Co-creating a “usable past” for LGBTQ+ people in the present.
Oral History Hub
LGBTQ digital oral history is an emerging field built by dedicated activists, historians, and archivists across the web. This hub acts as a growing resource for oral histories practitioners and the public.
Help Us Grow the Hub
If you’ve got a project you’d like us to feature, submit an email request to lgbtoralhistorycollab@gmail.com with your project title; a brief description (max. 55 words), clarifying the broad themes and types of materials users can access; the project’s main url; and a .png or .jpg of your project logo (or representative image) with a minimum dimension of 500p x 500p.
EXPLORE THE HUB
(Projects Archived Alphabetically)
THE HUB: A-C
African American AIDS Activism Oral History Project
40 US interviews; 5 links to transcripts; dates and locations of interviews: unknown.
AIDS Activist History Project
A history of AIDS activism in Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and Nova Scotia. 60 interviews from these locations; dates available in transcripts.
Archives of Lesbian Oral History (ALOT)
10 audio collections (c. 100 interviews) of interviews and broadcasts concerning lesbian life, broadly defined; content mostly Canadian from 1990 to the present; searchable across tags and topics.
Baltimore Queer Oral History Collection
34 audio-recorded interviews (and transcripts) documenting queer and trans histories in Baltimore, MD; held at Johns Hopkins University Library; collected as part of the Peabody Ballroom Experience.
Blue Ridge Pride LGBTQIA+ Archive
Oral history & physical artifacts archive that started in 2019. Features 100+ oral history interviews with LGBTQ+ people from the South; some interviews video-based, some audio-only; all interviews transcribed, indexed, and searchable. Additional physical artifacts include a North Carolina Pride newspaper collection and a portal of donated images from the 1970s to now.
Breaking Barriers: Harvesting LGBTQ Stories from the Northern Plains
The Red River Rainbow Seniors oral history project features over 100 interviews from older LGBTQ people and their allies in North Dakota and Northern Minnesota in their own words.
Chicago Leather Archives and Museum Oral History Project
Hundreds of video and audio interviews; many available online and via the archives’ YouTube channel.
THE HUB: D-F
Documenting Lesbian Lives (Smith College)
Undergraduate student oral history project, 2010-; restricted access to Smith College only, so nothing available online.
Dragon Fruit Project
The Dragon Fruit Project is an intergenerational oral history project that explores queer Asian and Pacific Islanders and their experiences with love and activism in the 1960s, 70s, 80s, and 90s.
THE HUB: G-I
Gay in America Podcast
A U.S.-based oral history project (2023-present) sharing stories from the country’s LGBTQA+ community to inspire each other to live our best gay lives and to understand that our shared experiences are what unite us as a community.
Georgia Transgender Oral History Project
Beginning in spring 2021; aims to gather and preserve histories with trans people and activists who live/lived in Georgia; unclear how many interviews conducted; led by Morna Gerrard and AC Panella.
GLBT Historical Society Oral History Collection
Over 500 interviews from the SF Bay area and northern California; the link below is to their finding aid; accessing the actual interviews is a bit more challenging.
HIV/AIDS Health Care Provider Oral History Project
35 interviews with people who have worked to provide services to HIV+ people and people with AIDS in Minnesota. Recordings and transcripts freely available, searchable, and viewable online.
Impact Stories
An oral history project gathering stories from the California LGBT community; 2007-2013 project; no interviews online; final fate of this project unknown.
Invisible Histories Project
Community archives project emphasizing the history of LGBTQ life throughout the American South. No oral histories (yet) on the site.
THE HUB: J-L
June Mazer Lesbian Archives YouTube Channel
About 3 video oral histories from the True Life Lesbian Oral History project, dates unknown; clips only, no transcripts.
Last Call New Orleans
Drawn together by the closing of the last remaining dyke bar in New Orleans, Last Call is a creative and oral history collective that centres Black and Brown artists who create innovative, multi-platform performances, events, and digital media that document and interpret neglected trans and queer history in New Orleans, Louisiana and the U.S. South.
Lesbian Herstory Archives, Herstories Audiovisual Collections
LHA has about 3,000 oral histories, most not online; a search under “oral history” on the site yields 257 hits, including digitized audio from the Kennedy/Davis Buffalo lesbian oral history project of the late 1970s/early 1980s.
Lesbians Making History
9 audio interviews with Toronto-area lesbians from the mid-1980s; audio online, with full transcripts.
LGBT Oral History Project of North Florida
Volunteer-based public history collaboration between FSU honors undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty members, FSU Libraries, and participants from the north Florida LGBT community. 20+ audio interviews (some with restricted access) accessible online; no transcripts.
LGBTQ Columbia History Initiative
30+ audio-recorded oral history interviews (and transcripts) with members of Columbia, SC’s queer community. A comprehensive resource of oral histories, archival collections, and historic site interpretation.
LGBTQ Religious Archives Network, Oral Histories Collection
60+ oral history interviews with LGBTQ religious figures, a project of the Center for Lesbian & Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry in Berkeley, California.
LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Dialogue Project
A community-engaged project that seeks to improve the educational, cultural, and psychosocial well-being of younger and older LGBTQ+ people living in the Chicagoland area through intergenerational storytelling, dialogue, and art making.
Linda Garber Oral History Collection
This collection, about California LG oral history, is not online; find it at the GLBT Historical Society; click below for finding aid.
Louisiana Trans Oral History Project
Began in 2020; approx. 40 audio interviews conducted with trans people in Louisiana; 3 podcast series on various themes; and 1 mapping project centering trans joy.
THE HUB: M-O
Milwaukee Transgender Oral History Project
7 audio interviews with Milwaukee area trans people; audio online with searchable transcripts.
Mobile Homecoming
A U.S.-based, public history and art project that amplifies generations of Black LGBTQ brilliance through replay events, retreats, honoring ceremonies, documentation, archiving, music, and dance.
Montreal Lesbian and Queer Women’s Oral History Project
18 oral interviews and transcripts (in English & French) addressing Montréal, Canada’s lesbian and queer women’s bars, restaurants, bookstores, event productions, and related businesses and organizations (1970s-present). See link for access information.
NYC Trans Oral History Project
89 audio interviews with NYC trans people, in archival partnership with the NYPL; audio online; no transcripts.
Okanagan QueerStory
A limited-run podcast, hosted by Donna Langille, uncovering the queer history of the Okanagan (a region in the Interior of British Columbia, Canada) one story at a time.
Old Lesbians Organizing for Change Oral Herstory Project
Oral histories with lesbians over age 70; no interviews online; 1997-; US-based.
Oregon State University Queer Archives
18 video interviews collected by undergraduate students at Oregon State in 2016-2017.
Outliers and Outlaws
Digital humanities project that preserves and shares lesbian life in Eugene, Oregon. Includes filmed oral histories with 83 narrators, a digital exhibit (20+ short composite videos, image galleries, maps, written histories, and interview transcripts), and a short documentary film.
OUTWORDS
250+ video interviews with LGBTQIA2S+ elders across the US; synced transcripts with integrated search function; explore curated content, browse interviews by category, or search entire collection by keyword.
Ozarks Lesbian and Gay Archives Oral History Project
150 oral history interviews with Ozark-area lesbian and gay residents, beginning in 2004; interviews and transcripts not available online.
THE HUB: P-R
Peabody Ballroom Experience
An unlikely public humanities collaboration between Baltimore’s ballroom scene and Johns Hopkins University. Multiple project outcomes, including audio-recorded oral history interviews (and transcripts) with ballroom community members; archived ballroom ephemera; documentary films; public workshops; and ball competitions.
Philadelphia LGBT Oral History Project
24 oral history interviews conducted by Dr. Marc Stein in the early 1990s for his first book, about Philadelphia’s lesbian and gay history from the 1940s through the 1970s; transcripts only, no audio.
Pussy Palace Oral History Project
Documents the history of the Pussy Palace — a radical sex event for queer women and trans people; focuses on the September 2000 event, which ended in the last major police raid on a queer bathhouse in Canadian history; 36 Zoom interviews (and transcripts) with event organizers, patrons, and allies; collection not yet publicly available but robust collection of digital research creation exists.
Queer Appalachia Oral History Project
18 oral history interviews of LGBTQ people in the Central Appalachian Region/Eastern Kentucky from 2011; most interviews are online; no transcripts.
Queer in Brighton
2 oral histories with LGBTQ people in Brighton, England; online; transcripts only.
Queer Oral History Project
Utah-San Francisco community project began in 2009; video oral histories of 22 LGBTQ people online, including 1 trans woman; no transcripts.
Queer Newark Oral History Project
University-Community partnership with Rutgers; began in 2009; 48 audio interviews online, with transcripts.
Qu(e)erying Religion anti-Archive Project
Community-based oral history project, documenting 10+ years of life-giving, queer spirituality within the University of Toronto’s co-curricular student group, the Qu(e)erying Religion Program; 19 interviews with queer and trans students of faith, condensed into video shorts and brought to life through whiteboard animation; video shorts available online; no transcripts.
Rainbow Story Hub Foundation
Collects and publishes written, oral, and video stories about 2SLGBTQ+ history in the Greater Edmonton region of Canada. Story themes include: rights-based activism, key historical figures and events, the intersection of local queer culture, sociality, and commerce.
THE HUB: S-U
San Francisco ACT UP Oral History Project
23 interviews with San Francisco Bay Area activists discussing the history of ACT UP/San Francisco and other AIDS direct-action groups in the city; video recordings online; no transcripts.
Southern Lesbian Feminist Activist Herstory Project
44 digital audio oral history interviews (with transcripts) documenting lesbian feminist activism in the South focused on the period 1968-1994.
Southwest Virginia LGBTQ+ Oral History Project
47 interviews with community members; audio recordings and transcripts online; plus, digital archival resources.
SpeakOut
40+ digital audio oral history interviews (with transcripts) preserving the history of Dartmouth’s LGBTQIA+ community.
Trans Activism Oral History Project
21 interviews with trans elders about their history of activism on behalf of trans people and communities; 14 publicly accessible video interviews with Zoom-generated transcripts.
Tretter Transgender Oral History Project
Tretter Collection, University of Minnesota Libraries; 50+ video interviews online, c. 2016-2018; mostly but not exclusively about Midwest US trans history.
Twin Cities Gay and Lesbian Community Oral History Project
8 interviews of gays and lesbians in Minneapolis-St.Paul; 1940s-1980s; audio recordings and transcripts online.
Two-Spirited People of Manitoba Oral History Project
Multi-partner project that documents Manitoban, Two-Spirit oral testimonies; 11 interviews; 10 publicly available; indexed audio recordings with searchable transcripts.
Under the Rainbow
Oral histories of gay, lesbian, transgender, intersex and queer people in Kansas; 25 video oral histories; both transcripts and videos online.
Untold Stories
Volunteer-led oral history project via the Leicester LGBT Centre; capture memories, experiences and personal histories of the LGBT community in Leicester and Rutland; pre-1967 to the early 2000s; 100 interviews claimed, yet link is broken to site; below link offers more info about the project.
Utah Queer Oral Histories Collection
11 interviews from 2009; no interviews or transcripts online; link is to the project’s finding aid.
THE HUB: V-Z
Voices of Gay Rodeo at the University of Idaho
25 interviews with members of the International Gay Rodeo Association; searchable transcripts and a fabulous visualization tool available online.