Archive
Oral Histories
Interviews tagged visibility in New York vs. Texas.
About these stories
Every interview on this site is presented uncut and unedited. Memories, pacing, pauses, and viewpoints are preserved exactly as the storyteller shared them — no polish, no reshaping. What you hear is their history in their own words.
Donna Blaze Johnson
Donna Blaze Johnson traces her journey from coming out in 1977 through decades of LGBTQ community building in Corpus Christi and beyond. She discovered the gay bar scene through a newspaper series, became the first woman bartender at venues like the Zodiac and Jolly Jack, and performed with her band Donna and the Daves while struggling with addiction. The vibrant pre-AIDS era she describes, filled with drag shows, Splash Day beach parties, and seawall cruising, was devastated by the epidemic that claimed an entire generation of friends. After getting sober in 1985 through treatment in Port Arthur, Donna found new community in AA's sober biker culture, eventually leading Corpus Christi's Pride Parade with Dykes and Friends on Bikes and riding with the Chrome Divas. Moving to New York in the late eighties opened her eyes to how oppressed she'd been in Texas. Now she mentors LGBTQ youth, promising them chosen family and assuring them it gets better, while reflecting on her butch identity and the reclaimed language of resilience.