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 struggles in the United States. Published originally on OutHistory in September 2013.

The Stone Wall, the autobiography of Ruth Fuller Field, was published under the name "Mary Casal" in Chicago in 1930. The text presents the extraordinarily frank sexual and affectional life history of an American lesbian. OutHistory presents an introduction to the memoir, a long excerpt from it, a bibliography of sources about Field, and a chronology of her life by Francisco Araujo da Costa. Published originally on OutHistory in July 2015; updated most recently in February 2026.

An interview with the author of Matchmaking in the Archive: 19 Conversations with the Dead and 3 Encounters with Ghosts (2023). Published originally on OutHistory in January 2025.

Excerpts from Memories of the Revolution: The First Ten Years of the WOW Cafe Theatre, co-edited by Holly Hughes, Jill S. Dolan, and Carmelita Tropicana (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2016). Published originally on OutHistory in June 2016.

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 OutHistory in 2015.

The Mr./Miss David contest was founded in 1971-1972 in Jacksonville, FL. First published on OutHistory in 2010.

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.

Published originally on OutHistory in 2011; last edited June 21, 2024.

From the "revised" edition of Gay American History (Meridian/New American Library, a division of Penguin Books, 1992). The only revision was this new preface, written in 1991.

A historical account of the campaign for a transgender rights law in New York City that occurred from 2000 to 2002. This exhibit was created by Pauline Park, co-chair and co-founder of the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA). This exhibit builds on Pauline Park, "The Making of a Movement: The Story of the Successful Campaign for a Transgender Rights Law in New York City," the 8th Annual Mark E. Ouderkirk Lecture, The Museum of the City of New York, June 27, 2002. Copyright (c) 2008 by Pauline Park. All rights reserved. Published originally on OutHistory in February 2013.

This is a 90-minute illustrated talk narrated by Allan Bérubé (1946-2007) on the Marine Cooks and Stewards Union. Introduced by historians John D'Emilio and Estelle Freedman, the talk tells the surprising and inspiring story of how ship stewards and other workers on luxury cruise liners banded together and overcame racial, sexual, and other divisions to create a militant union in the 1930s. First published by OutHistory in 2016.