Idaho LGBTQ Oral History Project, 2011, 2020-2025

This Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ) Oral History Project began as a key component of a cross-listed Boise State University course, Intro to LGBTQ Studies (GEN 380, HIS 381, SOC 497). Dr. Riley Caldwell-O'Keefe taught the course and designed the project as an interactive learning tool to help students understand LGBTQ history, with special emphasis on Idaho history, and the impacts of this history on local individuals. In addition to this history and context, students learned interviewing techniques throughout the semester. We discussed ethical considerations and obtained Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval for the project. Throughout the process, we worked with Boise State Special Collections librarians, Alan Virta and Cheryl Oestreicher. The culmination and digital release of the collection would have been impossible without them. We are thrilled and honored to offer these first-person insights which help provide a more well-rounded and comprehensive story of Idaho history.

Idaho LGBTQ Oral History Project Part 2 is a continuation of Dr. Riley Caldwell-O'Keefe's 2011 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ) Oral History Project. Beginning in 2020, Dr. Lisa McClain, Professor, History Department and Gender Studies Program, and graduate and undergraduate BSU students began to collect more histories of LGBTQ+ Idahoans to help provide a more well-rounded and comprehensive understanding of the experiences and contributions of people who are LGBTQ+ to Idaho history. The way we have written Idaho history has codified into cultural memory the usually implicit beliefs that not only were straight, cis-gendered people the ones who successfully settled and contributed to the success of Idaho but that such individuals were the only ones present who could or should have. Such beliefs have lasting impacts in the present day, in terms of who is entitled to occupy and shape public spaces, share in the full benefits of citizenship, and represent/lead the citizenry in institutions such as the state legislature and houses of worship.