This Week in History
Happy Birthday!
- No birthdays this week!
Did you know?
- Frank Kameny speech in New York City
- Gay Liberation Front protest in Bloomington Indiana
- First AIDS Walk
- First AIDS Walk Held in Los Angeles
- Illinois Revises Criminal Code
DONATE TO OUTHISTORY TODAY
For an overview of our recent accomplishments and our plans for the coming months, see our most recent fundraising letter.
You can support OutHistory by donating online or sending a check made out to the Fund for the City of New York (please write OutHistory in the memo line) and mailed to:
OutHistory
P.O. Box 14336
San Francisco, CA 94114
We receive tax-deductible donations through FCNY, a non-profit corporation (tax identification number 13-2612524).
OutHistory Newsletter Archive
LGBTQ+ History Fellowships, Grants, Prizes, Internships, Opportunities
New and Updated Projects in 2023 and 2024
Timeline: Sodomy Cases in U.S. Newspapers, 1800-1899, by William Benemann
Timeline: Asian American and Pacific Islander LGBTQ History, 1873-2023
Queer Sources from Queer Newark: Stories of Resistance, Love, and Community, 1870s-2020s, by Moira Armstrong
State LGBT History Education Laws, 2011-2024, by Marc Stein
Queer History of Colleges and Universities
Finding Annette: Uncovering Trans History in Idaho, 1950-70, by Sophie McMahon
The High Risk Project Society: Intracommunity Support in Transgender Vancouver, 1992-2001, by Phoenix Walker
"I Am Now Well And Strong": Frederik Hammerich, 1868-1918, by Jonathan Ned Katz
Timeline: Abraham Lincoln, Sexuality, and Intimacy, 1809-1865, by Jonathan Ned Katz
"Everything I Learned": A 2023 Interview with Curtis Chin, by Judy Wu
Urvashi Vaid: The Vassar and Boston Years, 1975-83, by Marc Stein
LGBTQ Controversies at the University of Iowa in the 1990s, by Mickey Eliason
Jan Gay: The Lesbian Sex Researcher That History Forgot, by Michael Waters
LGBT Direct Action Bibliography, Chronology, and Inventory, by Marc Stein
Kaliflower and the Homosexual Revolution of 1969, by Eric Noble
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
OutHistory Highlights
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 Vassar College (1975-79); a roundtable interview featuring four friends of Urvashi’s from her years in Boston (1980-83); and a set of links to publications and other materials by and about Urvashi. Published originally on OutHistory in 2023.
LGBTQ Controversies at the University of Iowa in the 1990s, by Mickey Eliason
Excerpts of a forthcoming memoir, Airing the Dirty Laundry: Queer in the Academy, by a former faculty member at the University of Iowa. Published originally by OutHistory in 2023.
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.
Who Was Jennie June (1870-1950)?, by Channing Gerard Joseph
An exhibit that describes the work done to identify the author of groundbreaking memoirs from the early 1900s. Originally published on OutHistory in 2022.
The Hidden Queer History Behind “A League of Their Own,” 1940-2018, by Frankie de la Cretaz
The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League did everything it could to keep lesbians off the diamond. Seventy-five years later, its gay stars finally opened up. OutHistory excerpt, along with related links, published on April 23, 2020.
Phyllis Lyon (1924-2020): Feminist Lesbian Icon, Human and Civil Rights Advocate, Friend, Mentor, by Marcia Gallo
A historian recalls the life of an early lesbian activist. First published on OutHistory in 2020.
Eve Adams Archive, by Jonathan Ned Katz
This feature presents the following six sections: Eve Adams Chronology; Eve Adams Corrections; Eve Adams Documents; Eve Adams Pictures; Eve Adams Research Suggestions; Eve Adams Teaching Topics and Materials
Esther Eng (1914-1970): Filmmaker, Restaurateur, Gender Rebel, by Christianne A. Gadd
Esther Eng made a name for herself as the world's first female Chinese American filmmaker, a successful restaurateur, and—rejecting social expectations—a woman who felt little need to hide her romantic and sexual relationships with other women. First published on OutHistory in 2016.
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 Lesbian Feminists (Oakland, Ca: Waterwomen Books, 1987). Her work is archived at the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. Her website is cathycade.com.
Stephen Vider is a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the Museum of the City of New York. From 2013 to 2015, he was the Clay Postdoctoral Fellow in the History of Sexuality at Yale University. He completed his PhD at Harvard in History of American Civilization in 2013, with a secondary field in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. His book Queer Belongings: Gay Men and the American Home After World War II will be published by University of Chicago Press. His essay “The Makings of Home,” appears in the catalog for “On the Domestic Front: Scenes of Everyday Queer Life,” curated by James Saslow at the Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art. His website is stephenvider.com.
First published on OutHistory in 2015.
Ma Rainey's "Prove It On Me Blues," 1928, by Jonathan Ned Katz
An introduction to Gertrude "Ma" Rainey's resistance anthem. First published by OutHistory in 2014.
Lorraine Hansberry: An Interview with Documentary Filmmaker Tracy Heather Strain by Judith Smith
An interview with a documentary filmmaker who received a National Endowement for the Humanities grant in support of the first full-length documentary feature on Lorraine Hansberry. The interview was conducted by a consulting humanities scholar on the Lorraine Hansberry Documentary Project team.