In the fall of 2017, students in Cathleen Rhodes’s Queer Studies class at Old Dominion University designed and led a walking tour of LGBTQ historical spots in Norfolk, Virginia. Students planned the route, developed a marketing plan for the tour, and researched the locations to be included. On the day of the event student presented their locations to walking tour participants from the community.
Rhodes plans to extend the tour in the future as new students add new tour stops and uncover more of our local history. The tour will serve as way for the community to re-experience LGBTQ life in previous decades as they literally stand in the spots of local queer history. To learn more about the Queer Walking Tour of Norfolk and its stops, visit the Queer Walking Tour of Norfolk website.
We give a generous tip of the hat to Dr. Charles Ford, Professor of History at Norfolk State University, who previously created and led an LGBT walking tour of downtown. We are excited to live in an area with so much queer history that one walking tour just isn’t enough.