Judy Reeves’ philosophy regarding history goes like this: “If you don’t take care of it, history will just slip through your fingers.”

She should know. As one of the founders of the Gulf Coast Archive & Museum of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender History (GCAM), Reeves laments the loss of the AIDS quilt in Houston when the local Names Project office closed down and its materials were shipped off to Atlanta.

Now, she and a handful of volunteers are working to ensure that no more of Houston’s gay and lesbian history is lost.

Reeves and her best friend, Jimmy Carper (host of KPFT’s gay “After Hours” show), serve as chair and vice chair of GCAM. Nestled in a small apartment complex on West Main, GCAM sits ironically just a few blocks from Houston’s sanctioned and funded Museum District.

The by-appointment-only museum is a world of sequins, leather trophies, political buttons, posters, photos, books and other gay and lesbian memorabilia from Houston and the Gulf Coast.

On every wall, in every corner of the four small rooms that comprise GCAM are items that Houstonians have donated to ensure that people and places are not forgotten.

It’s why GCAM was formed five years ago by a group of concerned activists.

“We put a message out on HANdnet about other museums in other cities and asked if anyone was even thinking about a local museum to attend,” Reeves said, referring to the Houston Activist Network computer bulletin board group. That was in June 1999.

“So 13 of us got together at that first meeting,” Reeves recalled. “There were a dozen Houstonians there, and Brandon Wolf brought Dr. James Spears, from the One Institute, [a national gay history archive] to talk to us about starting the museum.”

Spears offered the group four different models to consider.

“We all voted for the model we liked best, and at our next meeting two weeks later, we started writing the by-laws,” Reeves said. “Rosie Cheeks had been working on a logo, which she submitted as a gift, and that is our logo still to this day. We applied for our [tax exempt] status in October 1999” and the first meeting followed.

More space is needed
“The community is interested in GCAM to the point where we have so outgrown this space,” added Reeves. “We’ve got two storage facilities that are overflowing with donated items.”

Not only does the museum lack the room properly display its holdings, but Reeves said, “We don’t have the room to get at it. We’ve got 26 to 28 of those big gorilla shelves that each hold 24 or 25 boxes. Closets are full, donations are loaded up onto palettes. The last big donation we got was 2000 lesbian books that unfortunately went straight into storage.”

Often GCM volunteers arrive to find a box or two of items left at the front door. While donations are good, the staff would like to meet donors to find out as much as possible about the items.

“How many visitors do we get a week? It’s hard to say,” Reeves said. “We can go a couple of weeks with no visitors, and then get two groups of 40 people. We get five or six friends in a group a lot of times. It’s sporadic. We are truly available 24/seven, but that’s why we are by appointment.”

Groups that can work around the feather boas and leather are invited to have their meetings at GCAM.

“Of course if we had a true museum space like we envision, we could really wow people,” Reeves said. “Imagine having the room to properly display the thousands of T-shirts, the elaborate costumes from all the different drag performers, from Miss Camp America. The library alone would need to be substantial. We have five or six thousand books. It would be so amazing.”

But the small staff is an all-volunteer army, and funding is minimal.

“Until we get the staff, all we can do is what we can do,” Reeves reconciled. “You know, GCAM used to be in the front of my house. I used to spend all my spare time cataloging the items. We’ve got about ten percent fully cataloged.”

Photos on the Web
With a software program written by fellow founder Bruce Reeves, photos are scanned and posted on the GCAM Web site.

“You can actually go in via our website and make notes if you know something about that picture like who it is, where the picture was taken, or especially when the picture was taken,” Reeves said

Though having so much and so little space is frustrating, Reeves and Carper have found a creative way to showcase some of the items.

“We also have a display case at the GLBT Community Center that we rotate some items in and out of,” Reeves said. “We’re taking a new exhibit over there shortly. You know ultimately we’d love to find a space in a separate building that the Community Center and GCAM could share.”

Like all nonprofit organizations, GCAM has suffered from the recession.

“Don Gill really kept us going in the first years of GCAM,” Reeves said. “He used to have a fund-raiser every year, and now he does his live charity show every other year and he chooses two recipients. This year it was GCAM and the Montrose Clinic.”

GCAM operates entirely on donations, and it has never received a grant.

“We have applied to them all, but the prevailing thought is until you have reached the five-year mark, we don’t trust you,” Reeves said. “Thankfully, we turn five years old this month.”

She said GCAM’s landlord, Lee Pepin, gives the group a reduced rental rate. “He has been a Godsend!”

Survival is crucial, Reeves said, for future generations.

“The H.A.T.C.H teens come in and many of them are well read, and well versed in our history,” she noted. “It’s great to see the future so interested in our past. Sadly though, I have sat in meetings with gays and lesbians in their late 20’s and 30’s who actually said to me “Now who was Harvey Milk? That’s why GCAM is so important.”

© Copyright 2006 Window Media LLC | User Agreement and Privacy Policy

Southern Voice | Express Gay News | David Atlanta | The 411 Mag | Genre Magazine