The OUTWORDS Archive

The Outwords Archive (OUTWORDS) is a nonprofit organization based in Los Angeles. It records and archives on-camera interviews with elders from the LGBTQ+ community throughout the United States.

History
Inspired by the Shoah Foundation's Visual History Archive of interviews with Holocaust witnesses and survivors, documentary TV and film producer Mason Funk established OUTWORDS in 2016. Half-day interviews are conducted on high-definition digital video by film crews, primarily in the homes of interview subjects. Interviewees have included lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex individuals, as well as representatives of various sub-communities of the LGBTQ community including drag queens, leather daddies, lesbian separatists, and allies. Most interviewees are over 70 years old.

In May 2018, OUTWORDS received a Creator Award in the Community Giver category from the co-working company WeWork. In May 2019, HarperCollins published the first compilation of OUTWORDS interviews, entitled The Book of Pride, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. At the same time, OUTWORDS released a searchable digital platform which makes video interviews and historical photos freely available to the public.

Interviews
As of August 2023, OUTWORDS had recorded on-camera oral histories with over 300 LGBTQIA2S+ elders in 40 states. Interviewees have included: • Daayiee Abdullah – openly gay Imam

• Roy Ashburn – former anti-LGBT politician

• Eden Atwood – intersex activist, jazz singer

• Arlene Voski Avakian – Armenian American academic

• Don Bachardy – portrait artist, longtime partner of Christopher Isherwood

• Bruce Bastian – technology pioneer

• Brett Bigham – 2014 Oregon State Teacher of the Year

• Sharon Bridgforth – writer, theater jazz artist

• David Bohnett – GeoCities founder, philanthropist

• Cidny Bullens – transgender singer-songwriter

• David Edward Byrd – graphic artist, illustrator

• Grethe Cammermeyer – retired colonel, DADT activist

• Mandy Carter – civil rights organizer

• Karen Clark – long-serving lesbian politician in Minnesota

• Sharon Day – Ojibwe leader, Native American activist

• Rochelle Diamond – research biologist, Out to Innovate chair emeritus

• Martin Duberman – playwright, historian, activist

• Elana Dykewomon – lesbian activist, author, teacher

• Denise Eger – first lgbt leader of the Central Conference of American Rabbis

• Sokari Ekine – Nigerian activist, author, blogger

• Beth Elliott – transgender lesbian folk singer

• L. Frank – Tongva-Ajachmem artist

• Chris Freeman & Jon Ginoli – musicians who formed Pansy Division

• Kenny Fries – disability activist, memoirist, poet

• Phyllis Randolph Frye – first openly transgender judge in US

• Gilberto Gerald – gay rights and HIV/AIDS activist; co-founder of the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays

• Jewelle Gomez – author, former president San Francisco Library Commission

• Jamison Green – former president of WPATH

• Beverly Greene – clinical psychologist, scholar, author

• Susan Griffin – ecofeminist activist, essayist, playwright

• Miss Major Griffin-Gracy – transgender activist

• Dean Hamer – geneticist, ‘gay gene’ researcher

• Monica Helms – creator of the Transgender Pride Flag

• Ray Hill – organizer, radio host

• Alice Y. Hom – Asian American community activist, author

• Karla Jay – author, activist

• Lorri Jean – CEO of the Los Angeles LGBT Center

• Janetta Johnson – executive director of the TGI Justice Project

• Lani Ka'ahumanu – bisexual pioneer and author

• Rupert Kinnard – creator of the first lesbian/gay African American cartoon strip

• Kay Lahusen – pioneering photojournalist

• Dick Leitsch – former president of the Mattachine Society

• Yoseñio V. Lewis – transgender healthcare activist

• David Mixner – civil rights organizer, playwright

• Nancy Nangeroni – transgender activist, founder of GenderTalk Radio

• Holly Near – singer-songwriter, actress, teacher, activist

• Diana Nyad – open ocean swimmer

• Robyn Ochs – bisexual pioneer and educator

• Torie Osborn – community organizer, political activist

• Shanna Peeples – 2015 National Teacher of the Year

• Troy Perry – founder of the Metropolitan Community Church

• K.C. Potter – academic administrator, led LGBTQ+ group at Vanderbilt

• Jennifer Pritzker – investor, philanthropist, military museum founder

• Margaret Randall – writer, photographer, academic

• Joan Roughgarden – ecologist, evolutionary biologist

• Donna Sachet – drag performer, activist

• Alex Sanchez – author of LGBTQ+ books for adults and teens

• Diane Sands – Montana state senator

• Mark Segal – journalist, founder of the National Gay Newspaper Guild

• Ruth Shack – sponsor of the Dade County 1977 Human Rights Ordinance

• Charles Silverstein – mental health activist, author

• Alan M. Steinman – retired admiral, DADT activist

• Susan Stryker – transgender academic, filmmaker, author

• Jewel Thais-Williams – Los Angeles nightclub owner

• Jim Toy – college campus activist

• Jean-Nickolaus Tretter – LGBTQ+ historian

• Kitty Tsui – Chinese-American poet, author, bodybuilder

• Carmen Vázquez – health care activist

• Bruce Vilanch – Emmy-winning comedian

• Del LaGrace Volcano – artist, performer, intersex activist

• Phill Wilson – Black AIDS Institute founder

• Evan Wolfson – marriage equality activist

• Mia Yamamoto – attorney, transgender activist

Publications

 * The Book of Pride: LGBTQ Heroes Who Changed the World, (HarperCollins, May 2019), ISBN 978-0-0625-7170-0