Documenting the LGBTIQ Past in Virginia
The William & Mary Mattachine LGBTIQ Research Project: Documenting the LGBTIQ Past in Virginia aims to better understand, chronicle, and preserve the history of LGBTIQ people in Virginia. Beginning with research at the Library of Virginia, the Virginia Historical Society, Virginia Commonwealth University, William & Mary, and other archives, student researchers engage communities, preserve knowledge, and discover histories related to LGBTIQ experiences in our state. The launch of this research project was aided by the Mattachine Society of Washington, DC, one of the nation’s oldest gay rights organizations, and is part of a larger national effort to document the histories of LGBTIQ people and the policies and laws that have affected their lives. Student research, under faculty guidance, focuses on state laws and policies that affected and may still affect the lives of LGBTIQ people and communities in the Commonwealth.
This project is supported across the College by the Law School, A&S Dean’s Office, the Provost’s Office, the History Department, AMST and GSWS Programs, and an IDEAS Grant from the Center for Diversity, W&M. This project is also funded in part by the LGBTIQ Research Fund in History that supports projects at William & Mary that seek to document the LGBTIQ past.
For more information about the project, read Cortney Langley's W&M News article, "LGBTIQ research project helps unearth W&M's lost history."
Images of the exhibit are available from Swem Library on Flickr.
Faculty Advisor: Leisa Meyer, Professor of American Studies and History
Graduate Project Fellow: Jan Huebenthal, Ph.D. candidate and Teaching Fellow in American Studies
Undergraduate researchers: Kenya Allen, Andrea Ayres, Alex de Gala, Dan Delmonaco, Sylvia Greer, Noella Handley, Ada Hao, Anatolia Hodson, Karla Kaplan, Jui Kothare, Aiesha Krause-Lee, Taylor Medley, Nic Querolo, Ming Siegel, and Sam Yu