CINCINNATI — There is way more to LGBTQ+ history in Cincinnati than you've been told.
Northern Kentucky University student Jacob Hogue started researching gay history in the region for a master's project when he noticed there was almost nothing written about it.
"Cincinnati was the Paris of America in the mid to late 19th century," he said."People think that it's this backwater city that had no culture... and that's just incorrect."
Hogue is documenting his findings in his first book. It's called "Cincinnati Before Stonewall: Untold Queer History of the Queen City."
Hogue said he's discovered some incredible LGBTQ+ stories that have never before been told.
"I've spent the last year and a half, kind of doing my best to put together a scattered narrative about how queer identity kind of was thwarted in the city," he said.
"Most queer people don't know anything about queer culture or history because almost all queer history starts in, like the 1960s and 1970s."
Hogue's focus starts way back in the 1800s.
It's a monumental task. He spends hours researching old newspapers and old biographies of people long-dead. According to Hogue, the history is so easily forgotten because of they way society treated queer people at the time.
"It's almost impossible to find by design," he said. "You couldn't write about a queer person sympathetically."
Hogue said you can't just search in the word "homosexual" into an archive website to find all the answers. The farther back in time you go, the more you need to change your terminology.
"You have to be kind of creatively self deprecating," he said. "I would type in words like 'depraved creature' and believe it or not, you would find mention of a queer person."
Another thing that makes studying LGBTQ+ history difficult is that if a gay person was reported about in any way, Hogue said they often "got the hell out of dodge."
"When you're researching this kind of history, you're really fighting an uphill battle, because if a queer person had visibility, that was a death knell for them," he said.
Hogue said the process can be emotionally draining, but it's important work.
"You're kind of left trying to bring the humanity out of people who the public didn't see any humanity in at all," he said. "When we have history on our side, it's easier to kind of defend our humanity against people who say that you have no history."
Hogue said racial discrimination played a big part in the history of LGBTQ+ people in the U.S.
"I hate the idea that we've all just been accepting this narrative of Black and white and Asian and Latino gays all marching together towards equality. That's not the case up until very, very, very recently," he said.
"Cincinnati was one of the most segregated cities in the entire country. A story for a gay Black person is going to be extremely different than a story for for a white gay person."
According to Hogue, there was a time in Cincinnati when gay Black men weren't allowed in certain gay bars without a white person essentially vouching for them.
"(I'm) keeping the primacy of race kind of a center point of my research, because it kind of allows me to tell two different narratives," he said.
Despite the darker sides of history, Hogue said he wants to make sure his book does positive things for the modern LGBTQ+ community, especially in today's political climate.
"Now, I feel a certain social responsibility, to position it, to where it's good for our movement. And, you know, my original purpose was essentially to re-position queer history for everybody, especially for people in Cincinnati," he said.
"How am I going to package this to make it one, historically authentic, and two, where it's good for the people that are around me and good for my trans brothers and sisters who are struggling and are terrified, and for the gay people that are being politicized all over the country?"
He's worried that his book will cause a lot of controversy. It's something he doesn't want, but 100% expects.
"I guarantee you that when this book comes out, there will be a debate at some school board of whether we're allowed to teach it," he said. "When this book comes out, children will take it home and their parents are going to take it from them, and say that it's inappropriate for children."
Because of his research, Hogue has become a well-known figure in the local LGBTQ+ community. He runs a popular Instagram page called "Queen City Queer History" where he previews many of the people that will be featured in his book.
The goal is to release the book in June 2024
Once published, Hogue's book will be the second book published on LGBTQ history in Cincinnati. The first book, "LGBTQ Cincinnati (Images of Modern America)," was written by Ken Schneck and Jim Obergefell, the American civil rights activist and Cincinnati native who was the lead plaintiff in the 2015 Supreme Court case that legalized same-sex marriage in the U.S.
Hogue will also be speaking about his research at the Cincinnati Observatory's Pride Night on June 10. Hogue will cover two of the very first trials concerning homosexuality in the region, analyze the role of female and male impersonation on political discourse in Cincinnati and so much more.
"Cincinnati was a remarkably queer place," he said. "There were more female impersonators and on Vine Street in the 19th century than there are today."
Pride Night at the observatory is from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tickets for the 18+ event are $20 each.
Click here to learn more.
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