Celebrate LGBTQ History Month
Happy LGBTQ History Month from all of us at the Faulkner Morgan Archive!
This year, our work feels more vital than ever. Amid a rising wave of legislation and rhetoric aimed at silencing LGBTQ lives, we at FMA have remained steadfast in our mission: to document, share, and uplift the voices of LGBTQ Kentuckians–past and present.
At FMA, we work to weave a profound sense of LGBTQ belonging into the fabric of Kentucky history, securing our rightful place in its future. By emphasizing the depth and longevity of our community's presence, we foster inclusivity and educate the public about Kentucky’s rich and resilient queer heritage.
We do this by recording and preserving the stories that have too often been overlooked or erased. Our work brings together a powerful community of artists, activists, educators, politicians, entertainers, and advocates–across identities, geographies, and generations–to celebrate a nationally significant history rooted right here in Kentucky.
But we can’t do it without you.
Your tax-deductible donation ensures that LGBTQ stories from Kentucky will be protected, honored, and shared for generations to come. In a time of political backlash, your support is more than generosity, it’s an act of resistance and hope.
Please consider making a gift today. Because our history matters.
With gratitude,
Jonathan Coleman, Ph.D.
Co-Founder & President
Faulkner Morgan Archive, Inc.
Check out our newsletter to see just how we at FMA share Kentucky’s LGBTQ History all year long!
Queer, Here, & Everywhere
@ Lexington Public Library Eastside Branch
October 1-31, 2025
Our traveling exhibition, Queer, Here, & Everywhere: The Roots of Kentucky’s LGBTQ History will be on display at the Lexington Public Library Eastside Branch from October 1-31, 2025! Keep an eye out for programming as part of the exhibition as well!
Queer, Here, & Everywhere is the first comprehensive exhibition of Lexington’s LGBTQ history, showcasing the importance of the queer community in this city. Highlighting key moments and figures in Lexington's LGBTQ history, from Sweet Evening Breeze's drag performances in the 1920s to the passage of the Fairness Ordinance in 1999, this exhibit will celebrate the resilience and contributions of the queer community. By shedding light on these often overlooked narratives, we hope to foster a greater sense of belonging for LGBTQ individuals in Lexington while also promoting understanding and appreciation among the broader population
Coffee Date With LGBTQ History
Join FMA on Saturday, October 4 for a special weekend edition of Lex Lez Night, celebrating lesbian history!!! 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
First, stop by Lussi Brown Coffee Bar, grab coffee or a cocktail, and chat with us to learn more about our organization and some of the wonderful LGBTQ stories that we hold. There will also be a few archival items specifically from Kentucky’s lesbian history on display! ✨
📅 Saturday, October 4th
🕓 From 7pm-9pm
📍 @ Lussi Brown Coffee Bar
☕️ No Cover • 21+ only
A Sapphic Drag Show Fundraiser
After your Coffee Date With LGBTQ History, head on over to Crossings Lexington for a drag show celebrating lesbian icons, with proceeds benefitting FMA! Bring your dollars and help us share Kentucky’s LGBTQ history! 💖
📅 Saturday, October 4th
🕓 10:30pm
📍 @ Crossings Lexington
☕️ $5 Cover • 21+ only
Birds of a Feather
Exhibit @ 2nd Story
We are so in love with this new exhibition by queer artist Feather Chiaverini, Birds of a Feather, on display now at 2nd Story! The exhibit showcases Feather’s fiber works alongside materials from the Faulkner Morgan Archive that inspired the work. It will be on display at 2nd Story through December 5, 2025.
About The Exhibit
Birds of a Feather features a new body of work that Chiaverini made in response to Lexington’s LGBTQ+ past. In a celebration of queer joy, history, and community, he has recreated costumes and objects inspired by photographs found in the Faulkner Morgan Archive, particularly images showing mermaid tails, showgirl headpieces, and other queer ephemera from pride festivals and old parade floats. Imbued with playfulness and constructed out of materials ranging from ostrich feathers, silicone, athletic mesh, and beads, to braided fabric, neoprene, blankets, and other costuming detritus, Chiaverini’s garments come alive with the energy of theater costume shops and the hurried chaos of last-minute extensions and alterations happening behind the curtain.
Chiaverini envisions this exhibition to be more than a series of objects to be looked at, and invites all viewers to wear his garments. Any body can grow or shrink to fill the role. As an interactive environment, Birds of a Feather not only prompts visitors to think about the transformative labor undertaken by our queer ancestors, but also enables them to experience the same radical joy captured in the archival photographs--the joy that emerges when individuals are allowed to be themselves
Native Daughter
Documentary Premiere
Join us on Thursday, October 16 at 7:30PM for the premiere of Jean Donohue’s Native Daughter: CD Collins, A Reckoning at The Kentucky Theatre.
Director Jean Donohue’s film is a biographical portrait of C.D. Collins, told through words and music, an investigation into how stories are created and told. Donohue explores one woman’s lifelong journey for beauty, love, and survival. It examines how domination, abuse, and post-traumatic stress works through one’s life. Native Daughter relies solely on the words, music, and images of the artist. The film explores sexual identity, growing up queer and an artist in rural America, feminism, eco-feminism, PTSD, and the profound and necessary endurance of the creative impulse.