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LGBTQ+ History

LGBTQ+ people have been integral to our progress as a Commonwealth and the making of Virginia’s history. While LGBTQ+ people have lived here for centuries, the earliest written records only acknowledge their existence in an effort to criminalize them. Fighting against erasure and invisibility, LGBTQ+ people have also played pivotal roles in the creation of Virginia’s culture leading up to and beyond the gay rights movement of the mid-20th Century. Virginia’s LGBTQ+ history presents unique perspectives on life in the Commonwealth and offers more inclusivity in the recounting of American history.

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16,000 BCE to 1622 CE
A Land of Opportunity: Creating Virginia
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1622 to 1763
A Distant Dominion
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1763 to 1825
From British Colony to American State
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1825 to 1861
Challenge of a New Century
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1861 to 1876
Civil War and Reconstruction
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1876 to 1924
Virginia in the New South
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1924 to Present
Dynamic Dominion

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