Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons^™

A Conversation With Meghan Griffiths

LGBTQ Alumni Oral History Project

This conversation represents an oral history interview with a Holy Cross alum who graduated in 2004. Highlights of this conversation include content on the role of Jesuit and faith-based education on personal development and identity formation. She speaks largely about her roles as an Orientation Leader and cochair of the LGBTQ Alumni network.

Interview keywords: Jesuit, faith, orientation leader, Catholic, queer, bisexual, LGBTQ Alumni Network

A Conversation With Philip Dardeno Ii

LGBTQ Alumni Oral History Project

This conversation represents an oral history interview with a Holy Cross alum who graduated in 2002. Highlights of this converation includes content on being involved in Allies and ABiGaLe, being gay at the turn of the century at Holy Cross, community and campus involvement.

Interview keywords: Allies, ABiGaLe, Millennial March, September 11 Terrorist Attacks

A Conversation With Karen Mcshane

LGBTQ Alumni Oral History Project

This conversation represents an oral history interview with a Holy Cross alum who graduated in 2006. Highlights of this conversation include content on feelings of homesickness in college, events demonstrating global context such as teh 9/11 terrorist attacks, organizations on campus such as ABiGaLe, hate crimes, relationships, support systems, Holy Cross' Jesuit identity, the patriarchal language of Catholic services, mental illness and post-graduation resources.

Interview keywords: homesickness, September 11 Terrorist Attacks, coming out, ABiGaLe, hate crimes, relationships, support, Jesuit, Catholicism, atheism, Chaplain's Office, Counseling Center, clinical depression, Spanish, LGBT Alumni Network

A Conversation With David B. Harvie

LGBTQ Alumni Oral History Project

This conversation represents an oral history with a Holy Cross alum who graduated in 1982. Highlights of this conversation include content on how Mr. Harvie commuted from home for his first two years at the College, as well as how his experience junior year while studying abroad in Germany helped him to be more confident in his sexuality. Furthermore, Mr. Harvie is very involved in the Catholic community. He helps organize a church, "In God's Image," for the LGBTQ community in New Jersey.

Interview keywords: Study Abroad, Chaplain's Office, Munich, Germany, coming out, night life, day student, commuter, New Jersey, …

A Conversation With Mark Campbell-Foster

LGBTQ Alumni Oral History Project

This conversation represents an oral history interview with a Holy Cross alum who graduated in 2004. Highlights of this conversation include content on a variety of experiences, including living through 9/11, being an RA [resident assistant], and dating men who were in and out of the closet while at Holy Cross. He also offers unique insight to being LGBTQ+ at Holy Cross as he describes his experience with hearing loss and how he was openly gay going into college. Mark was a Psychology major, Deaf Studies minor while at Holy Cross and is now an audiologist.

Interview keywords: Chaplain's …

Harrison, Dick, Johnna Ossie

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Dick Harrison is a 68-year-old gay man who uses he/him/his pronouns. Originally from Buffalo, NY, he moved to Van Buren, ME as a young adult to pursue work as an art teacher. He soon set to work connecting with other LGBTQ+ folks in northern Maine and just over the border in Canada, an effort that culminated in the founding of Northern Lambda Nord. NLN published a newsletter, organized dances, conferences, and social events, and operated a resource center and hotline for LGBTQ+ people for more than 20 years, providing a crucial lifeline for queer and trans Mainers in some of …

Syllabus For S St 560 Introduction To Oral History, Documenting Lgbtq Histories In Mississippi, Jessica Wilkerson

Queer Mississippi (Complete Collection)

Syllabus distributed to students in Southern Studies (S ST) 560 for the 2018 Spring semester at the University of Mississippi. It includes course description and objectives, a reading list of required texts, an explanation of assignments and course policies, and a detailed schedule for the 14-week course.

Joy, Drew, Andrew Volkers

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Drew Joy is a 37 year old living in Portland, ME. They are the executive director of the Southern Maine Workers Center. They have been organizing and participating in activism since early adulthood. They have participated in public housing activism with Survivor's Village in New Orleans, anti-racism work in San Francisco with People Organized to Win Employment Rights (POWER), and now working class issues such as healthcare for all with SMWC.

Drew has a very 'do it yourself', anarchism grounded ideology in their political beliefs. Their peer environment was in punk music, specifically the radical political sub-genres of queercore punk …

Ellison, Marvin, Elyssa Pennell

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Marvin Ellison is a 69 year old gay man originally from Knoxville, Tennessee. He earned his bachelors degree in Religion at Davidson College. He then went on to get his Masters in Religion and Society at The Divinity School at the University of Chicago. Ellison then got his PhD in Christian Ethics at the Union Theological Seminary in New York. He was a professor of Christian Ethics at Bangor Theological Seminary from 1981-2012. He was also an Ordained member of the Presbyterian Church (USA) until he retired. In 1988 Ellison was on the Presbyterian Special Committee on Human Sexuality and …

Waitzkin, Rich, Kristen Cates, Emma Donnelly

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Rich Waitzkin is a 69-year-old social worker originally from Akron, Ohio residing in Portland, ME. Waitzkin came out as a gay man in his late twenties after moving to Maine. He holds two Masters degrees in both education and social work. Waitzkin has years of experience working both in administration and in the home health care field providing therapy to the LGBTQ community. During the AIDS epidemic, Waitzkin worked as a social worker helping to guide clients on resources and even preparing some for death. Waitzkin also helped establish Portland’s first LGBTQ community center known as the Equality Community Center. …

Dionne, J. Remi, Daija Paradis, Johnna Ossi

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

J. Remi Dionne is a 42-year-old educator and was born in Northampton, MA but currently residing in Portland, ME with his husband. He spent some time as a professional dancer, touring and performing around the country and the world. J. discovered a passion for education, holding positions in both teaching and administration. He is currently a principal intern at Westbrook High School and is finishing up a post-graduate education leadership program at University of Southern Maine.

Citation

Please cite as: Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer+ Collection, Jean Byers Sampson Center …

O'Day, Janet, Johnna Ossie

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Janet O'Day is 71 years old. She lives in Maine with her wife, Rosemary. She has one adult son. She was raised in a Catholic Family in Quincy, Massachusettes. She came out later in life after being married to a man and having a son. Religion is important to Janet and she was involved with Dignity in Boston and Maine, an organization that provides Catholic Mass and religious support to Catholic LGBTQ people. Janet continues to stay involved in her church community. During the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Janet worked at the Deaconness hospital in Boston as a discharge nurse with patients …

Wood, Barb, Isabella Rieger

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Barbra ‘Barb’ Wood is 63 years old and lives in Portland M.E with her partner Carol. Barb realized she was queer her junior year in college when an underclassman that she met at a party took her back to her apartment and kissed her. After this kiss Barb recovered her other queer crushes through her series of romantic friendships with women. After college Barb worked as an insurance inspection agent in the state of Maine and later went on to become a resident of Portland. Barb was instrumental in the creation and distribution of Maine’s first queer newspaper OUR PAPER …

Pezet, Antoinette, Emily Durgin

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Antoinette Pezet was born in New York April 23, 1937 as William Anthony Pezet. She recognized she was bisexual in her early teens. Her family was accepting of her sexuality very early on. Before enlisted in the military in her early twenties, she married her first wife, Helga. Due to mental health issues, Helga and Antoinette divorced. Antoinette then married her second wife, Emily, and went on to have two children.

It was not until Antoinette was divorced from Emily that she started dressing as a woman. In her early fifties she had a conversation with Jean Vermette that first …

Smallwood, Thomas, Maisarah Miskoon, Devyn Winter

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Thomas Smallwood moved to Portland, Maine in 2002 from Maryland and made the city his home. He has been a nanny for 14 of those years to two boys and watched them grow up under his care and treats them as family. He now nannies for two little girls, volunteers as an Outreach Counselor for the Frannie Peabody Center because he feels it is his duty to his community to educate and spread awareness. Thomas acts, sings and dances in theater, Maine Gay Men’s Chorus and performs as a drag queen, Miss Lajoy, at Blackstones during his free time.

His …

Rich, Penny, Bianca Sturchio, Johnna Ossie

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Penny Rich is a 70-year old lesbian living in Portland, Maine. She recieved a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Southern Maine. She is known for her involvement in major social events such as Portland Pride and the Women's Coffeehouse, as well as her experiences with gay bar culture throughout the 60's and 70's. She spends her time socializing, exercising, reading, and getting involved in local political and social issues that affect the LGBTQ+ community in Portland, Maine.

Citation

Please cite as: Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer+ Collection, …

Rand, Erica, Danella Demary

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Erica lived in Chicago for many years, but relocated to Maine because of her teaching position at Bates College. She is a Professor of Art and Visual Culture and of Gender and Sexuality Studies, and is acting interim chair of the Gender and Sexuality Studies department. She discussed her coming out process as well as her experiences as a budding activist in ACT UP and a branch of ACT UP, called The Pissed Off Dyke Cell. Erica talked significantly about her previous relationships and how those connections shaped her activisim as well as how her activism shaped her relationships. She …

Sawyer, Charles, Wendy Chapkis

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Charles Sawyer was born and raised in Philadelphia in 1940. He describes the need to be closeted as a young man, dating women, entering the military, and being discharged on suspicion of being gay. This outed him to his family who were largely supportive. He fell in love with a young man for the first time at age 21; his then lover was 17. Once the boyfriend outed himself to his parents, the boyfriend was sent to a psychiatrist who, he reported, he had sex with. Sawyer talks about gay bars and police harassment in Philadelphia and describes early monogamous …

Grindle, Charles, Gwendolyn Wolf, Johnna Ossie

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Charles Grindle is a 66-year-old man from Ellsworth, ME. He is a piano player, as well as a minister. He has been heavily involved in church, music and theater since childhood. He has also done a lot of traveling- he’s lived in Portland, Boston, San Diego and England. He has years of experience working for churches- doing sermons and weddings, etc. In his earlier years, he played piano at many hopping places- such as The Front Porch and the Inn By the Sea. He worked at Blackstones when it first opened. Other bars that he frequented were Styxx and Rollins. …

Johnson, Myke, Marwa Abdalla, Colleen Fagan

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Myke Johnson (she/her pronoun) is a 64 year old Unitarian minister currently living in Portland Maine with her partner of 24 years. She is from Michigan and later moved to Texas and Wyoming with her family. She is the oldest out of 9 children. She grew up Catholic and found herself being an activist during her college years. She became a feminist and was part of the Women's Peace Encampment, March on Washington, Marriage rights campaigns and many more. She got her doctorate degree in the Feminist Liberation Theology Program and became a minister in Massachussets. She then continued to …

Bunker, Lisa, Molly Roberts, Jesse Lucas

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Lisa Bunker is an author who lives in Exeter, New Hampshire and worked at WMPG at the University of Southern Maine for fourteen years during her process of coming out as transgender. She is the author of Felix Yz and an upcoming book called Zenobia July, but spent most of her life in broadcast radio before she left to pursue a full time career in writing.

Citation

Please cite as: Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer+ Collection, Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine, University of Southern Maine Libraries. …

Brooks, Frank, Rachel Spigel, Elizabeth Wise Horan

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Frank Brooks is a 64 year old Social Worker and Social Work educator born and raised in Maine. He when came out as gay in 1976, he was in a heterosexual marriage and he has a son from that marriage. He was involved in an LGBT parent's group, LGBT social worker's group, volunteered for the AIDS project, worked on referenda and political campaigns, and was a board member of both the MLGPA (now Equality Maine) and the MCLU (now ACLU of Maine). His life's work has been serving the LGBTQ community through both activism and social work. …

Berger, Fred, Wendy Chapkis

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Fred Berger was born in 1947 in Cleveland, Ohio. He went to college at University of Rochester and New York University in the 1960s. His older brother, who was part of the Israeli Olympic Team, died tragically in the attacks in Munich in 1972. Fred Berger moved to Portland, Maine in 1981 and played a central role in the gay community from 1981 to 1989 when he moved to Massachusetts to go to Social Work school. During the 8 years in Portland, he helped found the AIDS Project (with Frannie Peabody, Kristen Kramer, and Susan Cummings Lauren) and served …

Moser, W. Jo, Wendy Chapkis

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

W. Jo Moser is a mother, photographer, political activist, and lesbian. She has experience working in childcare and is passionate about child welfare. Moser has a unique perspective as a lesbian parent being in a romantic long-term relationship with her partner of several decades. She sheds light on what living in San Francisco was like as a queer-identifying person in the 60s, 70s, and early-80s. There were experiences of social isolation she shared. This isolation was due to the fact that she did not always feel accepted in lesbian communities, but also felt that she had to prove herself to …

A Conversation With Jamie Hoag

LGBTQ Alumni Oral History Project

This conversation represents an oral history interview with a Holy Cross alum who graduated in 1998.

Interview keywords: Outfront, Chaplain's Office, Catholicism, religious, relationships, student involvement, government

A Conversation With Christopher Brown

LGBTQ Alumni Oral History Project

This conversation represents an oral history interview with a Holy Cross Alum who graduated in 2004. Highlights of this conversation include content on the interviewee’s transition to the Holy Cross community, extracurricular involvements, spiritual life, and career in student services at St. Benedictine College in New York state.

Interview keywords: Allies, ABiGaLe, Office of Student Affairs

A Conversation With Mark Thivierge

LGBTQ Alumni Oral History Project

This conversation represents an oral history interview with a Holy Cross alum who graduated in 1970.

Interview keywords: social movements, 1960's, activism

A Conversation With Michael Mccarthy

LGBTQ Alumni Oral History Project

This conversation represents an oral history interview with a Holy Cross alum who graduated in 1973.

Interview keywords: theater, law, Fenwick Scholar, Vietnam War

Mckenzie, Mike, Wendy Chapkis

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Mike McKenzie was born in 1971 and grew up in Scarborough Maine raised by his single mother. Mike knew he was gay in 1988 while still in high school where he witnessed and faced homophobia. This resulted in dropping out of school at the age of 16. At 17, Mike joined the Coast Guard and served from 1990 to 1991. As a very masculine gay man, he was generally well accepted by those he served with who knew he was gay but faced homophobia from a newcomer who outed Mike; this resulted in a discharge from the Coast Guard. Back …

A Conversation With Suzanne Lamoureux Kriesant

LGBTQ Alumni Oral History Project

This conversation represents an oral history interview with a Holy Cross alum who graduated in 1998. Highlights of this conversation include content on being bisexual at Holy Cross.

Interview keywords: ABiGale, bisexuality