Artifact Item #4: Interview with a Minneapolis archivist (2014)
Van Cleve is the author of “10,000 Loves: A History of Queer Minnesota” (University of Minnesota Press, 2012). He’s also been giving LGBTQA+ history tours of Minneapolis for years. The man’s knowledge of LGBTQA+ history could fill volumes. In 2012, he sat down with a journalist at the Minneapolis Star Tribune and recounted stories of some of the most important sites of gay-rights activism, bringing us this artifact. The accompanying image depicts the location of Minneapolis’ first gay bar, the Onyx. By the time the photo was taken (sometime in the 1950’s), traces of the bar had been removed entirely, as the Onyx was converted into a greasy spoon, called “Hamburger Heaven.” The following is one of my favorite quotes from the interview, where he references the Onyx and discusses the importance of referencing oral history recordings to glean firsthand information about LGBTQA+ history:
“I’m trying to make [the tour] half-and-half, a mix of the familiar with the long-, long-, long-gone, the places that most people wouldn’t know about. One of the most exciting places is at 3rd and Hennepin, it’s now the site of the Central Library. But it used to be the location of the Onyx Bar. I know about it because Chuck Rowland — who was later a founder of the Mattachine Society [arguably the country’s first gay rights organization] — talked about it in an early oral history interview. He said that it was around in the 1930s, and it was a place where men could meet other men. They would wear suits — electric green suits — and lots of jewelry, all of these coded references. I would have loved to have seen that.”
This artifact was added to shed light on some of the most important LGBTQA+ meeting places in the Twin Cities’ history. These places, however secret or informal, were valuable and necessary organizing points, where people could express same-sex affection without fear of being assaulted. Without these safe(r) spaces, coordination events and sharing resources and information would have been much more difficult and dangerous for queer individuals in Minnesota.