Celebrating the story of the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center

Our history is increasingly endangered by attempts to censor, exclude, and erase LGBTQ content. In response, the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center has activated a project to document, preserve, and protect its heritage.

Today, we activated a partnership with the Center and Ashley Altadonna of Tall Lady Productions to conduct oral histories, collect historic memorabilia, and create a short film chronicling the Center’s historic evolution across five decades.

“Preserving history and culture is vital as it fosters a sense of identity, belonging, and understanding, while also offering valuable lessons for the future and contributing to a much larger picture,” said Ritchie T. Martin, executive director of the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center.

Acclaimed filmmaker Ashley Altadonna has been contracted to produce the video tribute. The short film will debut at Big Night Out 2025, the Center’s annual fundraising gala, with social media sneak previews throughout the month.

“When Milwaukee’s first-ever LGBT community center opened 50 years ago, our elders knew nothing of their history – as they were told for a lifetime that they had none,” said Michail Takach, chair of the Wisconsin LGBTQ History Project. “Even now, there are very active efforts to eliminate the existence of LGBTQ people from not only history books, but museums, monuments, libraries, and universities.”

“It has never been more important for our history to be seen.”

To support the Center’s celebration, the History Project will donate all costs of research, production, and delivery.

Do you have a Center story to share – or know someone who would? Contact wislgbtqhistory@gmail.com to schedule an interview today.

“This documentary project will lend a voice to the future of the LGBTQ community as a whole,” said Martin. “This will empower important and necessary conversations that will help inform our present and future, but also allow us to celebrate our past.”

“We want to celebrate our elders and pioneers, whose shoulders we stand upon every day, as we bring the mission of the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center to life.”

Did you know? The Milwaukee LGBT Community Center traces its roots back 50 years to the Farwell Center (1568 N. Farwell Ave.,) founded in June 1975 by Gay People’s Union. GPU established many critical programs still serving Milwaukee today, including health services, crisis hotlines, parental support groups, legal defense funds, scholarship programs, youth outreach, gender identity workshops, and media publications. 

Today, almost every LGBTQ organization in Milwaukee is descended from the work of Gay People’s Union. 

Learn more in the Wisconsin Pride documentary from PBS Wisconsin.