In 2005 Jonathan Ned Katz, author and historian of human sexuality, imagined a place on the web where LGBT history could reach a larger audience. That site, OutHistory, was launched in Oct. 2008 and just last month, the site relaunched with a new look and interface.
In the fall of 2011, Katz enlisted the help of John D'Emilio, author and professor of history and gender and women's studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago ( UIC ), to help rethink and reorganize the site as well as generate new sources of funding.
D'Emilio and Katz are also collaborating with Claire Bond Potter, professor of history at The New School for Public Engagement, on the relaunch. Together they will serve as co-directors and students from UIC will also be helping them with the new site.
"The site looks completely different now," said D'Emilio. "One of the difficulties with the previous site was the use of wiki software because the initial vision was that it would be an LGBT history Wikipedia site. This created certain kinds of constraints about the look and structure of the site. It hasn't worked out as an open entry Wikipedia site for good reasons. Reasons that make sense."
D'Emilio said that redesigned site has birthday announcements, did you know section, pictures, easy search categories and a calendar that tells visitors what happened this month, this week and this day. He also noted that the site is not meant to be very academic because they want it to be accessible to everyone who is looking for information about LGBT history.
Of the site, D'Emilio said, It's potentially about anything whereas other sites have a particular focus. Our site is meant to be a home for any kind of material about LGBT history. The site is in its beginning stages and will be changing each week, month and year by year as we add new content."
A new feature, "Tell Us Your Story," allows the public to share experiences about particular topics and events related to LGBT history, noted D'Emilio. The first two topics that the public can contribute to are the 1987 March on Washington and Pride Marches/Parades, D'Emilio explained. Each submission will be edited to make sure it adheres to the standards of the site including whether the submission is factually and editorially sound, said D'Emilio.
"Other potential questions for the Tell Us Your Story section include what is the first TV show or movie or book you read in which you encountered something queer and what kind of impact did that media have on you as an LGBT person? ... What is the first LGBT organization that you joined? What was the first time you found yourself in a group of other LGBT people and how did you get there?" said D'Emilio. "I am very excited about this and I'm approaching it with trepidation. I have no idea if it will work."
A few years ago OutHistory sponsored a contest designed to get people to create community histories called "Since Stonewall," D'Emilio explained. That contest produced 40-50 entries and the winning entry was the Rainbow Richmond submission, said D'Emilio.
"We'd like to do another contest and reach out to LGBT community centers and campus LGBT groups around the country. This time the focus would be on the history of activism," said D'Emilio. "We want to find different networks that are already out there and encourage them to create histories that can then go on our site. We are also talking about working with archives around the country who may not have an LGBT archive but archives that have LGBT material and partner with them to make their archives more visible by putting two or three of their documents on our site with a link to the place where the document came from. The plan for the next five years is to figure out how to organize a steady stream of new material so that the site always has surprises. Things that you haven't seen before."
As for the site's social-media presence, D'Emilio noted there is a public Facebook page where they are posting notices about interesting things that have happened in the LGBT community and a private group page where members who have an interest in history can engage in dialogue with each other and talk about the things they are working on. D'Emilio also shared that a grad student will be managing the Twitter page.
"I like to joke about the fact that I sometimes feel like I am a visitor to the 21st century. I was very late in getting a cell phone or a Facebook page," said D'Emilio. "What I've loved about doing this project is it's made me study how the Web works. What sites do I come away from and think, 'Wow, that was pretty easy' or 'Oh my god—I am never going to that site again.' I feel like I've become a more intelligent Internet user. Who knows this site might get me to join Twitter as myself."
"I'm very excited to be working with two distinguished scholars who are also long-time activists. I believe that scholarship needs to be made accessible, and available, to the larger public for free. Queer people have a long history of having to really search for their own histories, and of other people giving them misinformation about who and what they are," said Potter. "I feel like OutHistory is taking a tradition of activist knowledge created by people like Jonathan, Karla Jay, Leslie Feinberg and others, and conveying it to a public that now turns first to new media for reading pleasure and to answer important questions."
"I'm really delighted to have John take the lead in ushering in a new, improved website, and to have Claire join us as a co-director," said Katz. "John's an old friend, and a pioneer in LGBTQ history. Claire is a new friend and an untiring activist on behalf of quality, free, public LGBTQ history. The three of us will be working together to solicit new OutHistory content from the general public and scholars. If you have interesting documents or want to recount a dramatic, telling episode from your LGBT or Q life, please let us hear from you at outhistory@gmail.com ."
See www.outhistory.org .
