About the LGBT Legacy Project — The LGBT Legacy Project

About The LGBT Legacy Project

We are preserving and digitizing archival footage of one of the largest broadcast quality collections of LGBT+ community life in existence, comprised of some 1,500 hours, and produced primarily between 1986 and 1998. The show’s weekly broadcasts contain a unique record of life in New Orleans between 1986 and 1993. Other recordings include local and national LGBT+ and AIDS related conferences and speakers, national events such as the March on Washington in 1993 and Gay Games III in 1990. Additional footage spans through the year 2000.

The archival footage makes up the only collection in existence that documents simultaneously both the local and national lives and actions of the LGBT+ community during this tumultuous time, the apex of the AIDS crisis. Local focus on Cleveland, New Orleans an other Midwest cities, reveals much about the grass-roots efforts. The conferences and speakers document the LGBT+ movement at the national leadership level and give voice and insight into many other LGBT+ community actions around the country. The overall work of the LGBT+ movement during this era would have repercussions and effect massive change for the years that followed.

Mission

To produce, protect, digitize, document and preserve historical materials related to the LGBT movement in the United States.
To showcase the legacy of the early LGBT movement through documentary video production, public exhibitions and to make these materials available for research and educational purposes.

Primary Goals

To maintain one of the largest broadcast quality collections of LGBT+ community life in existence, comprised of some 1,500 hours, and produced primarily between 1986 and 2000.
Printed materials relating to the mission are also included.
Production of a video documentary about the LGBT movement in that era at the local and national level. Distributed through film festivals, local screenings and online.
Make available for educational and research purposes the documented materials through online channels.
Supplemental documentary production; displays in public spaces such as local libraries, museums and other relevant places.