Welcome to our site!
The goal of this collection is to showcase some examples of the changes in LGBTQ+ labels over time. In particular, our records are all connected to the state of Michigan, whether created by people who are from here or related to specific events that happened within the state.
The collection is separated into two distinct time periods and subjects of focus. The first is titled "Queer Liberation and Representation in the '60s and '70s". This section focuses on people and events during the time period of approximately 1960-1979. This was an important time for queer liberation movements, and one we found many resources for. This section gives background for our second section, "Spectrum Center", which focuses on the Spectrum Center at the University of Michigan, a campus resource center dedicated to serving the LGBTQIA2S+ communities at the school. You can learn more about these collections by going to their respective pages via the navigation bar at the top of this website.
We wanted to recognize the possibly sensitive or triggering materials in our collection by providing a content warning for those browsing our collection. While there is no graphic content, some words that were once used as slurs (and sometimes continue to be used that way today) are used in the records we chose to showcase. We opted to include a content warning rather than choosing to not include these records because the reclamation of slurs and derogatory language has been (and continues to be) an important part of LGBTQ+ history. To sanitize that history is to erase many of our ancestors, and we refuse to do so. So please, if harsh language is triggering for you, take care if you chose to proceed.