1. Alyssa Turk
Professor Coleman
GWS 200
April 8, 2015
The Pagan Babies: Drivers of Change in Lexington
When thinking of the cities that have played a role in forming today’s LGBT
culture, one might think of San Francisco, New York, or even Key West. However, there
is another city that’s history has played a big role in shaping this culture: Lexington. The
film, The Last of the Pagan Babies, documents a group of young artists and drag queens
that were drivers of change in Lexington’s hierarchical homosexual society. The film
examines how the attitudes and beliefs about sexuality changed throughout Lexington’s
more recent history.
Before the revolutionary Pagan Babies, Lexington’s gay community was more of
an underground phenomenon. Lexington’s Old Guard gay community was focused on
seclusion and secrecy. One of the first people to challenge this was a cross-dresser by the
name of Sweet Evening Breeze. She was known as the town “queer”, but was a valued
member of the community. She was notorious for having prestigious members of the
community visit her and have sexual relations with her. All of these visits were kept
secret and Sweet Evening Breeze was looked after in order to keep her from “outing” the
men who came to visit. Even though everyone silently loved her, no one would publicly
admit to it. In fact, when Sweet Evening Breeze was dying, no one stood by her. She was
promised a room at the Good Samaritan Hospital, but hospital denied her the room
because of his sexuality. None of her friends showed up to the funeral. The case of Sweet

2. Evening Breeze is a perfect example of how the people of Lexington’s sexual beliefs and
practices were slowly becoming more accepting of gays and drag queens, but at the same
time they were still ashamed to admit it publicly.
Robert Morgan, a pioneer of the Pagan Babies, describes the group as “a loose
confederation of young, wild gay kids and artists who dressed in drag and performed
guerrilla street theater”. Members of the Pagan Babies included: Robert Morgan, Jimmy
Gordon, Henry Faulkner, and many others. They wanted to give a voice to the
underground gay community and demanded their right to expression. The Pagan Babies
were tired of being invisible and kept secret. They wanted to get rid of the taboo that was
associated with being gay or cross-dressing. The men who made up the Pagan Babies
didn’t’ always dress in drag because they wanted to be a woman, instead some dressed in
drag just to rattle society and make a political statement.
Not only were they initially faced with disapproval from the dominant
heterosexual culture, but also the Old Guard gay community. This disapproval translated
into arrests for the Pagan Babies. Whenever they would go out in public together they
would end up getting arrested. Henry Faulkner provided a safe home for the Pagan
Babies and would take them on trips to places like Key West, Florida, where the
community would be more accepting of them. These trips reinforced the idea that their
sexual beliefs and behaviors could be accepted by society and furthered their drive to
make it acceptable back home in Lexington.
The Pagan Babies threw themselves into the public spotlight and John Ashley was
a famous photographer that helped them do so. Ashley’s work had originally focused on
women’s bodies and the beauty of nature, so when he took an interest in drag culture it

3. was a shock to the public. Ashley convinced Morgan and the other Pagan Babies to let
them be the subject of his photography, which wasn’t necessarily focused on gays, but
the embodiment of dressing in drag. Famous author and playwright, Tennessee Williams
also took interest in Ashley’s work. In fact, Williams wrote the introduction to Ashley’s
photography book. Unfortunately the book was never published, but that didn’t stop it
from being seen by the public. The fact that two important public figures were now
beginning to align with and support the gay and drag community was an indicator that
Lexington’s sexual beliefs and behaviors were changing.
The Pagan Babies changed Lexington’s gay community. They made their
lifestyles and the idea of dressing in drag more socially acceptable. More and more gay
nightclubs opened up and society became more welcoming. Unlike with Sweet Evening
Breeze, when Henry Faulkner died there was a huge service that many people attended.
The Pagan Babies took a public stance and forced their community to change and accept
their sexual beliefs and behaviors.
In conclusion, the Pagan Babies were drivers of change in Lexington’s gay and
drag culture. Before their movement, the gay community in Lexington was one of
seclusion and secrecy. Public homosexuality and cross-dressing was not acceptable and
was often met with harassment, despite the fact that many people, including prestigious
public figures, participated in these sexual behaviors and practices behind closed doors.
The Pagan Babies brought these behaviors and practices into the public spotlight through
art, photographs, and street theater. They demanded their right to be heard and wanted to
give the underground gay community a public voice. At the beginning of the movement,
the Pagan Babies were faced with disapproval and were even arrested on multiple

4. occasions, but as their sphere of influence widened, the community became more
accepting.