Interview with James A. Gay III conducted by Perry Kaufman on April 12, 1972. Arriving in 1946 from Fordyce, Arkansas, Gay became the first African-American mortician in Las Vegas. He later worked as Assistant Manager of the Sands Hotel and Casino and Union Plaza while serving as an executive board member of the Culinary Union. Instrumental in the Las Vegas community, Gay worked to improved race relations, addressing social, economic, and civic issues. Gay was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 1988.
2nd annual Gay Pride parade 1998. Photographer: Dennis McBride. Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada and the Nevada Freedom to Marry Coalition. (4-25-98)
Oral history interview with Frankie Perez conducted by Elsa Lopez and Laurents Bañuelos-Benitez on November 05th, 2018 for the Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada Oral History Project. Perez speaks about the importance of sports, and the lack of Latinx representation in teachers during high school. Perez then discusses being placed on medical hold in the military, how his transition affected his physical tests, how the 2016 election may have impacted transgendered people in the military, and how everyday military personnel feel about transgendered people serving in the military. The interview concludes with Perez discussing the Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, Transgendered, and Queer (LGBTQ) scene in Las Vegas, Nevada and about how culture impacts which clubs members of LBGTQ community would visit.
Oral history interviews with Jane Heenan conducted by Dennis McBride on June 21 and 28, and August 30, 2005 for the Las Vegas Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Archives Oral History Project. In the interviews, Heenan begins by clarifying the vocabulary used within the transgender and queer communities for self-identification, comparing these terms with terms used in the medical and psychological fields. They then discusses the distinction between gender identity and sexual orientation. Next, Heenan recalls growing up and in Chicago, Illinois, coming out in the 1990s, and undergoing sex reassignment surgery. Lastly, they talk about arriving in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1994, the Las Vegas transgender support and advocacy community, and Las Vegas transgender organizations.
Oral history interview with Claytee D. White conducted by Stefani Evans on November 2, 2023 for the African Americans in Las Vegas: a Collaborative Oral History Project. In this interview, Claytee D. White, founding directory of the Oral History Research Center at UNLV Libraries, celebrates the twentieth anniversary of the OHRC by contributing her oral history to the collection.
She begins by explaining how the system of sharecropping worked in her family near rural Ahoskie, North Carolina, and she talks about the field work involved in raising cotton, tobacco, corn, and peanuts. The fifth of eight children and the first daughter, she shares memories of going into town with her mother, of admiring her women teachers, and of attending North Carolina Central College (now University) for two years before moving to Washington, D.C., and working for the telephone company.
After recalling her two years in D.C. and 22 years in Los Angeles, California, she describes "running away" to Las Vegas, Nevada in the early 1990s. Here, at the History department at UNLV, she recalls learning to conduct oral histories. White shares memories of her first interviews with Hazel and Jimmy Gay and Lucille Bryant. She talks of matriculating to the College of William and Mary for her PhD and of returning to Bertie County to live with her mother and administer the office of The Shaw University Center for Alternative Programs in Education (CAPE). She describes how she was offered the position of OHRC founding director, why it matters that she was an "opportunity hire," and how it feels to be the only Black person in a room.
Oral history interviews with Dennis McBride conducted by Claytee D. White and Stefani Evans on various dates in March, April, and May 2023 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. McBride goes into detail in this 4-session interview and covers a wide variety of topics, including: the history of Boulder City, working at various cultural institutions in Las Vegas, the evolution of the LGBTQ+ community in Las Vegas, researching his own history and publishing a book, and local advocacy groups. Digital audio available; no transcript available.