October is National LGBTQ+ History Month, and evidence of the community’s history is visible in the present. Whereas LGBTQ+ Pride Month celebrates queer present and futurity in June, the cozy fall weather gives us a moment to look back and reflect on LGBTQ+ people and places in the nation’s past.
In the District of Columbia, there are two buildings on the National Register of Historic Places associated with LGBTQ+ history. One is the former home of Franklin Kameny, and the other is the building that housed the former Furies collective. The Furies were a lesbian separatist group who lived in the house between 1971 and 1973.
The National Historic Preservation Act (80 Stat. 915) of 1966 was passed just five years before the Furies occupied the space. The collective published the monthly newspaper, The Furies, the first issue of which can be read here.
State (or city) historic preservation offices make the final decisions regarding placing a building on the historic register. According to the DC Historic Preservation Office, this property “contributed significantly to the culture and development of the District of Columbia and the nation, specifically for its role as the headquarters of the Furies Collective and The Furies newspaper…[It] was its principal headquarters, classroom, meeting place and residence for the greatest length of time and the place most associated with the publication of The Furies newspaper and the production of the lesbian-feminist issue of the magazine motive.”
Further information about historic places, parks, and monuments can be found in Title 16 of the U.S. Code. To explore more digital LGBTQ+ history, visit the Library’s LGBTQ+ Web Archive.
Subscribe to In Custodia Legis – it’s free! – to receive interesting posts drawn from the Law Library of Congress’s vast collections and our staff’s expertise in U.S., foreign, and international law.