Why Queer Archives Are Important: A Study of LGBTQ Life

Author Hugh Ryan on the importance of the archives of the LGBT Community Center National History Archive

By Google Arts & Culture

As a writer whose main subject is LGBTQ history, one of the biggest challenges I face is finding records of our communities, by our communities. All too often, I am left to piece together the lives of queer people in earlier eras by looking through the records created by biased or ignorant sources – police reports of people arrested for being at a gay bar, say, or medical records of doctors trying to “cure” transgender people.

This is what makes the collections at the Archives of New York City’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center so important. They save the stories of many whose lives would otherwise have been forgotten or distorted.

Crowds gathered at the March on Albany, 1971, Richard C. Wandel, 1971-03-14, From the collection of: The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
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Queer archives show a more accurate history

When looking for LGBTQ history in non-LGBTQ sources, at best, you might find one or two references – usually simplified versions that reduce our community down to stereotypes, and don’t show the wide variety of people that live under the LGBTQ umbrella. At queer archives, the sheer quantity of records preserved ensures a more accurate picture of our lives.

Police Altercation at Long Island Gay Activists Alliance Demonstration, 1971, Richard C. Wandel, 1971-08-22, From the collection of: The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
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Queer archives provide another view

In 1923, New York passed the Schackno Bill, which made it a misdemeanor for any man to “frequent or loiter about any public place soliciting men for the purpose of committing a crime against nature or other lewdness.” For the first time in New York City history, there was now a law specifically criminalizing consensual same-sex activity. Records created by members of the LGBTQ community can give us insight into the real lives behind those arrest records, turning our ancestors from sad statistics to stories of resistance and survival.

Come Out! No. 7 page 5, Ellen Bedoz (Ellen Shumsky), Come Out!, 1970, From the collection of: The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
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Assortment of Buttons Celebrating Christopher Street Liberation Day, Various, 1970/1999, From the collection of: The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
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Queer archives keep the stuff of history

Often times, things like buttons or t-shirts or small, handmade ‘zines – things that weren’t considered important by big institutions at the time they were made – never make it in to mainstream archives. But these objects can tell us so much about how our communities presented themselves, spoke about the issues that mattered to them, and organized for their rights.

Second Christopher Street Liberation Day March, 1971, Leonard Fink, 1971-06-27, From the collection of: The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
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Marchers gathering in Central Park during the Christopher Street Liberation Day March, 1971, Rudy Grillo, 1971, From the collection of: The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
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Queer archives capture our most intimate history

Stories of LGBTQ people falling in love, or being best friends, or dealing with simple everyday life are rarely captured in history books that focus on so-called important world events. But these tender moments remind us what we have always been fighting for – the force that animated the Stonewall Riots: The freedom to be ourselves, to love ourselves, and to love each other.

I can think of no more fitting way to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Stonewall than to celebrate the LGBTQ archives and archivists who have, for decades, preserved and passed on our stories.

Credits: Story

Words by Hugh Ryan

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.
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