LGBTQ+ Resources

The ACT UP Oral History Project is a collection of interviews with surviving members of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, New York.

The Human Sexuality Collection seeks to preserve and make accessible primary sources that document historical shifts in the social construction of sexuality, with a focus on U.S. lesbian and gay history and the politics of pornography.

New York residents ages 13 and older can get a digital library card through our online card application and gain access to an array of digital resources, including these databases: Archives of Sexuality and Gender; Diversity Studies; and Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Issues Collection.

The Lesbian Herstory Archives is home to the world's largest collection of materials by and about lesbians and their communities.

The LGBT Community Center National History Archive is a community-based archive that collects, preserves and makes available to the public the documentation of LGBTQ lives and organizations centered in and around New York.

The Manuscripts and Archives Division of the New York Public Library holds over 100 collections pertaining to the history and culture of gay men and lesbians, and to the history of the AIDS/HIV epidemic. Gay and lesbian history and AIDS history are not a single subject; however, because of their interrelationships, both types of collections are included in this guide.

Founded in 1991 to encourage and facilitate the reading and research of LGBT literature, the Pat Parker/Vito Russo Center Library is named in honor of individuals who championed LGBT causes in their professional and personal lives. The Center Library is a lending library connected with others around the city, sponsor of a monthly reading group, and producer and/or collaborator for literary events of interest to the LGBT community.

Thank you to the Pratt Institute library staff for permitting RPI to use their guide as a template.

The “LGBTQ Task Force” is a volunteer group of staff, faculty, and students from Rensselaer who work towards creating a more inclusive and welcoming campus community for LGBTQ campus community members and their guests, alumni, and visitors. Members of the LGBTQ Task Force work across four subcommittee areas to help create a more inclusive and welcoming campus community: Policy, Curriculum, Events, and External Relations.

A research guide created by Pratt Institute Libraries on Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries we made for 2016 Pride. STAR made a huge impact in the Gay Liberation movement, advocated for gay rights and was one of the first attempts to address the needs of homeless trans youth in New York.

The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) was founded in March 1987 at the Lesbian and Gay Community Center in New York City's Greenwich Village as an organization devoted to direct action (demonstrations and civil disobedience) to call the attention of government officials, scientists, drug companies and other corporations, and the general public to the severity of the AIDS crisis and its impact on the lives of individuals. Records of the organization consist of administrative files, minutes, correspondence, records of demonstrations, financial documents, chapter and committee records, subject files, conference notes and programs, published and near-print materials, ephemera, fliers and handbills, photographs, artifacts, posters and placards documenting the organization's efforts.

Barbara Gittings (1932-2007) and Kay Tobin Lahusen (1930-) were gay civil rights pioneers and partners for nearly forty-six years. The collection contains their personal and professional papers, photographs by Lahusen created in the course of forty-five years of gay rights activism, and the extensive collection of materials they gathered and preserved to document the movement. The collection also includes Gittings’ extensive correspondence with fellow activists, most notably Frank Kameny, records of her editorial work on The Ladder, interviews conducted for Lahusen’s book, The Gay Crusaders, and organizational files from their work in such organizations as the Daughters of Bilitis and several other early homophile groups; the Gay Task Force of the American Library Association; the Gay Activists Alliance; and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

The collection consists of black and white photographic prints, color slides and negatives taken by Diana Davies during the late 1960's through the 1970's. The subjects include representatives of several New York gay and lesbian organizations including the Gay Liberation Front and Lavender Menace, and demonstrations, marches and meetings. Individuals photographed include Rita Mae Brown (activist and writer), Jill Johnston (writer and critic), Bob Kohler (co-founder of the Gay Liberation Front), and Kady Van Deurs (activist and writer). The collection also includes a small amount printed material.

The Gran Fury Collection contains examples of Gran Fury's artwork in the form of posters, stickers, fliers, printed ads, billboards and bus signs, as well as photograph and slide reproductions. Included also are a small amount of correspondence, textual accompaniments for artwork, copies of publications in which Gran Fury's work appeared, a sound recording of a Gran Fury press conference, and a videotaped interview with three group members. The collection dates from 1987 through 1995. This collection documents the activities of an artists' collective significant to the history of AIDS activism, primarily focusing on the artwork produced rather than on the running of the organization. A good sense of the political and social atmosphere of the time is captured in both the artwork and the printed material Gran Fury collected in response to its work.

The collection documents the gay liberation movement in New York City and America from the 1950s to the 1980s. Included are records of the Gay Activists Alliance, the Gay Alliance of Brooklyn, Gay Switchboard of New York, the Mattachine Society Inc. of New York, and records of miscellaneous organizations including Christopher Street That New Magazine, Inc., and the periodicals Gaysweek, and New York Native. Personal papers include papers of Lockett Ford Ballard, Jr., Arthur Bell, Billy Wilder Blackwell, Perry Brass, Robert Clement, Don Jackson, Walter Porczak, and Sam Staggs. There are also miscellaneous records of IGIC, including correspondence, minutes, memoranda, photographs of gay rights demonstrations, scripts of plays by gay writers, and printed ephemera issued by gay, lesbian and AIDS organizations in the United States.

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Periodical Collection was initially composed of periodicals collected by the International Gay Information Center (IGIC) and donated to the New York Public Library in 1988. In subsequent years, additional titles were added to the collection. Most notably, periodicals from the Barbara Gittings and Kay Tobin Lahusen Collection were added. While this additional material expanded the holdings of titles already represented in the collection, new titles were also acquired. Most of the periodicals can be requested in the Manuscripts and Archives Division.

Book and media reviews from ALA’s Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Round Table

The Lambda Literary Awards identify and honor the best lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender books in their year of publication and are given out at an annual ceremony.

The Lambda Literary Review offers free book reviews, interviews, industry news, and calls for submission of interest to queer book lovers around the world

A Booklist from the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Roundtable of the American Library Association

The first and most enduring award for GLBT books is the Stonewall Book Awards, sponsored by the American Library Association's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Round Table. Since Isabel Miller's Patience and Sarah received the first award in 1971, many other books have been honored for exceptional merit relating to the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender experience.