Synopsis

The audacious pioneers who founded the modern LGBTQ movement following the Stonewall Rebellion are endangered yearly from death, life-threatening illness, memory loss, or physically lost-to-contact, and thousands died during the cataclysmic AIDS epidemic. Now, nearly 50 years later, many of their names are unknown, their story untold. This was the impetus to move forward with From Trauma to Activism: Oral History from LGBTQ Pioneers.

Many oral histories narrate the founding of historic political organizations during the formative years following Stonewall—Dyketacktics; Gay Liberation Front; Radicalesbians; Gay Activists Alliance; Radical Faeries; Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries; Third World Gay Revolutionaries; Christopher Street Liberation Day Committee that organized the first pride march from Greenwich Village to Central Park; and Lesbian, Gay, and Transgender Community Centers in Baltimore, Los Angeles, and New York.

These pathfinders came out-of-the-closet: suffering familial estrangement and shunning; risking their livelihood; and chancing harm during hostile demonstrations. They formulated a daring politics with insights about human existence; trans-and gender identity; and sexual orientation that inspired generations of activists from coast-to-coast and globally. Determined to transform the world by living openly despite reprisals, they were committed to social change and making the planet a more just and safer place.

To date, interviews have been conducted across the United States from New York City to Las Vegas, Nevada; Portland, Oregon to Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Maryland; from Los Angeles to Sacramento, San Francisco, Santa Barbara and Santa Rosa, California; to Durham, North Carolina and Boston, Massachusetts; to the rural communities of Columbia County, New York; and globally in Bangkok, Buenos Aires, and Melbourne.

The book contains photograph portraits of all the interviewees and other major LGBT activists and artists.

Each chapter of From Trauma to Activism will be devoted to an individual LGBTQ pioneer and will include a photograph portrait.  

Audience

The audience for From Trauma to Activism will be members of the LGBTQ community, allies, historians, and academics, and anyone who's interested in U.S. history, a history not-often told.

From Trauma to Activism will be marketed using all social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter. Additionally, the author will tour the U.S. with an hour-long documentary of the project, which as already been shown at selected venues in Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, and upcoming in Montpelier, VT, and San Francisco.