This Week in History
Happy Birthday!
Did you know?
- Ma Rainey's Music
- San Francisco Clergy Release "A Brief of Injustices," Attacking Police Abuse of Gays and Lesbians.
- Bar Raid in San Francisco
- Fifth Annual Lesbian Writers Conference in Chicago
- Fifth Annual Lesbian Writers Conference
- Will and Grace Premieres on NBC
New and Updated Projects
For Hispanic Heritage Month, check out the highlights on the right side of the homepage, which feature some of OutHistory's exhibits by and about Latino, Latina, Latinx, Latine, and Latin American people.
The Lafayette College Queer Archives Project Digital Humanities Site, by Mary A. Armstrong
A Conversation with Alex Ketchum about the Directory of LGBTQ+ Archives, by Juan Carlos Mezo-González
Curing Psychiatry and Psychology: A 2015 Interview with Charles Silverstein, by Philip Clark
Do You Know Jonathan Ned Katz?: A 2023 Interview with Director Philip Harrison, by Joseph Plaster
Documenting the Stonewall Riots: A Bibliography of Primary Sources, by Marc Stein
Sally: A 2023 Interview with Documentary Filmmaker Deborah Craig, by Julie R. Enszer
When Henry Wrote to Jim: The Letters of Henry Gerber to Jim Egan, 1951, by Donald W. McLeod
Transmasculine People in the U.S. Press, 1876-1939, by Emily Skidmore, with Marissa Brameyer
The Marlin Beach Affair: From Homosexual "Presence" to Gay "Community," by Fred Fejes
State LGBT History Education Laws, 2011-2021, by Marc Stein
“We Were The Movement": Lesbian Activism in the Boston Reproductive Rights Movement, by Sara Slager
LGBT Direct Action Bibliography, Chronology, and Inventory, by Marc Stein
The Eve Adams Archive, by Jonathan Ned Katz
Who Was Jennie June?, by Channing Joseph
Carroll Smith-Rosenberg and "The Female World of Love and Ritual," A 2021 Interview, by Matthew Hauptman
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OutHistory Highlights
Philadelphia LGBT History Project, 1940-1980, by Marc Stein
Transcripts of interviews on Philadelphia LGBT history from the 1940s to the 1970s, along with an introduction by the interviewer, who completed much of this work as part of his Ph.D. dissertation research at the University of Pennsylvania. The interviews are discussed in City of Sisterly and Brotherly Loves: Lesbian and Gay Philadelphia, 1945-1972 (University of Chicago Press, 2000). First published on OutHistory in 2009; last update June 26, 2021.
Queer Youth: On Campus and in the Media, by Sharon Ullman and Her Students
This exhibit focuses on LGBTQ+ activism on college and high school campuses and representations of queer youth in the media. The project was researched by Bryn Mawr and Haverford students for a class on the history of sexuality in America, taught by Sharon Ullman. First published by OutHistory in 2012.
Stonewall Riot Police Reports, June 1969, by Jonathan Ned Katz
To honor the 40th anniversary celebration, in June 2009, of the Stonewall Riots, OutHistory for the first time published nine pages of New York City Police Department records created early on the morning of the rebellion’s starting date, June 28, 1969. These were obtained by Jonathan Ned Katz via a New York Freedom of Information Law request. In June 2019, Tim Fitzsimmons, a reporter for NBC News, published one completely new and other old but differently redacted documents based on a FOIL request for Stonewall police reports. They are all republished here.
Polk Street History Project, 1950s-2010s, by Joey Plaster
Polk Street’s history through the lens of neighborhood change in the early twenty-first century. Polk Street was San Francisco’s premier gay male center in the 1960s and 1970s. First published on OutHistory in 2012.
Subway Sex Idols: New York City, 2008, by Anthony Gonzales
A collection of twenty works by New York artist Anthony Gonzales depicting the varieties of life that could be found in New York City's subway tunnels in 2008. Published originally on OutHistory in 2012.
Out and Elected in the USA: 1974-2004, by Ron Schlittler
A survey, through black and white portraits and texts, of many pioneering openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender individuals elected to public office in the United States beginning in the 1970s. For information on a touring exhibit version of the collection, contact Ron Schlittler at rlschlittler@verizon.net.
Native American LGBTQ+ Americans, 1528-1976, by Jonathan Ned Katz
These documents about LGBTQ+ Native Americans present years of testimony from a wide variety of observers: military men, missionaries, explorers, trappers, traders, settlers, and later, medical doctors, anthropologists, homosexual emancipationists, and LGBTQ+ activists. In a few rare instances the voices of LGBTQ+ Native Americans are heard. This is adapted from Jonathan Ned Katz, Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men in the U.S.A. (NY: Crowell, 1976). The notes to these documents contain numbers of additional sources. Last edit: May 31, 2021.
Challenging Gender Boundaries: A Trans Biography Project by Students of Catherine Jacquet
A collection of biographies written by the students in Catherine Jacquet's Fall 2012 class at the University of Illinois, Chicago. The class was titled "Gender Non-Conformity in Historical Perspective."
Queer Newark, 1885-present, by Timothy Stewart-Winter and Whitney Strub
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.
Reed Erickson, Pioneering Transgender Activist and Philanthropist, 1917-1992, by Ada Bello
Reed Erickson used the wealth which his class privilege provided to support public education and activism about transgender lives and issues at a time when very little public attention was focused on the topic. Ada Bello, who wrote this account of Erickson’s life and work, was motivated to do it because she knew Erickson earlier in life when Erickson was part of the Philadelphia lesbian community. Bello has supplemented her own knowledge of Erickson with a good deal of research to offer us an accessible biographical portrait of this key figure in the transgender freedom movement in the United States. Published originally by OutHistory in 2016; last edited in 2020 by Jonathan Ned Katz, with changes indicated by words in brackets [ ].
Horacio N. Roque Ramírez (1969-2015): Presente!, by Nan Alamilla Boyd
Following the death of historian Horacio N. Roque Ramírez in December 2015, OutHistory published a memorial by Nan Alamilla Boyd.
U.S. Homophile Internationalism: Archive and Exhibit, 1953-1964, by Marc Stein, Tamara de Szegheo Lang, Shlomo Gleibman, Sage Milo, Dasha Serykh, Carly Simpson, and Healy Thompson
An archive and exhibit exploring U.S. homophile magazine references to various regions of the world in the 1950s and 1960s. The regions are (1) Africa; (2) Asia and the Pacific; (3) Canada; (4) Latin America and the Caribbean; (5) the Middle East; and (6) Russia, the Soviet Union, and Eastern Europe. Originally published on OutHistory in 2015. The authors later expanded this work for a special 2017 issue of the Journal of Homosexuality: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/wjhm20/64/7.
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.