I was very pleased to be invited by Loida Garcia-Febo to contribute to a blog post for the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions Continuing Professional Development and Workplace Learning Section (IFLA-CPDWL) in honor of Pride Month.
Loida to each library leader: Thank you for your service to our profession. If you could share a message with the library community during the Pride Month, what would it be? What resources would you share with the library community to celebrate Pride?
You can view the entire post here and/or read my response below:
Happy Pride 2020!
This is usually a joyous time. In a typical June, we gather together to celebrate our shared interests and achievements and enjoy each other’s company. We have much to celebrate – literature, legislation, legacies, and love. Love is foundational.
This year, as we approach the golden anniversary of the founding of the American Library Association’s Task Force on Gay Liberation, now the Rainbow Round Table – the nation’s first LGBTQIA+ professional organziation, we have adjusted our plans for pride in the face of a pandemic. Still, we connect and reflect. We find renewed strength in our queerness. Looking back, we recall fun times and fond memories mixed in with some uncertainties and pain. We are still here – reading, writing, speaking, listening, taking action. We recognize and we are grateful to those who have struggled and to those who continue to guide us towards equity and justice. We mourn those we have lost. While ours is not a single story, we share a common sense of optimism for our future. We look forward to continuing to work together across communities to overcome emergent and persistent challenges and to creating a more sustainable spectrum of existence.
Here is a sampling of fabulous e-resources of possible interest to the library community:
➤ The Arquives is an organization dedicated to celebrating, preserving, and collecting LGBTQIA+ stories and histories. https://arquives.ca
➤ Digital Transgender Archive is an online hub for digitized historical materials and information on archival holdings throughout the world. https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net
➤ Excavating Black Queer Thought: A Pride Bibliography I and II are resources to illuminate the multiplicity of experiences existing within Black LGBTQIA+ life. https://www.aaihs.org/excavating-black-queer-thought-a-pride-bibliography-ii
➤ Gerber/Hart Library and Archives collects, preserves, and makes accessible items related to LGBTQ history and culture. https://www.gerberhart.org
➤ GLSEN is an organization that conducts extensive research to inform K-12 education and to ensure LGBTQIA+ students are supported and included. https://www.glsen.org
➤ IFLA LGBTQ Users Special Interest Group is dedicated to sharing professional knowledge by offering opportunities to engage in discussion. https://www.ifla.org/lgbtq
➤ The Kinsey Institute is a research hub on critical issues in sexuality and gender. https://kinseyinstitute.org
➤ Kumu Hina offers resources related to the story of a Native Hawaiian who is a proud māhū, (transgender woman) and respected kumu (teacher). https://kumuhina.com
➤ Lambda Literary is an organization dedicated to LGBTQIA+ books and authors that offers programs and annual literary awards. https://www.lambdaliterary.org
➤ Leather Archives and Museum is a community archives, library, and museum of Leather, kink, fetish, and BDSM history and culture. https://leatherarchives.org
➤ The Legacy Project collects, preserves, and educates about LGBTQIA+ contributions to world history and culture. https://legacyprojectchicago.org
➤ Lesbian Herstory Archive offers the world’s largest collection of materials by and about lesbians and their communities. http://www.lesbianherstoryarchives.org
➤ LGBT Books to Prisoners is a prison abolitionist project focused on sending books to incarcerated LGBTQ-identified people. https://lgbtbookstoprisoners.org
➤ Mariposas Sin Fronteras is a group seeking to end the systemic violence and abuse of LGBTQ people held in prison and immigration detention. https://mariposassinfronteras.org
➤ Making Gay History provides LGBTQIA+ oral histories focused around civil rights. https://makinggayhistory.com
➤ National AIDS Memorial offers dedicated space and services to gather, heal, hope, and remember. https://aidsmemorial.org
➤ National Park Service LGBTQ Heritage shares stories and images celebrating LGBTQ histories across the United States. https://www.nps.gov/subjects/tellingallamericansstories/lgbtqheritage.htm
➤ ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives features a large repository of LGBTQIA+ materials. https://one.usc.edu
➤ Que(e)ry Librarians organzies events to encourage community among queer information professionals and their friends. https://www.queeryparty.org
➤ The Queer Zine Archive Project (QZAP) is a free on-line searchable database of queer zines. https://www.qzap.org
➤ Rainbow Book List / Over the Rainbow are annual bibliographies of quality books with significant and authentic LGBTQIA+ content from the American Library Association’s Rainbow Round Table. https://glbtrt.ala.org/rainbowbooks; https://www.glbtrt.ala.org/overtherainbow
➤ Rainbow Heritage Network is an organization committed to the recognition and preservation of sites, history, and heritage associated with sexual and gender minorities. https://rainbowheritagenetwork.org
➤ Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence is a boastfully queer organization dedicated to community service, outreach, and exuberance. https://www.thesisters.org
➤ Stonewall Book Awards, sponsored by the American Library Association’s Rainbow Round Table, was the first and is the most enduring award for LGBTQIA+ books. http://www.ala.org/rt/rrt/award/stonewall/honored
➤ Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection is an LGBTQIA+ archival repository with books, periodicals, grey literature, personal and organizational records, zines and pamphlets, artifacts and ephemera, and audiovisual materials housed at the University of Minnesota Libraries. It includes the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project, which makes available oral histories of gender transgression, broadly understood through a trans framework. https://www.lib.umn.edu/tretter
➤ Trevor Project is an organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention. https://www.thetrevorproject.org
Also, be sure to connect with and support your local LGBTQIA+ community groups!!
Written
on 2020/11/14