Pride Week 2015 - Growing Up . . . Gay in Hampton Roads

Earlier in the month I wrote about an event sponsored by the Hampton History Museum that will take place tomorrow evening.  The recordings of the panel discussion from the event will become part of the Museum's oral history collection that seeks to preserve history through the recollections of ordinary people as well as the prominent and famous.  The topic is growing up gay in Hampton Roads.  The husband is one of the panelists.  Last evening we hosted a gathering at our home for the panelists and some of the Museum staff in order that the panel could get to know each other somewhat before the event and review the event format.  Based on last night, the panel discussion should be remarkable, especially the contributions to be made by  Gavin Grimm, a transgender boy on who's behalf the ACLU has filed a law suit against the Gloucester County School Board.  Here are details on the event (which will be followed by music and a cocktail party):

This year The Hampton History Museum will be presenting an event entitled "Our Story, Our Time  Growing Up . . . Gay in Hampton Roads."  The event is free to the public and starts at 5:30 on June 24, 2015, at the Crown Plaza Marina, 700 Settlers Landing Road in downtown Hampton.  Part of what the event focuses upon is the reality that LGBT individuals have always been part of our local history even if in times past they felt the need to remain invisible. 

The Hampton History Museum event will include a panel the members of which will describe what it was like to grow up "different" in Hampton Roads.  Panelists include Dick Fore, the owner of Foremost Florists, Barry Menser, owner of Barry's for Hair, Corey Mason, an actor, theater director and college student, Anthony Cudrup of the Hampton Finance Department, Bobbi Mitchell, and Art Institute student and Gavin Grimm, a transgender high school student.

Local readers need to attend and learn some interesting history and meet some wonderful people.

P.S. Posting will be reduced all week due to the daily Pride events we will be attending every evening.

Pride Week 2015: Our Story, Our Time Growing Up . . . Gay in Hampton Roads

June is officially Pride month based on Barrack Obama's newly released proclamation.  Here locally, Hampton Roads Pride will sponsor PrideFest 2015 at Town Point Part on Saturday June, 27, 2015, commencing at 12:00 o'clock noon.  However, the local Pride celebration is growing with each passing year and more events are taking place in the lead up - Pride Week, if you will - to the main event on June 27th.  

This year The Hampton History Museum will be presenting an event entitled "Our Story, Our Time  Growing Up . . . Gay in Hampton Roads."  The event is free to the public and starts at 5:30 on June 24, 2015, at the Crown Plaza Marina, 700 Settlers Landing Road in downtown Hampton.  Part of what the event focuses upon is the reality that LGBT individuals have always been part of our local history even if in times past they felt the need to remain invisible. The Hampton History Museum event will include a panel the members of which will describe what it was like to grow up "different" in Hampton Roads.  Panelists include Dick Fore, the owner of Foremost Florists, Barry Menser, owner of Barry's for Hair, Corey Mason, an actor, theater director and college student, Anthony Cudrup of the Hampton Finance Department, Bobbi Mitchell, and Art Institute student and Gavin Grimm, a transgender high school student. 

 For Peninsula readers, the event might prove eye opening.  I hope that readers will try to attend. 

Disclaimer: the husband is one of the panelists.

HRBOR April Third Thursday Net Working Event - April 18, 2013

In April, HRBOR again returns to the Virginia peninsula and will hold its April 2013 business networking event at the Hampton History Museum in downtown Hampton.  For those not in the know, Hampton is the oldest continuous English speaking city in North America and the museum is a gem that tracks the city's history from its founding in 1610 - yes, 10 years before the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock - up through the Civil War and it's current high tech facilities such as NASA Langley.  I sincerely hoe that local readers, especially those living in Hampton, Newport News, York County or Williamsburg will make an effort to attend.  I truly believe you will enjoy the experience.

Here are the pertinent details:

Host : Hampton History Museum, Hampton Virginia 757-727-1610 http://www.hampton.gov/history_museum

Where: 120 Old Hampton Lane, Hampton Virginia 23669 757-727-1610

When: Business Networking: April 18th, 2013, 6 - 8 pm

Bar Sponsor: Virginia Company Bank 2198 Coliseum Drive, Hampton VA 23666 757-224-4300 www.vacompanybank.com

Parking: the Parking Garage near the front of the museum is convenient and free to the public

Featured Non-profit : The Hampton History Museum 

Third Thursday Cost: Free to Members, $15 Guest Fee for Guests and Prospective Members

Hampton History Museum Soiree

This evening the boyfriend and I are hosting a fundraiser/soiree for the Hampton History Museum at our house. We are basically only providing the venue with everything else - iincluding catering - provided. Not that the event doesn't entail a lot of work. If the boyfriend, a/k/a "Martha Stewart" is going to do something, it must be perfect. In this case, the house and yard must look utterly immaculate with nothing out of place. Thus, we spent about six hours today cutting the grass, edging, dead heading roses - in short the works - to make sure the place looks its best (hence why I have not done many posts today). He even closed the flood gate on the tidal creek behind the house to keep the creek at high tide level for the maximum view in the back yard.

*

It is a worthy cause and, in fact, Hampton is the oldest continuously settled English community in the United States. As an Indian village called Kecoughtan, it had been visited by the first English colonists before they sailed up the James River to settle in Jamestown. In 1610 the construction of Fort Henry and Fort Charles at the mouth of Hampton Creek marked the beginnings of Hampton, and 2010 will be the 400 anniversary of the city's founding. There is a great deal of history in the city that is often overlooked and some magnificent homes that still survive in various historic neighborhoods such as Old Wythe where we live. The photo above is of a home up the street from us as it looked in 1916. The house is still there and the gorgeous porches have just been lovingly restored.

*

Here are a few other interesting facts about my new hometown that are pretty unique: The first free public schools in the United States were founded in Hampton by Benjamin Syms and Thomas Eaton and are commemorated in the Syms-Eaton Museum. Hampton is the site of Hampton University, established in 1868 to educate freed slaves, and Thomas Nelson Community College. St. John's Episcopal parish was founded in 1610, making it the oldest in the country. Fort Monroe - which is being turned over to the City of Hampton by the federal government - dates from 1819. For a long period during the American Civil War the fort was the only Union outpost in the Confederacy. The famous battle between the first ironclad battleships, the Monitor and the Merrimac, was fought just offshore (just offshore from down the street from our home since our street runs along Hampton Roads harbor).

*

It should be a fun evening and a good networking opportunity as well. We enjoy entertaining and a number of our LGBT friends will be attending as well - including our friend who rehabbed our house after disrepair and a dubious history, including drug dealing and the making of porno films before the neighbor saw a revival. As they say, if you want first class urban renewal, get the gays to move in. We have about ten gay owned homes on the street.