Tampa- University of South Florida doctoral thesis candidate Cyrana Wyker has learned a lot about the LGBT community lately. She is collecting oral histories form LGBT people who have lived through Tampa Bay’s remarkable growth and change the last half-century or so. Some interviews date back to events of the 1950s and 1960s, she said.
“Interestingly enough, the topic of Stonewall didn’t even come up when I interviewed older residents who had lived here while that revolution was happening in New York,” said Wyker , who was born in Key West and grew up in Texas. “I think they were aware of some of those changes as they were happening, but the events didn’t immediately lead to any kind of forward push for gay rights here.”
Wyker has interviewed 15 people ranging in age from 40-85. She said most are men, but she would like to include more interviews from women. She also hopes to include more African-Americans and Hispanics.
Wyker did her undergraduate work in history at USF. Since that time she has obtained two masters degrees, one in women’s studies and one in library and information services. She says her interest in doing an oral history of Tampa Bay’s LGBT community started when she did archival work in the USF library that includes a wide selection of historical information about the local gay community.
Wyker said she was surprised at the lack of fear among gays and lesbians in the 1950s and 1960s.
“Gay bars weren’t ever raided like they were in cities like New York or San Francisco,” said Wyker. “There are even pictures of women attending lesbian parties or large groups of people in early bars like the Knotty Pine in Tampa. There didn’t seem to be as much fear that a raid might lead to having your name in the paper or other public humiliation.” Wyker said some individuals she has interviewed pointed to Tampa’s strong connect to organized crime as a surprising reason for the lack of raids.
“Apparently many of the earlier gay bars were owned by the mafia who paid the police not to interfere,” she said.
The only exception was during the “Johns Committee” investigations in the early 1960s. McCarthy-era Florida at the time was searching out groups that might have ties to the communist party. In state-sanctioned interrogations, the committee interviewed suspected homosexuals, especially in academic circles.
This lead to a number of professors at state universities, including the University of South Florida, being dismissed because the committee accused them of being gay. One professor even attempted suicide as a result.
Most of those interviewed said they were aware of the national movement, but there was little impact on their local lives, Wyker said.
Even Anita Bryant, whose own particular form of bigotry was news in the 1970s, didn’t really register much to those she interviewed.
“I think most people thought she was just a crazy lady with crazy ideas,” she said.
St. Petersburg has had a long and mostly friendly relationship with the LGBT community, she discovered.
“I spoke to the owners of the Wedgewood, which as a 1970s forerunner of the Suncoast Resort and the Flamingo which would come along 30 years later,” she said. “They shared many fond memories of the large crowd at that Wedgewood which included many visitors from other parts of the country.”
Wyker said she’s learned change really began happening for the local LGBT community in the 1980s, when huge numbers of new people from the north moved here. The era before the AIDS crisis were carefree and locals enjoyed beach bars like the Lighted Tree on St. Pete Beach and drag shows at El Goya in Ybor City.
But reflections on the AIDS crisis are included in her work so far.
“It appears that St. Petersburg reacted first and best, partially because people with the disease were not being treated well by local area hospitals and would often give them the most basic care and then dump them back on the street,” said Wyker. “It seems to me that some of the earliest AIDS organizations were created to deal with those issues.”
Wyker hopes her project will be completed by May. Eventually, all of the interviews will be digitized and available for the public to review by visiting the USF library website.
“I think the interviews I’ve had to date show that by and large the gay community in this area has always been pretty well accepted,” she said. “Of course you can always point to exceptions like the Rhonda Storms controversy. But overall the individuals I have interviewed were very upbeat and hopeful for the future of our community.”
Wyker said she would love to hear from others who have recollections to share for the project. She can be reached by email at cw3f@mtmail.mtsu.edu or by phone at 214-534-3669.
