Shoulders to Stand On is a moving documentary focusing on the history of the queer community in Rochester. One of the topics discussed was the picnics hosted in Genesee Valley Park by the Gay Liberation Front, the foremost LGBTQ organization in the city at the time. Originally conceived as a meeting place for queer people, it quickly became a fundraiser, with an admission of $3 and subsidies from gay bars. Besides raising money, it was a land marker for the community because many queer people came into the open for the first time.
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The “Perversity to Diversity” exhibit was on display in the Rush Rhees in March 1991. The first step I took in finding the date was to google the name of the article in quotations, to no avail. Then, I tried searching the Empty Closet issues on the rare books and special collections link on the library page on Blackboard, also without much luck. I thought perhaps I could find a time frame and look through the issues one at a time, so I googled “Perversity and Diversity University of Rochester.” The only useful information I found was references to the exhibit in two books, one published in 1992 and the other from 1996, so I knew the article was from before 1992. Ultimately, this information was unhelpful as I narrowed my search. Eventually, it occurred to me to search for mention of the exhibit in the Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester’s local newspaper. I found an article published on March 27, 1991 which discussed the exhibit. I noted that March 27 matched the date that the exhibit was to close according to the article we were given. With that information, I used the brute force method to look through Empty Closet issues from 1991. After trying February and March with no success, I discovered the article on the front page of the April 1991 edition of Empty Closet.