Share Your Pride: LGBTQ+ history project ‘Here + Queer, Sonoma County’ launches online
Sonoma County Library invites our communities to contribute and help document the lived experiences of queer people throughout Sonoma County’s past, present and future. ‘Here + Queer, Sonoma County’ collects and celebrates the lives and stories of our local LGBTQ+ communities. Through the project portal, individuals can archive their personal photographs, sound recordings, videos and other digital files.
Our community can help build a collection that preserves the memories of queer life and culture in our county. “A photograph at Pride, a wedding announcement, a video at a protest, a love letter to a first crush; these are all evidence of resistance and persistence,” said Zayda Delgado, local history librarian and archivist. “These types of documents demonstrate the nuance and complexity of LGBTQ+ life.”
Like New York and San Francisco, Sonoma County has a compelling and meaningful history in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights and representation. The library hopes to collect resources that show a range of experiences of identity, family, friendship, struggle, acceptance and more, and hopes community members create connections through their shared experiences.
The history of everyday people can be powerful. “In a world where our very existence and identity is disparaged, legislated, and obscured in history, it can be healing to tell your story, to be seen and to bear witness for others,” said Terra Emerson, teen services librarian and one of the project leads.
Submissions must be in a digital format and may include photographs, letters, emails, journal/diary entries, blog posts, drawings, paintings, poetry or digital artwork.
Future generations will use these resources to understand about the diverse perspectives and voices within Sonoma County’s LGBTQ+ communities. Materials collected through ‘Here + Queer, Sonoma County’ will become part of the library’s digital archive and be showcased through digital.sonomalibrary.org.
To learn more and contribute, visit sonomalibrary.org/queersonoma-en.
