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Welcome to the LGBTQ+ Resources at the University of Miami Libraries!
Welcome to the University of Miami Libraries LGBTQ+ resource guide! On these pages you will find library resources supporting LGBTQ+ students at the University of Miami.
The sources provided in this guide are intended as a jumping off point for further LGBTQ+ studies. As this is an interdisciplinary area of research, information on LGBTQ+ topics can be found in a variety of library resources.
Related Guides:
Gender and Sexuality Studies
Psychology
Neuroscience
Sociology
Anthropology
USearch
LGBTQ Book Awards
"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."
Triangle Awards
"The purpose of the Publishing Triangle is to further the publication of books and other materials written by LGBT authors or with LGBT themes. Founded in 1988, The Publishing Triangle works to create support and a sense of community for lesbian and gay people in the publishing industry."
Gaylactic Spectrum Awards
"The Gaylactic Spectrum Awards were created in 1998 by the Gaylactic Network to honor works in science fiction, fantasy and horror which include positive explorations of gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered characters, themes, or issues. In 2002, the Awards were handed over to a newly formed, independent organization - the Gaylactic Spectrum Awards Foundation."
Lambda Literary Awards
"For over 30 years, the Lambda Literary Awards (the “Lammys”) have identified and honored the best lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender books."
Selected Fiction
Selected Non-Fiction
Streaming Videos
- Academic Video Online
AVON is a streaming video platform providing more than 79,000 titles spanning a wide range of subject areas, including anthropology, business, history, music, and more. The platform allows users to to organize and bookmark clips, create and share playlists, personalize folders, and manage their entire collection. - Films On Demand: Master Academic Package
Films On Demand is a digital video streaming service that provides educational content from a wide range of subject areas with an especially good selection of foreign films. This collection contains more than 38,000 titles in dozens of subject areas, and the platform allows users to to organize and bookmark clips, create and share playlists, personalize folders, and manage their entire collection. - Kanopy
Kanopy is a video streaming service that provides students and educators access to a large database of over 30,000 films--including award-winning documentaries, training films, indie and foreign films, must-see classics, and blockbuster movies. Films are activated on-demand for faculty and graduate students. - Feature Films for Education
Feature Films for Education is a digital video streaming platform that offers hundreds of full-length feature films for educational purposes; focusing on both current and hard-to-find titles, the collection includes literary adaptions, blockbusters, classics, foreign films, and more. Recommend Chrome browser. - Swank Digital Campus
Streaming videos primarily of classic and modern Hollywood films. Additional films may be available upon request by faculty for course reserves.
uSearch
GLAAD Media Reference Guide
The GLAAD Media Reference Guide
The Day it Snowed in Miami
LGBTQ+ Documentaries
A documentary that showcases South Florida's role in the gay rights movement. The feature-length film traces the political battle lines drawn in Miami in 1977 when gays sought approval of a then controversial Human Rights Ordinance, which guaranteed they would not be discriminated because of their 'affectional or sexual preference. Nominated for a 2014 Emmy Award.
Before Stonewall
A social history of homosexuality in America from the 1920s to 1969, showing how this group has moved from a secret shame to the status of a publicly viable minority group. Tells how a group consciousness coalesced after the 1969 police raid on Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City, and the three-day riot that followed gained them national publicity and the birth of the gay movement.
The Celluloid Closet
Assembles footage from over 120 films showing the changing face of cinema homosexuality from cruel stereotypes to covert love to the activist cinema of the 1990s. Many actors, writers and commentators provide anecdotes regarding the history of the role of gay men and lesbians on the silver screen.
Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton's Cafeteria
Tells the little-known story of the first known act of collective, violent resistance to the social oppression of queer people in the United States - a 1966 riot in San Francisco's impoverished Tenderloin neighborhood, three years before the famous gay riot at New York's Stonewall Inn.
The Laramie Project
In October 1998, 21 year-old Matthew Shepard was found savagely beaten, tied to a fence and left to die in Laramie, Wyoming. This film is a dramatization of a town forced to confront itself in the reflective glare of the national spotlight, responding with love, anger, sympathy, support, and defiance. Moises Kaufman and members of New York's Tectonic Theater Project went to Laramie and wrote a play based on more than 200 interviews they conducted there. It follows and in some cases re-enacts the chronology of Shepherd's visit to a local bar, his kidnap and beating, the discovery of him tied to a fence, the vigil at the hospital, his death and funeral, and the trial of his killers. It mixes real news reports with actors portraying friends, family, cops, killers, and other Laramie residents in their own words.
Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin
A documentary examining the life of Bayard Rustin, one of the first "freedom riders," an adviser to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and A. Philip Randolph, and an organizer of the 1963 March on Washington. However, Rustin was forced to play a background role in landmark civil rights events because he was homosexual.
Dangerous Living: Coming out in the Developing World
Relays personal "coming out" stoires of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in the developing world, and covers their struggles for human rights in the face of oppression.
No Secret Anymore: The Times of Del Martin & Phyllis Lyon
LGBTQ+ Films
His life changed history, his courage changed lives. Harvey Milk is a middle-aged New Yorker who, after moving to San Francisco, becomes a Gay Rights activist and city politician. On his third attempt, he is elected to San Francisco's Board of Supervisors in 1977, the first openly-gay man to be elected to public office in the United States. Based on the true story of Harvey Milk.
Philadelphia
Two competing lawyers join forces to sue a prestigious law firm for AIDS discrimination. As their unlikely friendship develops, their courage overcomes the prejudice and corruption of their powerful adversaries.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
The story of Hedwig, an ambitious glam-rocker from Berlin who comes to America determined to find fame, fortune, and his "other half." Hedwig, born a boy named Hansel in East Berlin, fell in love with an American G.I. and underwent a sex-change operation in order to marry him and flee to the West. Unfortunately, nothing worked out quite as it was supposed to - years later, Hedwig is leading her rock band on a tour of the U.S., telling her life story through a series of concerts at Bilgewater Inn seafood restaurants. Her tour dates coincide with those of arena-rock star Tommy Gnosis, a wide-eyed boy who once loved Hedwig... but then left with all her songs.
The Danish Girl
The remarkable love story inspired by the lives of artists Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener. Lili and Gerda's marriage and work evolve as they navigate Lili's groundbreaking journey as a transgender pioneer.
The Imitation Game
During the winter of 1952, British authorities entered the home of mathematician, cryptanalyst and war hero Alan Turing to investigate a reported burglary. They instead ended up arresting Turing himself on charges of "gross indecency," an accusation that would lead to his devastating conviction for the criminal offense of homosexuality - little did officials know, they were actually incriminating the pioneer of modern-day computing. Famously leading a motley group of scholars, linguists, chess champions and intelligence officers, he was credited with cracking the so-called unbreakable codes of Germany's World War II Enigma machine.
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
The Birdcage
Armand & Albert, a middle-aged gay couple, reluctantly accept Armand's son's intention to marry the daughter of a conservative Senator, but when the fiancee's family comes to visit, the whole household is turned upside down.
Articles to Read
The Trevor Project
Want to talk? To speak with a counselor, call: 1-866-488-7386
LGBT Data
Data are facts on people, places and business collected in censuses and surveys and through administrative records (e.g., birth certificates). The results released based on these data collections are often called statistics.
US Census Bureau: Measuring Same-Sex Couples, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity on Census Bureau and Federal Surveys
Basics of measuring household relationships.
LGBTData.com
LGBTData.com serves as a no-cost, open-access clearinghouse for the collection of sexual orientation & gender identity data and measures.
Pew Research Center: Gay Marriage Around the World
Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. We conduct public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis and other data-driven social science research.
Online Digital Collections
This recording from 1958 - the earliest known radio recording to overtly discuss homosexuality - features Public Affairs Director of KPFA Elsa Knight Thompson interviewing Hal Call, the editor of the Mattachine Society's newsletter, the Mattachine Review; Dr. Blanche Baker, a psychologist noted for her then-rarely-shared belief that homosexuality was not an abnormality nor an illness; and Leah Gailey, the mother of a gay man. Gailey recounts her shock at first learning her son was gay and her eventual embrace of her son's sexuality. Call asserts that "every tenth person...is predominantly homosexual". Topics discussed include the conflict of the society versus the individual, whether the root of homosexuality is a product of biology or environment, flamboyant individuals, and elimination of effeminate gestures that distinguish homosexuals versus educating public that these mannerisms are not significant.
American Archive of Public Broadcasting: The Homosexual in Our Society Part 2
In the second part of this ground-breaking radio panel discussion on homosexuals, Elsa Knight Thompson moderates a panel discussion of the following speakers: Dr. Karl Bowman, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, University of California, and former Head of the Langley Porter Clinic; Dr. Frank A. Beach, Jr., Professor of Psychology, University of California; Morris Lowenthal, San Francisco attorney; and Dr. David H. Wilson, Dept. of Criminology, University of California. In this portion of the program, the panelists discuss laws regarding homosexuals, civil rights of homosexuals, identification of homosexuals, gender identification in society, possible causes of sexual choice, i.e. heredity versus environmental causes, and how society can constructively deal with these issues.
Women's and Gender Studies Web Archive
The Women's and Gender Studies Web Archive collects and preserves online content on topics of importance to the interdisciplinary field of Women's and Gender Studies. Collection priorities include primary sources, first hand accounts, and records of social, cultural, and political movements for gender equality. This archive provides enduring access to resources which illuminate underrepresented perspectives and identities, many of which are not typically found in traditional print resources or in institutions of cultural memory. Sites which document topics relevant to the history, current field, and future directions of Women's and Gender Studies as an academic discipline are likewise collected.
LGBTQ+ Politics and Political Candidates Archive
The LGBTQ+ Politics and Political Candidates Web Archive captures digital content related to LBGTQ+ political candidates and political issues and topics at various levels of government, with a focus on lesser-known local and state politics. This archive preserves a representative sample of what is being called "The Rainbow Wave," which refers to the previously unprecedented number of LGBTQ+ identified candidates openly running for office. These websites provide a record of individuals attempting historic firsts in American politics. In many cases, these individuals are or are attempting to become the first LGBTQ+ identified candidate to run for or hold the office being sought. In addition, as LGBTQ+ political issues are evolving rapidly, a representative sample of LGBTQ+ political and legal organizations, media, and rhetoric are likewise included here.
LGBT+ Studies Web Archive
The LGBTQ+ Studies Web Archive collects and preserves online content which documents LGBTQ+ history, scholarship, and culture in the United States and around the world. Sites include domestic and international non-profit organizations, journalism and news, creative works and expressions, historical records, and more. Collection priorities include primary sources, first-hand accounts, coverage of significant events, and essential artifacts of cultural memory. This collection seeks to illuminate LBGTQ+ voices, from margin to center. The sites curated here preserve subjects and perspectives which have been historically underrepresented in Library holdings, are ephemeral in nature, and those which have proven difficult to collect via traditional or print resources.
Queer Zine Archive Project
The Queer Zine Archive Project (QZAP) was first launched in November 2003 in an effort to preserve queer zines and make them available to other queers, researchers, historians, punks, and anyone else who has an interest DIY publishing and underground queer communities.
Veterans History Project, Speaking Out: LGBT Veterans
A curated selection of oral histories from LGBT veterans and service members.
Digital Transgender Archive
The purpose of the Digital Transgender Archive (DTA) is to increase the accessibility of transgender history by providing an online hub for digitized historical materials, born-digital materials, and information on archival holdings throughout the world.
Archives of Lesbian Oral Testimony
The Archives of Lesbian Oral Testimony was founded in 2010. We digitize and make available online oral histories and testimony of same-sex and same-gender attracted women, inclusive of Two Spirit, queer, bisexual, and lesbian women, transmen, and others.
Act Up Oral History Project
The ACT UP Oral History Project is a collection of interviews with surviving members of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, New York.
Bay Area Reporter
Bay Area Reporter is the America's longest continuously-published, and highest circulation LGBTQ newspaper, and the undisputed newspaper of record serving San Francisco's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities.
GLAAD Advertising Library
This collection focuses on mainstream corporate advertising and its incredible power to affect how the LGBT community is perceived. We collect worldwide corporate ads with direct references to LGBT people or a LGBT theme, including political ads and those from government and health agencies, nonprofits, LGBT and anti-LGBT organizations.
LGBTQ Religious Archives Network
The LGBTQ Religious Archives Network is an innovative venture in preserving history and encouraging scholarly study of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) religious movements around the world.
Out History
OutHistory.org was founded in October 2008 by Jonathan Ned Katz, author of the groundbreaking Gay American History (1976) and other books on the history of sexuality. When the Internet became part of the everyday life of millions – even billions – of people in the 21st century, Katz understood that the work of archiving, establishing LGBTQ chronologies, and highlighting new discoveries begun in Gay American History should continue on a digital platform.
Records Uncovered: Gay and Lesbian Histories in Central and Southeastern Europe
Records Uncovered is an online exhibition by the Blinken OSA and the Háttér Archive and Library which presents the divergences and commonalities among gay and lesbian movements in Central and Southeastern Europe in the second half of the last century. Through legal documentation, media reports, private and institutional correspondence, art works and ephemera, this exhibition evinces the understanding of homosexuality and the treatment of sexual minorities, in countries that commonly shared two different political goals at two different periods: the establishment of a new communist society between the mid-1940s and the early 1990s and the transition towards a democratic society in the following years.
Magazines and Blogs
Peer Reviewed Journals
- Gay and lesbian issues and psychology review
- GLQ a journal of lesbian and gay studies
- International journal of sexuality and gender studies
- LGBT Health
- The international journal of transgenderism
- Journal of bisexuality
- Journal of gay, lesbian and bisexual identity
- Journal of gay & lesbian mental health
- Journal of LGBT youth
- Law & sexuality: a review of lesbian and gay legal issues
- Psychology of sexual orientation and gender diversity
- Sexualities
- Sexuality, gender & policy
- Transgender health
- Transgender studies quarterly
Looking for more? These sample searches provide additional peer reviewed journals:
LGBT eJournals
Gay and Lesbian eJournals
Recommended Databases with LGBTQ+ Content
- Anthropology Plus
Covers anthropology, archaeology, and interdisciplinary studies. Includes Anthropological Index: 1957-present & Anthropological Literature: Late 19th century to present - Archives of Sexuality & Gender
A unique fully-searchable collection, Archives of Human Sexuality and Identity: LGBTQ History and Culture since 1940, Part I brings together approximately 1.5 million pages of primary sources on social, political, health, and legal issues impacting LGBTQ communities around the world. Rare and unique content from microfilm, newsletters, organizational papers, government documents, manuscripts, pamphlets, and other types of primary sources sheds light on the gay rights movement, activism, the HIV/AIDS crisis, and more. Part II provides coverage of the development, culture, and society of LGBTQ groups in the latter half of the twentieth century, providing new perspectives on a diverse community through materials such as oral history transcripts, diaries, and letters, as well as periodicals and manuscripts. - Defining Gender
Defining Gender provides access to a vast body of original British source material that will enrich the teaching and research experience of those studying history, literature, sociology and education from a gendered perspective. - Gale OneFile: Gender Studies
Gale OneFile: Gender Studies provides balanced coverage of this significant aspect of culture and society. Gender Studies includes topics related to gender studies, family and marital issues, and more. - Gender Watch
GenderWatch indexes and provides the full-text of articles in 175 publications that focus on the impact of gender across a broad spectrum of subject areas. GenderWatch contains archival material, in some cases as far back as the 1970's with additional archival material continually added, making this the repository of historical perspective on the evolution of the women's movement and the changes in gender roles and understandings over the last fifteen to twenty years. - LGBT Life with Full Text
A database of literature regarding gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues. LGBT Life with Full Text contains all of the content available in LGBT Life as well as full text for 50 of the most important and historically significant LGBT journals, magazines and regional newspapers, as well as dozens of full text monographs.The database includes comprehensive indexing and abstract coverage as well as a specialized LGBT Thesaurus containing over 6,400 terms. Full text content available in LGBT Life with Full Text includes The Advocate, Gay Parent Magazine, Girlfriends, GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian & Gay Studies, James White Review, ISNA News, Ladder, Lesbian Tide, New York Blade, ONE, Tangents, Washington Blade, and many more. - PAIS International
PAIS indexes a wide range of literature on politics worldwide, public affairs, current events, international relations, public administration, marine policy, law and related topics. - Sociological Abstracts
Sociological Abstracts indexes and abstracts research literature published worldwide in journals and other serial publications.Social Planning/Policy Development (SOPODA) is included as a subfile, providing additional literature on policy issues addressing violence, abuse, housing, the environment and other social issues.
LGBTQ Highlights from UM Libraries Special Collections
The Queer Studies Poster Project Collection created by students as part Professor Steve Butterman’s class answers the question, “What is Queer?” through a variety of visual and textual creative works questioning nomenclature and touching upon issues of familial concern, sexual health, media representation and fashion to name a few of the themes covered by these evocative pieces. The Leila Miccolis Brazilian Alternative Press Collection includes all 38 issues of Lampião da Esquina (Corner Lantern), published between 1978 and 1981. Many of the newspapers writers were notable supporters of the gay rights movement in Brazil. Finally, Special Collections also includes a growing collection of board games such as Gayopoly.
LGBT Guides in University Archives
The UM LGBTQ History Collection contains materials that document the activities of the university's LGBTQ student groups as well as University's programs for the LGBTQ students, such as organizational records of the LGBTQ Student Center, newsletters, correspondence, press clippings, and video clips found on the Internet.
LGBT Guides in Special Collections
The James Merrick Smith and Hal F. B. Birchfield collection contains images, letters, news articles, DVDs and a CDs highlighting the stellar lives, careers and involvement of James Merrick Smith and Hal Birchfield in their personal, professional and civic activities.
With his vision of design becoming much more than the up-market selling of merchandise, James Merrick Smith set about the machinery of change that would make interior design a legitimate and accredited profession. This progression would require the development of education, testing, administration and implementation and then onward to governmental accreditation. James Merrick Smith was the person that not only had the vision but the guts and the charisma and good fortune to find others to help fulfill this dream of professionalization of the field of interior design. Life partner Hal Birchfield would also be a part of this much involved process. And among other facets of their lives was the matter of the highly respected professional work the office of James Merrick Smith and Hal Birchfield achieved, setting high professional standards for interior design excellence.
Firefly Zine Collection
The Firefly Zine collection is a collection of zines donated to the University of Miami Libraries by former residents of the Firefly, a local Miami collective house and important part of Miami's punk rock and activist subcultures. There are over 2,000 zines held in the collection. The Firefly Zine collection in particular is significant for its materials documenting political beliefs and causes such as anarchism, direct action, women's rights, lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender (LGBT) rights and environmentalism.
Leila Miccolis Brazilian Alternative Press Collection
The Leila Míccolis Brazilian Alternative Press Collection consists primarily of political and countercultural pamphlets and periodicals, concrete poetry, neo-concrete poetry and other vanguard/avant-garde artistic experimentation, fanzines, film reviews, university publications, theater, and musical pieces.
Ruth and Richard Shack Papers
The Ruth Shack Papers archive the life of a remarkable woman who was elected to her first of three terms as a Dade County Commissioner in 1976. She had an unsuccessful campaign for Dade County Mayor which led to her taking over as the President of the Dade Community Foundation in 1984. She led the Dade Community Foundation with great distinction for 25 years until her retirement in 2009. As president she expanded the Foundation's finances exponentially and was able to positively affect the community of Miami Dade County. She received the Susan B. Anthony Award in 1975 and the Sojourner Truth Award in 1977, she has been recognized as the Citizen of the Year, honored with the Spirit of Excellence Award and countless other recognitions for her service. Known as the “Kissing Commissioner” for her affectionate demeanor, she was proud to sponsor the Human Rights Ordinance and admired by the Gay Community for her dedication to fighting discrimination.
Queer Studies Poster Project Collection
The posters in this collection were created by students for a project answering the question "What is Queer?" The project was part of Dr. Steve Butterman's Queer Studies class at the University of Miami. The posters in the collection present a variety of visual and textual representation of the students' interpretations of what it means to be queer, ranging in focus from familial concerns and sexual health/HIV to media representation, politics and fashion. Many of the posters discuss the history of the use of the term "queer" and question the idea of a single definition of queer.