Browse Exhibits (261 total)
Great Moments in Fort Lauderdale LGBT History: The First Gay Cruise, 1974, by Fred Fejes
An introduction to a 300-person gay cruise, organized by the Islanders Club of New York, that set sail from Fort Lauderdale in 1974. Published originally by OutHistory in 2020.
Groovy Guy Contest, Los Angeles, 1968-1991, by Jeff Auer
Brief history (with many pictures) of a gay pageant that ran from 1968 to 1991 in Los Angeles. Published originally on OutHistory in 2012.
Harry Hay: Founding the Mattachine Society, 1948-1953, by Jonathan Ned Katz
A 1974 interview with Harry Hay about founding the Mattachine Society in Los Angeles. Published originally in Jonathan Ned Katz's Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men in the U.S.A. (1976).
Herbert Spiers, 1945-2011, by Jonathan Ned Katz
A biography and obituary of AIDS activist Herbert Spiers. Spiers was a founding member of Toronto Gay Action and ACT UP, New York.
Historians Under Fire: Two Case Studies of Federal Censorship in the National Park Service, 2025-2026, by Gail Dubrow
This exhibit reproduces a presentation by University of Minnesota architectural historian Gail Dubrow at the January 2026 American Historical Association annual convention in Chicago. Published originally on OutHistory in May 2026.
Historical Musings, 2008, by Joan Nestle
A series of "musings on lesbian history," originally contributed as "Blog on History" by Joan Nestle, co-founder of the Lesbian Herstory Archives. Copyright © Joan Nestle 2008. All rights reserved. Published originally on OutHistory in 2011.
History in Houston, 40 Years After Stonewall, 1969-2009
An exhibit on the post-Stonewall LGBT history of Houston, Texas.
Homophile Movement Oral Histories, 1950-1969, by John D'Emilio
A collection of twenty-three LGBTQ oral histories completed by John D'Emilio in the 1970s.
Homophobia in Mississippi, 1958, by Jonathan Ned Katz
In 2015, OutHistory published this original document discovery, a homophobic 1958 report by the President of Mississippi Southern College (now the University of Southern Mississippi) in Hattiesburg. The exhibit includes the memoir of Anne Nunnally, a young female student called into a dean's office and asked about friends' sex lives. A fictionalized version of Nunnally's story is presented by Cindy Crohn.
See also:
Jonathan Ned Katz: Hunting Homosexuals at Southern Miss: 1955-1965
Douglas Bristol & Andrew Ross: Analyzing the Journals of William D. McCain, 1955-1965
Southern Miss Documents: 1955-1965
Hunting Homosexuals at U.S. Schools, Colleges, Universities: Bibliography
Horacio N. Roque Ramírez (1969-2015): Presente!, by Nan Alamilla Boyd
Horacio N. Roque Ramírez was a Salvadoran American oral historian whose work focused on LGBTQ Latino communities. Following his death in December 2015, OutHistory published a memorial by Nan Alamilla Boyd.
Hunting Homosexuals at Southern Miss, 1955-1965, by Jonathan Ned Katz, Douglas Bristol, and Andrew Israel Ross
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), Hattiesburg. The documents are analyzed by two historians at the university, Douglas Bristol and Andrew Israel Ross, after an introduction by Jonathan Ned Katz. Published originally by OutHistory in 2016.
Idaho LGBT History Since Stonewall: Out in America's Conservative Mecca, 1969-2010, by Ellwood Howard
Even in conservative corners of the United States such as Idaho, there is a history of LGBT community and political organizing. This exhibit, first published on OutHistory in 2013, offers a brief glimpse into that history.
James Baldwin and the FBI: "Isn't James Baldwin That Well Known Pervert," 1960-1974, by Douglas Field
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. Updated in 2024.
Jan Gay: The Lesbian Sex Researcher That History Forgot, by Michael Waters
This essay was first published on March 2, 2022, by Harper’s Bazaar magazine, which retains the copyright. It is reprinted here with the permission of the author and publisher. This reprint includes citations by the author (not included in the original). First published on OutHistory on January 8, 2024.
Jennie June/Ralph Werther/Earl Lind, 1870-1950: Researching the Author
A group effort to identify the birth name of and other information about the pioneering trans author who went by the names Jennie June, Ralph Werther, and Earl Lind in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The exhibit also discusses three texts written by the author: Autobiography of an Androgyne, The Female-Impersonators, and The Riddle of the Underworld. Published originally on OutHistory in 2018; updated in September 2025.
Jews, Blacks, and Lesbian Teens in the 1940s: Jo Sinclair’s "The Changelings" and “The Long Moment,” by Elly Bulkin
An essay by Elly Bulkin about Jo Sinclair, pen name of Ruth Seid (1913-1995), a working-class Jewish lesbian writer. Sinclair's positive portrayals of 1940s lesbians and norm-breaking teen, her fictional explorations of Jewish identity, and her depictions of white racism and interracial relationships were risk-taking and ahead of her time. Seid’s “humanizing artistic vision” was shaped by the radical politics of her youth. First published January 29, 2016.
Jim Oleson, 1938-2015, by Yasmin Nair
Jim Oleson, the longtime partner of historian John D'Emilio, passed away April 4, 2015. To honor Oleson, OutHistory republished his obituary by Yasmin Nair. Reprinted with permission of the Windy City Times, April 5, 2015. Published originally by OutHistory in 2015.
John Sterling and James Bloss, 1870-1918, by Claude M. Gruener and Rick Wagner
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 fifty years and lived together in New York City for most of that time. A four-person team of volunteer community-based researchers provided OutHistory with the results of their voluminous research into the lives of Sterling and Bloss. Their work, published originally by OutHistory in 2016 and updated in May 2026, supplements the research begun by Jonathan Ned Katz in "An Understanding... Held them Together."
John Wesley Carhart: “Norma Trist; or Pure Carbon: A Story of the Inversion of the Sexes,” 1895, by Jonathan Ned Katz
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.
Jonathan Ned Katz on Fruit Punch Radio, March 23, 1977
In 1976, Jonathan Ned Katz published Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men in the U.S.A., the first comprehensive book of documents on U.S. homosexual history, drawing on primary sources ranging from 1566 to 1972. In 1977, on a publicity tour for his book, Katz lectured in San Francisco, offering to his non-academic audience dramatic and humorous excerpts from his book's collection of documents. The Fruit Punch Collective, a gay men’s radio program based in San Francisco, recorded Katz’s lecture and created an hour long version. Thanks to Pacifica Radio Archives, the original radio broadcast of March 23, 1977 is available to the public. You can listen to the original Fruit Punch program here: https://archive.org/details/pra-AZ0102