In this four-day summer camp, learners will explore the history of LGBTQ people and rights in American history. The camp will primarily consist of lectures with slides, including photos and videos, with an emphasis placed on learner discussion. 

Monday: We will begin by looking at language. We will talk about the limitations of modern language to explore queer history before the twentieth century. Terms such as lesbian, homosexual, bisexual, gay, transgender, queer, straight, cisgender, non-binary, and Two-Spirit will be defined, along with a look at when they entered the English language. We will then move into exploring the diversity of North American Indigenous nations' views on gender and same-sex relationships in the Pre-Colonial Era. We will look at views on gender and same-sex relationships colonizers brought to America, and how those ideas were forced upon various Indigenous cultures as part of colonization. We will further explore how forced European norms impacted the traditional cultures and governments of some Indigenous nations. Finally, we will look at views on gender and same-sex relationships in West African societies before the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, and what cultural ideas the people kidnapped, enslaved, and forced to journey to America might have brought to the continent. We will end Day 1 by looking at the life of Publick Universal Friend and making a visit to Merrymount Colony.

Day 2: We will look at gender diversity, same sex relationships, "schoolgirl smashes," and "Boston marriages" in eighteenth and nineteenth-century America. In the lecture and discussion will be women who served as Revolutionary War and Civil War soldiers, We'wha's meeting with U.S. President Grover Cleveland, American actress Charlotte Cushman who often played male roles on stage and "married" Rosalie Sully, and writers such as Walt Whitman. Consideration will be given to the lives of historical figures from Emily Dickinson to Abraham Lincoln and their passionate correspondences with same-sex friends. We'll explore the question: Did people just express themselves differently in the 1800s, or were these romantic relationships? We will end Day 2 with a look at the life of William Dorsey Swan who went from being enslaved to recognition as America's first drag queen. 

Day 3: On Day 3, we move into the twentieth century and the founding of the first U.S. gay rights organization, the Society of Human Rights in 1924. We'll follow the history through to the founding of the Mattachine Society in 1950, and meet Christine Jorgensen, who became one of the first visible transgender people when she spoke about her experiences to the media. From there, we'll look at protests, riots, and demonstrations for LGBTQ rights throughout the 1960s and 1970s, including the Compton Cafeteria Riot, Julius' Bar "Sip-In," the Stonewall Inn Uprising, the first Gay Liberation Day March, and the evolution of Pride parades and celebrations. We'll meet Marsha Johnson and Sylvia Rivera and learn about their work to found Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries (STAR), as well as Harvey Milk, the first openly gay person to be elected to public office. 

Day 4: On our final day, we'll follow the rise of the AIDS/HIV pandemic and its impact on LGBTQ people and activism in the 1980s and 1990s. We'll learn about ACT UP and how the group used direct action to bring attention to AIDS-related issues. Transgender Day of Remembrance was founded in 1998 and Transgender Day of Visibility in 2009. We'll look at the origins of both, as well as the impact of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting on LGBTQ history. President Joe Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act into law in 2022, but we'll look at the long road of activism that led to that moment including the 2015 "Obergefell v. Hodges" Supreme Court ruling that made marriage equality U.S. law. We'll wrap up with an overview of current events.