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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LGBTQ historian
St Paul, MN
Jean Tretter was born in 1946, in Little Falls, Minnesota, into a German-Catholic family who had immigrated to the United States a century before. During...
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South Asian author, activist, and professor
Missoula, MT
Ruth Vanita was born on December 19, 1955 in Rangoon, Burma. She grew up in West Delhi, where she filled her days playing with neighborhood...
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Wisconsin LGBTQ politician, historian
Madison, WI
Dick Wagner was born in 1943 in Dayton, Ohio into a traditional German Catholic family (his great grandparents ran a successful beer brewery). Dick attended...
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Lincoln City Councilmember, Racial Equity Advocate
Lincoln, NE
Sändra Washington was born on October 6th, 1960, in Columbus, Ohio. She and her identical twin sister, Sharon, spent their first four years in Westerville,...
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mormon parents and their gay son
Provo, UT
Gary Watts was born in 1940 in Logan, Utah into a committed Mormon family. He attended Utah State University, where he was captain of the...
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AIDS community activist; founder, The Victory Fund
Linden, VA
William Waybourn was born in 1947 in Houston, Texas, and raised on a farm in Matador, Texas, 95 miles east of Lubbock – in other...
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Black Comic, Host, and Humor Educator
Oxford, OH
Karen Williams was born on August 12, 1952 in the Soundview area of the Bronx. Karen’s parents were only 18 years old when she was...
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military veteran; technology entrepreneur; motorcyclist
The Villages, FL
Charlotte Wilson was born in 1947 in Oklahoma City. Her father, who was part native American, was stationed in Australia during World War II; that’s...
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