In 1864, John William Sterling graduated from Yale College. About 1870, in his mid-twenties, Sterling met James Orville Bloss, who was three years younger. The two formed a relationship of almost 50 years, and lived together in New York City for most…
Two historians, Jonathan Ned Katz and Tavia Nyong’o, present and analyze the story and visual depiction of Peter Sewally/Mary Jones, a Black transgender person in New York City, in 1836. First published on OutHistory in 2017.
On April 6, 1976, two gay liberation organizations "zapped" (demonstrated at) the New York Academy of Medicine, in New York City, which was hosting a panel on homosexuality sponsored by the Association for Psychoanalytic Medicine, and…
OutHistory presents 92 pages of previously unpublished documents on the hunt for homosexuals, sex “deviates,” and “perverts,” 1955-1965, by the president and deans of Mississippi Southern College (now the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…
This features collects essays by and work about Jonathan Ned Katz,
An introduction to artist Mary Ann Willson and her farmer partner Miss Brundage, who lived together in Greenville, New York. Their relationship became the basis of the novel Patience and Sarah by Alma Routsong/Isabel Miller. First published on…
A collection of love letters to Emma Goldman, the anarchist leader, vividly conveys the emotions and varied life experience of Almeda Sperry, their complex author. The letters detail and evoke Sperry's tender-brutal relationship with her husband…
An introduction to the 1937 case history of “Mary Jones,” who scholars have identified as African American actress Edna Thomas. 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.…
This exhibit introduces Carhart's 1895 novel, with a title character who utters the most affirmative defense of genital-orgasmic love relations between women published in English in the nineteenth century.
An introduction to Gertrude "Ma" Rainey's resistance anthem. First published by OutHistory in 2014.
Document and Biography of Author
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…
A 1974 interview with Harry Hay about founding the Mattachine Society in California.
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…
A French lawyer and politcian, Moreau de Saint Méry, who lived in the United States from 1793 to 1798, mostly in Philadelphia, provided one of the earliest comments on sex between women in the new American nation. First published on OutHistory in…
Ruth Peter Worth, originally Ruth Wertheimer, was a Jewish Holocaust survivor, a U.S. immigrant, a lesbian, and a long-time home owner in Cherry Grove, Fire Island, New York. Published originally on OutHistory in 2011.
A collection of items about a gay liberation play, including 2013 reflections by the author (OutHistory's founder), reviews, and excerpts.