Our First Interview in each U.S. State
Since 2016, The Outwords Archive (OUTWORDS) has traveled the United States recording on-camera oral history interviews with Two Spirit and LGBTQIA+ elders. One day, Mason read a newspaper profile of Eric Jubler, a heterosexual attorney and LGBTQ+ ally who successfully argued a case before the Supreme Court against so-called decency laws preventing the distribution of LGBTQ+ content through the postal service. No attorney would take the case, and Eric felt an injustice was being perpetrated. Mason was inspired by the story, contacted Eric for an interview, and drove up to Eric's home in Carmel, California on January 21, 2015, in what became the first OUTWORDS interview.
Since then OUTWORDS has sent film crews to capture interviews in New York, Los Angeles, Florida, Minnesota, and other states with queer legends who let us into their homes. Many times, it was a scramble to find a diverse field of interviewees until days before the trip; if people weren’t available during the brief window, we didn’t get their interview.
In 2020, when the Covid pandemic brought in-person interviews to a standstill, the OUTWORDS team quickly pivoted to virtual interviews. At first we devised a way to capture high quality video recordings by using interviewees' own computers to record and store the footage, which we accessed via temporary remote control software. With the donation of several laptops, OUTWORDS started shipping recording kits to standardize the recording process.
Previously we only sent film crews to populous regions so the ability to ship camera kits to remote areas enabled us to capture many diverse interviews. Today OUTWORDS captures both in-person and virtual interviews, either by sending a film crew or shipping a camera kit.
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bisexual activist, writer, educator
Takoma Park, MD
Loraine Hutchins was born in the late 1940s in Washington, DC. She graduated with a degree in English and American Literature in 1970 from Shimer...
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kentucky-born author and educator
Tucson, AZ
Fenton Johnson was born in Kentucky in 1953, the youngest of nine children in a bourbon-making family. His parents named him after a monk at...
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organizer, 1979 March on washington; bisexual activist
Washington D.C., DC
ABilly Jones-Hennin was born in 1942 on St. John’s, Antigua and adopted at age three by civil rights activists with nine other adopted kids. After...
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early gay rights legal ally
Carmel, CA
Eric Julber was born in October, 1925 in New York City. His father relocated the family to Santa Monica, California to work as a musician...
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Retired social worker, bisexual pioneer, community activist
Portland, ME
BobBI (Barbara) Keppel was born on December 6, 1932 in Washington, DC. She graduated from Oberlin College in 1955, but spent a year abroad at...
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Idaho's First Out Elected Official
Boise, ID
Cole LeFavour was born on February 8, 1964 in Aspen, Colorado. Raised by unconventional parents in a loving, nurturing household, they grew up with ample...
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gay bar owner, AIDS care provider
Jackson, MS
Jack was born in Pelahatchie, Mississippi in 1944. His father owned a logging and lumber business, and later a small engine repair shop. Jack’s mother...
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drag performer, nightclub proprietor
Meally, KY
Bradley Picklesimer was born on March 15, 1958, in Lexington, Kentucky. One of four children, Bradley had a happy early childhood with a father who...
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university dean and lgbtq students advocate
Centerville, TN
K.C. Potter was born in 1939 at Fallsburg, Kentucky. In high school, K.C. wrote sport stories for the local newspaper, and participated in speech tournaments...
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Longtime HIV Survivor, HIV/AIDS Advocate/Ally
Greenville, NC
Esther Ross was born on April 22nd, 1961, in Brooklyn, New York. Raised in Bucksport, South Carolina, she grew up as one of eleven siblings....
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former Catholic seminarian; sustainable agriculture activist
Lacona, IA
A fifth-generation Iowa farmer, Matt Russell was born in 1970 and raised in the rural community of Anita, Iowa. Of the 28 students in Matt’s...
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LGBTQ, AIDS, and racial equity advocate and activist
Portland, OR
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, and raised in a family committed to justice and education, Kathleen Saadat graduated from Chicago’s Farragut High School in 1957...
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Stonewall witness, publisher, Philadelphia Gay News
Philadelphia, PA
Mark Segal was born in Philadelphia, and raised in the only Jewish household in his public housing project. As a child, he learned of friends...
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farm boy, teacher, fisting educator
Tajique, NM
Guy Seiler was born in Wichita, Kansas in 1955, the fourth of nine children in a German Catholic family, and raised on a wheat farm...
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