So apparently last year the National Park Service in the US dropped an over 1200 page study of LGBTQ American History as part of their Who We Are program which includes studies on African-American history, Latino history, and Indigenous history.
Like. This is awesome. But also it feels very surreal that maybe one of the most comprehensive examinations of LGBTQ history in America (it covers sports! art! race! historical sites! health! cities!) was just casually done by the parks service.
This is really great??
Chapter 1: Prologue: Why LGBTQ Historic Sites Matter by Mark Meinke
Chapter 2: Introduction to the LGBTQ Heritage Initiative Theme Study by Megan E. Springate
Chapter 3: Introduction to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) History in the United States by Leisa Meyer and Helis Sikk
Chapter 4: The History of Queer History: One Hundred Years of the Search for Shared Heritage by Gerard Koskovich
Chapter 5: The Preservation of LGBTQ Heritage by Gail Dubrow
Chapter 6: LGBTQ Archeological Context by Megan E. Springate
Chapter 7: A Note about Intersectionality by Megan E. Springate
Chapter 8: Making Bisexuals Visible by Loraine Hutchins
Chapter 9: Sexual and Gender Diversity in Native America and the Pacific Islands by Will Roscoe
Chapter 10: Transgender History in the US and the Places that Matter by Susan Stryker
Chapter 11: Breathing Fire: Remembering Asian Pacific American Activism in Queer History by Amy Sueyoshi
Chapter 12: Latina/o Gender and Sexuality by Deena J. González and Ellie D. Hernandez
Chapter 13: “Where We Could Be Ourselves”: African American LGBTQ Historic Places and Why They Matter by Jeffrey A. Harris
Chapter 14: LGBTQ Spaces and Places by Jen Jack Gieseking
Chapter 15: Making Community: The Places and Spaces of LGBTQ Collective Identity Formation by Christina B. Hanhardt
Chapter 16: LGBTQ Business and Commerce by David K. Johnson
Chapter 17: Sex, Love, and Relationships by Tracy Baim
Chapter 18: LGBTQ Civil Rights in America by Megan E. Springate
Chapter 19: Historical Landmarks and Landscapes of LGBTQ Law by Marc Stein
Chapter 20: LGBTQ Military Service by Steve Estes
Chapter 21: Struggles in Body and Spirit: Religion and LGBTQ People in US History by Drew Bourn
Chapter 22: LGBTQ and Health by Katie Batza
Chapter 23: LGBTQ Art and Artists by Tara Burk
Chapter 24: LGBTQ Sport and Leisure by Katherine Schweighofer
Chapter 25: San Francisco: Placing LGBTQ Histories in the City by the Bay by Donna J. Graves and Shayne E. Watson
Chapter 26: Preservation of LGBTQ Historic & Cultural Sites – A New York City Perspective by Jay Shockley
Chapter 27: Locating Miami’s Queer History by Julio Capó, Jr.
Chapter 28: Queerest Little City in the World: LGBTQ Reno by John Jeffrey Auer IV
Chapter 29: Chicago: Queer Histories at the Crossroads of America by Jessica Herczeg-Konecny
Chapter 30: Nominating LGBTQ Places to the National Register of Historic Places and as National Historic Landmarks: An Introduction by Megan E. Springate and Caridad de la Vega
Chapter 31: Interpreting LGBTQ Historic Sites by Susan Ferentinos
Chapter 32: Teaching LGBTQ History and Heritage by Leila J. Rupp
Let me explain what is happening here, because I don’t think that this post is very representative of why this matters.
The purpose of the theme studies, this one included, is to locate the physical remnants of the past, so that they can be properly preserved by governmental and nonprofit entities. They are not just descriptions of history, they are documents that can be used for grant work, for preventing places from being destroyed, or for promoting the restoration of those places. This theme study is a statement from the federal government that the preservation of these places is important, and that can be translated by the states into these places being legally required to be protected.
The theme studies are also really important because they recontextualized what it means to locate history in a place. This started before the LGBT theme study, there’s a lot of this in the Latino theme study, but they present a reconsideration of what you can call historic when the actions of a group left no physical traces on the spaces that they used. We are now seeing the possibility of considering places like cruising areas as historic properties because they represent the patterns of a culture.
This is the Park Service’s job. This is what you should be expecting from them. There are theme studies and special resource studies on dozens of things. A really important Civil Rights one dropped like last week. The Park Service is charged with running our national parks, sure, but the bulk of their work is like this. This is the type of shit that you can and should expect out of your National Park Service. Nobody else is gonna do it.
