Just for the Record collection

This collection is made up of 3/4" U-matic videotapes of the television program Just for the Record - A T.V. Series for Gay People. Just for the Record was a weekly program produced on Cox Cable Channels 42 and 49 in New Orleans from 1987 to 1993, and was the city’s first LGBT+ television show. It covered both local and national topics of interest to the gay and lesbian community. It was produced by Valda Goodwin Lewis and Loretta Mims.

As the first LGBT+ television program in the city, Just for the Record was a landmark show in terms of LGBT+ visibility.  The program provides a record of the LGBT+ community in New Orleans in the late 1980s and early 1990s, documenting businesses, local organizations, and community activities catering to the local LGBT+ populace. Local festivals such as Southern Decadence, Gayfest, Gay Pride, and Mardi Gras are covered, as are organizations like Dignity New Orleans, Sappho’s Circle, and the Gay Men’s Volleyball Association, among others. The show also chronicles ties to the national LGBT+ rights movement, with episodes documenting the 1987 March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, the NAMES Project, and HIV and AIDS concerns. Study of the program can add to the narrative of what it meant to be LGBT+ in New Orleans and in the South in the 1980s and 1990s.

Along with the videos, the Just for the Record collection also contains 0.8 linear feet (two boxes) of printed materials, which include program outlines, flyers, and printed ephemera related to the show, as well as the Just for the Record newsletter, dating from February 1989 to August 1993. A tape log for the videocassettes is also included in the collection file.