Collection: Stories from LGBT Elders in the Lehigh Valley

Scope and Contents

This collection contains a total of 18 oral history interviews, many of which are made available publicly online.

Dates

2019 - 2021

Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research and made available publicly online.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright for these oral history recordings is held by the interview subject(s). They made available with a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). The public can access and share the interviews for educational, research, and other noncommercial purposes as long as they identify the original source.

Biographical / Historical

This collection began in 2019 with the initial goal of collecting ten oral histories from older adult LGBT people in the Lehigh Valley. Topics explored include the childhood experiences of LGBT people, experiences within educational and religious institutions, coming out stories, understanding of the gay liberation movement (1960-1980s), experience of the early years of the AIDS epidemic and AIDS activism (1980s-present), and experience with the fight for marriage equality.

The project has been a collaborative effort among faculty and librarians from Cedar Crest College, Lehigh University, Moravian College, Muhlenberg College, and members of the local community, under the direction of Dr. Mary Foltz, Associate Professor of English at Lehigh University and Co-Director of the South Side Initiative.

The project was sponsored in part by the Lehigh Valley Engaged Humanities Consortium, with generous support provided by a grant to Lafayette College from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.