Telling Queer History

Donate towards our Legacy Fundraising Campaign to build resources for another 10 years

https://www.givemn.org/story/Tqhlegacy

Join us in celebrating 10 years of connecting LGBTQ+ people across generations and identities through storytelling on Saturday June 3rd from 6-9pm.

You can also support us by bidding on auction items. Auction closes at 7:15pm CST on June 3rd. https://app.galabid.com/legacy

 Thank you for supporting Telling Queer History! Your time, stories, and resources are what allows us to build a healing and connected LGBTQ+ community. 

This year we got our largest funding yet from the Minnesota Humanities Center via the Community Heritage and Cultural Identity grant to support working with our audio/video archives. We have started transcribing, keywording, and getting permission from storytellers for 20 recordings. Our new staff, partially funded by this grant and in part by your donations, Lucinda Pepper, released their first two writing from this project, titled Joy, Reclamation & Resistance; this project was produced in connection to our December gathering on Sex, Pleasure, and Embodiment and in response to the recent mass shooting at Club Q. The second one is in response to our February gathering on Polyamory, Circles of Care, and Connection, What Lies in Your Heart Space? Please take the time to enjoy the stories on our website in the archives section.

New initiatives thanks to donors like you!

A walking LGBTQ+ history tour of downtown in partnership with the MN Humanities Center in October was a huge success. We plan to repeat it June 19, 2023, so save the date if you missed it. 

A legal workshop on End of Life Paperwork thanks to three lawyers volunteering their time in connection with our October gathering on Grief, Death, and Remembering. Both were so well received and we got requests to host them again, year after year. Our community is longing for collective grief rituals and space.

After years of hauling a long delicate paper timeline of LGBTQ+ history (including personal moments people have added) to events, we have now entered all the data collected into a spreadsheet and are fact checking each item. The timeline is going to be a digital tool that folks can interact with. We plan to share this by June 2023.

One of the ways we are building in care for our contractors is to hire a backup ASL interpreter for each event. If a lead interpreter gets sick, they get sick pay and the backup person is able to step into the lead position. This simple idea costs us $50 each event and adds so much care and trust to our team. Thanks to our past board member David for this idea. 

The biggest thing that has changed this year is that we now have consistent wages for 2 staff working ¾ time! This is the most paid staff Telling Queer History has ever had. We are so grateful for all who have dedicated time and resources to making this happen. It makes our whole organization and all of our operations more sustainable. 

Donor management software! Many spreadsheets with overlapping bits of donor data have been combined over the last few months as we prepare to import our donors into the new system. Look for more personalized communication and data-informed decision making from us in 2023. 

Thanks for investing in Telling Queer History all year round to make this possible! 

Telling Queer History connects lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and/or queer (LGBTQ+) people through storytelling gatherings, since June 2013. When we share our histories, we find unexpected commonalities. TQH gives people a space to grow in their understanding of themselves, each other, and their collective history and to foster community.

We envision an intersectional LGBTQ+ community dedicated to authentic conversations that strengthen a sense of belonging, connection, agency, and hope, where all voices are heard, valued, and respected.

The mission of Telling Queer History is to connect Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer + people across generations and identities through storytelling gatherings, which bring communities together to foster compassion, empathy, and healing.

See our upcoming events here: https://www.tellingqueerhistory.com/gatherings Free, All-Ages, Substance-free, ASL interpreted events.