Though gay history has been well-preserved in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, it has been largely ignored in the Southwest, he said. Other LGBT-community icons in Arizona could easily meet the same fate, Shore said. Developers demolished the building in 2015 to make way for a condo complex, and most of the club's performers have long disappeared.
Now, the lounge mostly exists in patrons' memories. It was like, here's a community that embraces you and can help you understand these aspects of you that aren't part of wider society."īy the time Lazos-Ferns became a 307 Lounge regular in the 1980s, the bar had served as a safe gathering space for Phoenix-area lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents for decades. Arizona historian Marshall Shore, who is gay, called the club part of "the beginning of our community as we know it." "All of a sudden, I forgot where I was, and my fear just dissipated.
"I walked in, and a drag queen with big, beautiful hair and a white sequined gown was lip-syncing on stage, banging on the floor," he said.
"Finally, one night, the door was cracked open and I could hear that Jennifer Holliday song from (the Broadway musical) 'Dreamgirls,' which was popular at the time. "I'd go up to the door and walk away, go up to the door and walk away," said Lazos-Ferns, now 50. The 16-year-old wasn't sure what he was afraid of - he didn't actually know what he'd find inside the Phoenix gay bar - but he knew the club was in a "seedy area" along Roosevelt, far from his rural Chandler home. Jeffrey Lazos-Ferns had tried to work up the courage to walk into 307 Lounge at least three times before. Then in 2004 the collection was donated to ASU Library.Watch Video: The Arizona LGBT+ History Project On February 14, 1996, a lesbian activist named Harlene "Bj" Bud passed away and the Community Center honored her life by naming the collection after her.
They also started a small library and archive that was accessible to anyone who wanted to learn more about LGBT community and experiences. The Community Center, established in 1993, provided a safe space for the LGBT community in Phoenix. This collection, the largest LGBT collection in Arizona, was assembled by local LGBT activists and the Valley of the Sun Gay and Lesbian Center. This exhibit showcases a selection of periodicals and photographs from the Bj Bud Memorial Archives. ASU Library is also digitizing and making existing collections, from the Chicano/a Research Collection and Greater Arizona Collection, accessible online. Under the leadership of Nancy Godoy, Lorrie McAllister, and Alana Varner, the project will implement Archives and Preservation Workshops and Scanning and Oral History Days in order to give voice to Latinos, African Americans, Asian Americans, and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community. Mellon Foundation for Engaging, Educating, and Empowering: Developing Community-Driven Archival Collections, a three-year project designed to reclaim and preserve the history of marginalized communities for future generations. In 2017, ASU Library was awarded a $450,000 grant from the Andrew W.