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Monday, January 16, 2012

OSU gay history at OutHistory.org site

George Hastings (top row, left) and the 1910 Oregon Agricultural College (former name of Oregon State University) football team as pictured in 'The 1912 Orange' yearbook, p. 159.

PHOTO: student George Hastings (top row, left) and the 1910 football team at Oregon Agricultural College (former name of Oregon State University) as pictured in "The 1912 Orange" yearbook, p. 159. Hastings associated with gay men arrested in Portland. See my previous posts Thomas Kraemer, "Corvallis, Oregon State University gay activism 1969-2004," outhistory.org posted April 30, 2010 and OSU gay football player 1908 (6/19/08).

UPDATE Oct. 30, 2013 - A copy of Thomas Kraemer, "Corvallis, Oregon State University gay activism 1964-2002," printed to PDF from OutHistory.org in 2010 is permanently stored by the OSU Scholars Archives@OSU

UPDATE Oct 6, 2013 - the new external Website for my OSU history broke the permanent link to it. The new page is poorly laid out compared to the old Wiki technology version and it is unprintable and inaccessible to those with low vision blindness because it overrides the accessibility features already built-in many internet browsers for decades. Even mighty Google made the same mistake until being forced to add better accessibility to the Chrome Browser and Mobile Android operating system Version 4.2.2 in 2013. Even my own Google Blogger blog page still has the same problems with accessibility because it will not allow for text to be selected and then automatically resized and rewrapped by the user's screen width. I have worked around this issue by forcing a small screen width and using a simple template. Many other Web sites have same accessibility problems, which they have worked around by adding an optional printable page of plain text that will display using high-contrast black text on a white background to allow text size color and text margin wrapping to be changed by the user's standard browser program or printer functions instead of forcing a fixed text size or page width that is cut off and forces horizontal scrolling due to poor Web page design. It would have also been better for any new site design to support the old page layout and links to it until articles could be reformatted for the new content management system they are using. Also, automatic redirection from the old permanent link should have been provided since these old links have been referenced by librarians. Broken will cause a loss it readership.

NEW LINK FOR Thomas Kraemer, "Corvallis, Oregon State University Gay Activism 1969-2004" www.outhistory.org/exhibits/show/corvallis accessed Oct 6, 2013 contains links to the following poorly laid out sub-pages instead of including everything on one page as the Wiki version did:

I hope to see if I can get this article reposted in a format that is easier to read and also get an automatic redirection from the old link that has been linked to and published by librarians and others.

UPDATE: Sep. 2013 NOTE the OutHistory.org Web site is being moved to a new system and there may not be an automatic redirection to the new site nor printable pages and accessible text for those with low-vision blindness. Hopefully, these issues will be fixed soon.

The history of OSU gay students, staff and research programs by Thomas Kraemer, "Corvallis, Oregon State University gay activism 1969-2004," posted April 30, 2010 documents the formation of the first officially recognized gay student group at OSU in 1976 and the events leading up to the 2004 opening of the Oregon State University Pride Center for LGBT students. It is hosted on the Web site OutHistory.org produced by the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS) located at the City University of New York Graduate Center. A shortened URL goo.gl/BQhv2 to the OSU history is available for text messaging or hand typing of the link. The OutHistory.org site is directed by the famous gay historian Jonathan Ned Katz. (See previous post Jonathan Ned Katz gay history pioneer (3/6/10))

In 2010 year, new OutHistory.org "Exhibit Entries" were solicited from people across the country were asked to research, write, and present the local LGBTQ histories of their village, town, county, state, or city since the Stonewall Rebellion of 1969. The deadline for entries in the "Since Stonewall Local Histories Contest" was April 30, 2010, and the prize winners were announced June 28, 2010. Professors and historians of homosexuality John D'Emilio and Leisa Meyer served as judges of the contest. For the results of the contest, see "Since Stonewall Contest Prize Winners and Honorable Mentions Review committee: John D'Emilio and Leisa Meyer," OutHistory.org posted July 2, 2010.

I submitted the entry by Thomas Kraemer, "Corvallis, Oregon State University gay activism 1969-2004," posted April 30, 2010. (Note: also see the link to the OSU gay history page Printable version and the shortened link to my OSU gay history goo.gl/BQhv2 created with the goo.gl Google URL shortener. For browsing safety and to preview in advance where the shortened URL will be redirected by Google, add a plus at the end of the link goo.gl/BQhv2+.) My entry was based on research done for my previous post Gay OSU Beavers history (1/28/09).

OutHistory.org received over thirty exciting exhibits about LGBTQ history. One of the contest's major goals was to draw attention to LGBTQ history in places that scholars have overlooked. Exhibits include entries about states such as Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon, and Virginia, among others. (See "Since Stonewall Winners Press Release," outhistory.org June 28, 2010)

The "Since Stonewall" exhibits are all geographically-based, but range dramatically in subject, from one New Yorker's memoirs, to a history of the Gay Activists Alliance of Washington, D.C., an account of a long-lived gay bar in Michigan called The Flame, and a timeline of The Lesbian Mothers National Defense Fund in Seattle. All the entries are listed on the site.

OutHistory.org's founder, the pioneering gay historian Jonathan Ned Katz, hopes that the Since Stonewall Contest exhibits will be used by teachers to incorporate local LGBTQ history into high school and college courses. He also hopes that the contest will inspire others to write their local histories on the site, which, like Wikipedia, permits users to create content. As contest contributors can continue to edit their entries on OutHistory.org, and new histories are added by the public, the site's local LGBTQ history content will continue to grow.

According to D'Emilio and Meyer, "The OutHistory.org website and the 'Since Stonewall' contest are critically important in bringing attention to local LGBTQ history, and LGBTQ history more generally. Without recognition of LGBTQ history on local, state, national, and transnational levels our historical narratives will remain forever incomplete."

OutHistory.org was the co-recipient of the first Allan Bérubé Award from The Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History of the American Historical Association.

Also see OutHistory.org Blog (RSS feed) and the following gay history pages:

Other related links of interest: