Check out the Gay Ohio History Initiative’s community engagement from summer 2024!
GOHI engages with LGBTQ+ Ohioans both in-person and virtually. Virtual programs and events allow us to reach thousands of queer Ohioans each year to get the word out about our physical and digital resources!
One of the virtual programs we participated in this summer was a panel organized by Columbus Metropolitan Library on Preserving LGBTQ+ Ohio History. Also participating on the panel was Ken Schneck, author of LGBTQ Cleveland, LGBTQ Columbus, and LGBTQ Cincinnati, as well as the Editor of The Buckeye Flame.
Since this was a virtual program, I introduced our digital resources available on the GOHI website, including our Collections & Research page, which provides links to OHC resources and external resources for researching Ohio’s queer past. The digital tour also focused on our Oral Histories page, which includes dozens of original interviews with Ohioans from around the state. These oral histories help preserve Ohio’s LGBTQ+ stories and give additional context to the often sparse recorded evidence of the history.
As part of the Marking Diverse Ohio project, GOHI has organized a community of practice (CoP), made up of LGBTQ+ folks from around the state who are interested in preserving and sharing Ohio’s LGBTQ+ history.
GOHI is committed to empowering individuals and communities around the state to preserve and share their stories, and supporting a forum in which folks can gather and learn about historical methods and best practices is one of the ways in which we pursue that goal. A community of practice is a group of people who are committed to a common purpose or passion, and who come together to network, share resources, and build each other’s skills and capacity. The idea of organizing a CoP was informed by the principles of asset-based community development (ABCD), the method our Community Engagement Department at OHC draws on most.
On Friday, September 6, GOHI hosted Dr. Susan Ferentinos at the Ohio History Center to lead a workshop on LGBTQ+ historical research and interpretation. Dr. Ferentinos is a public historian with over twenty-five years of experience. She is author of Interpreting LGBT History at Museums and Historic Sites, and has consulted on several queer pubic history projects, including the Stonewall National Monument in New York City, the House of Furies feminist collective in Washington, D.C., the Philly Queer Spaces Project, and, most recently, Marking Diverse Ohio with GOHI.
