Uncovering Cap Hill’s Queer History

Denver has always been home to revolutionary movements — Chicano civil rights, disability justice, and the fight for LGBTQ+ equality have all played out here across decades. For each of those movements, geography plays an important role, like Capitol Hill, where queer people found refuge, support, and community. Ahead of PrideFest this weekend, host Bree Davies and producer Paul Karolyi join comics artist and historian B. Erin Cole on a walking tour of Cap Hill, as seen through a queer historical lens. B. Erin has researched and illustrated a map with markers from the State Capitol to Cheesman Park — but it’s the flipped homes, demolished buildings, and long-gone bars in-between that tell the deeper story of the neighborhood's vibrant LGBTQ+ history. 

B. Erin Cole’s illustrated map of queer Capitol Hill can be found as part of History Colorado’s Rainbows and Revolutions exhibit, on view now. Find more of B. Erin’s work here. 

In today’s City Cast Denver newsletter, producer Lizzie Goldsmith has a roundup of summer theater events. Read and subscribe: https://denver.citycast.fm/newsletter/

Have your own memory or shoutout for a queer space in Denver? Tell us on Twitter: @citycastdenver

Learn more about the sponsors of this episode:

• Queer America Clothing
• Rocky Mountain MicroFinance Institute

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