Guidelines

The Since Stonewall Contest invites you to create an exhibit about LGBTQ history in your local community over the last 40 years, and post it on OutHistory.org. Any logged-in user can create and edit entries on OutHistory.org. To be eligible for this contest, all you have to do is complete your exhibit by March 31, 2010.

Timeline:

- Exhibits must be completed by March 31, 2010.

- OutHistory will announce the top five exhibits on June 28, 2010.

Requirements:

- Your exhibit must have a title that includes the village, town, city, or county, and the state and a time frame. Although we prefer that exhibits span the entire 40 year period, we will accept exhibits that begin after 1969. For example: “Detroit, MI: Forging New Lives Since Stonewall, 1984-2009.”

- Your exhibit must have a main entry page that will list all the additional pages in your exhibit. For an example of such a main page listing on OutHistory.org see: http://www.outhistory.org/wiki/Sample_Exhibit

- Every page must fully and clearly cite all sources using the Chicago Manual of Style Guide.

- To help OutHistory users find subjects of interest, every page in your exhibit must have subject categories listed at the very bottom of each entry page. These categories might include: “Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, AIDS, Parenting, Aging, Activism.”

- Every entry page in your exhibit must have a synopsis. For example: “This page discusses how the HIV/AIDS epidemic affected gay life in Chicago, IL.”

- Every entry page in your exhibit must have specified time-span. For example, “August 1981–July 1992.”

- Every exhibit must have a contact person. You can post a contact person’s name and e-mail address on your page, or send it to outhistory@gc.cuny.edu.

Suggestions:

- Please take this contest as an opportunity to collaborate with archivists, students, activists and others in your local community. We welcome collaboratively-created exhibit entries.

- There are multiple ways to structure a local history exhibit. Consider which structure would work best for the story you want to tell. You could, for example, base your 40-year exhibit around a few individuals’ life stories, notable local events, or specific organizations or places in your community . You could document how different groups of people have experienced the last forty years differently.

- Find a wide array of sources on which to base your exhibit: newspaper articles, interviews, diaries, letters, artwork, personal photographs, maps, audio recordings, etc.

- Find historical documents and objects at LGBTQ archives, local historical societies, or libraries.

A listing of LGBTQ archives across the country can be found here: http://www.archivists.org/saagroups/lagar/guide/index.html

- Try to make exhibits as dynamic as possible – include images, video and audio clips whenever possible. See OutHistory “Help” pages for instruction about how to do so.

- Try to design your exhibit so that a broad audience of internet users can understand and learn from it.

- Please include a chonological timeline of events so that the history you are telling is clear.

Please contact the Project Coordinator at outhistory@gc.cuny.edu with any additional questions.