The Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada Records (1992-2023) and include news articles, institutional records such as bylaws, agendas, and meeting minutes, ephemera, and programs for the Center’s annual Honorarium fundraiser. Additional materials include materials relating the the wellness clinic.
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.
Gay Pride 1999 at Sunset Park; Photographer: Dennis McBride. Booth for the Imperial Royal Sovereign Court of the Desert Empire, Inc.; Backdoor Lounge; Eagle Bar; and the Spotlight Lounge. (5-8-99)
Oral history interview with Rose Miztri and Rachel Parker conducted by Claytee D. White on March 07, 2016 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. In this interview, Miztri discusses growing up in La Puente, California and moving to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1978. She describes her experiences in the United States Army and talks about being involved in a motorcycle accident. Parker talks about her upbringing and describes her experience being transgender while attending high school in Chicago, Illinois. Parker then recalls her first impressions of Las Vegas, Nevada in 1990 and why she was unable to get a job because of her sexuality. Later, Miztri and Parker discuss assisting transgender youth with housing, employment, and becoming comfortable in a society where tolerance and understanding of different sexual identities are constantly evolving. Lastly, both explain their involvement with Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), an international educational organization aimed to bring awareness on sexual identities.
Gay Pride 1999 (Dennis McBride, photographer) Sunset Park. Booth for the Imperial Royal Sovereign Court of the Desert Empire, Inc.; the Backdoor Lounge; Eagle Bar; and the Spotlight Lounge. (5-8-99)
The Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada Photograph Collection contains mainly candid photographs of events and individuals affiliated with the Las Vegas-based Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada (GLCCSN) dating from 1993 to 2000. Photographs depict events honoring prominent members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer community; meetings at GLCCSN; and candidate nights for members of the community running for public office. The collection also includes a number of photographs of the Freedom to Marry celebration at the GLCCSN and the Gay Pride Las Vegas festival from 1998 to 1999.