In the last few months, two articles that I wrote on queer public history topics have been published, one in the realm of LGBTQ historic preservation, one in the realm of museum interpretation. In different ways, each article reflects on current trends, based on work I’ve been doing lately, as well as my colleagues’ efforts in similar areas.

The historic preservation article is called “Beyond the Bar: Types of Properties Related to LGBTQ History.” It was appears in volume 8, issue 2 of the journal Change Over Time, in a special issue devoted to LGBTQ Heritage. The journal, published by University of Pennsylvania, focuses on the built environment from a variety of disciplines, and my article relates primarily to the preserving sites related to LGBTQ history. Within the world of historic preservation, identifying what sites are significant and why is a crucial first step in getting sites protected. (The second step, also important, is getting those sites designated as “historic,” so that various protections kick in.) So, in this article, I elaborate on what types of historic properties are most likely to hold LGBTQ associations. You can see the full table of contents for this issue here.

My article on museum interpretation, “Ways of Interpreting Queer Pasts,” appears in the May 2019 issue of The Public Historian, also in a special issue, this one devoted to “Queering Public History.” I intended this article to serve as something of an update since my book on Interpreting LGBTQ History at Museums and Historic Sites came out just about five years ago. I wanted it to be both a discussion of all of the new trends in LGBTQ museum interpretation that have come on the scene recently and an opportunity for me to put down, all in one place, my current thinking on the topic. The article offers lots of examples and ends with some thoughts on what work we still need to do. For the time being, University of California Press (which publishes the journal) is offering a discount on the “Queering Public History” issue; you can buy the full issue for just $15 here.