The Outwords Archive (OUTWORDS) records and archives on-camera interviews with elders from the

LGBTQ+ LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The group i ...

community throughout the United States. The archive headquarters are based in Los Angeles, with the entirety of their digital collection provided to the public for free through their official website. The nonprofit's stated mission is to "capture, preserve, and share the stories of LGBTQIA2S+ elders, to build community and catalyze social change."

History

Inspired by the Shoah Foundation's Visual History Archive of interviews with Holocaust witnesses and survivors, documentary TV and film producer Mason Funk established OUTWORDS in 2016. Half-day interviews are conducted on high-definition digital video by film crews, primarily in the homes of interview subjects. Interviewees have included

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

two spirit ''Two-spirit'' (also known as ''two spirit'' or occasionally ''twospirited'', or abbreviated as ''2S'' or ''2E'', especially in Canada) is a umbrella term used by some Indigenous North Americans to describe Native people who fulfill a trad ...

, and

intersex Intersex people are those born with any of several sex characteristics, including chromosome patterns, gonads, or genitals that, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical binar ...

individuals, as well as representatives of various sub-communities of the LGBTQ+ community including

drag queens A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have usually been gay men, and have ...

, leather daddies,

lesbian separatists Feminist separatism or separatist feminism is the theory that feminist opposition to patriarchy can be achieved through women's sex segregation from men.Christine Skelton, Becky Francis, ''Feminism and the Schooling Scandal'', Taylor & Francis, ...

, and

allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are calle ...

. Most interviewees are over 70 years old. In May 2018, OUTWORDS received a Creator Award in the Community Giver category from the co-working company

WeWork WeWork Inc., headquartered in New York City, is a provider of coworking spaces, including physical and virtual shared spaces, in approximately 600 buildings in 125 cities. WeWork was founded in 2010 by Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey. Ove ...

. In May 2019,

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...

published the first compilation of OUTWORDS interviews, entitled '' The Book of Pride'', to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the

Stonewall Riots The Stonewall riots (also known as the Stonewall uprising, Stonewall rebellion, Stonewall revolution, or simply Stonewall) were a series of spontaneous riots and demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of ...

. At the same time, OUTWORDS released a searchable digital platform which makes video interviews and historical photos freely available to the public. In June 2023, OUTWORDS opened their first museum exhibit, "Coming Out West: LGBTQ+ Elders Share Their Stories", in collaboration with the Santa Monica History Museum. In 2024, select OUTWORDS interviews were featured in the exhibit, "Hello Auntie, Hello Uncle: Conversations with our Elders", at the

Wing Luke Museum The Wing Luke Museum is a museum in Seattle, Washington, United States, which focuses on the culture, art and history of Asian Pacific Americans. It is located in the city's Chinatown–International District, Seattle, Chinatown-International Di ...

and in the permanent digital exhibit, "Hidden Histories: Discovering Los Angeles' LGBTQ+ Collections", curated by the ONE Archives at UCLA.

Interviews

As of August 2024, OUTWORDS had recorded on-camera oral histories with over 350 LGBTQIA2S+ elders in 45 states. Interviewees have included:

Publications

* ''The Book of Pride: LGBTQ Heroes Who Changed the World'', (HarperCollins, May 2019),

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:OUTWORDS Archive, The Archives in the United States LGBTQ history in California LGBTQ museums and archives LGBTQ organizations based in the United States LGBTQ studies organizations Organizations based in Los Angeles

History

Interviews

Publications

See also

References

External links