Researching LGBTQ DC

Finding aid available on demand. This collection contains notes, meeting minutes, photos, phone lists, flyers, posters, personal calendars, pamphlets, VCR Tapes, and a safe sex tool kit from OUT!, Whitman-Walker, and other organizations Amelie Zurn was involved in. Amelie Zurn is a lesbian activist in Washington, D.C. Between 1987 and 1992; she was involved in Oppression Under Target (OUT!). OUT! Was a direct action organization working for lesbian, bisexual, and gay freedom and an end to the AIDS crisis. The organization’s primary purpose was to organize, execute, and participate in a variety of direct actions, including demonstrations, educational forums, picket lines, and civil disobedience. OUT! Participated in demonstrations by ACT UP and staged other direct actions such as a Metro Sticker campaign for safe sex education and taking over the Office of AIDS Activities. The organization also consisted of subcommittees: the Safe Sex Sirens, Gay Men and Lesbians Opposing Violence (GLOV), The Church Ladies of America, and the SOD-Squad. Additionally, Zurn served as a volunteer at Whitman-Walker’s AIDS information hotline and eventually became their first director of the Lesbian Services Program.

"The AU Trans Experience: Then and Now" project aims to explore and celebrate the transgender experience at American University over the past several decades. For current transgender students, this project provides a sense that they belong to a trans-affirming AU community and to a long history of trans people at AU. The project also brings a rich awareness to our non-trans community members, who may know that trans people exist, or may even know a trans individual personally, but may not have spent much time thinking about what trans experience is like or how rich trans history and research really is. The collection features oral histories, timelines, newsletters, and other administrative documents related to Trans people at American University. Related Materials: See the digital display: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/012f7283c8204e3aae21721d32d47f80

Ed Cox, a DC native, wrote poetry about Washington, DC and Baltimore. Cox's papers include correspondence and original poetry as well as files relating to the poetry workshops he organized for senior citizens in DC (1969-2001). His poetry covered a broad range of issues including alcoholism and gay rights.

This digital collection is comprised of documents and photographs from ENLACE and collaborators created between 1987-1995. The collection contains documents related to collaborations, correspondences, AIDS/HIV-related correspondences, newspaper coverage, events, meeting minutes, board records, newsletters, promotional materials, finances, and founding documents. The majority of documents are from the Washington, DC metropolitan area, however some correspondences come from other states and countries. Founded in 1987, ENLACE, the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area Latino Lesbian and Gay Coalition, was the first organization in the DC area to center the experiences of lesbian and gay Latinas/os. The organization was multi-faceted, offering social events for the community to gather at while also working to combat anti-gay and lesbian violence and provide health and educational resources. These materials were collected and donated by Letitia Gomez, a former president of ENLACE. The physical ENLACE collection is part of the Rainbow History Project collections at the DC History Center. Additional ENLACE-related materials are available at the Rainbow History Project https://www.rainbowhistory.org/.

There are several related collections of images and oral histories within the Humanities Truck digital collection. This is a growing collection. The Humanities Truck is a fully customized delivery truck that serves as an experimental mobile platform for collecting, exhibiting, preserving, and expanding dialogue around the humanities. Using the truck, we seek to mobilize the humanities and democratize the sharing and production of knowledge by bringing together scholars at American University with community residents across Washington, D.C. Together we can collect, create, interpret, and curate stories that can return to the communities they originated from and circulate throughout the metropolitan region.

The LGBT RPCV Association promoted Peace Corps ideals and the legal, political and social rights of LGBT people around the world. They were an organization of proud lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and others who were past or current Peace Corps Volunteers, staff, and friends. Founded in Washington D.C. in 1991, they had members throughout the world who had served in the Peace Corps since its beginning in 1961. The group collected over 200 stories of the LGBTQ+ Peace Corps experience and reflections from service in dozens of countries. As of April 2021, the LGBT RPCV Association is no longer an active organization, and the story archive was transferred to the Peace Corps Community Archive at American University Library.

This collection contains broadsides, flyers, handbills, photographs and posters and covers all of the major political and social movements of the 1960s and 1970s including civil rights, gay and lesbian rights and feminism as well the anti-nuclear and the Vietnam War protests. The protests featured in this collection are mostly from the Washington, DC area including student protests at American University and the University of Maryland at College Park.