Browse material on the OutHistory website by time period.
A 2023 interview about the documentary film-in-progress Sally, which focuses on lesbian feminist author and activist Sally Gearhart.
Writing about queer bars and drag culture in the 1972 classic Mother Camp, Esther Newton observed that queer communities had “an economics but no economy.” In this exhibit, Jeffrey Escoffier and Christopher Mitchell address the economics of gay bars…
This was originally published to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1967 ruling in Boutilier v. Immigration and Naturalization Service, which upheld the deportation of Clive Michael Boutilier, a Canadian citizen and U.S.…
Reed Erickson used the wealth which his class privilege provided to support public education and activism about transgender lives and issues at a time when very little public attention was focused on the topic. Ada Bello, who wrote this account of…
OutHistory presents 92 pages of previously unpublished documents on the hunt for homosexuals, sex “deviates,” and “perverts,” 1955-1965, by the president and deans of Mississippi Southern College (now the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),…
This exhibit was originally published to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the demonstrations for gay and lesbian rights that began at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall on July 4, 1965, and continued as Annual Reminders on July 4 in 1966, 1967,…
In 1965 Drum magazine called it “the first sit-in of its kind in the history of the United States.” To honor the fiftieth anniversary of this major act of LGBT resistance, Marc Stein presented reports of the sit-in at Dewey’s restaurant in Center…
This chronology surveys the history of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's surveillance of homosexuals and alleged homosexuals. It includes references to what was considered gender and sexual deviance. It also includes surveillance of the…
An exhibit on the often overlooked queer history of Newark, New Jersey, a history that is "tragic at times, but also bold, defiant, and resistant." First published on OutHistory in 2014.
An exhibit focusing on the strains of activism that dominated the LGBT political scene in New York City and across the country from 1969 to 1973.
A timeline of events, pictures, and documents chronicling the evolution of LGBTQ life in Iowa City.
Profiles of ten LGBT social justice activists by Rich Wilson. First published December 10, 2013. Last edited: May 28, 2017.
Ruth Peter Worth, originally Ruth Wertheimer, was a Jewish Holocaust survivor, a U.S. immigrant, a lesbian, and a long-time home owner in Cherry Grove, Fire Island, New York. Published originally on OutHistory in 2011.
President John F. Kennedy was famous for his vivid, and some might say almost compulsive, heterosexuality. But straight men can have a gay side, and JFK’s life was filled with prominent gay men. First published on OutHistory in 2013.
An exhibit on the history of The Flame, a gay bar in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Published originally on OutHistory in 2013.
The author of this feature on LGBTQ life at Penn State asked to remain anonymous. Published October 23, 2013.
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 struggle in the United States.
A collection of biographies written by the students in Catherine Jacquet's Fall 2012 class at the University of Illinois, Chicago. The class was titled "Gender Non-Conformity in Historical Perspective."
This exhibit describes post-Stonewall gay activism at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon and events that motivated the formation of the first officially recognized gay student group at OSU in 1976.
David Kerry Heefner's reflections on a much loved off-off-Broadway play of the 1960s. Published originally on OutHistory in 2013.