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1860 political cartoon depicting Lincoln as a "Wide-Awake"
partner

A Posthumous Romance of White Male Reunion

The history of deriving political meaning from Abraham Lincoln’s sexuality.
by Andrew Donnelly via HNN on February 11, 2025
A wedding cake depicting a same-sex lesbian couple.
partner

The Golden Era of ‘Traditional Marriage’ Was Never What Conservatives Thought

Law and culture forced LGBTQ people into marriages, but that didn't prevent them from exploring their sexuality.
by Lauren Gutterman via Made By History on September 28, 2021
Photo of Carson McCullers

The Closeting of Carson McCullers

Through her relationships with other women, one can trace the evidence of McCullers’s becoming, as a woman, as a lesbian, and as a writer.
by Jenn Shapland via The Paris Review on February 3, 2020

A Gay First Lady? Yes, We’ve Already Had One, and Here Are Her Love Letters.

Rose Cleveland declared her passion for the woman she had a relationship with spanning three decades in letter after letter.
by Gillian Brockell via Retropolis on June 20, 2019
An elderly Walt Whitman with his nurse Warren Fritzinger.

Walt Whitman's Boys

To appreciate who Whitman was, we have to reinterpret the poet in ways that have made generations of critical gatekeepers uncomfortable.
by Jeremy Lybarger via Boston Review on May 30, 2019
Portrait of Emily Dickinson next to a portrait of Susan Gilbert

Emily Dickinson’s Electric Love Letters to Susan Gilbert

“Come with me this morning to the church within our hearts, where the bells are always ringing, and the preacher whose name is Love — shall intercede for us!”
by Maria Popova via Brainpickings on December 10, 2018

Rarely Seen 19th-Century Silhouette of a Same-Sex Couple Living Together Goes On View

A new show, featuring the paper cutouts, reveals unheralded early Americans.
by Roger Catlin via Smithsonian on May 25, 2018

How a 1920s Survey Changed the Way Americans Thought About Sexuality

A researcher challenged the idea that women did not – and should not – experience sexual desire.
by Anya Jabour via The Conversation on August 27, 2024
Man smoking marijuana among cannabis plants.

The Unlikely SF Community That Launched America's Weed Industry

Without the local San Francisco activists who risked their lives for it, today’s legal cannabis market might never have come to be.
by Lester Black via SFGATE on June 27, 2024
LGBTQ+ Pride balloon arch at parade

Who's Afraid of Social Contagion?

Our ideas about sexuality and gender have changed before, and now they’re changing again.
by Hugh Ryan via Boston Review on July 31, 2023
A rainbow over a waterscape.

Queer History Detective: On the Power of Uncovering Stories from the Past

With more queer history detectives, what could our future look like?
by Amelia Possanza via Literary Hub on May 30, 2023
Cosplayers dressed as All the way May and Greta Gill from “A League of Their Own” attend New York Comic-Con on Oct. 6.
partner

‘A League of Their Own’ Chronicles Life for LGBTQ Women in the 1940s

Even at a time of repression, these women found ways to create a culture and life for themselves.
by Lauren Gutterman via Made By History on November 2, 2022
Rose Dougan at the Wright School of aviation in 1915

Flying Rose Dougan: On the Trail of Native American Art

Uncovering the life of Rose Dougan, a real Renaissance woman, and her pioneering role in preserving Native American art.
by Ann Japenga via California Desert Art on February 8, 2022
Profile photograph of Margaret Wise Brown.

The Radical Woman Behind “Goodnight Moon”

Margaret Wise Brown constantly pushed boundaries—in her life and in her art.
by Anna E. Holmes via The New Yorker on January 27, 2022
Close up image of a Catholic leader raising his hand.

The Untold Stories of AIDS and the Catholic Church

Amid all the suffering and death, friends and supporters arose in unexpected—often religious—places.
by Eric C. Miller, Michael J. O'Loughlin via Arc: Religion, Politics, Et Cetera on January 18, 2022
A woman in a horse-drawn wagon in the American west.

For Me, but Not for Thee

How white feminism failed Native Americans in the late-19th century.
by Kyla Schuller via Slate on October 25, 2021
Painting of a nun

Families of Choice

On the Shakers and Catholics who found love and friendship in early America.
by Kara M. French via Lapham’s Quarterly on June 28, 2021
Portrait of Walt Whitman.

How the American Civil War Gave Walt Whitman a Call to Action

Mark Edmundson on the great American poet as a defender of democracy.
by Mark Edmundson via Literary Hub on April 16, 2021
Painting of the rocky mountains

How ‘America the Beautiful’ was Born

The United States’ unofficial anthem, a hymn of love of country.
by Jill Lepore via National Geographic on November 3, 2020
Parade of women suffragists, holding signs, dressed in white.

When Lesbians Led the Women's Suffrage Movement

In 1911, lesbians led the nation’s largest feminist organization. They promoted a diverse and inclusive women’s rights movement.
by Anya Jabour via The Conversation on January 24, 2020

Why Pete Buttigieg's Theory About Secretly Gay Presidents Is Complicated

Buttigieg believes he probably won’t be the first gay president if he’s elected in 2020.
by Jasmine Aguilera via TIME on June 18, 2019
Portrait of Anne Lister

The 19th Century Lesbian Made for 21st Century Consumption

Jeanna Kadlec considers Anne Lister, the center figure of HBO’s Gentleman Jack, and the influence of other preceding queer women.
by Jeanne Kadlec via Longreads on June 6, 2019
Lincoln portrait superimposed on rainbow flag

So What if Lincoln Was Gay?

Reflections from the author of a novel that does not shy away from the question of Lincoln's sexuality.
by Louis Bayard via The Paris Review on April 16, 2019

The Turn-of-the-Century Lesbians Who Founded The Field of Home Ec

Flora Rose and Martha Van Rensselaer lived in an open lesbian relationship and helped found the field of home economics.
by Megan Elias, Erin Blakemore via JSTOR Daily on December 30, 2016
A frog and a toad together on a tandem bicycle

“Frog and Toad”: An Amphibious Celebration of Same-Sex Love

A series of illustrated children’s books endures as a classic. Was it also the author’s attempt to come out?
by Colin Stokes via The New Yorker on May 31, 2016
Gerry Studds faces reporters outside the U.S. Capitol on July 20, 1983.

Gerry Studds: The Pioneer Gay Congressman Almost Nobody Remembers

His story of coming out was so shrouded in scandal, so drenched in professional embarrassment, that its broader significance may forever be overshadowed.
by Jennifer Bendery, Sam Stein via HuffPost on February 20, 2014
Drag queen reading book to children.

Censorship Through Centuries

A new book examines battles over drag story hours and book bans through the lens of LGBTQ history.
by Rebecca L. Davis via Literary Hub on September 9, 2024
Abstract painting of people embracing.

The Forgotten History of Sex in America

Today’s battles over issues like gender nonconformity and reproductive rights have antecedents that have been lost or suppressed. What can we learn from them?
by Rebecca Mead via The New Yorker on August 26, 2024

UC Berkeley Student Brings to Light Stories of LGBTQ+ Japanese Americans Incarcerated During WWII

A UC Berkeley student’s award-winning research shines a light on LGBTQ+ life in Japanese American concentration camps during World War II.
by Tor Haugan via UC Berkeley Library on February 19, 2024
A cut out from the magazine New Masses with the headline "For College Student H.H.C," pasted over a photo montage of an archive.

“H.H.C.”: The Story of a Queer Life—Glimpsed, Lost, and Finally Found

My hunt for one man across the lonely expanse of the queer past ended in a place I never expected.
by Aaron Lecklider via Slate on April 24, 2023
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