Warshauer, Tom, 1956-

Wright, Christina

Charlotte, North Carolina

J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections & University Archives, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

2017-02-19

1 audio file (1:35:30) : Digital, MP3

sound recording-nonmusical

spoken word

eng

Tom Warshauer was a 61-year-old man at the time of the interview, which took place in his home in the Plaza Midwood neighborhood of Charlotte, North Carolina. He was born in Durham, North Carolina in 1956 and spent much of his childhood in Wilmington, North Carolina. He was educated at Rice University, where he earned a BA in Architecture and Fine Arts in 1979 and a BA in Architecture in 1981; and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned an MS in Real Estate Development in 1989. He was employed as an architect in Houston and Chicago between 1975 to1981, as a self-employed house restorer in Wilmington between 1981 to 1982, and as the Assistant Director of Community Engagement with the City of Charlotte starting in 1990 and up to the time of the interview.

In this second interview, Tom Warshauer discusses his arrival in Charlotte in 1990 to work with the city's planning department. He explains that he was initially apprehensive of Charlotte's conservative culture and planned to stay in the city no longer than two years. However, after coming into contact with a cohort of activists, artists, and intellectuals, Mr. Warshauer has lived and worked as a city planner for Charlotte for nearly thirty years. Mr. Warshauer describes his years as a young professional and how impressed he was by Charlotte's entrepreneurial spirit, deeming the city in 1990 as "open for business." Although Charlotte's social culture remained conservative, he talks about how he wanted to join other activists in making Charlotte more inclusive. As an openly gay man, Mr. Warshauer reflects on how he was able to take risks on behalf of the LGBTQ community and how his connections with gay activists in Raleigh helped him. Mr. Warshauer discusses how he and other gay men socialized privately and publicly in 1990s Charlotte. In 1990, Mr. Warshauer and Robert West began the Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, which was initially hosted at Spirit Square. He also discusses the creatives ways he raised funds for Charlotte's LGBTQ communities, including his foundational involvement with the annual White Party fundraiser (also known as Farewell to Summer), which originally raised funds to support local people with AIDS, and his major role in helping to establish the Lesbian and Gay Fund (administered by the Foundation for the Carolinas), which he credits with helping young LGBTQ people in Charlotte learn about their heritage. Mr. Warshauer concludes by talking about the gay community's need to stand with other marginalized groups as they fight for their social justice.

Architects
City planners

Warshauer, Tom, 1956-

Equality NC PAC
The Scorpio (Charlotte, N.C.)
Movement Advancement Project
Human Rights Campaign (U.S.)
Foundation for the Carolinas

Gay community
City planning
Cities and towns--Growth
Gay activists
LGBTQ+ culture
Sexual orientation--Political aspects
Gay and lesbian film festivals
Fund raising
AIDS (Disease)
Discrimination--Law and legislation
Transgender people--Legal status, laws, etc.

North Carolina--Charlotte

Interviews
Oral histories

1980-2020

Charlotte LGBTQ+ oral histories

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audio/mpeg

Tom Warshauer Papers, J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Charlotte. http://archivesspace.uncc.edu:8081/repositories/4/resources/595

QH-WA0035