Gay, lesbian and bisexual identified people are more than the fight for the right to marry. LGBTQ people are more than the hardships and the discriminatory practices of some of the world’s most ignorant inhabitants. And most of all, those who are LGBTQ-identified are more than the fictional stories that we see (in small amounts) on television or in films. But it’s hard, even for LGBTQ identified media creators themselves, to portray an accurate representation of the lives and tales that other LGBTQ people have lived through, especially when the range and depth of the stories encompasses various cultures and class lines. So who better to tell these stories than LGBTQ people themselves?
StoryCorps is the organisation to realise that no one tells the story best like the people who have lived it. For 10 years they have compiled the stories of Americans (both cis and straight) with the ‘OutLoud’ section of their site now specifically developed to include the stories of LGBTQ people too. A non-profit team behind the vertical, StoryCorps says that they started OutLoud as they recognise…
“the profound historical importance of capturing the stories of the LGBTQ community and the urgent need for this work to happen now. StoryCorps OutLoud is a multi-year initiative dedicated to recording and preserving LGBTQ stories across America.”
Those stories (all presented in audio form), StoryCorps explains, includes stories those who lived before the monumental 1969 Stonewall movement, stories of LGBTQ youth and more in an effort to put together “a diverse collection of stories that will enrich our nation’s history”. They seem to be doing a good job so far with several highlighted stories being one about ex-gay therapy and another about being a gay woman in the U.S military (the U.S military only recently removed its ban on queer soldiers), which are the sorts of stories that aren’t often covered in fictional or news-related media.
Visit the site here at StoryCorps.com.
