State's LGBTQ history coming out in Iowa City-based library and archive

IOWA CITY — The transgender and gender nonbinary individuals Aiden Bettine interviewed for an oral history project he founded would often pull out materials to help them convey their life stories. But he found that outside of university archival spaces, there wasn’t a space in Iowa dedicated to preserving LGBTQ history.

For individuals who faced violent homophobia or transphobia in college, Bettine said these spaces weren’t ones that all people trusted to share their story. He saw an opportunity though for a community archive in Iowa that is explicitly tailored to LGBTQ Iowans.

So now, the Hawkeye State’s LGBTQ history is coming out.

A project that started as a nebulous idea with some archival items stored in people’s apartments has turned into the LGBTQ Iowa Archives and Library housed on the lower level of the Wesley Center, 120 N. Dubuque St.

While there are LGBTQ Pride groups across the state that typically celebrate Pride Month in June every year, this organization focuses on fostering a deeper understanding of the lives, struggles and triumphs of queer Iowans past and present. Much of the focus in LGBTQ history is on life in large cities such as New York, San Francisco or Chicago, but this archival space preserves and shares history from the urban and rural communities of the Heartland.

Read more: https://www.thegazette.com/subject/life/lgbtq-iowa-archives-library-iowa-city-wesley-center-20210306
(Cedar Rapids Gazette)