The Ohio History Connection and GOHI are dedicated to preserving stories from all Ohioans. As a part of that mission, these oral histories were collected from LGBTQ+ Ohioans who impact and improve their communities. In addition to the video interviews, there are audio-only oral histories in the GOHI collection that we are working to digitize and make available online. Some of these are available now at the bottom of this page. If you would like to hear others, you can make a request at the Archives Library on the third floor of the Ohio History Center. Do you know an LGBTQ+ Ohioan with a story to tell? Contact us with your idea!

You can browse these oral histories by name, decade, city and subject on our LGBTQ+ research guide.

Nina Lewis - HIV/AIDS Activism

Nina Lewis was born in 1953 and grew up in a diverse neighborhood of Youngstown, Ohio. She has been an activist working on issues of domestic violence, LGBTQ+ rights, and public...

Watch

Bill Hoover - Kent Gay Liberation Front

William Hoover was born in Canton, Ohio in 1948. In his interview, Hoover talks about growing up in Canton, the LGBTQ+ community in northeast Ohio, and his parent's support of...

Watch

Martha Pontoni - Gay People's Chronicle

Martha Pontoni is an LGBTQ+ activist who was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1960. She was vital to the survival of the Gay People’s Chronicle, becoming the editor in 1985 after it...

Watch

Kelly Altenberger

Kelly Altenberger was born in Marion, Ohio in 1951. He moved to Toledo in the 1970s looking for an inclusive place, and that's exactly what he found. Altenberger became active...

Watch

Dr. Howard Fradkin

Dr. Howard Fradkin was born in 1952 in Baltimore, Maryland. He received his doctorate from the University of Chapel Hill in Counseling Psychology. Fradkin started Affirmations...

Watch

Carolyn Virginia - Crazy Ladies Bookstore

Carolyn Virginia was born in 1952 in Wausau, Wisconsin. She founded Crazy Ladies Bookstore in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1976. The venerable establishment survived the growing...

Watch

Don Laufersweiler

Don Laufersweiler was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1950. Since the 1980s he has been counseling those of different and diverse backgrounds with Affirmations Psychological Services...

Watch

Gil Kudrin - Nightsweats & T-cells

Gil Kudrin was born in 1958 in Lorain, Ohio. As a young gay man he found his rust-belt hometown surprisingly accepting. Kudrin moved to Lakewood, Ohio in his twenties where he...

Watch

Petie Brown, CJ Curtis & Judy Long - Summit Station

Petie Brown was the owner of the Summit Station bar, formerly known as Jack's A Go-Go. Brown started working at the bar in 1971 as a bartender when all she knew how to do was...

Watch

Deborah Kuzawa – Summit Station

Deborah Kuzawa was born in Garfield Heights, Ohio in 1979. She attended college at Ohio University before moving to Columbus in 2002 to get her graduate degree from The Ohio...

Watch

Randy Cordle

Barbara Cordle (née Wolcott) was born on October 1, 1939 in Akron, Ohio. The oldest of five children, growing up she helped her single mother take care of her brothers and...

Watch

Doug Pratt

Doug Pratt was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1956. In his interview he talks about growing up gay, though he didn't identify as gay until he was 22, was like in his community. He...

Watch

Darryl Fore

Darryl Fore was born in 1959 and grew up in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood near Cleveland, OH. In his interview he talked about growing up in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood...

Watch

Alvin Taylor

Alvin Taylor was born in Sanford, Florida in 1952. He came to Ohio in the 1970s as a ballroom dance instructor. In his interview he talks about growing up in Sanford, discoverin...

Watch

Robert Toth

Robert Toth was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1958. He's a HIV long-term survivor and HIV/AIDS activist that fought for compassionate care and equal rights. Toth volunteered with...

Watch

Kevin Borowiak

Kevin Borowiak was born in 1956 in St. Louis, Missouri. He moved to Ohio in 1981 while working for General Electric and has been here ever since. In his interview he talks about...

Watch

Mark Matson – Shepherd Initiative

Mark Matson was born in Colorado where he was raised in the Roman Catholic tradition. After years of searching for direction Matson felt a calling to enter the priesthood...

Watch

Julia Applegate

Julia Applegate directs the Institute for LGBTQ Health Equity at Equitas Health where she leads LGBTQ health education, research and community engagement efforts. Prior to...

Watch

Phebe Beiser & Victoria Ramstetter - Ohio Lesbian Archives

In 1989, Phebe Beiser and Victoria Ramstetter turned leftover collections from Dinah, a monthly newsletter vital in connecting the local lesbian community, into the Ohio Lesbian...

Watch

Luster Singleton

Luster is a native of Zanesville, Ohio. Luster is a trans-masculine activist, a TedX speaker, and a Drag King performer who founded a Drag King show and community experience...

Watch

Robert "Bob" Bucklew - Veteran's Oral History

Bob Bucklew was born in Alliance, Ohio in 1958. He works as an outreach coordinator for the Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals clinical trials unit, which...

Watch

Joshua Hoffman - Veteran's Oral History

Joshua Jacob Hoffman was born in 1963 in Columbus, Ohio. Hoffman joined the United States Air Force in 1984 after two years as a Mormon missionary in Los Angeles. In his...

Watch

Rupert “Twink” Starr - Veteran's Oral History

Rupert "Twink" Starr was born in 1923 in Mt. Sterling, Ohio, and enlisted in the Army while he was still a student at Ohio University. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge...

Watch

Jennifer Isenstadt – Veteran’s Oral History

Jennifer Serene Isenstadt enlisted in the Navy in 2005 as an Information Systems Technician. Isenstadt talks about growing up in a Navy family that moved often, her father’s...

Watch

Stephen Snyder-Hill - Veteran's Oral History

Stephen Snyder-Hill was born October 21, 1970. He was a soldier in the United States Army, and is currently an author, lecturer, and LGBT rights activist. He served under the...

Watch

Viola Pagliaro & Nick Stellanova

Viola Pagliaro & Nick Stellanova are member of the LGBTQ+ community who share with us their experiences of coming out and finding a home together in Columbus, Ohio. Viola...

Watch

Charmaine McGuffey

Charmaine McGuffey was born and raised in Cincinnati. She and her two sisters grew up with a single mother who worked long hours to support her family. She attended Western Hill...

Watch

James "Jim" L. Giles

James "Jim" Giles was born Chillicothe, Ohio in 1939. He grew up with his mother's family in Chillicothe, and his father in New York City. After graduating from the Ohio State...

Watch

Christinia Goddard-Graves

Christina Goddard-Graves was born in 1977 in Louisville, Kentucky. Her dad was career Army which inspired her to join the military. Christina enlisted in the Air Force in 1999...

Watch

Audio-only LGBTQ+ Oral Histories

These audio-only oral histories were recorded between the 1980s and the early 2000s. As a recent digitization effort, they are now available for online listening. We continue to work on digitizing the early oral histories in the GOHI collection and will publish additional audio-only oral histories as they become available.

The Audio-Video LGBTQ+ History Vault

The videos in this playlist include panels, roundtables, presentations, and documentaries on LGBTQ+ history in Ohio. Many focus on LGBTQ+ life in Columbus and Central Ohio between the 1970s and the early 2000s. Together, these videos showcases Ohio's rich history of LGBTQ+ life and activism through the decades.