View the exhibit
“Rainbows & Revolutions” can be viewed Monday through Saturday from 2 to 7 p.m. at Colorado Mesa University’s downtown gallery, 437 Colorado Ave. The exhibit will be at the gallery through September. Admission is free. Upcoming events related to the exhibit include: ■ A charity event to benefit CMU’s Basinger Scholarship will be held at the gallery from 5 to 7 p.m. July 8, and is open to the community. ■ An Evening for One Colorado will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Aug. 5. ■ Colorado Health Network will hold an event Aug. 15 focusing on the impact of HIV and AIDS on Coloradans. ■ Colorado West Pride will host a community reception from 5 to 8 p.m. Sept. 6 during Grand Junction Pride Week. Additional local information Community members who have items they would like to loan or donate to the exhibit can do so. Bring those items to the center, located at 302 South Ave., from 4 to 7 p.m., Sunday through Friday. Staff will be gathering information about the exhibits and working with the exhibit curators. If you have any questions, please contact Heidi Jeanne Hess at One Colorado (heidih@one-colorado.org) or Tony Plakas at Colorado Health Network (tony.plakas@coloradohealthnetwork.org).
This timeline begins with a report on Edward Martino, who was arrested in Denver on July 1, 1883, for wearing “women’s clothing.”
From there, the timeline wraps around the walls of Colorado Mesa University’s downtown gallery, stretching through 2021.
That was the year the final episode of Season 2 of HBO’s “We’re Here,” a drag-queen-themed reality show, was filmed in Grand Junction.
In between these edges are dates, people, places, groups and events significant to Colorado’s LGBTQ+ community that are part of the “Rainbows & Revolutions” exhibit on display at the gallery.
“Even as a gay man who was born in Colorado and has lived here most of my life, I think there’s a rich history in this state that I didn’t even know about,” said Mike Mansheim, chief strategy officer for Colorado Health Network.
Mansheim is a member of the steering committee, which also includes representatives from One Colorado, Colorado West Pride and Loving Beyond Underlanding, formed to assist CMU in bringing a traveling Colorado history exhibit to Grand Junction.
The exhibit was created through the research efforts of Aaron Marcus, associate curator of LGBTQ+ history at the Gill Foundation’s History Colorado, and features a variety of items and artifacts along with a historical timeline.
CMU bringing the exhibit to Grand Junction will allow history to spark conversation and open dialogue, Mansheim said.
“One of the responsibilities of the University is to bring diverse voices and perspectives to our community and strengthen the dignity and worth of every human being. Supporting this exhibition is another opportunity to practice what we preach as a human-scale university,” CMU President John Marshall said in an article in CMU Now (coloradomesa.edu/now/).
“I want people to understand that (this exhibit) is for everyone. It’s not just for the LGBTQ+ community,” Mansheim said. “Just have a conversation: What did you not know, what did you learn?”
For him, some of the dates on the timeline that stood out included those related to Colorado’s response to HIV and AIDS in the 1980s. The first AIDS case in Colorado was diagnosed in 1982. He said that was likely due to his work with the Colorado Health Network, originally the Colorado AIDS Project.
Mansheim also said he was amazed at how the state has evolved from one that passed the Second Amendment in 1992, banning anti-discrimination measures against gay, lesbian and bisexual people, to one that in 2018 elected the nation’s first openly gay governor.
“We hope that visitors to (the exhibit) will walk away with a greater understanding of Colorado’s LGBTQ+ community and the impact their ancestors had on some of the things we take for granted today,” he said.
One person who has had an impact on Grand Junction is Jeff Basinger, Mansheim said.
Basinger founded the Common Decency Coalition after Amendment 2 was passed and has become a champion for the causes and rights of the LGBTQ+ community.
Basinger passed away in 2018, but a scholarship was created in his honor for a CMU or CMU Tech student from Western Colorado who identifies as LGBTQ+.
A charity event to benefit the Basinger Scholarship will be held at CMU’s Downtown Gallery (437 Colorado Ave.) on Basinger’s birthday, July 8, from 5 to 7 p.m.
When asked what Basinger thought of the exhibit, Mansheim replied, “I hope it makes Jeff laugh.”
“I remember meeting Jeff 20 years ago at an early Pride picnic when 24 people gathered for a barbecue in Sherwood Park. Time has passed, and today a major institution in the Valley is hosting an exhibition of this magnitude, sparking dialogue and conversation. … I hope he’ll be moved by it.”
