Mysterious find: A landmark found in Houston’s Museum District raises questions about the city’s LGBTQ history

Houston, Texas (KTRK) – There was a mysterious find in the Museum District. A woman exploring a development site found a gravestone. The engraving shows that of two men who were life partners in the late 1980s. They both died fighting AIDS, but now, many decades later, their stories have resurfaced.

There were residences at the corner of Calumet and Chartres. A driveway led to an apartment garage, but the developers trashed all of that. Their work revealed a gravestone on the property. No one knows when or how he got there, but the woman who found him thought she knew why.

“People with AIDS were treated like lepers,” said Melissa Mims.

Mims said she was out on a walk Monday night when she discovered what may be the most disturbing of Houston’s LGBTQ history.

“This ended up being the headstone for these two men who were partners,” she recalled.

James Brickey and Kenneth French died nine months apart after battling AIDS in 1989, the headstone said. There is no official record of their arrest, so Mims believed they had faced discrimination in dying.

Mims said, “Gay men weren’t well respected—those who had AIDS. I think they should probably be denied burial together, and maybe that’s why they chose to be buried here. I don’t know.”

Her desire to know more of their story led. the Texas Obituary Project Collect old scraps that come up French He had a love of life, a sense of humor, and a commitment to his own beliefs. Breaky He is described as a man who spent his entire life giving.

In turn, Mims said that she would like to give loyal partners of 12 and a half years the respect that they may have been denied.

“I am a member of the LGBTQ community,” she said. “It sure is dear to me for that reason. Just make sure something isn’t built on top of them just without being respected and known they are here. If that’s where they are.”

It is not clear why the marker is on the property, or if their graves are buried underground, but it is illegal in Texas to damage the place where a human being is buried or is permanently buried. JLL Real Estate and the developer are aware of the headstone, but did not respond to questions from Eyewitness News.

These are answers that Mims say their community deserves.

“I hope someone remembers who they were and they can have that connection, and we can have a story of who they are,” she said.

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