Happy LGBTQ+ History Month from OutHistory! This month, we’ll be continuing what we do best: presenting and promoting high-quality evidence-based LGBTQ historical research. photograph from June 1994 Pride Parade in NYC celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.

30+ years after I conducted my first oral history interview for the project that became City of Sisterly and Brotherly Loves (2000), I'm pleased to announce that I have finished uploading the transcripts to OutH (minus 2 that narrators asked me not to publish): outhistory.org/exhibits/sho...

This weekend, the University of North Texas removed the homepage of its LGBTQ+ archive. We are proud to host the Lesbian Mothers Oral History Project by Nancy Lee Marquis. These oral histories are also housed at UNT. Explore the exhibit on OutHistory: outhistory.org/exhibits/sho...

On this day in 1928, the Chicago Defender ran a full-page ad for Ma Rainey's "Prove It On Me Blues,” a song openly proclaiming women's love for women. Learn more here: outhistory.org/exhibits/sho...

OutHistory Bookshelf Spotlight: Evidence of Being by Darius Bost traces how Black gay men in 1980s D.C. and NYC used art and performance to assert their lives were worthy of grief during the AIDS crisis. Learn more: press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

In 1973, photographer Cathy Cade captured lesbian feminist life in Berkeley with "Emerson Street Household." OutHistory's exhibit features her reflections on the photo, her community, and her activism. Explore it here: outhistory.org/exhibits/sho...

Learn more about OutHistory’s 2027 Fellowship Program by visiting: outhistory.org/exhibits/sho...

Happy Birthday Minnie Bruce Pratt (September 12, 1946)! A poet and activist who lost custody of her children for living openly as a lesbian, Pratt spent her life fighting back. Lambda Literary Award winner. Read more on OutHistory: outhistory.org/exhibits/sho...

Happy Birthday Miguel Algarín (September 11, 1941)! A poet, professor, and co-founder of the Nuyorican Poets Café, Algarín was a visionary who fought for Puerto Rican voices in American poetry. His legacy lives on.

OutHist is pleased to welcome our new Timelines Editor, Riah Lee Kinsey (he/they), a Brooklyn-based Black queer scholar, Public Programs Manager at Lefferts Historic House, Principal Research Director at The UnNamed Queer Project, and Research Fellow at the Queens College Archival Technologies Lab.

OutHistory Bookshelf Spotlight: Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers by Lillian Faderman, a landmark history of lesbian life in 20th-century America. Winner of the ALA Stonewall Award and a NYT Notable Book. Learn more: cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-2...

This Labor Day, we are highlighting Anne Balay’s 202 essay “Queer Workers I Have Known.” Pictured is Anne Balay after a day of work in the car shop. ("My mom took the photo.") Read the full essay on OutHistory:https://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/queer-workers

OutHistory is pleased to announce the hiring of Julia Tanenbaum as our new exhibits editor. She also curates digital exhibits at the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives, such as the recent project Sisterhood Bookstore: A Place for Feminist Culture and Activism.

This National Recovery Month, OutHistory highlights the harm psychiatry inflicted on LGBTQ+ people, and the activists who fought back. Dr. Charles Silverstein reflects on the fight to remove homosexuality from the DSM: outhistory.org/exhibits/sho...

The OutHistory Fellowship Program supports presentation of high-quality LGBTQ+ historical exhibits on OutH. In 2027, OFP will provide six $2000 fellowships for projects on under-represented topics in US & Canadian history. Proposal deadline: Jan 1. For more info: outhistory.org/exhibits/sho....

Happy Birthday Dorothea Leighton (September 2, 1908)! A pioneering social psychiatrist and co-founder of medical anthropology, Leighton documented Navaho gender expression in her 1947 research. Learn more on OutHistory: outhistory.org/exhibits/sho...

Back to school! OutHistory is a free, open-access resource for high-quality LGBTQ+ history: exhibits, primary sources, timelines, and more. At a time when LGBTQ+ history is under attack, use it, share it, bookmark it. Visit outhistory.org

Happy Birthday Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (August 28, 1825)! Often considered one of the first openly gay public figures in modern history, Ulrichs publicly defended same-sex love and advocated for decriminalization. Learn more on OutHistory: outhistory.org/exhibits/sho...

I'm pleased to announce that OutHistory has revived Jonathan Ned Katz's curated 2004 exhibit, now published on our website as "The Pink and the Blue: Lesbian and Gay Life at Yale and in Connecticut, 1642-2004." outhistory.org/exhibits/sho...

In 1976, gay activists infiltrated a New York Academy of Medicine panel on homosexuality featuring anti-gay psychiatrists, and demanded to be heard. The psychiatrists refused to listen. Read more on OutHistory: outhistory.org/exhibits/sho...

Congrats to 2025 OutHistory Fellow Sam Brooks on the publication of "Confronting Erasure, Rejecting Visibility, and Demanding to Be Seen: Transmasculine Stories from U.S. Archives, 1940-1975"! outhistory.org/exhibits/sho...

OutHistory is pleased to announce a major update of "Out and Elected in the USA: 1974-2000," by Ron Schlittler. A survey of openly LGBT people elected to public office in the United States. Published originally on OutHistory in 2008, updated in August 2026. outhistory.org/exhibits/sho...

Happy Birthday Marsha P. Johnson (August 24, 1945)! A Stonewall veteran, co-founder of S.T.A.R., and tireless activist, Johnson's legacy endures. Read more on OutHistory: outhistory.org/exhibits/sho...

Congratulations to Nancy Lee Marquis on the publication of "Lesbian Mothers Oral History Project, 2023-2026" on OutHistory. This exhibit features oral history interviews with mothers and children from TX, KY, & NM, plus related photos and letters. outhistory.org/exhibits/sho...

OutHistory Bookshelf Spotlight: Sexual Heresies by Joy Dixon explores how religion became "sexually suspect" in 19th-century Britain, and how the policing of "sexual heresies" still shapes religion and secularism today. Learn more: www.sup.org/books/histor...

Congratulations to Chris Smith on the publication of "The Power and Difficulty of Coalition Work: A History of Seattle's Freedom Day Committee, 1975-2000." This new OutHistory exhibit features more than 20 Seattle pride posters and a history of Seattle pride events. outhistory.org/exhibits/sho...

The Gay Asians of Toronto, the first queer group in Canada to organize along racialized lines. Jacqueline Cho traces their local and transnational activism from 1980-2000. Explore it here: outhistory.org/exhibits/sho...

OutHistory Bookshelf Spotlight: Lavender Sounds by Stacey Copeland traces lesbian radio history from Vancouver's The Lesbian Show to today's queer podcasts. Learn more: www.fulcrum.org/concern/mono...

On May 22, 1967, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to deport Clive Boutilier, a permanent U.S. resident classified as "afflicted with psychopathic personality" because of his homosexuality. The U.S. never apologized. Read more: outhistory.org/exhibits/sho...

OutHistory has a growing collection of LGBTQ+ university histories, including this exhibit on Appalachian State. Does your university have an LGBTQ+ history worth sharing? OutHistory welcomes contributions! Explore: outhistory.org/exhibits/sho...