letter from Parents of Gays, Pensacola, FL to Chief Justice Warren Burger, regarding 1976 Supreme Court ruling upholding state sodomy laws that outlaw homosexual acts

Pride Week is upon us y’all and, like everything else in Texas, we do things a little bigger in Houston.

Now, with one more reason to celebrate, hundreds of thousands of Houstonians will defy our grinding heat and humidity, jamming the streets and locales of Montrose in celebration of Pride Week.  For more than 34 years Pride Houston has played a central role in coordinating this massive undertaking and the volunteers needed to make it the success it is every year.  About a decade after Stonewall, the LGBT community in Houston joined with others around the world to mark the anniversary of this crucial turning point in the movement for equal rights.  Houston held its first celebration in 1979 and has been going strong since.

Saturday, June 29th marks the fever pitch of the week’s events.  A festival leading up to the parade, featuring exhibits and entertainment, will begin at 1pm on Saturday.  The parade will follow at 8pm (or shortly thereafter) when Houstonians will pack the parade’s route along Westheimer to show the city’s support of the LGBT community and celebrate like no other evening of the year.

We would like to encourage everyone to drop by the History Tent during the festival leading up to the parade.  Staffed by volunteers, including librarians and archivists representing a number of institutions here in Houston, the Pride Houston History Tent will showcase a number of items outlining the history of the LGBT community in Houston and beyond.  Our own Vince Lee, Archivist for the Carey C. Shuart Women’s Archive and Research Collection, will be present with materials from the Hazelwitch Productions Inc. Records, the Annise Parker Papers, and gay and lesbian materials and ephemera from the Houston Area NOW and Other Feminist Activities Collection.  In addition, Vince plans to showcase works from our Norma J. Lee Lesbian & Feminist Collection and Edward Lukasek Gay Studies Collection.

Feeling the Pride this week (or any other)?  Thanks to the efforts and generosity of so many, the Carey C. Shuart Women’s Archive and Research Collection has grown into a hub for research relating to the LGBT community in the Houston area and far beyond.  The materials listed above, as well as others, remind scholars that they would do well to make this a first stop when conducting related research.