Senior Manager of Community Engagement Mariana Barros-Titus leads the crowd in a toast to the episode alongside co-hero Jo Diggs and Ashley Bamfo of Rainbow History Project.
The DC History Center’s journey with Netflix’s Queer Eye ended very much the way it began. “We’re here, we’re queer” was the call when the producers first opened the doors to the Carnegie Library last August. It was also the phrase that closed the screening we hosted on Friday, January 23.
Before the episode began, conversations in the crowd reflected a shared assumption. Many guests believed the event was to celebrate Queer Eye’s Washington, DC setting for its 10th and final season. Or perhaps it was a function of the DC History Center’s commitment to hyper-local history. Those connections would have been reason enough to gather.
However, midway through the episode, attendees realized they were in for something special.
The very building they were sitting in appeared on screen, along with the words “DC History Center” spelled out. The audience was finally in on the secret: Dorriene and Jo, the episode heroes, had visited the DC History Center in the summer of 2025 to learn about the Rainbow History Project, a long-running initiative dedicated to preserving and sharing Washington, DC’s LGBTQ history. During their visit, they formally contributed personal photographs to the collections. In that moment, a watch party became a collective, joyful surprise. History, place, and lived experience merged into one shared reality. If that wasn’t enough, later in the evening, a second surprise came to light. One of the episode’s heroes, Jo, joined us for the screening, bringing a warmth and openness that immediately filled the room. Throughout the evening, more Diggs Family members arrived, adding layers of meaning to an already emotional evening, as the people who know Dorriene and Jo’s story most intimately watched the episode unfold.
Dorriene and Helen “Jo” Diggs, Easter 1973.
Dorriene and Jo’s story turned out to be the premiere episode of the season, which opens in Washington, DC. Season 10, Episode 1, “Sister, You Are Welcome Here,” follows Dorriene and Jo Diggs as they navigate grief, emotional distance, and the work of reconnecting. It tells the story of two sisters through a story rooted in family, care, and healing: Jo, the heart of a large extended family, and Dorriene, whose lesbian identity led her early in life to build a chosen family within the queer community. The episode follows the two sisters as they heal the divide created at a young age and learn to see and appreciate each other. The episode centers Black queer love, healing, and home. It traces the sisters’ journey toward one another, bridging past divides and making space for care, visibility, and joy.
Last summer, conversations with the Queer Eye production team emphasized a broader theme running through the season. Everyday lives and relationships hold cultural and historical significance. Because the DC History Center houses the Rainbow History Project archives, we collaborated to make this episode a reality. With the Queer Eye producers, DC History Center Senior Manager of Community Engagement Mariana Barros-Titus and RHP Treasurer Ashley Bamfo worked to develop the Karamo storyline—from Dorriene first walking through the doors and learning about the rich, queer history in DC to recording her own story in an oral history. Through the interview, Dorriene begins to see her story represented in the city’s history, and Jo learns more about her sister’s perspective on their childhood and adult lives. It’s a moment of reckoning and deep vulnerability.
Jo Diggs (second from right) with family members at screening of Queer Eye episode in the Class Action exhibit
Following the screening, Mariana briefly reflected on how the collaboration came to be. What stuck with us was the heart of the episode: Everyday lives and relationships carry cultural and historical significance.
That emphasis mirrors the DC History Center’s approach. In recent years, we have focused on expanding how history is defined and who is recognized as a knowledge holder. Personal archives, family photographs, and lived experience are treated not as supplemental materials, but as forms of expertise.
Rigorous scholarship and responsible research remain essential. And in fact, are all the more valuable held alongside lived experience. It’s that perspective that offers insight that traditional sources cannot provide. Together, these modes of knowledge create a fuller and more human understanding of the city’s past and present.
Guests explore items in our collections related to DC’s LGBTQ history, guided by Senior Manager of Collections Autumn Kalikin, January 23, 2026.
After the screening, guests were invited into the Kiplinger Research Library. There, they spent time with the photographs featured in the episode, alongside related LGBTQIA+ materials from the Rainbow History Project’s collections housed at the DC History Center.
Seeing these items up close created a tangible connection between the stories on screen and the lives they represent. It was a chance to get hands-on with history, to connect, reflect, and recognize these moments as part of DC’s shared story.
Karamo Brown poses with DC History Center staff after filming wraps, August 6, 2025.
For the last eight years, a new season of Queer Eye has often signaled renewal. Felt through the screen, from couches and living rooms, shared in quiet tears. This evening offered something different. We were here in DC, at the center of the story—gathered in one of the places it shaped, experiencing that renewal together and in real time.
Being together at the DC History Center, surrounded by stories that belong to this city, made clear that history is not only something we preserve. It is something we continue to create, together.
Azia Richardson-Williams is the Education Coordinator at the DC History Center and a dual master’s student at George Washington University, where she studies public administration and art management. Originally from Florida, she previously taught 6th grade in Atlanta, Georgia, and brings a deep passion for education, community engagement, and the arts to her work in Washington, DC.