Dr. Larry Peterson

Dr. Larry Peterson, a local historian active in Red River Rainbow Seniors, will present a program on same-sex gathering places during the late 20th century at the Hjemkomst Center at 6:30 Tuesday, Aug. 6, as part of Fargo-Moorhead Pride Week 2025.
Peterson, who taught history at North Dakota State University for 40 years, is coordinator of the oral history project, Breaking Barriers: Harvesting LGBTQ Stories from the Northern Plains. The project documents the experiences of older LGBTQ+ individuals growing up and living in North Dakota and Northern Minnesota.
His presentation, “Celebrating Togetherness: Same-Sex Dancing in FM”, explores how LGBTQ+ folk found spaces to gather in the FM community during the late 20th century, a time when acceptance was not common. These places included bars and other public spaces where same-sex dancing was allowed. There, many found their first loves, and a community was created. Peterson’s talk, with special musical selections, capture what these spaces were like and what they meant to the people who attended them.
The county historical society is committed to telling the stories of all Clay County residents and their experiences here. In 2023, HCSCC staff created “At Last: 10th Anniversary of Marriage Equality in Minnesota,” which told the story of the campaign for marriage equality. The exhibit highlighted the stories of those who were married at midnight on Aug. 1, 2013, the day same-sex marriages were legalized in the state of Minnesota. Although the physical exhibit closed, HCSCC has recently completed an online version available at www.hcscconline.org/atlast.
The county society has also helped document LGBTQ+ spaces in Moorhead and other neighboring communities in collaboration with the Minnesota Historical Society (MHS). MHS has created an interactive story map that documents different aspects of LGBTQ+ history throughout the state and is available at storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/ff9c23776f1d4b729caac2d034f2a09f.