LGBT & Feminist History 

 In 2007, University of South Florida alum Donald Bentz donated a collection of materials highlighting numerous Bay area events and organizations developed and sponsored by Tampa’s LGBT community. 

Consisting of items from local organization Greater Tampa Bay Pride Organization, Inc. and such events as “Pillage and Plunder” and “Wet Party,” the Don Bentz Collection primarily includes administrative documents, posters, photographs and other items from the early 1990s to the early 2000s.

Tell us about your experiences at USF and the LGBT issues you are involved with today.

"As a USF graduate, I served as the events manager and director of development of the Tampa AIDS Network, public relations specialist for the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce and events manager for The Florida Aquarium from 1992 through 2008. As a volunteer, I was a founding member of the Human Rights Task Force during Tampa’s two ballot initiatives and – as president – helped grow Pride Tampa Bay’s pride celebration into the largest in the state of Florida and the second largest in the southeast (1996-2002). I was the Tampa Bay Business Guild’s Citizen of the Year in 1996 and the first openly gay member of Leadership St. Petersburg. I am the current director of development at Life Foundation in Honolulu, HI, and am a founding member of Hawaii’s Family Equality Coalition."

What encouraged you to donate your collection to the USF Libraries?

"I donated to the Special & Digital Collections Department because our community’s history is important to our survival and growth. It is important, especially for our young people wrestling with the coming out process, to see that we have a history. We have proud, distinctive stories of success that we have an obligation to preserve so future generations do not suffer in silence and isolation, feeling that they are 'the only one.'

"Our community really doesn’t have a recorded history going back too far because it was not safe to be out and – since places like the USF Library did not exist - our closets were cleaned out by relatives who did not recognize the value of the photographs and newspaper clippings, tossing those stories in the trash forever."