#queer archive

[archivearchangelica]

Bobbie the Dyke Doll, 2005

[ppups]

[nariarts]

I posted about the exhibition Lavender Menace put on recently - and they could use your support!

They're a really vital queer archive and community space, but they're facing clousures if they can't get funding streams secured. And trust me; the funding landscape in Scotland is diabolical for everyone right now, and queer organisations are getting hit harder.

They've secured funding for 6 months through crowdfunding already (!!!) but getting to their stretch goal of £45k would allow them to stay open for a year and really help their case for future funding applications.

There's a few thankyou rewards on offer, too, including badges, postcards, books, theatre tickets, workshops, and a massage! (the last 3 are all based IRL in ediburgh though)

If you're able to, you can donate here!

[dyke-tm]

Yellow with green text, "An Army of Lovers Shall Not Fail" and green labrys.

Collection: 

Schlesinger Library, Harvard Radcliffe Institute

From Wearing Gay History Archive

[soynepanlerx]

Launching the Wetty Digital Zine Lab 💧

A bi-weekly online creative container for storytelling, collage, reflection, and collective zine-making rooted in Wetty pedagogy and elemental storytelling.

No prior zine-making experience needed.

Just come as you are.

🌱 Summer 2026 Wetty Cenote Cycle begins May 24

🌀 Every other Sunday

💻 Zoom

💧 Suggested donation: $5–15 (no one turned away)

We gather to create collective archives of our stories, waters, grief, memory, rage, pleasure, and return.

More info + registration:

ko-fi.com/soynepantlerx

[cempasuchil-flower]

Toby, a self-identifying genderless person, appeared on the Sally Jessy Raphael show in 1989 to discuss their experience and gender identity.

[texaschainsawmoan]

some of my fave random pages from digital transgender archive and qzap zines

[itgetsbetter]

Some tangible Black queer history for you!

In case you needed any more proof that we've always been here - this amazing collection is courtesy of the Stonewall National Musuem and Archive!

Rafiki: The Journal of the Association of Black Gays, Vol. 1 #1 (Fall 1976)

"Rafiki was a quarterly publication from the Association of Black Gays (ABG), a Los Angeles, California gay activist group that organized through education, political engagement, and grassroots activism to improve the conditions for Los Angeles’s Black gays and lesbians.

According to the journal, the title Rafiki was chosen because it means “friend” in Swahili and “that’s what [ABG] hope to be for you.” This first issue includes an article on the history of ABG and the fact that Black gays and lesbians have been largely excluded from the political, social, and economic advances of the gay community.

Included in this issue are articles such as “Homosexuality in Tribal Africa” and “Disco Discontent” (an open letter to the owner of Studio One, Scott Forbes), as well as poetry by Steven Corbin and Frances Andrews, and book reviews. It even contains an ad for the famous Catch One Club owned by Jewel Williams, which is still operating today!"

I Am Your Sister: Black Women Organizing Across Sexualities by Audre Lorde (Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, 1985; from the Freedom Organizing Series)

You can read this one here!

"This small twelve-page publication derives from a speech Audre Lorde gave at the Women’s Center of Medgar Evers College in New York City regarding the exclusion of Lesbians in the feminist movement and how Lorde’s identity as both a Black woman and lesbian are inextricably linked.

Primarily, heterosexism and homophobia are major issues Lorde states are “two grave barriers to organizing among Black women.” Lorde ends the essay with the statement: “I am a Black Lesbian, and I am your sister.”

Her emphasis on the duality of this identity stems from a 1960s poster that said “He’s not black, he’s my brother!,” which Lorde states infuriated her because “it implied that the two were mutually exclusive.”

Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press was founded by Barbara Smith—another Black Lesbian feminist—and Audre Lorde in 1980 to create a publishing apparatus for women of color who at the time did not have control over how they were published except through the white-dominated outlets."

Flawless! The Life & Times of T.B.D.J. AKA Tiffani Inc. AKA Mrs. … (Manuscript) by Tiffany Bowerman (July 2007, A&E Publishers)

This autobiographical manuscript traces the life of Tiffany Bowerman aka Tiffany B.D. Johnson (b. 1959), who states that she “was the first African-American Transsexual to have state issued birth certificate reissued [1990]… was the first to legally marry three different active duty military men… [and] first… to found their own Christian Denomination… The Agape-Ecumenical Christian Denomination.”

Further, she states “I have tried to put together something striking and original[,] a journey from childhood to self aware adult. A life that was and is with all regrets included.”

This manuscript is a preliminary copy of a rough draft, and contains various memoirs, photographs, legal documents, and ephemera.

Out in Black and White: A Directory of Publications By, About, For People of Afrikan Descent In-The-Life by the Broward County Library Outreach Services Department Exhibit/Programming Services with direction by Eric Jon Rawlins (January, 1996)

Out in Black and White is a directory of various serial publications (magazines, newsletters, journals, etc.) throughout the United States that are focused on the Black LGBTQ experience. According to the directory, “[t]his project was inspired by the atmosphere of strength, oneness and productivity created by the Million Man March [on October 16,] 1995.”

The Million Man March was a political demonstration that took place at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. with the purpose of encouraging involvement in the improvement of the conditions of African Americans. Eric Jon Rawlins was a Broward County, Florida librarian who at one time was also the second vice president of the NAACP Fort Lauderdale branch in the late 1980s.

Currently, the Eric Jon Rawlins Collection consisting of personal and professional papers, as well as his 6,000 vinyl record album collection, are housed at the African American Research Library and Cultural Center Special Collections in Broward County, FL.