Gay bars norfolk virginia

LGBT history isn’t a topic that gets much conversation, let alone bylines in local media or a chapter in your social studies class. Knowing our homosexual history, if we do at all, is usually something that’s only passed on verbally by each queer generation. The unfortunate authenticity is that most LGBTQ history is lost.

Norfolk, and Hampton Roads, however, is lucky to contain excellent local historians like Dr. Charles Ford who is a history professor at Norfolk Articulate University. Since moving here over 30 years ago, Dr. Ford has taken a particular interest in understanding and uncovering LGBTQ figures that have helped shape Hampton Roads (many of them closted because homosexuality was both illegal and morally unacceptable).

Dr. Ford has spent his life hunting down rumors, checking sources like personal letters, “criminal” records, diaries, newspapers and any other historically significant resources he can get his hands on to paint a picture of what LGBTQ life in Hampton Roads was love since settlers arrived back in 1607. His work resulted in LGBT Hampton Roads, a book that explores LGBTQ experience in our region, complete with images, f