GREEN BAY – Wayne Thiele walked the gallery alongside his granddaughter, his jewelry of two gemstone earrings a far cry from his days of opulence, when he strutted stages in hand-sown sequined gowns. It’s been years since he’s answered to his drag name Elsie Bovine, but he still marvels at the mention of her name.
At 75, the former Green Bay queen has no plans of going on any reunion tours, but Elsie Bovine’s gowns, crowns and jewels are on full display at the new Neville Public Museum exhibition “Telling Our Stories: LGBTQ+ Voices of Northeast Wisconsin.” Her belongings tell so many stories, like the time she kissed a llama for a photoshoot and got her heels stuck in farm muck, or the time she raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for AIDS relief right here in Green Bay. They make up the tapestry of northeast Wisconsin’s rich LGBTQ+ history, one the Neville has been eager to flaunt for nearly three years.
The museum’s doors opened to the public Thursday evening, revealing oral histories spanning decades, objects memorializing touchstone moments like queer weddings and memorable drag shows, and doors on which LGBTQ+ youths painted messages of hope, resilience and wishes for the future.