News

Dear OUTWORDS Family and Supporters,

It’s sometimes hard to know where to start. The last few weeks have been a powerful brew of anger, grief, determination – and hope. Is our nation ready to finally confront our racial sins and wounds? Only time (and our own levels of individual commitment) will tell.

In the meantime, it’s Pride Month. To me, the timing is actually good, offering the opportunity to ask, what does Pride mean right now? In its infancy, the LGBTQ+ civil rights movement was...

Dear OUTWORDS Family,

Yesterday was the first day of what is traditionally called Pride Month. But here at OUTWORDS, we spent the day grappling with how to respond as LGBTQ+ people of conscience to the latest manifestations of our nation’s systemic violence against Black lives. And here in my own heart, I am grappling with how to respond from a place of accountability—to acknowledge publicly and unequivocally that as a white American, I am complicit in and have benefitted from the...

Dear OUTWORDS community,
I hope you and yours are faring well. It’s a tough time, isn’t it? Maybe like a lot of you, I have good days and really not good days. I want to share one message I found encouraging recently. Perhaps it’ll be helpful to you.

Two months ago, before the days of COVID, I hired two new part-time OUTWORDS team members. When COVID hit, I was very worried I would have to turn around and let them go. But so far, thanks to you and other generous donors, we have been able...

Dear OUTWORDS friends,
We wish you comfort, safety, sustenance and peace during this very challenging time.

Here at OUTWORDS, we have been struck in recent weeks with the importance of the mission that has been entrusted to us. LGBTQ+ elders, the pioneers of our extraordinary civil rights movement, are among those most acutely threatened by the coronavirus crisis. We want to take this opportunity to send them a special greeting of honor, love, and gratitude.

One day, the history of the...

Dear OUTWORDS friends,
It’s a busy time for our American democracy. No matter where we reside on the political map, we can all agree that the heart of our democracy is VOTING. I was heartened to read this news item today, highlighting a successful North Dakota lawsuit to guarantee fair ballot box access for indigenous Americans. Click here, here, and here for organizations doing great work in the voting rights realm, and let’s join forces to guarantee free and fair elections in 2020!...

Dear OUTWORDS friends,

Happy 2020! We hope this year and decade will be filled with love, purpose, and peace.

To be sure, these are complex times we live in; but the mission of OUTWORDS remains clear: to record, preserve and disseminate the invaluable stories of LGBTQ+ pioneers and elders, while we still have time. These stories are both deeply inspiring, and an essential bulwark against any attempt to erase our history. We are so grateful for your support for this work!

As...