Items sought to preserve Arizona’s LGBTQ history

Bar and club fliers. Printed newsletters. Protest signs.

Before LGBTQ residents toss it, a group of Phoenix historians wants you to preserve it. That’s the intent behind an event Sunday aimed at preserving and archiving Arizona’s gay history.

“We’re especially interested in documenting nightlife, political events, marches and social gatherings that may or may not have been covered in other resources,” said Phoenix-based historian Marshall Shore, who is collaborating with Phoenix Pride and Arizona State University Libraries on the project.

In 2019, for instance, Shore led a fundraising effort to buy a gravestone for Nicolai De Raylan, a transgender man who moved to Phoenix for tuberculosis treatment and died in 1906.

Although he lived as a man, De Raylan was buried in a woman’s robe. His death certificate listed his gender as female. His grave was left unmarked.

“Not giving him a headstone was a way to erase his story,” Shore said at the time.

Also at Sunday’s event, those wh want their personal stories captured can be filmed by ASU’s student chapter of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association and other LGBTQ students.

The Arizona LGBT+ History Project seeks T-shirts, articles, or anything documenting Arizona’s LGBTQ life.

What not to bring? Mass-produced magazines or copyrighted print or video material.

LGBTQ history event Simdau

What it is: Event to collect and preserve personal stories and items related to Arizona’s LGBTQ history.

When: 1-4 p.m. Sunday

Where: Clarendon Hotel, 401 W. Clarendon Ave, Phoenix.

Email: LGBTQ@HipHistorian.com.