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

Finding Community In The Mitchell Hotel, Alan Virta

Library Faculty Publications and Presentations

"Lesbian and gay people are the only people on Earth who have to find their tribe. We aren't born into it. You have to have a place to go find the tribe. And so you will start with the most obvious place."—Phyllis Burke, in the documentary film The Castro

For gay men and women in Boise, there was no "obvious place" in their own hometown until the summer of 1976, when a group of local businessmen, with the help of friends and family, turned a corner of an old hotel into that place: Boise's first gay bar. The hotel, known …

Students Teaching Students: Lgbtq History, Brian Stack

Senior Honors Projects

When the Students Teaching Students program called for submissions for student created courses I jumped at the opportunity to learn and share with a group of peers dedicated to a subject. The close to year long process culminated in the first Students Teaching Students course at URI, focusing on the history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people: HPR 107: Introduction to LGBTQ History.

Just getting ready to teach was a multifaceted process, since I tend to fluctuate between ravenously seizing every book I can get my hands on and devising practical applications for that intellectual knowledge. First …

Lg Ms 021 Maine Civil Rights March & Rally Committee Archives Finding Aid, Maeve Wachowicz

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The Maine Civil Rights March & Rally Committee was formed in response to the February 1998 repeal of the civil rights law which had been enacted in May 1997. They organized a march, rally and fundraising entertainment event on Oct. 18, 1998. They followed these events with a vigil in memory of Mathew Shepard, with services held in several parts of the state on Oct. 18, 1998. The Committee also sponsored an "Interfaith Vigil Against Hate Violence" in Bangor on Oct. 7, 1999. The Archives contains some records of the Committee, blank cards representative of an effort to have …

Study Guide For United In Anger: A History Of Act Up, Matt Brim

Open Educational Resources

The United in Anger Study Guide facilitates classroom and activist engagement with Jim Hubbard’s 2012 documentary, United in Anger: A History of ACT UP. The Study Guide contains discussion sections, projects and exercises, and resources for further research about the activism of the New York chapter of ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power). The Study Guide is a free, interactive, multimedia resource for understanding the legacy of ACT UP, the film’s role in preserving that legacy, and its meaning for viewers' lives.

Lg Ms 020 Equal Protection/Portland Archives Finding Aid, Maeve Wachowicz

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Equal Protection/Portland (EP/P) was a volunteer organization formed in Portland, Maine in 1992 that campaigned to uphold a Human Rights Ordinance passed by Portland’s City Council. Ultimately the ordinance was upheld in a referendum vote on November 3, 1992. That year was contentious for LGBT issues around the country and gay rights figured prominently in a presidential election for the first time in the race between Bill Clinton and George Bush. The Archives contains EP/P administrative files and campaign materials, such as flyers, brochures, press releases, survey results, audio recordings, and a bus banner. Articles reflecting national attention to …

Lg Ms 019 Westbrook Citizens For Equal Rights Archives Finding Aid, Maeve Wachowicz

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Westbrook Citizens for Equal Rights (WCER) was a Political Action Committee (PAC) registered in Westbrook, Maine in June of 2002. WCER was formed to promote civil rights in Westbrook, and notably campaigned to uphold the Westbrook Human Rights Ordinance of 2002. The archives contain materials from both the “Vote Yes” and “Vote No” campaigns on the Human Rights Ordinance referendum, such as flyers, pamphlets, campaign signs and stickers, advertisements, volunteer instructions, and correspondence. There is also information on the 2003 election in Westbrook, and on similar ordinance campaigns in Falmouth, Maine, and in Kalamazoo and Traverse City, Michigan, in …

Abigale-Allies Networking Reception, Abigale/Allies

LGBTQIA Archive

Invitation to a networking reception during the College of the Holy Cross Fall Homecoming 2011. This event was sponsored by ABiGale/Allies, a Gay-Straight Alliance dedicated to raising awareness about LGBTQ issues to the Holy Cross community.

Resspect Pamphlet, Abigale/Allies

LGBTQIA Archive

This pamphlet promotes the ReSSpect training workshops and lists other campus events offered by ABiGale/Allies, an alliance group at the College of the Holy Cross.

Holy Cross Homecoming '11, Holy Cross Alumni Association

LGBTQIA Archive

This program for the College of the Holy Cross Fall Homecoming activities includes a networking reception sponsored by ABiGAle/Allies, a Gay-Straight Alliance dedicated to raising awareness about LGBTQ issues to the Holy Cross community.

A Vigil Of Prayer And Public Witness, Chaplain's Office

LGBTQIA Archive

Program for a prayer vigil held at teh College of the Holy Cross in support of the GLBTQ community.

Lg Ms 018 Maine Won’T Discriminate Archives Finding Aid, Karin A. France

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Maine Won't Discriminate (MWD) was an organization created to work toward passing LGBT civil rights legislation in Maine and to advocate against/for citizens referenda that would have overturned/sustained such legislation. The Archives contains organizational records as well as print and audiovisual material created and used by the organization. The majority of the materials relate to MWD’s ultimately successful efforts to oppose referendum Question 1 in 2005, which read: “Do you want to reject the new law that would protect people from discrimination in employment, housing, education, public accommodations and credit based on their sexual orientation?” The materials include polling …

Lg Ms 011 Northern Lambda Nord Archives Finding Aid, Michelle E. Smith, Kristin Morris

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One of the earliest gay and lesbian groups in the state, NLN began in 1979 as a support network for the rural LGBT community, located in Aroostook County, with members in Maine and New Brunswick. By the mid-1980s, NLN had added an outreach component, working to educate the local community on LGBT identity and acceptance and health and HIV/AIDS issues. They also started a Gay-Lesbian Phoneline which grew into the Maine HIV/AIDS Hotline. The group disbanded in 2000, but re-formed in 2006. The Archives contains an extensive collection of organizational records, promotional materials, photo albums and artifacts.

Date Range: …

Lg Ms 017 Susan Farnsworth Papers Finding Aid, Karin A. France

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Susan Farnsworth earned her undergraduate degree from Bates College in 1969 and her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Maine School of Law in 1976. She has worked in several city and state government positions, including Maine State Representative from 1988-1994. Farnsworth has also been active in the LGBT community, serving as a member of the Executive Committee and an organizer of “Yes on 6” PAC in the Statewide Referendum Campaign in 2000. The Papers consist of working papers, publications, and other materials.

Date Range:

1970s-1990s

Size of Collection:

2.25 ft.

Lg Ms 014 Jessen Lgbt/Women’S Newsletter & Media Collection Finding Aid, Renee Desroberts, Karin A. France

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Barbara Jessen formed the Maine Tradeswomen's Network, a loose organization of women in the trades and supporting personnel, in 1990, to promote networking, mentoring, and employment. The Collection consists of six newsletter titles, plus newspaper clippings, fact sheets, and articles - all covering LGBT and women’s issues in Maine and nationally.

Date Range:

1970s-2000

Size of Collection:

0.5 ft.

Lg Ms 016 Transsupport Archives Finding Aid, Karin A. France

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Transsupport is a non-profit, educational, non-sexual peer support group for Cross-dressers, Transsexuals, their families, friends and significant others. The Archives contains organizational papers and newsletters from between 1994 and 1998, plus one issue of vol. 1 of the newsletter, dated 1989.

Date Range:

1989, 1994-1998

Size of Collection:

0.5 ft.

Lg Ms 015 May Sarton Scrapbook Finding Aid, Kristin Morris, Karin A. France

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William Barry is a well-known, published local historian. He had a slight connection with May Sarton through his friend Dorothy Healy, co-founder of the Maine Women Writers Collection. The Scrapbook contains documents relating to his correspondence with Sarton regarding her essay for a memorial book for Healy; documents and newspaper clippings relating to celebrations of Sarton’s life and work; documents regarding Barry’s effort to get Sarton’s essay in Healy’s memorial included in a Sarton bibliography.

Date Range:

1983-2008

Size of Collection:

0.25 ft.

Allan Bérubé: A Visionary Historian, John D'Emilio

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

I first met Allan in the spring of 1979. In the two preceding years, in the time he carved out from the odd jobs that kept him afloat, he had systematically pursued leads from Jonathan Ned Katz's Gay American History, in the process amassing his own trove of queer historical documents. One thick line of research especially delighted him. To his surprise, 19th-century San Francisco newspapers ran extended stories, amounting at times to almost mini-biographies, of "women who passed as men."

Director's Letter, Sarah Chinn

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

It was hard not to be inspired, moved, and thrilled by Douglas Crimp's remarkable Kessler Lecture on November 2nd. Combining personal history, art criticism, political analysis, and trenchant commentary on the intersections between them, Douglas gave us a guided tour of the long-abandoned, much-used piers of lower Manhattan.

Lg Ms 012 Act Up/Maine Archives Finding Aid, Lynne Chabot

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ACTUP/ Maine, founded in 1990, was a chapter of the national organization, ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) that focused on AIDS issues. The goals of the organization were the empowerment of people with AIDS and the establishment of an AIDS Resource Center. The organization emphasized direct action in communities and an open democratic process within the group. The Archives holds organizational papers, books, photos, promotional materials, correspondence and publications, plus a significant number of publications/papers from ACT-UP chapters in the US and abroad. The bulk of the material spans the years 1990-1994, and there is a good …

Lg Ms 009 Act Up/Portland Archives Finding Aid, Eileen Rowland, Lynne Chabot

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ACT UP/ Portland, established in the 1990s, was a chapter of the national organization, ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) that focused on AIDS issues. ACT UP/ Portland sponsored several local youth organizations, had a cooperative partnership with Public Health agencies, leafleted extensively, and held media campaigns. The organization emphasized direct action in communities and an open democratic process within the group. The Archives consists of administrative files, programs/activities, and resource materials from the group and its affiliates. Dates range from 1984 to 1996, with the bulk of materials either undated or 1991-1996.

Date Range:

1984-1996

Size of …

Gendered Approaches To Environmental Justice: An Historical Sampling, Nancy Unger

History

While race and class are regularly addressed in environmental justice studies, scant attention has been paid to gender. The environmental justice movement formally recognized in the 1980s in no way, however, marks the beginning of the central role played by women in the long history of its concerns.' Abuses based in gender as well as race and class have subjected women to a variety of environmental injustices. However, women's responses to the ever-shifting responsibilities prescribed to their gender, as well as to their particular race and class, have consistently shaped their abilities to affect the environment in positive ways. Especially …

Documenting Queer Community Histories: Whose History Is It?, Jessica Stern, Nicholas Ray

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

What does it mean to be a member of a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBTQ) community? When did LGBTQ community history begin? Where do queer communities differ? How do we broach these questions to document communities' experiences? And significantly, why is it important to document the histories of those who are defined as LGBTQ?

Gay Bars, Vice, And Reform In Portland, 1948-1965, Beka Smith

Dissertations and Theses

The city of Portland adopted different policies toward gay bars between 1948 and 1965. Portland's conservative mayors, generally uninterested in changing the city or promoting growth, ignored gay bars. Reform mayors instigated campaigns against gay bars to gain public, political, and business support for their broader economic and social goals. They were able to use crackdowns on gay bars as popular components of their reform initiatives because Portland, in comparison to other cities, professed conservatism and morality and had little economic or cultural incentive to tolerate gay bars. Blaming Portland's vice on outsiders, reform mayors argued that their actions protected …

Expanding Horizons, Alisa Solomon

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

Happy New Year! Welcome to the new semester! Welcome to CLAGS's second decade! Such greetings would be heartfelt under any circumstances, but the artifices of the calendar seem especially useful now as we seek new beginnings after the trauma of the Fall.

Violence, Mourning, Politics, Judith Butler

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

I’d like to speak to you this evening on the matter of politics and, specifically, how the struggles of gender and sexual minorities might offer a perspective on current issues that are before us, questions of mourning and violence, which we have to deal with as part of an international community. I'd like to start, and to end, with the question of the human, of who counts as the human, and the related question of whose lives count as lives, and with a question that has preoccupied many of us for years: what makes for a grievable life. I believe …

Lg Ms 008 South Portland Citizens For Justice Archives Finding Aid, Siobain C. Monahan

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South Portland Citizens for Justice was a group seeking a local ordinance against discrimination based on sexual orientation. The group campaigned in support of the proposed Human Rights Ordinance, which was on the ballot in the November 3, 1998 election. The Archives contains newspaper articles (clippings and entire issues) that relate to the 1998 Human Rights Ordinance. Also included are items from the South Portland Citizens for Justice organization, such as correspondence, publications, posters, stickers, and press packets.

Date Range:

1998

Size of Collection:

2.5 ft.

Lg Ms 006 Cruikshank Feminist-Lesbian Publications Collection Finding Aid, Siobain C. Monahan

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Margaret Cruikshank was an early scholar in the field of Lesbian studies and taught a women’s studies course at the University of Southern Maine. She also teaches lesbian studies at the University of Maine in Orono. The Collection contains almost a full run of The Furies, an important 1970s publication in the field, as well as other scattered issues of feminist-lesbian publications from the 1970s.

Date Range:

1970s

Size of Collection:

0.5 ft.

Lg Ms 002 Barry-Peabody Papers Finding Aid, Siobain C. Monahan

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William Barry is a well-known, published local historian. Frannie Peabody was an early Maine AIDS activist, who established the Peabody House, a center dedicated to assisting individuals living with HIV/AIDS. The Papers contain research materials gathered for the writing of the book, "The AIDS Project : a history." They include correspondence, clippings, photographs, publications, research notes, drafts, and documents from Maine’s largest AIDS service organization.

Date Range:

1974-1997

Size of Collection:

4.5 ft.

Lg Ms 003 Jean Stickney Posters Finding Aid, Siobain C. Monahan

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Stickney was an agent for entertainers. This is a collection of colored posters advertising events of interest to the Gay and Lesbian communities. Many of these events were organized by Wild Iris Productions, Jean Stickney’s business, and held in the First Parish Church in Portland, Maine.

Date Range:

1980s-1990s

Size of Collection:

2 ft.

Lg Ms 004 Christopher O’Connor Collection Finding Aid, Siobain C. Monahan

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Christopher O’Connor was resident director of USM’s Portland Hall dormitory in the fall of 1999 when there was an incident involving anti-gay graffiti in the dormitory. The Collection includes newspaper clippings regarding the incident, brochures, and a letter to the USM community from O'Connor.

Date Range:

1999

Size of Collection:

0.25 ft.