Buffalo-Niagara LGBTQ History Project

And...we won an award for our float! Queen City Realness!

Special congratulations to our volunteer Andy for the idea; and Seth, Leah, and Alanna for the design/building. If you haven’t seen the videos our volunteers Queline and Willow made to explain the float, they are worth a watch (scroll down). And finally, of course, thanks to Chevon Davis for fighting for Buffalo qu**rs’ rights to parade in the streets.

Massive compliments to all other listed orgs on their fabulous floats!

See details in comments!

By now you know that for this Pride we built a replica of the float with which Chevon Davis challenged the homophobia of mayor Jimmy Griffin's rule. Chevon fought the city to have the first gay float in a parade. This was Buffalo's sesquicentennial parade in 1982, about a decade before we had the actual Pride Parade. For details of the story, see our posts of a few days ago.

Chevon may have been skeptical when we shared our plans with her, but our volunteers are nothing if not gifted and adventurous. Then, on Sunday, for the maximum energy, we were joined by DJ Elmwood Opera and, as a deluxe surprise, our friend Sean Anthony from Vogue Buffalo (check out the video and gasp).

It was heartening to see so many qu**rs and allies share love and wit so freely and to know that we have each other as we navigate the hard present.

You should RSVP to our Stone Butch Blues book club!!

Join us in-store Wednesday June 10th 7-9pm for an evening discussing Stone Butch Blues with Buffalo-Niagara LGBTQ History Project!
Buffalo is lucky to be a city rich with q***r literature, perhaps none better known than Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg. For this special Pride Month discussion, Talking Q***r Books and have teamed up to bring you a night of book discussion, paired with local history contextualizing this celebrated work in Buffalo's vibrant q***r past. With time to discuss and browse, support our fundraiser by purchasing a handmade Q***r Buffalo Journal or sticker, and pick up your next great q***r Buffalo read!

Designed and handbound by Buffalo-Niagara LGBTQ History Project and Talking Q***r Books, this pocket journal features original art of a q***r Buffalo artifact, writing prompts for recording your own q***r stories, and q***r Buffalo reading recommendations!

The cover design will also be available as a sticker. All items will be available in-store starting June 1, 2026 and will remain available until sold out.

Proceeds benefit Buffalo-Niagara LGBTQ History Project and Talking Q***r Books.

More about the art: Hard hat belonging to Bobbi Prebis (1938-2026), Buffalo-based butch le***an activist, union organizer, and one of the first women to work at Bethlehem Steel. The Lambda symbol placed on the hard hat by Bobbi is an international symbol of gay liberation. The hard hat now resides at the Le***an Herstory Archives in Brooklyn, New York.

A remarkably well done reportage about Madeline Davis and the archive she founded; but also about the building of the gay liberation movement in Western NY and the role Madeline played in this. Amazing job, Robert Hackford

Rooted in Pride: Inside the Buffalo archive preserving gay liberation history and the story behind its namesake Explore the rich history of the early gay liberation movement at The Dr. Madeline Davis LGBTQ Archive of WNY.

You don't want to miss this delightful book club we are doing with out friends at Talking Leaves Books. Also, check out the wonderful merch inspired by our le***an and trans ancestors!

The book club comrades will read the landmark trans, working-class le***an and proletarian novel Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg. The meeting is on June 10. To RSVP and see other details, go to page or follow the link: https://tleavesbooks.com/event/2026-06-10/stone-butch-blues-pop-book-club

How does the history of Buffalo’s gay liberation movement overlap with the history of its suburbanization, gentrification, and the construction of its expressways? How did the city police g**s in the 1960-1980s Buffalo and how did the community fight back in courts, the streets, and through community building? Come to our Gay Liberation NOW! history tour and learn the sorties of Buffalo’s q***r trailblazers!

Photos 1, 3 and 6: Ruth Goldman