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Explore LGBTQ+ Resources

LGBTQ+ Resources to Explore

DVDs

Academic Journals

TED Talks about Gender & Sexual Diversity

Streaming Media

Before Stonewall

In 1969 the police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City's Greenwich Village, leading to three nights of rioting by the city's gay community. With this outpouring of courage and unity the Gay Liberation Movement had begun.

BEFORE STONEWALL pries open the closet door--setting free the dramatic story of the sometimes horrifying public and private existences experienced by gay and lesbian Americans since the 1920s. Revealing and often humorous, this widely acclaimed film relives the emotionally-charged sparking of today's gay rights movement, from the events that led to the fevered 1969 riots to many other milestones in the brave fight for acceptance.

A Simple Matter of Justice

A powerful and moving piece documenting the lesbian, gay and bisexual movement in the early 1990s, A Simple Matter of Justice expresses all the emotions of the joyful protest that was the 1993 March on Washington. Sections on civil rights, AIDS and health care, the military and families are woven together from coverage of the music, comedy, speeches and marchers. Performers include Melissa Etheridge, RuPaul, BETTY, Holly Near and The Flirtations. Martina Navratilova, Sir Ian McKellan, Rev. Ben Chavis and Eartha Kitt are just a few of the speakers. Events include The Wedding, The Dyke March, ACT UP Hands Around the Capitol and a reunion of African-American veterans. A must-see for LGBTQ History.

Stonewall Uprising

In the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in the Greenwich Village section of New York City. Such raids were not unusual in the late 1960s, an era when homosexual sex was illegal in every state but Illinois. That night, however, the street erupted into violent protests and demonstrations that lasted for the next six days.

The Stonewall riots, as they came to be known, marked a major turning point in the modern gay civil rights movement in the United States and around the world.

After Stonewall

After Stonewall, the sequel to Before Stonewall, chronicles the history of lesbian and gay life from the riots at Stonewall to the end of the century. It captures the hard work, struggles, tragic defeats and exciting victories experienced since them. It explores how AIDS literally changed the direction of the movement.

Political Animals

POLITICAL ANIMALS tells the story of the civil rights struggle of this century - the gay rights movement - through the eyes of first four members of the LGBT Legislative Caucus: Jackie Goldberg, Christine Kehoe, Sheila Kuehl, and Carole Migden.

Emotionally charged like its subjects, the film follows these four ground-breaking lesbians who took the fight for the causes most personal to them and their communities off the streets and into the halls of government.

Out in the Open

OUT IN THE OPEN destroys the misconceptions, fears, and myths about the LGBTQ community. This documentary is aimed for at risk youth across the world, as well as their families, friends, and teachers. OUT IN THE OPEN presents that no single person is the same and that all people should be celebrated. OUT IN THE OPEN interviews celebrities, politicians, and everyday allies, straight and gay, who openly celebrate the LGBTQ community.

These figures discuss how they coped with stereotypes attached to their sexual orientation by sharing personal experiences of coming to terms with their sexuality.

My Whole Self: Microaggressions and Gender

A documentary film about microaggressions and gender featuring six unique voices from the Pacific Northwest at various intersections of age, race, gender, ethnicity, and social class.

MY WHOLE SELF shows how friendship and dialogue, humor and intelligence, allow women to succeed despite the implicit bias against them even in a "socially progressive" place like Portland, Oregon.

What Are You? Microaggressions and LGBTQ Identities

An intimate portrait of growing up gay, lesbian, bisexual, gender non-conforming, and transgender in the Pacific Northwest. Issues discussed include microaggressions, implicit bias, coming out, the gender binary, discrimination at the workplace, and family dynamics.

Coming Out: A 50 Year History

Transgender teen, Jazz Jennings, narrates this documentary where young people interview a host of LGBTQ elders who came out in different historical eras from the 1950s through today.

These inspiring talks give insight into the political and personal changes that shaped the modern LGBTQ movement. The young interviewers get an opportunity to compare and contrast their "coming out" experience with people who came out during McCarthy, Civil Rights, post-Stonewall, and AIDS eras. In the end, they learn that every generation of activists stands on the shoulders of those who came before and that activism needs to continue even in the light of great social strides.

Podcasts

*Nominated for Outstanding Podcast at the 2023 GLAAD Awards* Weekly interviews with the most interesting LGBTQ+ people in the world. Recent guests include Laverne Cox, Janelle Monáe, Pete Buttigieg, Brandi Carlile, Alok Vaid-Menon, and Angela Davis. LGBTQ&A is hosted by Jeffrey Masters.

Some Families is a podcast dedicated to celebrating LGBTQ+ families. Hosts Lotte Jeffs and Stu Oakley share funny, emotional and true stories from a diverse range of families with the series exploring all routes to queer parenthood including adoption, IUI and IVF donor insemination, surrogacy and co-parenting. The series also explores many different topics such as transitioning gender as a parent, growing up with LGBTQ+ parents, fostering, raising disabled children and general day to day parenting highs and lows – all through a queer parenting lens.

Join comedy duo and married couple Rose and Rosie on their craziest adventure yet: starting a family. Hold their hands - as they hold baby Ziggy’s - and find out what family looks like for the LGBTQ+ community.

The Making Gay History podcast mines Eric Marcus’s decades-old audio archive of rare interviews to create intimate, personal portraits of both known and long-forgotten champions, heroes, and witnesses to history. 

Selected Guests from the Penny Stamps Speaker Series

The Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series brings respected leaders and innovators from a broad spectrum of creative fields direct to your screen of choice with the support of the University of Michigan, Detroit Public Television and PBS Books.

Clyde Petersen: Alternate Realities, Intentional Histories and Queer Survival  Clyde Petersen is a Seattle-based artist working in film, animation, screen capturemusic, installation, and spectacle. A proud member of the transgender and queer communities in Seattle, Petersen’s work explores identity and narrative form. Petersen’s autobiographical stop-motion animated feature film Torrey Pines, a queer punk coming-of-age tale, premiered in October 2016 and toured the world with a live score. Petersen is also the leader of Your Heart Breaks, an internationally touring queercore punk band founded in 1998, and the host of the internet film series Boating with Clyde. His work has been featured around the world in museums, galleries, and other venues. Petersen is currently working on two new feature films and has a solo exhibition at the Bellevue Arts Museum titled Merch and Destroy, featuring a life-size Ford Econoline van built entirely out of cardboard and a series of fantasy guitars. Presented with support from the Ann Arbor Film Festival and the Institute for the Humanities.

 

Mx. Justin Vivian Bond: Tango Backwards and in High Heels  Singer, songwriter and Tony-nominated performance artist Mx Justin Vivian Bond is portrait of the artistan Obie, Bessie and Ethyl Eichelberger Award winner. V has written, directed and starred in numerous performances including Christmas Spells and the GLAAD nominated show Lustre. As one-half of the Performance duo Kiki and Herb, Bond has toured the world headlining at Carnegie Hall, The Sydney Opera House, and London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall. Film credits include Shortbus, Fancy’s Persuasion and Imaginary Heroes. Television appearances include Ugly Betty and Late Night With Conan O’Brian. With support from the Spectrum Center’s 40th Anniversary Celebration, the Institute for the Humanities and the University Musical Society (UMS). This lecture took place on November 17, 2011 as part of the University of Michigan School of Art & Design's Penny W. Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series. Established with the generous support of alumna Penny W. Stamps, the Speaker Series brings respected emerging and established artists/designers from a broad spectrum of media to the School to conduct a public lecture and engage with students, faculty, and the larger University and Ann Arbor communities.

Zanele Muholi: Bathini  A photographer and self-proclaimed visual activist, Zanele Muholi explores black lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and portrait intersex identities and politics in contemporary South Africa. For her series “Faces and Phases” (2006-11), Muholi created more than 200 portraits of South Africa’s lesbian community. The images challenge the stigma surrounding gays and lesbians in South Africa, debunk the common rhetoric that homosexuality is un-African, and address the preponderance of hate crimes against homosexuals in her native country. Bathini is a Zulu expression meaning 'What are they saying?' in English which is the question that is ever asked when a black lesbian is 'curatively' raped and murdered. With support from the Institute for Research on Women & Gender (IRWG) and the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies.

 

Dr. Kate Stone: Sensory Experiences  Dr. Kate Stone has spent the last decade on a journey of discovery from the world of science to creative Dr. Stonedesign. Her focus on moving electrons eventually led to the creation of her groundbreaking company, Novalia, where she has developed a new technology platform to create products that are a delightful blend of being magical, old fashioned and futuristic. Dr. Stone believes the future will look more like the past than the present due to our natural mix of nostalgia and futuristic stargazing. At Novalia, she and her team use ordinary printing presses to manufacture interactive electronics, which combine touch-sensitive ink technology and printed circuits into unique and cost-effective products. Most recently she and her team have created experiences for large brands as part of advertising campaigns, working with Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Bud Light, Hershey’s and IKEA. They are presently working on a children’s toy called Touchscape: a board game-like surface that connects to Amazon’s Alexa. Dr. Stone is from the UK, however she now lives in Woodstock, New York and has a degree in electronics from Salford University and PhD in physics from Cambridge University but believes the most useful things she learnt in life were discovered during her travels through Australia and Asia and in particular working on a sheep farm in the Australian outback. Stone sees herself as a "creative scientist," blending art and science to create startling fusions of new and old technology. In addition to her work with Novalia, Stone is a member of the Editors Code of Practice committee. Dr. Stone asks us to consider: what future world do we want build to live in? What is our mind? Do we need technology at all? How can we build resilience into our everyday life?

Digital Transgender Archive

The purpose of the Digital Transgender Archive (DTA) is to increase the accessibility of transgender history by providing an online hub for digitized historical materials, born-digital materials, and information on archival holdings throughout the world. Based in Worcester, Massachusetts at the College of the Holy Cross, the DTA is an international collaboration among more than thirty colleges, universities, nonprofit organizations, and private collections. By digitally localizing a wide range of trans-related materials, the DTA expands access to trans history for academics and independent researchers alike in order to foster education and dialog concerning trans history.