Oral History of Cheryl Parham

Abstract

Cheryl Parham is a lesbian and Baltimore native who served as the president for the Baltimore Gay Community Center in the 1980s. Cheryl speaks about her experiences growing up gay in Baltimore, serving in the military, her community outreach work, and the importance of LGBTQ spaces. She reflects on her experiences as a black lesbian in an organization, the Gay Community Center, made up primarily of white gay men, her relationship to Christianity, and how LGBTQ spaces such as gay bars have shaped and supported her. This oral history was conducted by undergraduate students enrolled in Dr. Joseph Plaster’s Queer Oral History course, which was taught at Johns Hopkins University in spring 2022.