LGBTQIA Terps Share Their Stories

Oral history questionnaire for the video project

October 11th marked the 30th anniversary of National Coming Out Day, a yearly event that celebrates individuals in the LGBTQIA+ community who have “come out” to the people in their lives.

Special Collections and University Archives had the pleasure of sponsoring the UMD Pride Alliance event, “What’s Your Story?,” where students, faculty, and staff volunteered to create video testimonies of their own coming out stories. In addition to sharing their own “coming out” stories, interviewees also talked about their experiences at the University of Maryland, and how they’ve been able to develop their own communities on campus.

The video project, a concept created by UMD student Maria Aragon, is an extension of our LGBTQ Oral History Project, which began in April 2018. The project seeks to capture the history of LGBTQIA students, faculty, staff and alumni at the University of Maryland.

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Post by Ashleigh Coren, Special Collections Librarian for Teaching and Learning

Speak Your Truth

Join us for a very special event as we celebrate Pride Month!

 

The LGBTQ Oral History Project

April 12 & 19

3:00 – 6:00pm

LGBT Equity Center

2218, Marie Mount Hall

RSVP at go.umd.edu/queertruth

Special Collections & University Archives, in collaboration with the LGBT Equity Center, will be conducting short interviews and gathering stories that reflect on and share the experience of being LGBTQ+ on campus or in the community! These will be preserved and added to the University Archives. Interested in sharing yours?

LGBTQ Resources in Special Collections and University Archives

Looking to explore LGBTQ history, literature, and activism? We have lot of resources in Special Collections and University Archives that will pique your interest.

University Archives Collections

Gay Student Alliance – The Gay Student Alliance (GSA) was established at the University of Maryland in the 1970s as the successor of the Student Homophile Association (SHA). This collection contains newspaper clippings and editorials from the Diamondback chronicling the campus response to the gay community during the 1970s.

Nancy Wohlforth: Uniting the Labor and LGBT Movements

“Since 1979, when the Gay and Lesbian Labor Alliance was formed, Nancy Wohlforth has been working to bring gay issues into the labor movement. Now the organization is called Pride At Work and is a full-fledged constituency group in the AFL-CIO. National cochair Wohlforth and the newly hired executive director, Kipukai Kuali’i, will fight for domestic-partner pension benefits, greater employment protection, and transgender inclusion. They also want gays and lesbians to understand the power and benefit of unions. ‘Frankly, a lot of people still see the union as a bunch of old white boys who want nothing to do with their interests,’ Wohlforth says, ‘clearly that’s not the case.’

-The Advocate on Nancy Wohlforth in the Best and Brightest Activists collection, August 17, 1999.

LGBT Advocacy and the AFL-CIO

This June, city streets in America will bloom with colorful celebrations. Pride, this year, marks the 47th anniversary of Stonewall, and the first year since Obergefell v. Hodges. While most of those celebrating are no stranger to the struggle for equality, it can be easy to forget the struggle of the past and the struggles still needed today. Pride at Work, the AFL-CIO LGBT constituency group, and its members have been fighting for LGBT equality since before the organization was founded in 1994. Today, Pride at Work, along with the labor movement, continues the fight for LGBT rights and equality for all workers.

Pride at work is also celebrating its 22nd anniversary this month. On June 24th, 1994, LGBT union activists gathered in New York City to remember the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. In New York, this network of activists held “The Founding Conference of the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgender People in the Labor Movement” creating the organization known today as Pride at Work. Three years later, in 1997, it became one of the seven official constituency groups of the AFL-CIO.

Pride at Work records at UMD

We are excited to announce that the University of Maryland is now the repository for the records of Pride at Work!

Labor Archivist Jennifer Eidson packs up boxes with Pride at Work’s Executive Director Jerame Davis.

Pride at Work (P@W) is an AFL-CIO constituency group that represents and advocates for LGBT union members across the United States. Since 1994, P@W has sought “full equality for LGBT Workers in our workplaces and unions” while “creating a Labor Movement that cherishes diversity, encourages openness, and ensures safety & dignity.”

This July, UMD archives staff accessioned records from P@W’s Washington, D.C. office. The collection documents the work and activities of P@W advocating for worker rights, P@W’s Labor Leadership Initiative’s training and educational component, as well as the evolution of the organization’s history.

In the upcoming months, UMD’s archivists will inventory and organize the records so that researchers can have easier access to them.

Stay tuned for more news as we prepare this exciting new collection to be opened to the public!

Contact us if you have any questions or are interested in researching in the collection.

Learn more about Pride at Work or explore UMD’s labor collections, including the AFL-CIO archive.