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
ACT UP Oral History Project
187 video interviews (and transcripts) with surviving members of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, New York collected from 2002-2015.
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. Interview clips, full transcripts, and ephemera available online.
Archives of Lesbian Oral History (ALOT)
17 audio collections (c. 100 interviews and broadcasts) concerning lesbian life, broadly defined; content mostly Canadian from 1990 to the present; searchable across tags and topics.
Arizona LGBTQ Storytelling Project
Housed within the Arizona Queer Archives, this foundational storytelling initiative preserves 4 video interviews with LGBTQ Arizonans, offering a powerful window into queer life in the Southwest. Videos are publicly accessible; no transcripts.
Baldwin-Emerson Elders Project
This national oral history project documents the lives of elders—activists, storytellers, and community builders—who have shaped American public life through movements for justice, equity, and liberation. Conducted between 2022 and 2024 across ten U.S. regions, the collection features over 230 interviews and 1,000 personal mementos, exploring themes like protest, gender politics, housing inequality, and community resilience. Led by Baldwin-Emerson Fellows—acclaimed writers embedded in their own communities—the project was produced by the Incite Institute at Columbia University in partnership with Baldwin for the Arts. All interviews are publicly accessible online as audio recordings with indexed themes, and both full transcripts and audio files are available for download.
Baltimore Queer Oral History Collection
45 audio-recorded interviews (and transcripts) documenting queer and trans histories in Baltimore, MD; held at Johns Hopkins University Library.
Blue Ridge Pride LGBTQIA+ Archive
Oral history and physical artifacts archive that launched 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 documenting leather, kink, BDSM, and related queer subcultures. While only a large selection is available on the museum’s YouTube channel, the full collection is catalogued online through the Leather Archives’ searchable database (search by keyword: “oral history”). Most interviews are not streamable, but include descriptive metadata and are accessible for research through the archive.
Closeted/Out in the Quadrangles
Explores LGBTQ life at the University of Chicago, focusing on the experiences of students, faculty, and staff from the early 20th century through the 2010s. Features 67 interviews with individuals whose alumni class years range from 1958 to 2014. The collection offers insight into shifting campus climates and personal narratives of identity, community, and activism. Transcripts are available for most interviews, with select audio recordings also publicly accessible. 7 interviews are anonymized, and their recordings are restricted.
Country Queers
45 interviews about rural queers in the US from c. 2013-2014; some clips and transcripts online.
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 Caregivers 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
A community-driven archival initiative that preserves and makes accessible the histories of LGBTQ people across the American South. Operating in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and the Florida Panhandle, IHP serves as a bridge between Southern LGBTQ communities and archival institutions, helping individuals donate personal materials—including photographs, letters, and organizational records—for long-term preservation. Although IHP has conducted oral history interviews, they are not yet available online. A dedicated oral history page is forthcoming. In the meantime, users can explore IHP’s growing Collections Database, Digital Collections, and Born-Digital items, which provide access to a wide range of LGBTQ historical materials from the region.
THE HUB: J-L
June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives
One of the oldest and most extensive archives in the U.S. dedicated to preserving lesbian and feminist histories. Based in Los Angeles, it houses a wide range of materials—including photographs, personal papers, audiovisual recordings, and ephemera—documenting the lives and activism of lesbians and queer women, primarily in Southern California. The Mazer Archives also features a growing body of oral histories. Their website includes 18 video recordings representing 11 personal interviews, all with transcripts, as well as 73 additional interviews and transcripts from the B-E Collection, conducted by Diane Barrett and Margaret Elfering. Together, these interviews offer an invaluable window into lesbian life across generations.
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 Lesbian Oral Herstory Project
Documents the lives of lesbians aged 70 and older, most born in the first half of the 20th century. Launched in 1998, the collection includes over 750 interviews exploring themes of identity, community, and resilience across shifting social landscapes in the U.S. The project website features selected quotes and narrator profiles. The full collection is housed at Smith College’s Sophia Smith Collection.
Olympia Pride Storytelling Project
An oral history project in development that documents intergenerational queer experiences in Thurston County, WA, with a focus on BIPOC and trans voices. Visit the project overview to learn more.
Oregon State Queer Archives Oral History Collection
A growing repository of interviews and event recordings that document the experiences and perspectives of members of the LGBTQ+ community and its allies who have spent at least portions of their lives at Oregon State University and/or in Benton County, Oregon. The majority of the interview videos and event recordings are available online on the LGBTQ Voices site.
Outliers and Outlaws: Eugene Lesbian History Project
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
360+ video interviews with LGBTQ+ elders across 48 states, DC, and abroad; synced transcripts with integrated search. Explore curated stories, browse by category, or search the full 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: 1940-1980
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.
Princeton LGBTQIA+ Oral History Project
Documents the experiences of LGBTQIA+ alumni, faculty, and staff at Princeton University, capturing personal reflections on identity, campus climate, and community across generations. Launched in 2017 and now managed by staff and students of the Gender + Sexuality Resource Center, the project trains undergraduate and graduate students in oral history methods to conduct interviews each summer. 150 interviews, featuring audio recordings, transcripts, and photographs, with a focus on both out and closeted experiences at Princeton over time.
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; robust collection of digital research creation; forthcoming digital exhibit. A project of the LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory.
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
13 oral histories with LGBTQ people in Brighton, England; audio files and transcripts online.
Queer Oral History Project
An affiliate program of the Utah Pride Center, this community-funded project launched in 2009, amplifying unheard LGBTQ voices from Utah’s Wasatch Front. 19 video oral histories accessible online; 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 Antonio Lesbians: An Oral History
This student-led oral history project, completed by high school senior Neva Smith at the Young Women’s Leadership Academy in San Antonio, documents the lives and experiences of 7 lesbians who lived in San Antonio during the 1970s and ’80s. Through anonymized transcripts and thematic analysis, the project offers valuable insight into lesbian life and community in a time of significant social and cultural change. While no audio recordings are included, full interview transcripts are available in the project appendix.
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.
Trans Oral History Project
Founded in 2009, this community-driven initiative documents the experiences of trans and gender-variant people across the U.S. The project has conducted over 100 interviews, with a selection of video recordings available on YouTube. While most materials are not hosted on their website, TOHP partners with institutions like the Digital Transgender Archive and the Library of Congress to ensure long-term preservation and public access.
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-Spirit Oral Histories
Multi-partner project that documents Manitoban, Two-Spirit oral testimonies; 15 interviews; 13 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
Vassar LGBTQ Oral History Project
Launched in 2012, this project documents the experiences and reflections of LGBTQ and ally alumnae/i, as well as current and former LGBTQA staff at Vassar College. Created in partnership with the LGBTQ Center, the Women’s Studies Program, and the Vassar College Archives, the project captures personal narratives of identity, belonging, and campus life. The collection includes 27 interviews with accompanying audio recordings, transcripts, and photographs.
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.