What Happened in October...

Al Preston

2 days ago

2 min read

By Al Preston

October isn’t as busy as Pride month, but we’ve been busy nevertheless! Way back on the second of October, we were invited to our state’s capitol by Pennsylvania’s LGBTQ+ Advisory Commission! The director, Ash Strange, was so wonderful and invited us to their meeting at the state’s new archives building.

They and Governor Shapiro’s administration as a whole, are very welcoming to the LGBT+ community and the advisory committee has been working very hard to promote and protect our rights in this state.

We and a few other LGBT+ archivists from across the state were invited to this meeting not only to see the wonderful state archives, but also so we as LGBT+ historians and archivists can begin to collect further and wider than we ever have before. The commission wants to welcome more preservation in this state and wanted to know how they can support us but also what we collect so archives can get to the people they will help the most.

Not only did we get archival materials (finding guides coming soon), but we also made great connections with other archivists and with the commission itself. With these connections, we hope to bring more exhibits, and histories to the city.

We are so grateful to be invited and look forward to the future! Working with the commission and other archivists will lead to more and better education and preservation for all of us.

Later this month, we attended the zine fair once again. It went really well this year! As always, it was an absolute joy to go. The staff, the other venders, the customers; Everyone was lovely and awesome! I saw some folks I met last year, and some folks were very excited to see that we had new zines!

I really do love going to this event. It’s so fun and I love talking to everyone who comes to the table. I’m always glad to tell people what we do and tell and share stories. Of course, everything we earned at this event (more than last year!) goes right back into the museum.

So, I really must thank everyone who stopped by and bought a Zine. You’re helping us move forward!