Amidst Pride celebrations, a group at Fresno State has been quietly working to preserve LGBTQ2+ history, ensuring wider access and celebration.

The California State Library awarded the university’s special collections research center a $126,000 Preservation and Accessibility of California’s LGBTQ2+ History grant.

The center plans to use funds to expand the Central Valley Rainbow Archives, adding new collections.

“This tremendous California State Library grant does two things for the rainbow community,” Fresno State development director Dr. Peter Robertson said. “It increases the academic repository of LGBTQ2+ culture and history in our region. Most importantly, it also sends a powerful message that our community’s history matters and that Fresno State values the responsibility of preserving this significant collection of rainbow-related artifacts and stories.”

Public Workshops Coming

The grant will also allow the research center and Qistory, a local LGBTQ2+ history organization, to offer public workshops on archiving, oral history and processing historical materials.

This training will allow the community to assist in organizing the archives and make these resources accessible for everyone.

“I’m excited for the students and their future research, for us in having such a seminal collection and all the collaborative, community partnerships this will engender,” said Tammy Lau, head of Special Collections Research Center and University Archives at Fresno State. “This is a true community archive.”

Fresno State will Preserve Jeffery Robinson’s Collection

The research center’s first course of action will be to preserve Jeffery Robinson’s collection of Central Valley-related historical LGBTQ2+ materials accessible to the public.

Robinson, a respected LGBTQ2+ community activist and organizer who died in 2022, possessed materials spanning over five decades.

These items include photographs from the 1970s to present, oral histories, Fresno Pride Parade videos, HIV/AIDS community records, activism ephemera, LGBTQ2+ bar materials and newspaper archives.

Robinson’s collection will serve as the foundation of the Central Valley Rainbow Archives at Fresno State.

Fresno State is working in collaboration with Qistory and Trans-E-Motion to complete the collection.

“We are fortunate to live in a state where our LGBTQ2+ artifacts are valued as integral to the history of this place,” Dr. Katherine Fobear, associate professor and founder of Fresno State’s LGBTQ2+ studies minor, said. “There is so much incredible and diverse LGBTQ2+ history in the Central Valley, yet much of it has not yet been preserved, recorded or written about.”

This will be the first public and academic archive dedicated to LGBTQ2+ history in the San Joaquin Valley.