Miqqi Alicia Gilbert on stage at Fantasia Fair, Provincetown, Massachusetts. Photograph by Mariette Pathy Allen, 2008.
Project Overview
The Trans Activism Oral History Project collected 21 oral history interviews with trans elders to preserve and amplify their activism and community contributions. Conducted in partnership with the University of Victoria’s Transgender Archives, the project foregrounds trans-specific histories that challenge archival erasure and highlight strategies for survival, advocacy, and community formation.
The interviews document diverse experiences spanning healthcare access, legal activism, public organizing, creative work, and advocacy, offering a multi-generational perspective on trans activism. Fourteen interviews are publicly accessible online, and the collection is permanently preserved with the Transgender Archives and The ArQuives: Canada’s LGBTQ2+ Archives.
Historical & Community Context
Trans communities in North America have long navigated social marginalization, medical gatekeeping, and legal barriers. From underground support networks to the development of formal organizations, information-sharing has been central to community survival. The project captures these histories, highlighting how trans people built networks and shared knowledge—from handwritten correspondence to early online forums—despite systemic barriers and ongoing social stigmatization.
Project Goals & Methodology
The project aimed to establish a primary source archive of trans-positive narratives, emphasizing activist strategies and lived experiences. Using semi-structured oral history interviews, the project centered narrators’ voices while documenting the affective, social, and political dimensions of their work.
By partnering with archival institutions, the project ensures long-term preservation and accessibility. Methodologically, it combines traditional oral history with community-informed practices to foreground trans elders’ authority over their stories.
Research Scope
The project comprises 21 oral history interviews with trans elders conducted between 2019 and 2020, documenting lives and activism spanning from the 1950s through the early 2000s. Collectively, the interviews trace trans organizing, care networks, and advocacy across a wide geographic range, including communities in Canada, the United States, and Europe, with particular concentration in cities such as Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and Seattle, as well as smaller urban and regional contexts.
Narrators reflect on activism in healthcare, legal reform, military and labour contexts, education, cultural production, and community organizing, offering multi-generational perspectives on how trans knowledge, resources, and solidarities were built and sustained over time.
Emergent Themes
- Trans community formation and knowledge-sharing
- Healthcare access and advocacy for gender-affirming care
- Legal activism and identity documentation
- Multi-generational mentorship and leadership
- Creative and cultural production within trans communities
- Strategies of resilience and survival under social and legal marginalization
Project Outputs
The Trans Activism Oral History Project prioritized two primary public history outputs, including:
- An oral history collection of 21 video interviews, 14 publicly available
- A digital exhibition, connecting the oral histories with archival materials held in the Transgender Archives
Together, these outputs extend the reach of trans activist histories to academic, community, and public audiences through accessible digital formats.
Impact & Significance
The Trans Activism Oral History Project preserves trans elders’ voices, ensuring that their activism, strategies, and community contributions are recognized and accessible. By foregrounding multi-generational perspectives, the project provides a vital resource for scholars, activists, and community members seeking historically grounded insights into trans organizing, healthcare advocacy, and cultural production.
Through public-facing outputs and archival preservation, the project contributes to trans cultural memory, supporting ongoing visibility, knowledge-sharing, and community resilience.
Project Team
For the Collaboratory
