Documenting the American South: Oral Histories of the American South

Collections >> Oral Histories of the American South >> Interview >> Excerpt

Excerpt from

Oral History Interview with Bill Hull, June 21, 2001. Interview K-0844. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

See Entire Interview >>

Effect of the influx of women to gay men at UNC

Hull contends that the addition of women to the UNC student body had no detrimental impact on gay male culture. He insists that a thriving lesbian culture had long existed in nearby Carrboro, North Carolina.

About this Excerpt • Citing this Excerpt • Full Text of the Excerpt

About this Excerpt

Interviewer	Chris McGinnis
Interviewee	Bill Hull
Excerpt Length	0:01:27
Start Time	01:07:00
Stop Time	01:08:27
Subjects	Southern Women > GENDER AND GENDER RELATIONS > Lesbian, Gay, Other Identity Southern Women > GENDER AND GENDER RELATIONS > Stereotypes Southern Women > GENDER AND GENDER RELATIONS > Social Bonds: Female-Male
Excerpt Places	Carrboro, Orange, NC Chapel Hill, Orange, NC

Citing this Excerpt

Oral History Interview with Bill Hull, June 21, 2001. Interview K-0844. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Full Text of the Excerpt

CHRIS MCGINNIS:: Do you think that there was any impact on the gay community? Probably in the time that you were there, it was definitely a majority men, and gradually UNC has transformed itself to become a majority women. Do you see that affecting the gay community in anyway?
BILL HULL:: No, I didn't, when I came along, all of the lesbians were not college students, they lived in Carrboro and I ran around with a lot of gay women.
CHRIS MCGINNIS:: So, there was a fairly big lesbian community?
BILL HULL:: Very, besides Delray Beach, Florida, Carrboro, North Carolina is the lesbian capital of the world. Maybe Durham is a close second. But, I knew a lot of gay women in the early 60s.
CHRIS MCGINNIS:: You are the first gay man to really talk about knowing a lot of lesbians in that time period.
BILL HULL:: Right, they were wonderful, but they were all like softball players and mechanics, and it was not intellectual. There was not this "Ms. Former North Carolina" and that type of people that we ran around with. This was probably in 63 or 64, probably 64, I knew a lot of gay women, but they were all Carrboro residents, probably having being born there or having family ties there and that is what they did. There was a whole softball team, two softball teams that I ran around with.