same-sex marriages in Cambridge, MA, Human Rights Campaign, footage from Cambridge on May 17, 2004.
FOCUS ON: Gender Identity Service clipping, Digital Transgender Archive, 1974.
Move Your Feet to the Rainbow Beat Dance Party handbill, Cambridge Public Library, 1989.
Transgenderism pamphlet, by Nancy Nangeroni, The History Project collection, 1996.