Browse Items (110 total)

Robin Cohen reflects on growing up Jewish, intellectually precocious, left-handed, athletic, and increasingly aware of lesbian difference in the Chicago suburbs. She describes family divorce, early isolation, painful messages about homosexuality, and…

Julia Condolora reflects on growing up in an Italian Catholic family in Syracuse, New York, where she felt shy, introverted, and privately drawn to women’s clothing from an early age. She describes shame, fear, and secrecy around dressing, later…

Jerry Gerash talks about growing up in California, being Jewish, going to Berkley, becoming a lawyer, establishing the Gay Coalition of Denver, and becoming an activist and leader in the Denver LGBTQ community.

Anna Cher Simon and Fran Simon reflect on love, marriage, parenting, and LGBTQ legal advocacy in Colorado. They met through Yahoo online dating in the Bay Area, built a relationship across distance, and moved to Denver after Anna accepted a position…

Craig Dietz reflects on growing up Jewish in Vail during its transformation from a small ski town into an international resort. Born in Philadelphia in 1965 and raised in Colorado after 1971, he discusses family construction work, antisemitism,…

Chocolate Waters reflects on a life shaped by writing, rebellion, lesbian community, and artistic survival. Born in Maryland and raised largely in conservative Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, she describes feeling out of place before discovering lesbian…

Chester MacQuary recounts a life rooted in rural Colorado, political conscience, and queer self-understanding. Born in Granby in 1936, he describes poverty, family resilience, school, early awareness of male attraction, and finding language through…

Wren Davis Pheonix’s oral history traces growing up in southwest Denver, navigating family trauma, foster care, gender fluidity, and early recognition of queer identity. Pheonix describes coming out, leaving college, working in Denver lesbian bars…

William Arndt’s four-part oral history traces his life from Boulder childhood through music, family, coming out, Philadelphia, public service, church, travel, and return to Colorado. He reflects on growing up as a loved only child, gender…

Scott Perrin’s oral history explores growing up gay in a restrictive Church of Christ family in suburban Denver, surviving childhood trauma, and finding escape through school, work, and Denver’s gay bars. He describes living a double life, coming…