Stonewall Columbus Historical Marker
Densil Porteous, Executive Director
Good afternoon, friends and neighbors.
Thank you for being here at the Stonewall Columbus Community Center for a moment that is both a celebration and a recognition. Today, we dedicate an Ohio Historical Marker that recognizes more than four decades of LGBTQ+ people in Central Ohio who insisted on being seen, valued, and included—and who built community every step of the way.
I want to begin by thanking our board and staff and in particular CJ Martin. One of CJ’s first task when he started was to work with me to carry this initiative over the finish line—thank you. I also thank our volunteers; our elders and movement builders; our partners and allies; and the Ohio History Connection for honoring this history, our history, queer history.
To everyone who ever marched, called a legislator, staffed a table, opened a door, or showed up for a neighbor—you are the reason this marker exists.
Stonewall Columbus began in 1981 with a simple but radical idea: that visibility and connection saves lives. From organizing one of the city’s earliest Pride marches, to building programs that meet people where they are, to convening a festival and resource fair that now engages hundreds of thousands across our region—this work has always been about people finding one another, and finding the courage to live out loud.
This marker doesn’t just tell a story about the past; it names who we are in the present. It sits here in the Short North, where so many have come to feel at home, and it points toward a future where our community is not just surviving but thriving. It honors those we lost to AIDS, to violence, to indifference. It honors the trans and nonbinary people who continue to face disproportionate risk. It honors Black and Brown LGBTQ+ neighbors whose labor and leadership often went uncredited. And it honors the everyday acts of courage—coming out to a friend, showing up to a meeting, offering a hand—that made this movement real in Central Ohio.
I often say Stonewall’s values are verbs: History, Visibility, Inclusion, Connection, and Accountability. History grounds us—so we remember who lifted us up. Visibility reminds us that when we stand in the light, others can find their way. Inclusion calls us to widen our welcome and center those too often left at the margins. Connection turns a building into a community. And accountability ensures we keep learning, keep listening, and keep earning the trust of those we serve.
You can see those verbs at work here today. In the programs that support families on their path to parenthood. In trainings that help schools, workplaces, and faith communities show up with care. In C.A.R.E.S. navigation that links people to affirming health and mental-health resources. In daytime spaces like the Stonewall Cafe that create sober, welcoming third place. In Pride, which is both celebration and civic engagement—a reminder that joy can be a strategy.
A historical marker is made of metal, but it is not a monument to stillness.
It’s a mile marker on a road we’re still traveling together.
The next chapters will be written by the young people learning the language to describe who they are; by parents and caregivers showing up with love; by businesses choosing inclusion as a practice; by public leaders who understand that equity makes our city stronger; and by each of us, choosing community over comfort, and courage over cynicism.
To our elders: thank you for your persistence. To our partners and allies: thank you for your solidarity. To those who are just finding us: welcome. And to everyone gathered here: may this marker remind us that progress is possible when we do it together—and that the work is not finished.
I invite us into a brief moment of gratitude—for those who came before, for those standing with us now, and for those who will follow.
On behalf of Stonewall Columbus, thank you for witnessing this moment. May we honor it by building a future where every LGBTQ+ person in Central Ohio is, truly, seen and thriving.
With that, I’d like to invite the Stonewall staff and Board to join me as we unveil the marker.
Thank you.
