Main Page

Documenting the LGBTQH past in the U.S.A.

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Featured Exhibits

• Postcards: Masculine Women, Feminine Men; early-20th c.

• Queer Youth: On Campus, in the Media, 1947-2007

• Out and Elected in the USA: 1974-2004

• Lesbians in the Twentieth Century: 1900-1999

• The Pre-Gay Era, USA: 1950-1969

• WOW Festival: NYC, 1980-present

• Colonial America: The Age of Sodomitical Sin: 1607-1776

Help OutHistory Make History

This is a prototype of OutHistory.org, a website in development on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and, yes, heterosexual history. It presents a sampling of many different types of content to suggest what this site can one day become. Here's how to use the site and to help create OutHistory:

Explore Content To date, OutHistory has 2,488 entries. Users can "Search" keywords, search by month, day, and year, by century or decade, or by time era, or view featured Exhibits, survey Contents, or browse a Random Page. Provide Content As an experiment in history by the people, all logged on users with data, documents, citations, or skills to share can create entries, or edit, add to, and improve any entry except those with a named creator, or those closed to protect their content. Practice editing in the Sandbox. For how to create entries, volunteer data, documents, citations, and edits, and to help with research, fact-checking, copyediting, administration, technical matters, graphic design, fundraising, publicity, and any other aspect of the site see Participate.

Discuss Content All users can comment on the site and network with others via the Discuss option on the Main Page top bar. All users can comment on a particular entry and network about it via the "Discuss” section of that entry. Solve Mysteries, Fill in Stubs, Research Requests Users can Solve Historical Mysteries, search incomplete Stub Articles, respond to Research Requests, and fill in missing data. Users can also create new stub entries for topics they want to know about, and see OutHistory work in progress. Donate The funding of OutHistory.org ends December 31, 2008. To help fund the continued development of OutHistory.org in 2009 and later see Donate.

Two Sources of OutHistory Content

(1) Content provided by named creators or site administrators, which can only be edited by those creators and site administrators, is marked by a gray box and "Protected Entry" text. Here is an example:

PROTECTED ENTRY: This entry by a named creator or site administrator can be changed only by that creator and site administrators, so they are responsible for its accuracy, coverage, evidence, and clarity. Please do use this entry's Comment section at the bottom of the page to suggest improvements. Thanks.

(2) Content provided by any logged on user and open to public collaboration is marked by a yellow box and "Open Entry" text. Here is an example:

OPEN ENTRY: This entry is open to collaborative creation by anyone with evidence, citations, and analysis to share, so no particular, named creator is responsible for the accuracy and cogency of its content. Please use this entry's Comment section at the bottom of the page to suggest improvements about which you are unsure. Thanks.

OutHistory.org: The Town Clock

Welcome to OutHistory.org, the town clock around which all of us interested in the history of sexuality and gender can gather to exchange news of the latest historical detective work, the startling new clue discovered, the mystery unraveled -- the town clock whose hourly chime reminds us of time’s passage and the substantial changes in the acts, feelings, ideas, and relationships of people within society and time.

OutHistory.org is a website in development about gender and sexual history, a site that, at its best, should encourage us to think deeply and critically about historical evidence and what it means to understand LGBT and heterosexual life in the perspective of society and time. OutHistory should help us ask and begin to answer questions about the gendered and sexual actions and feelings of people within social structures over time. OutHistory includes elements of an almanac, archive, article, bibliography, book, encyclopedia, library, and museum, but it is not identical to any one of these. It's a unique thing-unto-itself. What this history website is, and what it does, will become clearer as it develops its own historical life and identity over time.

OutHistory.org is produced by The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS), located at the City University of New York Graduate Center. The site is directed by Jonathan Ned Katz and the OutHistory Project Director for CLAGS is Lauren Gutterman. The site was designed by Cidamon.com using open-source MediaWiki software. The Arcus Foundation funded the site's coordination, design, and maintenance in 2007-2008. The content of OutHistory.org is provided by volunteers. The official launch of OutHistory.org is to take place October 21, 2008. For more about OutHistory.org, see About. Email : outhistory@gc.cuny.edu Telephone: 212 817-1955

Link to OutHistory, OutHistory will link to you!

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Making LGBT History is LGBT Activism

OutHistory.org: The free website to which anyone with data, documents, and citations can contribute.

OutHistory.org provides the structure. Anyone with data, documents, and citations can provide the content.

History of Organizations

Create an entry for your organization's history. Here's the format for the title:

Organization's Full Present Name: day, month, year of founding

Write the title of the entry in the search box.

Click on the title.

Add content and save.

Bibliographic Entries

Authors or publishers of books and articles, create an entry for your book or article. Here's the format for the title:

Author's Full Name: "Title of Book or Article in Quotations," day, month, year of publication

Write the title of the entry in the search box.

Click on the title.

Add content and save.

OutHistory.org: Recall the Past, Comprehend the Present