OutHistory presents 92 pages of previously unpublished documents on the hunt for homosexuals, sex “deviates,” and “perverts,” 1955-1965, by the president and deans of Mississippi Southern College (now the University of Southern Mississippi),…
For Women's History Month in 2016, OutHistory republished an interview by Jonathan Ned Katz with Alma Routsong. On January 20, 1975, the author of Patience and Sarah spoke to Katz about discovering her lesbianism and her development as a…
OutHistory is pleased to publish an original essay by historian Douglas M. Charles discussing the research for his 2015 book Hoover’s War on Gays: Exposing the FBI’s “Sex Deviates” Program (University Press of Kansas).
On the publication of Jen Manion’s book Liberty's Prisoners: Carceral Culture in Early America (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015), OutHistory featured an original essay by Manion. It discusses how sex between men in early Philadelphia…
During Black History Month in 2016, OutHistory presented original research discoveries about parties organized by cross-dressed African American men in Washington, D.C., in the 1880s and 1890s.
This four-part entry, based on Jonathan Ned Katz's original research, details a scandal that erupted in Württemberg, Germany, in 1888, involving its king and three American men, Richard Mason Jackson, Charles Woodcock, and Donald Hendry. This…
This exhibit was originally published to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the demonstrations for gay and lesbian rights that began at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall on July 4, 1965, and continued as Annual Reminders on July 4 in 1966, 1967,…
In 1965 Drum magazine called it “the first sit-in of its kind in the history of the United States.” To honor the fiftieth anniversary of this major act of LGBT resistance, Marc Stein presented reports of the sit-in at Dewey’s restaurant in Center…
A memoir detailing the struggles of Gary Miller's childhood and youth in San Diego and Kansas City before turning to his subsequent political and community service in San Francisco, Sacramento, and Roseville, CA. Published originally on…
An exhibit on sexuality in Denver, focusing on crackdowns on "sexual immorality" and the rise of a flourishing gay culture. First published on OutHistory in 2015.
An exhibit on eighteenth century U.S. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton and his relationship with John Laurens. Multiple historians consider how to interpret the intimacy between Alexander Hamilton and John Laurens during the American Revolution.…
On January 25, 1892, on a riverfront railroad track, in Memphis, Tennessee, Alice Mitchell slit the throat of Freda Ward. Mitchell explained: "I killed Freda because I loved her, and she refused to marry me." The murder and subsequent trial…
An exhibit about the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's surveillance of African American writer and activist James Baldwin in the 1960s and 1970s. First published on OutHistory in 2014.
The story of the German sexual emancipation pioneer and his references to the United States. Adapted from Jonathan Ned Katz's column, "Katz on History," The Advocate, April 25, 1989, pages 47-48. The essay was titled "The First…
This chronology surveys the history of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's surveillance of homosexuals and alleged homosexuals. It includes references to what was considered gender and sexual deviance. It also includes surveillance of the…
A 1974 interview with Harry Hay about founding the Mattachine Society in California.
The Las Vegas OutHistory project. This exhibit was a winner of OutHistory's 2010 Since Stonewall community history contest!
An exploration of the brief but significant life of African American educator Juliette Derricotte.
An exhibit on the often overlooked queer history of Newark, New Jersey, a history that is "tragic at times, but also bold, defiant, and resistant." First published on OutHistory in 2014.
This feature explores the human production of the terms and concepts "heterosexual," "homosexual," and "bisexual," which are presented here as evidence of the construction of a historically specific social order or…