Oral Histories
The OutHistory website contains oral histories from the LGBT movement.
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"Everything I Learned": A 2023 Interview with Curtis Chin, by Judy Wu
An interview with Curtis Chin, focusing on his 2023 memoir Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant. Published originally on OutHistory in 2024.
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Urvashi Vaid: The Vassar and Boston Years, 1975-83, by Marc Stein
This exhibit focuses on Urvashi Vaid (1958-2022), a leading LGBTQ activist of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The exhibit includes three components: a roundtable interview featuring three friends of Urvashi’s from her years at…
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The Lafayette College Queer Archives Project Digital Humanities Site, by Mary A. Armstrong
A discussion of the LGBTQ+ digital humanities site “The Queer Archives Project” at Lafayette College (Easton, PA), with links to oral history interviews and examples of archival artifacts. © Mary A. Armstrong. All rights reserved. Published…
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A Conversation with Alex Ketchum about the Directory of LGBTQ+ Archives, by Juan Carlos Mezo-González
An edited transcript of a 2023 interview with the creator of a new directory of LGBTQ+ archives. Published originally by OutHistory in 2023.
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Curing Psychiatry and Psychology: A 2015 Interview with Charles Silverstein, by Philip Clark
A transcript of a 2015 interview with the author of The Joy of Gay Sex (1977), with comments about the struggle to change the classification of homosexuality as a mental illness in the 1970s. Originally published by OutHistory in 2023.
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Sally: A 2023 Interview with Documentary Filmmaker Deborah Craig, by Julie R. Enszer
A 2023 interview about the documentary film-in-progress Sally, which focuses on lesbian feminist author and activist Sally Gearhart.
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Tish, Female Impersonator: A 2012 Interview by Silvia Sanza
Tish (Joseph Touchette) has had a long career as a professional female impersonator. In 2012 he was interviewed by his Greenwich Village neighbor, Silvia Sanza. OutHistory is grateful to Ms. Sanza for permission to reproduce her interview. First…
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Doctors Treat LGBTQ+ People: A Troubled History, 1866-2020, by Jonathan Ned Katz
An excerpt of Jonathan Ned Katz, Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men in the U.S.A. (T.Y. Crowell, 1976), 129-34, along with a bibliography and sample document.
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Carroll Smith-Rosenberg and "The Female World of Love and Ritual," A 2021 Interview by Matthew Hauptman
An interview with the author of a groundbreaking 1975 essay on lesbian history.
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Alma Routsong, Author of "Patience and Sarah" (1967): A 1975 Interview by Jonathan Ned Katz
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…
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Picturing a Lesbian Feminist Household: A 2015 Interview with Cathy Cade by Stephen Vider
Cathy Cade is a photographer who has been documenting the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities since the 1970s. Based in Berkeley, California, she is the author, publisher and photographer of A Lesbian Photo Album: The Lives of Seven…
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The Subject Speaks: An Interview with Jimmy Paul, by Svetlana Kitto
The subject of a famous Nan Goldin photograph, Jimmy Paul, speaks about his life, and about encountering an inaccurate caption on that photograph in a major queer history art show. Published originally on OutHistory in 2015.
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Annual Reminders in Philadelphia, July 4, 1965-July 4, 1969, by Marc Stein
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,…
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TRANSforming Randy Wicker: A Documentary Film, 2015, by Michael Kasino, music by Moby
OutHistory presented the first public showing of a documentary film about long-time gay activist Randy Wicker. The 50 minute film, produced and directed by Michael Kasino, uses interviews, movies, and still photos to detail the life of this ornery,…
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Barbara Gittings: Founding the New York Daughters of Bilitis in 1958, by Jonathan Ned Katz
Barbara Gittings interviewed by Jonathan Ned Katz in 1974 about her development as a Lesbian, and about the founding and early history of the New York Daughters of Bilitis.
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Dewey's Sit-in in Philadelphia, 1965, by Marc Stein
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…
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Harry Hay: Founding the Mattachine Society, 1948-1953, by Jonathan Ned Katz
A 1974 interview with Harry Hay about founding the Mattachine Society in California.
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Gay History in Nevada and Las Vegas, 1969-2009, by Dennis McBride, Crystal Van Dee, and Paul Ershler
The Las Vegas OutHistory project. This exhibit was a winner of OutHistory's 2010 Since Stonewall community history contest!
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"Sunshine, this is Mr. Horowitz": The Flame, the Gay Bar of Ann Arbor, MI, 1949-1998, by Rostom Mesli and Brian Whitener
An exhibit on the history of The Flame, a gay bar in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Published originally on OutHistory in 2013.
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Marching For Jobs and Freedom: Bayard Rustin and Cheryl Clarke at the March on Washington, August 28, 1963, by Claire Potter and John D'Emilio
This proud moment in civil rights activism is also a moment to reflect on how LGBT civil rights strategies have overlapped with, drawn strength from, and patterned themselves on a century and a half of anti-racist struggle in the United States.