The LGBTQ+ walking tour of the Congressional Cemetery [Something Interesting #79]

My Pride Month began a couple of days earlier last week with a more somber note by taking a self-guided walking tour with some friends of the Congressional Cemetery here in D.C. The cemetery, which I'd never been to before, is actually well-known for being the resting place for a lot of well-known people and has a lot of fascinating history of its own, so if you get a chance to go there, I highly recommend it. Just be mindful and respectful.

Photo of the AIDS memorial at Congressional Cemetery, taken by me

This walking tour is actually put together by the staff of the cemetery, and I wanted to post the guide they provide for visitors interested in the prominent figures from LGBTQ+ history buried there. I'll also provide some Wikipedia pages and more photos I took for additional context regarding some of the more prominent names:

Doyle's grave, photo by me

Dresser and Fowler's grave, photo by me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGwH6hrqaIs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNdaUaQy57g

Gittings and Lahusen's bench, taken by me

Hering's grave (center), photo by me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQ1B_1b04RM

Locke's grave (left), photo by me

Matlovich's grave, photo by me

Inscription on Matlovich's grave, photo by me

While I was there specifically for this one walk, the cemetery has a whole lot of fascinating tours based around several different themes (brewers, cenotaphs, important Black residents of D.C., politicians, important women, etc.) and has all of their guides posted here in PDF like the one I showed above: