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 of that time. What kind of relationship was this? Answering that question is a work in progress.

Katz's pioneering work on Sterling and Bloss is supplemented by the detailed, voluminous research of several volunteer content creators for which OutHistory is most grateful. See: John Sterling and James Bloss, 1870-1918, by Claude M. Gruener and Rick Wagner

OutHistory researchers present a previously unknown 149-page manuscript defending homosexuality in 1940. The scholars also document the remarkable life of its author Allen Bernstein (1913-2008), a gay Jewish American husband and father who served in the U.S. military during World War Two. After receiving a less-than-honorable discharge based on allegations about same-sex sexual activities, Bernstein fought an ultimately successful decades-long battle to receive an honorable discharge. Published originally on OutHistory in 2014 and updated in 2019.

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 Fred; her bitter-funny cash relationship with Carnegie Steel Company boss "Newt"; her loving relationship with Florence, a graphically described woman friend; her own poor working-class childhood, and her passionate, would-be affair of the heart with Emma Goldman. Adapted from Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men in the U.S.A. (1976) by Jonathan Ned Katz. Republished on OutHistory April 29, 2015.

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.

The years from 1607 to 1783 constitute the founding era of what became the United States. In the early years of this era, in these American colonies, the penalty for sodomy was death, and a number of executions are documented. Sodomy was usually conceived of then as anal intercourse between men. But why was sodomy thought of as treason against the state and punished so harshly? And what do we know of sexual and intimate relationships between women in these years, and the laws and responses to such intimacies? This feature presents or references the original documents that Jonathan Ned Katz collected in his books Gay American History (1976) and Gay/Lesbian Almanac (1983), along with evidence that others subsequently discovered. Published originally on OutHistory in 2012.