JG: It focuses on the diversity of the LGBT community. It is a victory of self, or toward a victory of self, because for many, it is still not realized.ĬM: The exhibit is created from the LGBT Archives of WRHS. What aspect of the archives does it focus on?
What I see happening as a historian … is the struggle to be one’s self - to live the way one was born. John Grabowski: We wanted to do something that related to the Gay Games - victory, winning in the games. We chat with John Grabowski, WRHS senior vice president, about inspiration for the exhibit and what's a must-see.Ĭleveland Magazine: Where did the title come from? See more items chronicling the fight for equality - including pride posters, sports costumes, vintage rainbow flags and issues of High Gear, Cleveland's first LGBT newspaper - in The Victory of Self: The LGBT Community in Northeast Ohio exhibit, open through Dec. From its spot hanging in the Western Reserve Historical Society, an art deco mural from the former Cadillac Lounge, Cleveland's first LGBT bar, resonates a sense of freedom that was limited when the '40s nightclub was in operation at East Ninth Street and Euclid Avenue.