A badge of Pride pop-up exhibit from 2024
DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
Taffet@DallasVoice.com
Adrian Cardwell has been collecting queer history artifacts for more than 30 years, long before The Dallas Way was doing much the same thing on a research university level. This Pride Month, he is sharing part of his collection with the public in the Badge of Pride LGBTQ history exhibit which opens at the Irving Archives and Museum on Friday, June 6, and runs through Sept. 28.
“I was a young, gay thing in the early ’90s,” Cardwell said, when the “dominant narrative for gay people was AIDS, death, discrimination and violence.”
Cardwell came out in West Texas and, he said, PFLAG parents saved his life. From the members of PFLAG, he learned that he wasn’t broken and damaged, but was, instead, part of a community with a rich history.
His PFLAG friends sent him articles, and he called people — national LGBTQ leaders — mentioned in the articles.
“And they’d say, ‘here’s this kid in West Texas,’ and they’d send me something,” he said. “And things would show up at my door. It was so cool to see these objects that were part of history.”
And now, 30 years and 10,000 artifacts later, a selection of items from that collection go on display in Irving. The oldest item is a silver coin from Greece that dates to Alexander the Great.
Cardwell’s collection has grown from a collection of LGBTQ buttons and badges to every imaginable type of LGBTQ relic. Where does someone store such a massive collection? Cardwell said that, much to his husband’s chagrin, much of his collection is kept at their home. But he also has a climate-controlled storage unit where each item is meticulously boxed, photographed, numbered, catalogued and summarized.
“I’m a bit of an obsessive,” he admits. “I’m just a nerd who loves history.”
Today, Cardwell said, he works with The Dallas Way and the LGBTQ archives at University of North Texas.
“We have access to their collection and used their collection to research items in the exhibit,” he said.
To anyone who questions whether a museum in Irving next door to city hall is the right place for an LGBTQ exhibit, Cardwell argues it’s the perfect place.
Cardwell said that the first time he went to the Irving Archives and Museum, the special exhibit was about The Green Book, a Jim Crow era resource for the African-American community listing which places were safe to stay and what businesses would welcome them as well as what places to avoid. The book allowed Black people to travel more safely, especially in the South.
It was, Cardwell said, “much like the Gay Yellow Pages were for our community,” he said.
The museum just wrapped an exhibit on Japanese war brides, and Badge of Pride will be sharing the space with an exhibit on Caribbean indigenous resistance.
From the community, there’s been little resistance to having an LGBTQ exhibit in a city-owned facility. Most of the questions were about how explicit the exhibit will be.
The Irving Arts board has been very supportive, Cardwell said, and he called museum director Jennifer Landry the exhibit’s “Mama Bear.” But the exhibit has no nudity, nothing racy or explicit.
“Nothing more spicy than you’d hear on an NPR broadcast,” Cardwell said.
But NPR has suddenly become controversial. And mounting a museum exhibit costs money. In other times, a corporate sponsor could have been found and grants would cover the cost of research, creating displays and flying in speakers for presentations during the run of the show would have been available.
But, “Grants are gone,” Cardwell said. “Corporations have disappeared.”
And to make things even more difficult, Cardwell had prevailed upon the museum staff to waive admission fees during the run of the show. So, instead of the usual sources of income, he turned to the LGBTQ community to cover those expenses. And, he said, the community has responded.
“And communities of faith have been incredible,” he added. Cathedral of Hope has stepped up to help sponsor the exhibit as has a church congregation in Keller, which “warmed my heart,” Cardwell said.
Other collectors have also pitched in. In addition to items from his own collection, artifacts from other collections, like some historic DIFFA jackets, will be included. Former Sheriff Lupe Valdez and former state Rep. Glenn Maxey loaned items from their personal collections to the exhibit.
Two Dallas panels from the National AIDS Memorial Quilt will be on display through the show’s run. And thanks to YesterQueer, the Tarrant County LGBTQ history project, the original sign from the Rainbow Lounge will hang in the museum. During the run of the show, filmmaker Robert Camina will present his 2012 film Raid of the Rainbow Lounge.
Adam Bouska will bring his NOH8 campaign and do a photo shoot at the museum on June 21.
And in August, Dallas Voice publisher Leo Cusimano will have a conversation on stage with Philadelphia Gay News publisher Mark Segal, who was at the Stonewall Inn the day of the historic raid there by New York police, which sparked days of riots that have become known as the birth of the modern LGBTQ civil rights movement.
Cardwell said he worked with a Spanish translator to make sure the exhibit is bilingual, using gender-inclusive Spanish. Once the exhibit ends, Cardwell plans to reformat the exhibits so they can travel. His target is museums in smaller cities in red states “where our history hasn’t been respected.”
And with his personal collection at 10,000 items and growing, he’s tossing around ideas for at least another two local exhibits.
Irving Archives and Museum is at 801 W. Irving Blvd., Irving. June 6-Sept. 28. Open Wed.-Sat. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. and Sun. from noon-4 p.m.