‘Rainbows and Revolutions’ Exhibit Coming to History of Colorado Center

This summer, come experience Rainbows and Revolutions, a groundbreaking new exhibit exploring Colorado’s LGBTQ community at the History Colorado Center. Featuring artifacts from the Gill Foundation LGBTQ Archives, a new permanent collection at History Colorado, this exhibit will tell the story of Colorado’s LGBTQ movement from the 1950s to now.

Rainbows and Revolutions take visitors through the defiant acts of solidarity during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 60s and the revolt against the Denver City Council in 1973. Learn how Colorado dealt with the AIDS crisis in the 1980s and the devastating anti-LGBTQ legislation of the 1990s, all the way up to the election of the country’s first openly gay governor and beyond.

“As a historian, I feel a responsibility to preserve and pass along the stories of the LGBTQ+ community so we can all learn from and add to them,” says Aaron Marcus, Gill Foundation’s associate curator of LGBTQ+ history at History Colorado. “By using our voices to document what we’ve been through, we hope to pave a smoother path forward toward equality and full acceptance to become a truly inclusive and stronger community for everyone.”

Thanks to the funding of the Gill Foundation, Aaron Marcus was able to join the History Colorado Center as the first curator of LGBTQ History in 2020. Since then, he has been curating artifacts from across the state, establishing the Gill Foundation LGBTQ Archives.

Colorado has come a long way in its relationship with the LGBTQ community. Only 30 years ago, Colorado was known as “the hate state” due to an amendment permitting discrimination against LGBTQ individuals. Now, Colorado is one of the most LGBTQ-friendly states in the nation, thanks to the struggles of the community over the past several decades. The stories preserved here are not just important to LGBTQ history, but to Colorado’s shared history.