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Library of Congress Research Guides

LGBTQ+ Performing Arts Resources at the Library of Congress

Other LGBTQ+ Resources

In addition to the performing arts materials described on the other pages of this guide, there are other resources for LGBTQ+ study that may be of interest. These include materials from the Library of Congress as well as external websites. These resources are by no means exhaustive, but can provide a good starting place for further research.

Library of Congress Resources

  • Pride Month Web Portal
    The Library of Congress Pride Month page describes the history of Pride Month and brings together resources from many different areas of the Library's collections, including the Performing Arts, the Manuscript Division, the Veterans History Project, the Prints and Photographs Division, and other resources.
  • LGBTQ+ Resources in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress
    This guide serves as an introduction to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and other related (LGBTQ+) resources available in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress. Please note that this guide is not intended to be comprehensive, but is a curated list of related collections. Included, for example, are the collections of prominent figures such as Frank Kameny, Walt Whitman, and Truman Capote; descriptions of pertinent records of organizations such as the American Psychological Association, League of Women Voters, and NAACP; and collections relevant to certain topics, such as Supreme Court cases, legal matters, and HIV and AIDS.
  • LGBTQ+ Studies: A Resource Guide
    This guide offers an introduction to the impressive LGBTQ+ collections of the Library of Congress. The Library collects at the research level in the area of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ+) studies. Library holdings are particularly strong in LGBTQ+ politics, history, literature and the performing arts. This guide is organized by subject, format, and time period.
  • Library of Congress E-Resources: LGBTQ+ Studies
    This resource brings together several LGBTQ databases provided by the Library of Congress, both freely accessible and those that require onsite access. They range from smaller and more specific resources such as Beyond the Daughters of Bilitis to larger, more general resources such as Taylor and Francis Online.

LGBTQ+ External Resources

  • Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons External
    An open-access database with links to thousands of full-text scholarly articles.
  • Queer Resources Directory External
    The Queer Resources Directory contains 25488 files about everything queer, including media studies, events, legal issues, and queer health.
  • GLAAD External
    GLAAD rewrites the script for LGBTQ acceptance. As a dynamic media force, GLAAD tackles tough issues to shape the narrative and provoke dialogue that leads to cultural change.
  • The LGBTQ Study Group of the American Musicological Society External
    The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) Study Group is a recognized special interest group of the American Musicological Society. Their objectives include increasing awareness of sexuality and music in the academy, promoting contact among music scholars working in LGBTQ studies, and establishing a forum for the presentation of such research.
  • GALA Choruses External
    GALA Choruses leads the North American LGBTQ choral movement. They have more than 190 member choruses and 10,000 singers, and are dedicated to helping choruses become more effective, both artistically and administratively.
  • Pride Youth Theater Alliance External
  • The Pride Youth Theater Alliance began as a cohort of directors, educators, and activists representing Queer Youth Theater (QYT) programs from across the U.S. and Canada. The alliance was officially founded in 2012 to collectively raise awareness and place institutional unity behind the work of individual QYT programs, the field at large, and the needs of communities where QYT groups exist.
  • Purple Circuit External
    The Purple Circuit was founded in 1991 to promote LGBT/Feminist theater and performance throughout the world. One of their projects has been this directory of theaters that produce such productions and performers.

LGBTQ+ Specific Archives, Libraries, and Oral Histories

  • ACT UP Oral History Project External
    The ACT UP Oral History Project is a collection of interviews with surviving members of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, New York. The purpose of this project is to present comprehensive, complex, human, collective, and individual pictures of the people who have made up ACT UP/New York. These men and women of all races and classes have transformed entrenched cultural ideas about homosexuality, sexuality, illness, health care, civil rights, art, media, and the rights of patients.
  • African American AIDS Oral History Project External
    The African American AIDS Activism Oral History Project captures the stories of people who have fought the spread of HIV and AIDS in African American communities, whether through protest, service provision, or policy work.
  • Digital Transgender Archive External
    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. Based in Boston, Massachusetts at Northeastern University, the DTA is an international collaboration among more than sixty colleges, universities, nonprofit organizations, public libraries, and private collections.
  • GLBT Historical Society External
    Founded in 1985, the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender (GLBT) Historical Society is recognized internationally as a leader in the field of LGBTQ public history. The GLBT Historical Society collects, preserves, exhibits and makes accessible to the public materials and knowledge to support and promote understanding of LGBTQ history, culture and arts in all their diversity.
  • The Kinsey Institute External
    The Kinsey Institute's mission is to foster and promote a greater understanding of human sexuality and relationships through research, outreach, education, and historical preservation. As a research institute devoted to the study of human sexuality, the Kinsey Institute continues to explore the complexities of sexual and gender diversity and variation in sexual and relationship experiences. They recognize the barriers that past and ongoing prejudice and oppression present to marginalized communities, and their work aims to combat bias and bigotry by furthering evidence-based knowledge about the diversity and complexity of human experiences.
  • The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center Archives External
    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. Through their collections, they enable the stories and experiences of New York’s LGBTQ people to be told with historical depth and understanding.
  • Lesbian Herstory Archives External
    The Lesbian Herstory Archives exists to gather, preserve and provide access to records of Lesbian lives and activities. Doing this also serves to uncover and document herstory previously denied by patriarchal historians in the interests of the culture that they served. The existence of the Archives will thus enable current and future generations to analyze and reevaluate the Lesbian experience.
  • ONE Archives Foundation External
    Founded in 1952 as ONE Inc., the publisher of ONE Magazine, the ONE Archives Foundation, Inc. is the oldest active LGBTQ organization in the United States. In 2010, the ONE Archives Foundation, Inc., deposited its vast collection of LGBTQ historical materials with the USC Libraries. Today, the organization is dedicated to promoting this important resource through diverse activities including educational initiatives, fundraising, and range of public programs.
  • Queer Zine Archive Project External
    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.
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