This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
By Finding aid prepared by Natalia Fernández and Vanessa Vanderzee.
Title: OSU Queer Archives Oral History Collection, 2015-2023
ID: OH 034
Primary Creator: McConnell, Kiah
Extent: 235.11 gigabytes. More info below.
Arrangement: Interviews and other recordings are arranged chronologically.
Date Acquired: 00/00/2015
Languages of Materials: English [eng]
The OSU Queer Archives Oral History Collection seeks to document the experiences and perspectives of members of the LGBTQ+ community and its allies who have spent at least portions of their lives at Oregon State University and/or in Benton County, Oregon.
Of particular note is a set of eight interviews conducted by OSU student Kiah McConnell for her 2015 “OSU LGBTQ+ Community Film,” created as part of her honors thesis. A set of nine interviews was conducted by the students of the spring 2016 OSU course HST 368 Lesbian and Gay Movements in Modern America with Professor Mina Carson. In 2017, an additional set of nine interviews was conducted by the students of the spring 2017 OSU course with Professor Carson. In 2019, the HST 368 with Professor Carson conducted nine more interviews and in 2020, the students conducted six interviews for the Queer Archives.
Also included in the collection are interviews featruing the history of OSU's SOL: LGBTQ+ Multicultural Support Network and the effects it has had on the QTIPOC student population. There are two interviews in Series 1 (2015) and five interviews in Series 5 (2019).
The collection also includes five event recordings, "The History of Queervallis" and “Occupying Margins: A Panel Discussion on Gender" and "Consent is Asexy and Required: Healthy Relationships with Asexual and Aromantic People" and "Herstory and Culture of Drag" and "Indigenous Trans and Two Spirit Stories of Resilience"
Of particular note are the four story circles documenting the experiences of trans peoples as well as queer peoples with disabilities. There are three interviews in Series 6 (2020) and one interview in Series 7 (2023).
All interviews were conducted in Corvallis, Oregon.
The majority of the interviews and events have been recorded directly to digital video and are available online. Materials assembled in the process of developing interview topics, and permissions forms signed by interview subjects, are also held on site.
Story Circles:
Trans Story Circle #1. This story circle was hosted by the Hattie Redmond Women & Gender Center and the Pride Center as part of their Transgender Story Circle program. The program is described as being a space for people who identify under the transgender umbrella to gather in a safe/brave space to share their stories and create connections. Furthermore, the goal of the program was to document trans voices and stories to be archived in the OSU Queer Archives, where they can be accessed by current and future students. Juniper Alliston, Ray Wolf, Caden DeLoach, Kate Schilke, Quincy Meyers, and a person who has chosen to remain anonymous were the participants of this story circle.
Trans Story Circle #2. Aneeq Ahmed, Juniper Alliston, Cori Elam, Bailey Garvin, Anna Lantry, Quincy Meyer, Catherine Raffin and Ray Wolf
Trans Story Circle #3. Indigo Alexander, Bones, Quinn Chronister, Tali Ilkovitch, Eli Earle, Quincy Meyers, Xander Omoto, and Rose Rachel, and a person who has chosen to remain anonymous.
Disabled and Queer Story Circle. Wren Alman, Anya Grigoror, Jacob Howie, Cynthia Konrad, Quianna Ohren, Ty Sokalski, Lincoln Worley and three anonymous participants.
Individual Interviewees and Event Panelists:
Jaqc Allen. At the time of the interview, Jaqc Allen was a third-year student studying Public Health, Health Promotion, and Human Development. Allen worked at the Black Cultural Center, and was later appointed as a leadership liaison for SOL. Allen holds many identities that are important to them, including being queer, lesbian, gender nonconforming, and Native American Black. A nontraditional student, Allen came to Oregon State in their mid-twenties.
Justine Anaya. Anaya is an undergraduate student at Oregon State University studying Environmental Economics and Policy. She worked with SOL from 2014-2016 and describes this as a time when the organization was struggling to stay afloat. Despite this difficulty, finding community in SOL has helped Anaya thrive in a predominately white campus.
K.B. K.B. was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, in a small town of roughly 500 people. This area is known for being a rugged and conservative region. K.B’s family raised them in a protestant church with their one older brother. K.B understood the class disparity between them and their peers, coming from a family that had contributed to the town for multiple generations. During K.B’s time in their hometown, they had many problems with their family and specifically their brother. K.B felt compared to their brother who was more ‘motivated’ than K.B. After leaving their hometown, the relationship with their brother improved but the relationship with their parents continues to be strained. K.B identifies as pansexual and non-binary and is not out to their parents. It wasn’t until they left for higher education that their identity was truly discovered. K.B went to two different all-female colleges on the east coast and in the South before finding themselves at Oregon State for graduate school. During their time in the same-sex schools K.B found friends who took them in and let them deal with their mental health problems in a safe environment. One of these friends introduced K.B to the Universal Unitarian church, a liberal church focusing on faith and spirituality. While K.B says they never struggled with faith, finding an accepting and safe church proved difficult during the Supreme Court’s decision to potentially legalize marriage equality. K.B refers to these people as their chosen family. Before coming to Oregon State K.B. worked with AmeriCorps and spent time in Tillamook creating important relationships crucial to their mental health and growth. Today K.B studies public health at Oregon State University and is involved in their local Universal Unitarian church where they serve as a mentor and adviser for the church’s High School program in Corvallis, Oregon.
Judy Ball. Ball was born in 1952 in West Virginia, and adopted by parents Clyde and Nelly Ball. Raised as an only child, and living in a rural, isolated part of West Virginia, Ball and her parents were very close. She grew up in a lower middle-class and racially homogenous area, and because of this was not even aware of LGBTQ identities until much later in life. In her early childhood, Ball’s mother was a factory worker, while her father worked as a truck driver. However, due to financial difficulties and lack of job availability, both of her parents worked odd jobs for much of her youth, doing whatever was necessary to put food on the table. Interested in history and public policy from a young age, Ball escaped poverty through education, earning both a bachelor’s and master’s degree. Although she has had relationships with both men and women, today Ball is happily single and is very involved in the local Corvallis community.
Saranya Bond-Frojen. Bond-Frojen was born in Florence, Oregon on October 10, 1971. Bond-Frojen’s mother, a radical activist hippie, named her Searainya because she was born by the sea, in the rain. Bond-Frojen’s father, a chef by trade, struggled with alcoholism, passing away when she was only 26 years old. Bond-Frojen has four half-siblings, but she only grew up with her half-brother Cassidy, who is four years her junior. Bond-Frojen attended K-12 schools in Florence, and discovered community and mentors through the Evangelical Christian church beginning in elementary school. Bond-Frojen attended Eugene Bible College, and though she took a break from pursuing her degree between ages 19 and 35, she ultimately earned a degree in Bible and Christian counseling. While on break from attending college, Bond-Frojen worked with developmentally disabled adults, and as a receptionist at Adventist Medical Center in Portland. After finally receiving her bachelor’s degree, Bond-Frojen went on to pursue a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy at George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon. Although she had worked as a mental health counselor since completing graduate school, at the time of this interview Bond-Frojen was seeking new employment opportunities closer to her home in Corvallis, Oregon—where she lives with her partner Robin, and her stepson Colin.
Bradley Boovy. Boovy was born into a Catholic home in New Orleans, Louisiana and lived in this region of the United States up until the completion of his undergraduate degree. One of the most important times for Boovy's life was the time he spent in Austin, Texas in his 20's as a graduate student because he came out as a gay man. Austin was the place that helped him to find his identity in a positive way in a supportive environment. The bars were the place that people could communicate with others to build their community. Once he took a job at Oregon State University, he wanted to create a queer space in Corvallis that was not in bars so that people under 21 years of age or those who do drink alcohol, could find community. Boovy used to work in creating each year’s Queer Film Festival in Corvallis until 2016. This event highlights LGBTQ+ films from all around the world. Boovy is currently an assistant professor at Oregon State University with a background in Germanic studies, Spanish studies and women studies. He is helping the OSU’s Queer Archives, in Oregon State’s special collections and archives.
Adrian Borycki. At the time of the interview, Adrian Borycki was a third year student in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Oregon State University. Prior to majoring in WGSS, Borycki studied both engineering and pre-med. Borycki’s parents have resided in Corvallis for over five years, and they were already familiar with the town and OSU before attending. Borycki has been involved with the Pride Center since the winter of their freshman year, both as a volunteer and later as the center’s Publications Coordinator.
Mina Carson. Carson was born in 1953 in San Francisco, CA and grew up in Brunswick, Maine, where she spent most of her childhood. Although the town was a liberal college town, Carson does not recall homosexuality being discussed in positive terms, which led to decades of her hiding her sexual identity. Through fear, being uncomfortable, and after swearing secrecy to herself, Carson came out after graduate school while living in Missouri where she had her first academic job. After moving to Corvallis in 1989, Carson got involved in the community. Carson teaches a history course focused on Gay and Lesbian activism in the United States. The class project in this course has students conduct oral histories with members of the LGBTQ+ community for the Oregon State University Queer Archives.
Jo Ann Casselberry. Casselberry was born on Long Island, New York in September 1954. Her family soon moved to the suburbs of Philadelphia, PA, where Casselberry spent most of her childhood. In high school, Casselberry was an advocate for girls’ rights to wear pants to school. She graduated high school in 1972, and began her college years at Wilmington College in Ohio, before dropping out and returning to Oregon in 1974. Once in Oregon, Casselberry worked for a while until deciding to return to school, this time attending Oregon State University, where she studied Interdisciplinary Studies and Political Sociology. Notably, Casselberry was very involved in the SAW (Society for the Advancement of Women) at OSU, and was one of the first two students to earn a minor in Women’s Studies. After graduating in 1979, Casselberry began volunteering through Linn-Benton Association for the Prevention of Domestic Violence and eventually took a job at the Rape Crisis Center, two organizations which soon merged to become what is today the Center Against Rape and Domestic Violence (CARDV). Casselberry began working at Oregon State University in the early 1980s and has remained there since, totaling more than 30 years spent at OSU. She now works in one of the business centers as the Grants/Contracts Technician. Casselberry has long been active in fighting for gay and lesbian rights, and was co-founder and treasurer of After 8, an advocacy and education group. The group was founded in Benton County in response to the passing of Measure 8 in 1988, an emotionally devastating measure for members of the gay and lesbian community. Casselberry acted in the demanding roles of treasurer and fundraising coordinator of the Political Action Committees, fighting a series of anti-gay ballot measures. Although After 8 is no longer active, the work of Jo and her co-workers has had a lasting impact on the community.
Biff Chaplow (and Trystan Reese). Biff Chaplow (they/them/theirs) and Trystan Reese (he/him/his) are a couple who have been married for about ten years. Reese is from the Elna Valley in California. He shares that they were ‘assigned female at birth.’ When he was about eighteen and living in Corvallis, he began to come into his trans identity. The first trans person he met was the artist Micah Bazant. He started transitioning around his 20s in the early 2000s. He transitioned while he was in performing arts school. For most of his life Reese was an organizer with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (now known as the National LGBTQ Task Force). He spent seven years travelling the United States working on LGBT ballot measures. He has worked on the campaign to end the death penalty in California, pro choice issues, and now does queer parenting work for a living. Chaplow was born on the east coast, but moved with their family to Bakersfield, California, when they were twelve. They were raised in a religious Evangelical household. When they turned eighteen, they moved to Los Angeles where they worked at a shelter for houseless people; they share that this experience radicalized them. They are especially interested in and feel impacted by the intersections between poverty and queerness. They share that they never had the privilege of hiding their identity in their childhood and early life. They share that their upbringing as a young adult was a ‘gay male’ and were heavily involved in ‘gay male culture.’ About a year after they became a couple, they became parents to Chaplow’s niece and nephew. Three years ago they legally adopted them. Some time after this, they had their first baby who is now two and a half years old. Their story has been shared widely on news sources such as Washington Post, CNN and People Magazine.
Roman Cohen. Cohen was born and raised in Klamath County, OR and is a third-year undergrad double majoring in Marketing and Business Administration with an option in International Business and on a Pre-Law track. Cohen worked at the Native American Longhouse Eena Haws during the 2018-2019 academic year, and the next year worked work at ASOSU as the Director of PR & Marketing. The poems Cohen rehearsed came from personal experience and the way they have been shaped by Cohen's communities.
Derron Coles. Coles is from Baltimore, Maryland where he attended Catholic schools before enrolling in a pre-engineering high school. While in high school he was bullied for his race, sexual orientation, and for being overweight. Once he got to Oregon State University, he experienced discrimination due to being one of the few black students in the engineering department. Coles harnessed the pain from these experiences into helping create a more inclusive atmosphere on campus. SOL was created in 2002 through Cole's empathy for other students and it continues to be a university supported initiative.
Brooke Collison. Brooke Collison, now a professor emeritus of counselor education, was born in 1934 in Buffalo, Kansas. He is the youngest of three children, with one brother and one sister. Collison’s mother was a school teacher and his father was a farmer. His family attended the United Methodist Church every Sunday and practiced somewhat traditional values. He attended a small K-8 elementary school in Buffalo before transferring across the county to Yates Center, Kansas. His high school class had 84 people, which was a large increase from the class sizes in Buffalo. He continued on to college, completing his undergraduate degree at the University of Kansas. After graduating from college, Brooke had various teaching jobs before he decided he wanted to return to school and obtain his PhD. He went to the University of Missouri to follow his dream of being a counselor. Following his doctorate degree, Professor Collison joined the American Counseling Association and became a prominent voice for the organization. Some of Professor Collison’s most influential work occurred through the American Counseling Association, where he led the group as president for a substantial amount of time. He did much work through a specific division of the association which is called Association for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues in Counseling (ALGBTIC). Between the United Methodist Church and the American Counseling Association, Brooke has been a champion of social justice. His church was one of the first churches to take a stance on the acceptance of the LGBTQ community. This was a channel Brooke used to pioneer many organizations and events for the LGBTQ community here in Corvallis. He moved to Oregon with his wife Joan and became a professor of counselor education at Oregon State University (OSU). At Oregon State, Brooke and his colleagues were important advocates for the LGBTQ community and created various programs to aid students who were struggling with their identity. He still lives in Corvallis but is very active, frequently travelling all over the country. Brooke Collison has been a longstanding ally for the LGBTQ community, and continues to make great strides for this community.
Martha Cone. Dr. Martha Cone, Ph.D. was a Post-Doc and teacher at Oregon State University for several years while simultaneously spending much of her free time advocating for women’s rights on campus. After earning her Ph.D. from University of Texas at Austin, Cone moved to Delaware to work at DuPont & Company. Dr. Cone then moved to California, where she met women travelling to Women’s Land in Estacada, Oregon. After a little over a year, Dr. Cone moved to Corvallis where she wrote Letters to the Editor for the Barometer and was an outspoken activist for women’s rights. Unfortunately, decades later she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Unable to continue work fulltime after her cancer treatment, she decided to officially retire. Currently, Dr. Cone works as a Braille translator for science textbooks while living with her partner in a floating home on the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest.
Tara Crockett. Crockett is a fourth-year student at Oregon State University majoring in women, gender, and sexuality studies. They identify as trans and mixed race, and currently serve as a Student Leadership Liaison for the OSU Pride Center.
Julie Derrick. Julie Derrick was a member of the Portland Lesbian Avengers and helped create the Corvallis chapter of the Lesbian Avengers. Additionally, she is one of the first female queer shoe cobblers in Portland, Oregon. Derrick grew up in Twin Falls and Orofino, Idaho with her single mother and two sisters. Surrounded by forests, Julie played outside with her sisters on her grandparents’ property in rural Idaho. Derrick attended the University of Idaho in Moscow, majoring in Communications. She graduated in 1989 and stayed in Moscow, working alongside protest groups against the wars in Nicaragua and El Salvador and doing anti-racism work in Idaho. In 1992, Derrick ‘came out’ as a lesbian and quickly got involved in activism surrounding LGBTQ+ politics; one of these groups was the Lesbian Avengers in Portland, Oregon. She moved to Corvallis in 1995 with her partner at the time, DJ Travers, and got a job at Corvallis’s Montessori school while her partner went to college. During this time, things were bubbling up about LGBTQ+ politics in Corvallis and at Oregon State so Julie, Derrick, and a handful of other students and community members got together in November of 1995 and started a Corvallis chapter of the Lesbian Avengers. After a few years in Corvallis, Derrick moved back to Portland and decided to open up a shoe cobbler shop. Though she isn’t as active as she was in the 1990s, she currently does equity work around privilege and whiteness, especially alongside her son, who is black.
Harry Demarest. Demarest is a long-time Oregon Democrat who has been heavily involved in electoral politics throughout the state and at a national level. He worked closely with the National Organization for Women, and he helped to develop software that allows people to easily read and make sense of voter lists.
Merry Demarest. Merry Demarest was born on March 17, 1949 in Casper, Wyoming, where she lived until she was five years old. Following this, Demarest’s mother moved them out of state without consent from her father. The family grew to include five more children when her mother remarried, and they moved often, throughout the United States. While living in Las Vegas, the family joined the Mormon Church. When the Mormon Church began funding politicians and organizations against ratifying the ERA, Demarest began to actively organize and protest in support of the ERA, leading to her later arrest (in Seattle) and excommunication from the Mormon church. After graduating high school, Demarest attended Reed College in Portland, where she met her husband, Harry Demarest. The two continued to be politically active and involved in organizations like Emily’s List, which supports pro-choice, female, Democratic candidates for office. Demarest also served as co-President of the Oregon chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) and on the national board for 5 years. Since moving to Corvallis in 1979, the Demarest’s have been active within the Benton County Democratic Party, particularly in support of the ‘No on 9’ and pro-equality movements after the 1988 Measure 8 supported by the ultra-conservative Oregon Citizens Alliance. Demarest currently lives in Corvallis with her husband Harry, with plans to remain active in the local Democratic community. The two have one daughter, Joan, and two grandsons. Merry Demarest has inspired countless individuals through her encounters as an activist, and her role in Basic Rights Oregon and many other organizations. She and her husband were recognized with an award from Human Rights Campaign Fund for their efforts.
Qwo-Li Driskill. Dr. Driskill is a Cherokee poet, scholar, and activist raised in rural Colorado. Driskill earned a BA from the University of Northern Colorado, an MA from Antioch University Seattle, and a PhD from Michigan State University. Driskill has taught at Antioch University Seattle, Texas A&M University, and Oregon State University, and currently serves as Director of Graduate Studies in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) at Oregon State University.
Brandi Douglas. Douglas is currently the Assistant Director of Outreach in the Office of Institutional Diversity. Their drag name is Petty Washington, and they are a member of the Haus of Petty. Their drag performances frequently raise money for causes important to them.
Dan Dowhower. Dan Dowhower grew up in the Midwest in Racine, Wisconsin. He was one of four children and had a stay-at-home mother while his father worked in a factory. Dowhower attended parochial school from kindergarten through eighth grade and then transitioned into public school where he defined himself as a “recovering Catholic.” After high school, he attended college in Wisconsin where he met his life partner at the age of 19. They then went to graduate school together, where Dowhower earned a PhD and an MPH. After graduate school, they moved to Ohio, where they eventually decided to adopt children together; however, at the time, Ohio did not recognize same sex marriages, which limited the number of agencies that would work with them. Eventually, the Jewish Community Federation helped them in the adoption process; however, because Ohio only defined marriage as between a man and a woman, Dowhower’s partner was forced to initially adopt their children as a single parent. Because of this, Dowhower and his family decided to move to Oregon in search of a more welcoming environment. There they found better job opportunities and less restrictive laws that allowed Dowhower to officially adopt his children. After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down state prohibitions of gay marriage in 2014, Dowhower and his partner married. In his early career, Dowhower was employed in organizational training and selection system development before realizing that it was not the career path for him. He then worked in the admissions department at Oregon State University before becoming a full time instructor. Dowhower is now a professor in the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, as well as Human Development and Family Sciences, and he resides in Corvallis, Oregon, with his partner of over 30 years.
Malik Ensley. Ensley is a fourth-year student at Oregon State University studying human development and family sciences. In addition, Malik serves as president of Omega Delta Phi fraternity at OSU and has collaborated on projects with a number of on-campus organizations, including the Lonnie B. Harris Black Culture Center, the Pride Center, and the Oregon State Queer Archives (OSQA).
Bryant Everett. Everett is an Oregon native from the rural town, Philomath. Throughout her life, she has navigated gender expression and identity on her road to recognizing herself as a transgender individual. Having overcome geographic isolation, sexual abuse, domestic violence, and strained relationships with her mother, she is now an activist who believes in the power of representation. Everett transitioned while in a national management position; at the time of her interivew, she had returned to college to pursue a double major degree in Biochemistry and Pre-Med Science.
Robin Frojen. Valerie “Robin” Frojen was born on October 14, 1966 in Los Angeles, CA. Two months later she was adopted by Colleen Baker Frojen and Robert Charles Frojen. She has two brothers named Jon Collin Frojen and Antonio Ezkauritza. She attended a Catholic all-girls middle and high school, where she found respite from bullying experienced in elementary school. Frojen pursued higher education in Syracuse, New York from 1984-1988. Yearning for a new path in life, Robin moved to Scottsdale, Arizona to enroll in culinary school. In 1990, she completed culinary school which opened several doors for her in the culinary world. Frojen and her first wife had a son together in 2000, Colin Lee Frojen-Andersson. She subsequently remarried, to her current wife Searainya “Sea” Bond-Frojen.
Sara Gelser. Senator Sara Gelser was born in Las Vegas, Nevada as Sara Ann Acres on December 20th, 1973. Gelser is the eldest of four, with three younger brothers. In middle school, she established a group called Teens for the Prevention of AIDS in collaboration with friends from the LGBTQ+ community. When Gelser’s family moved from Nevada to Oregon, rather than finishing high school, she decided to apply to college early, at the suggestion of her mother. At sixteen years of age, she was accepted to and began her studies at Earlham College in Indiana. Gelser chose Earlham, a Quaker school, because of its inclusivity towards the LGBTQ+ community, and its commitment to social justice issues. Gelser participated in student government, studying history and education with the intention of becoming a teacher. She earned her bachelor’s degree in History in 1994. That same year, Gelser moved to Corvallis, Oregon with her husband Peter, whom she met and married in college. After starting a family, Gelser returned to school, earning a master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from Oregon State University in 1999. Gelser worked on the Corvallis school board from 2001 to 2005, and was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives in 2005, following the resignation of a Democratic incumbent. After being re-elected for four terms, Gelser was elected to the Oregon Senate in 2015, where she continues to serve. In this position, Gelser has supported bills that include nondiscriminatory outlines for business and insurance companies, stricter punishments for child abusers, standards for modified diplomas toward financial aid, medically accurate sex education, and resource-building for LGBTQ+ veterans.
Stina Goetter. At the time of the interview, Stina Goetter was a fourth year undergraduate student at Oregon State University studying math. In addition to her studies, Goetter also worked as a leadership liaison for the Pride Center, and was involved with the center and with Rainbow Continuum since her freshman year. Goetter is a self-identified lesbian, a genderfuck/genderfluid/genderqueer individual, and a self-described nerd and accidental activist.
Ish Guevara. At the time of the interview, Ish Guevara was a third year undergraduate student at Oregon State University studying Apparel Design and Management. Before coming to OSU, Guevara started the LGBTQ club at his community college. When he transferred to Oregon State, Guevara was offered a position at the Centro Cultural César Chávez, and later with SOL, the LGBTQ+ Multicultural Support Network, where he worked for two years.
Tiramisu Hall. Hall is a mixed-race Two-Spirit artist of Tsalagi, Sicilian, and Irish ascent. She is a parent of three and second-year graduate student in the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Master’s program, and Queer Studies minor. Her art focuses on storytelling through a number of mediums, including: writing, inked line-art, woodcarving, painting, and (rarely) poetry.
PJ Harris: At the time of the interview, under the performance name King Julian G-String, PJ has been doing drag since 2014 and was OSU Beaver Royalty in 2015. PJ is also a Student Success Peer Facilitator at the OSU Pride Center.
John Helding. John Helding was born February 11, 1958 in Portland, OR, and grew up in Gresham, OR on the east side of Portland with his family, including his parents and two older sisters. Both of his parents were born and raised in Montana. His father worked in the timber industry; his mother was a stay-at-home mom during Helding’s early years but then received her elementary teaching degree and taught elementary school in the Gresham school district for 15 years. Helding lived in Gresham until he graduated from high school in 1976. He attended Oregon State University from 1976-1981 and graduated with a degree in industrial engineering. During his time at OSU he sang with the OSU choir all five years, was a resident assistant his junior year, and was an ASOSU senator during his fifth year. After graduating, he moved to Beaverton, OR to work for the company Tektronix for three years as an industrial engineer (1981-1984) – during this time he decided he no longer wished to be an engineer. He then attended Stanford Business School from 1984-1986. After graduating from Stanford, Helding began working for the firm Booz Allen Hamilton and worked for them until the year 2000. He worked as an Associate/Sr. Associate (1986-1990); Western Region Administrative Director (1990-1993); Group Director of Operations, Marketing Intensive Practice (1994-1996); and Senior Director of Global Recruitment (1997-2000). Helding’s other positions have included Chair/Member, Client Security Fund Commission, State Bar of California (1998-2002); Member, Founding Board, San Francisco Friends School (2001-2005); Senior Advisor, Great Place to Work Institute (2003-2006); Member, Board, American Friends Service Committee (2005-2012); Chairperson/Clerk, Board Audit Committee, American Friends Service Committee (2005-2012). As of 2016, Helding’s positions include Chairperson/Clerk, Board, Quaker Voluntary Service (since November 2011); Chairperson, Lopez Island School Board, Lopez Island School District (since 2009); Facilitator, Interpersonal Dynamics Program, Stanford Graduate School of Business (since January 2001); Member, Board of Directors, Marts & Lundy, Inc. (since 2013); Advisor, Helding and Associates (since 2008). After living in San Fransisco for a time, in 2005 he reconnected with an OSU choir alum, a widow with two teenagers, and he moved to live with his new family on Lopez Island, WA; they have been living there since 2006.
Trina Leah Hogg. Born in Ontario, Canada in 1980, Hogg's life was shaped by the arts at an early age and she went to an arts-specific high school. It is here where Hogg began to discover herself through the arts and foster relationships with her fellow students. After completing her high school education Hogg enrolled in the prestigious Trinity College at the University of Toronto, where she majored in History. As Hogg says herself, this was her first exposure to the vibrant LGBTQ+ community, which Toronto has, something which Hogg had yet to be exposed to before entering higher academia. After completing her degree at Trinity College, Trina went on to complete a master's degree at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her master's thesis was titled: Altered Communities: Marriage, Respectability, and Gender in Early Freetown, Sierra Leone 1792-1830. It was easy to see at an early stage in her academic career just how inspired she was by studying African history, the subject she would choose to make her mark in as a Ph.D. student at New York University starting in 2006. It was at NYU where Trina produced the thesis 'Our Country Customs': Legality, Diplomacy, and Violence on the Sierra Leone Frontier, 1861-1896. Once again, Dr. Hogg had produced a detailed historiography of Sierra Leone, something aided by the nearly one year combined which she has spent living in Africa over her life. Upon completion of her Ph.D. Dr. Hogg entered teaching at Columbia College in Chicago, Illinois. Columbia College is a small arts college with an enrollment of about 7,000 students. Teaching classes ranging from African History and Culture Since 1880 to Roots: Genealogy and Migration in America, it is at Columbia College where Dr. Hogg began to truly formulate a teaching style of her own. In 2016, Dr. Hogg made the leap from Chicago to Corvallis and settled in at Oregon State University as a professor of History focusing on African Studies. Classes such as Christianity in Africa have made Dr. Hogg a favorite in the History department due to the distinct subject matter of her classes and the ability to research areas of history often unexamined by the normal student.
Leah Houtman. Leah Houtman was born on November 13th, 1983 outside Philadelphia, PA. Houtman is one of four sisters, and is the second-born child. Houtman’s mother was also born in Pennsylvania, but her father had grown up in Wisconsin. Houtman moved many times with her family throughout her youth due to her parents’ ever-changing employment, financial, and relationship circumstances—first from Philadelphia to Wisconsin, then to a rural town in Indiana where she and her sisters were homeschooled. When Houtman was eleven years old, her parents divorced and her mother came out as a lesbian. Following this, Houtman moved with her mother and sisters to Lafayette, Indiana where she attended public schools. Houtman relocated with her family at least twice more within Indiana after this, living in Indianapolis for a short time, and then moving to another rural town where one of her mother’s girlfriends was living. Leah herself came out as bisexual and then lesbian at the age of fourteen, and encouraged and supported her fellow students to come out regardless of the fact that they lived in a rural conservative area. After successfully completing high school, Houtman attended Earlham college, a private school in Indiana, for two years before taking a break and ultimately leaving Earlham indefinitely. However, Houtman met her future wife at Earlham, and the two moved to Oregon shortly after, wanting to get out of Indiana and inspired by Houtman’s girlfriend’s parents who were moving from Maine to Oregon at the same time. After relocating to the west coast, Houtman began attending Oregon State University (OSU), and additionally trained as a caregiver, herbalist, and doula. She graduated summa cum laude from OSU, and went on to earn a master’s degree in women, gender, and sexuality studies. At the time of the interview, Houtman was working towards her PhD in anthropology at OSU. She and her partner had three separate wedding ceremonies with varying degrees of legality, as she puts it. Their first baby was carried by Leah’s wife and was born in 2014; the second was carried by Leah and was born in 2016. Leah hopes to become a tenure track professor after receiving a PhD in applied anthropology, with a specialized interest medical anthropology and maternity issues. She also plans to train as a midwife.
Jeff Kenny. At the time of the interview, Jeff Kenney was the Associate Director of Diversity and Cultural Engagement at Oregon State University. Originally from Nebraska, Kenney moved to Corvallis from South Carolina to serve as Coordinator of LGBTQ+ Outreach and Services. With an emphasis on queer issues, interracial dialogue, diversity education, and antiracism, Kenney was instrumental to outreach efforts at his previous position at Clemson University, South Carolina.
Cindy Konrad. Konrad is a director for the Pride Center at Oregon State University. Konrad grew up in Wisconsin and went to school at the Northern Michigan University where she got her Bachelor of Arts in English and education, but she also got her Master of Arts in literature from Purdue University. Konrad moved to Oregon three and a half years ago for family reasons and wanted a change for her life. Being involved within the LGBTQ+ community Konrad is able to explain differences that she has seen between the Midwest and the west coast. Not only is Konrad a director at the Pride Center but she is also an advisor to SOL:LGBTQ+ Multicultural Support Network. During the interview Konrad mentions how there are still obstacles to overcome here on campus. She discusses an example of how some buildings still do not include gender inclusive bathrooms and she is on the pushing to overcome this and make for a better tomorrow. With a changing world, Konrad is a prime example of a leader pushing for a more diverse community and create positive change at Oregon State University.
Kim Kraemer. Kraemer grew up in a time when transgender identity was not openly discussed and society was not accepting to people who were outside the constructed gender norms. While a student at Oregon State University in the 1970's, she was exposed to the feminist movement, which helped her to express her non-gender conforming acts more freely. She later married OSU alum, Thomas Kraemer, an out gay man who accepted her non-femme identity. Despite experiencing discrimination in her education, workspaces, and from family, Kraemer is optimistic about the future for the LGBTQ+ community in the United States.
Tamara Lash. Lash is an M.A. student at Oregon State University who completed her undergrad at OSU as well. During her involvement with the Women & Gender Center, she was introduced to the SOL initiative on campus. As a person with multiple marginalized identities, she advocates for more resources on campus that are not solely student led because this can result in emotional burn out for the students.
Miss Dharma Prada MacPherson (Dharma Mirza). Mother of the Haus of Dharma and the recipient of numerous awards for her many years of drag performance, Miss Dharma is a self-identified legend within the drag community of Oregon and beyond and a member of “Queens of the Valley,” a group three well-known drag queens from Corvallis and the surrounding areas.
Marlene Massey. Massey is a historical figure in Oregon who has been involved in both LGBTQ activism and disability justice activism. She was a member of the political advocacy group After 8 and has worked on behalf of both LGBTQ and disabled peoples for many years.
Jill McAllister. Jill McAllister was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1958, and grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. McAllister’s family was active in the Methodist church during her youth, which ultimately impacted her own spiritual journey. McAllister attended high school at Kirkwood High School, in the suburbs of St. Louis. After completing her secondary education, McAllister pursued a bachelor of science degree from Duke University, a master of arts degree from Washington University, and a master of theological studies from Mt. Angel Seminary. She married at 22 and moved to Corvallis in 1981. McAllister went to seminary while living in Corvallis and left in 1998 to act as pastor of a church in Michigan. From 1998 until 2013, she was the minister at the People’s Church of Kalamazoo in Michigan state. Her ministry there, according to her congregants, was transformational in many aspects of church life, including Sunday worship, community building, stewardship, and social justice. McAllister was also a key figure in the creation of ISAAC (Interfaith Strategy for Action and Advocacy in the Community), an interfaith group in Kalamazoo and an affiliate of the Gamaliel Network of grassroots, interfaith, interracial, multi-issue organizations working together to create a more just and more democratic society. In September 2013, McAllister was called back to Corvallis to pastor the Unitarian Universalist (UU) Fellowship. McAllister believes that in telling each other the stories of our lives, we can begin to understand our obligations to one another. The Reverend McAllister is now a minister in the UU Fellowship of Corvallis, and has received several honors for her ministerial work. She helped found and continues to work with the International Council of Unitarian Universalists (ICUU), earning their Founder’s Vision Award in 2011. With the People’s Church in Kalamazoo, McAllister received the UUA Bennett Award for Congregational Action on Social Justice in 2012. She previously served on the board of trustees of the Unitarian Universalist Association, has been a member of the National Clergy Advisory Board for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and has held many other leadership roles.
Brenda McComb. Brenda McComb was born November 8, 1952 in a small town near Hartford, Connecticut. She comes from a rural, blue-collar family who were very vocal about their conservative views throughout McComb’s youth. This made things difficult for Brenda who, from a young age, did not identify with her gender assignment. However, due to her parents' conservative views, and the general intolerance of the times, McComb kept all feelings related to her identity struggle to herself. After high school, McComb went to college at the University of Connecticut, earning a bachelor's and a master’s degree in natural resource conservation. It was also at the University of Connecticut that McComb first heard the term transgender, though she did not relate to the concept at that time. Afterwards, McComb pursued a PhD at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, where she met her wife. McComb continued attempts to conform to her assigned gender identity throughout this time, moving to Kentucky with her wife to teach in the University of Kentucky’s Department of Forestry, and even starting a family. However, she faced many years of depression, and after years of therapy, finally built up the trust with a therapist to break more than forty years of silence about her gender identity. While her therapist at the time was not an expert with that subject, the therapist referred McComb to someone who was. By this time, McComb and her wife had already divorced, and her oldest son was a senior in high school. At 49 years old, McComb took her first dose of hormones to begin her transition. At this time, McComb was working at the University of Massachusetts as a dean, following a 10-year stint at Oregon State University. However, after 13 years of work at the University of Massachusetts, McComb returned to OSU, and has remained in Oregon since. She has come to terms with her identity and is happier now than ever, blessed with an understanding family with whom she still maintains a close relationship despite the divorce.
Lia/Ezra Myers. A 19-year-old student at Oregon State University, Ezra is originally from Pennsylvania but moved to Corvallis to pursure a BS in Psychology. Their hope is to eventually work in an area that provides support for mentally ill queer individuals. They identify as panromantic demisexual and genderfluid.
Kobe Natachu Taylor. Natachu Taylor is an indigenous, two-spirit, queer student majoring in nutrition and a minor in queer studies at Oregon State University. Natachu Taylor hopes to take what he has learned at OSU back to their home community after graduation. As an OSU student, Natachu Taylor engages in social justice activism with the QTIPOC support network in SOL.
Karuna Neustadt. Karuna Neustadt was born in 1952 in the town of Brockton, Massachusetts. Brockton is a suburb of Boston, located about 30 miles outside of the city. Neustadt’s mother was an elementary school teacher, who was born in Germany, and her father was a personnel manager from Boston. Neustadt grew up in an idyllic suburban neighborhood. She had one brother and enjoyed a very close relationship with him. Neustadt graduated from high school in 1970 and decided to pursue a university education. Neustadt enrolled at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa in 1970. After two years of study, she left Grinnell College and returned to Massachusetts. Back on the East Coast, she obtained a position as a teaching assistant and stayed in Boston for the next year. In 1973, Neustadt felt ready to return to college and enrolled at the University of Michigan. After about a year, she withdrew from the university and returned home to Massachusetts once again. In 1978, Neustadt realized she wanted to obtain an advanced degree in Counseling Psychology, so she enrolled at the University of Oregon. She quickly finished her bachelor’s degree and in 1981, Neustadt obtained her master’s degree in Counseling Psychology. During her academic career at University of Oregon, Neustadt enjoyed several jobs including one with the local school district and another at a local nursing home. After graduation, Neustadt returned to the East Coast to support her domestic partner, who was completing her studies at the Divinity School at Yale. Upon graduation in 1983, Neustadt’s partner was transferred to a position at Oregon State University, and Neustadt accompanied her. After returning to Corvallis, Neustadt accepted a position as a social worker at a nursing home, and later obtained a permanent position at the Area Agency on Aging in Corvallis. Neustadt remained with the agency for the next twenty-two years. In Corvallis, Neustadt became very politically active. In 1988, the Oregon Citizens’ Alliance (OCA) sponsored Ballot Measure 8, which repealed an executive order from Governor Neil Goldschmidt that banned discrimination based on sexual orientation. In 1989, Neustadt co-founded After 8, an advocacy group focused on ending discrimination against all people, but with a particular focus on the LGBTQ community. After 8 was involved in campaign and election support, voter education and legislative lobbying. After 8 remained active until 2003. During this time, Neustadt helped to defeat several different ballot measures while promoting community education. Neustadt was instrumental in furthering the integration of the LGBT community in Corvallis. After fourteen years of activism, Neustadt passed the torch and retired to enjoy life in Eugene, Oregon, where she now resides.
Maggie O’Rourke-Liggett. Raised in Southern California, O’Rourke-Liggett is a 21-year-old student at Oregon State University who now considers Corvallis and the residence halls her home. She started getting involved with queer issues through her high school GSA and now works in UHDS as a Resident Assistant in Wilson Hall. O’Rourke-Liggett identifies as asexual demipanromantic and trans/nonbinary. She is working on a bachelor's degree in oceanography and hopes to study orcas in the future.
Brian Parks. Brian Parks spent most of his childhood in Dallas, Texas; he was born in 1975 in South Dakota on an Air Force base. Although Texas was where he grew up, Parks considers Oregon his true home. As early as the second grade, Parks knew that he was gay. Despite being a gay man growing up during the AIDS epidemic, Parks does not remember any direct discrimination against him. In his youth, as well as into his adulthood, he thinks that his being able to pass as straight allowed him to have an easier time growing up. After graduating from high school, Parks started attending OSU in the mid-1990s. By the end of his freshman year, Parks had come to terms with his sexuality, coming out as gay to all of the people in his life. After coming out, Parks decided to join the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Alliance on campus. At the first meeting he ever attended he became the male co-director of the group. During this time, two of his friends started a chapter of the Lesbian Avengers in Corvallis. In his college years, Parks never considered himself an actual member of the Lesbian Avengers, as he felt it wasn't a space for him to intrude upon. Later on, he would consider himself an honorary member and is proud to be associated with them. The workload of being an activist and a student at the same time left Parks feeling burned out. He ended up taking a break from school for a term before coming back to attend culinary school at the Linn-Benton Community College. Today, Parks lives in Corvallis with his husband, where he owns his own restaurant and a small farm.
Ceph Poklemba. A born and grown Oregonian, Poklemba is 21 years old and identifies as grey-asexual, agender, and demihomoromantic. They started working with queer issues at 17, and continually strive to improve their own allyship under an intersectional lens. They are aiming to complete a master’s degree in fine arts, and eventually teach art at the collegiate level.
Guillermo Rebolledo. At the time of the interview, Guillermo Rebolledo was a fourth-year undergraduate student in Sociology, with an option in Crime and Justice at Oregon State University. As a gay and Mexican student, Rebolledo previously worked as the internal coordinator for SOL, the multicultural support network for the LGBTQ+ community at OSU. In addition, Rebolledo was a member of a Greek multicultural fraternity at the university.
Trystan Reese (and Biff Chaplow). Biff Chaplow (they/them/theirs) and Trystan Reese (he/him/his) are a couple who have been married for about ten years. Reese is from the Elna Valley in California. He shares that they were ‘assigned female at birth.’ When he was about eighteen and living in Corvallis, he began to come into his trans identity. The first trans person he met was the artist Micah Bazant. He started transitioning around his 20s in the early 2000s. He transitioned while he was in performing arts school. For most of his life Reese was an organizer with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (now known as the National LGBTQ Task Force). He spent seven years travelling the United States working on LGBT ballot measures. He has worked on the campaign to end the death penalty in California, pro choice issues, and now does queer parenting work for a living. Chaplow was born on the east coast, but moved with their family to Bakersfield, California, when they were twelve. They were raised in a religious Evangelical household. When they turned eighteen, they moved to Los Angeles where they worked at a shelter for houseless people; they share that this experience radicalized them. They are especially interested in and feel impacted by the intersections between poverty and queerness. They share that they never had the privilege of hiding their identity in their childhood and early life. They share that their upbringing as a young adult was a ‘gay male’ and were heavily involved in ‘gay male culture.’ About a year after they became a couple, they became parents to Chaplow’s niece and nephew. Three years ago they legally adopted them. Some time after this, they had their first baby who is now two and a half years old. Their story has been shared widely on news sources such as Washington Post, CNN and People Magazine.
Mary Renneke. Mary Renneke was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1956. When Renneke was two, her parents divorced and she moved to San Jose with her mother, sister, and twin brother. She discovered her identity as a lesbian in high school in the early 1970s, supported by the covertly gay-friendly environment of women’s softball that emerged during that era. Since childhood, Renneke has divided much of her life between Oregon and California, attempting to balance her love of sports with work and the pursuit of education. After working as a bus driver and trainer for many years, and earning her bachelor’s degree through OSU’s online education program later in life, Renneke now resides in Albany and works in Corvallis.
Lorena Reynolds. Lorena Reynolds was born in Rochester, MN. Because her parents were born in Canada, they returned to the country shortly after her birth, and Reynolds spent the first 10 years of her life in Vancouver B.C, Canada. Following this period, the family moved to Southern California where Reynolds completed high school. After graduating, Reynolds attended Lafayette College in Pennsylvania for a year and a half, then later transferred to the University of Colorado, Boulder, where she completed her undergraduate degree. Reynolds went on to pursue a law degree at the UCLA School of Law, which she obtained in 1997. After a brief stint in L.A., Reynolds moved to Corvallis, OR and established her own private practice in 2004, where she currently practices family law.
Larry Roper. Roper is a professor of Language, Culture, and Society at Oregon State University. From 1995-2014 he served as the Vice Provost of Student Affairs at OSU. As a Vice Provost he helped provide the initial funding for the creation of SOL. Roper describes his primary role in student affairs as helping to create campus environments that respond to the needs of the student population. He states that SOL is a respectful and inclusive part of OSU.
Susan Shaw. Shaw was born and raised in the Deep South town of Rome, GA. She was raised as a Southern Baptist that was not accepting of the women’s movement, feminism, or homosexuality. Despite the preaching of intolerance for different communities in her church, Shaw believes that the Bible is about love and tolerance, which inspired her to attend seminary school at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. While in seminary school, Shaw found her voice to challenge sexist ideology and became a feminist. As Shaw came to terms with her sexuality, it was many years before she could be out with it due to fear of losing her teaching jobs at conservative universities. Once she became a professor at Oregon State University, she finally found a place where she did not feel the need to hide her sexual identity and was able to incorporate theology in Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies courses.
Tristen Shay. Shay is the Associate Director of Student Services for the College of Liberal Arts, a Student Diversity Liaison, and an advisor at Oregon State University. Shay holds bachelors degrees in art history and gender studies from Whitman College, and a graduate degree in College Student Services Administration (CSSA) from OSU.
Mitch Smith-Long. Smith-Long is 18 years old and identifies as demiheteroromantic. Having become interested in politics as a whole and queer issues specifically in his preteen years, Mitch has gained a bit of an autistic special interest in the subject. Smith-Long intends to be a civil rights lawyer and perhaps an elected official in the future in order to promote social and economic justice. He’s also a writer, though has yet to publish.
Robyn Leigh Tanguay. Robyn Leigh Tanguay was born in the town of Menominee, Michigan, in 1966, and was assigned the male gender at birth. She grew up with five brothers and sisters, and in her small town, she was known as Robert. Her family moved to California and there she learned about the LGBTQ+ community. During high school and college, Tanguay studied science, which gained her academic recognition, and she attended California State University-San Bernardino and the University of California-Riverside. Tanguay is a distinguished scientist at Oregon State University. Tanguay is married to her wife Sherry, and she has received much support after coming out in December of 2019.
DJ Travers. In 1990, DJ Travers arrived at Oregon State University, as a student of Forestry. He graduated from high school as a woman, but by that time, he already felt he didn't quite fit the mold of a woman. At the time, he identified as a very masculine 'dyke', the commonly accepted term for lesbian, and became a leader in queer activism on campus and in the community. Travers viewed being openly queer as a form of activism in and of itself, and was very intentional about being as openly lesbian as possible. After the firebombing deaths of Oregonians Hattie Mae Cohens, an African American lesbian, anda Brian Mock, a disabled gay man, the Lesbian Avengers sprang into existence in New York. Until the news reached Corvallis from New York, Travers was unaware of this event, but he and some friends took it upon themselves to found the Corvallis Lesbian Avengers, of which Travers still considers himself to be a founding mother. The Lesbian Avengers actively sought to be visible, a metaphorical spit in the face of those who didn't believe Queer people should be proudly out and visible. Travers himself was, the entire time, a visibly masculine lesbian, and he made active strides in fighting for the sake of all queer people, not simply cisgender lesbians. After he came out as trans, he felt somewhat distanced from the Avengers, but he still proudly owns his role as Founding Mother. He has since opened a workshop in Portland for trans masculine people, and continues to be an advocate for the rights of everyone in the queer community.
Rylan Wall. At the time of the interview, Rylan Wall was a graduate student in the College Student Services Administration (CSSA) program at Oregon State, and a GTA at the Center for Civic Engagement on campus. In his sixth year at OSU, Wall began his involvement with the Pride Center. In his freshman year, he was the Social Director of Rainbow Continuum, a student-fee funded organization at the university. Wall was elected to the position of Co-Director of that same organization in his sophomore year, and then worked as the Internal Coordinator for the Pride Center as a junior—a position he held for two years. After returning from a study abroad program in Sweden, Wall worked full-time for Intercultural Student Services at OSU, collaborating on a project to assess experiences of queer international students on campus.
Katie Wicks. At the time of the interview, Katie Wicks was a recent graduate of Oregon State University’s Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and was working as a PROMISE intern at the school. Wicks was involved with the Pride Center since freshman year in a number of positions, including co-director of Rainbow Continuum, and office assistant at the center. Wicks has been involved in research efforts to foster greater inclusion for transgender-identified folks on OSU’s campus.
Ray Wolf. Ray Wolf was born in Madrid, Spain in 2001 and assigned the female sex. His childhood was fairly religious, so when he began to have thoughts about liking girls, he was promptly told to pray more to get rid of what were deemed sinful thoughts. Eventually, he began to realize that beyond these thoughts, he was born the wrong gender. His family did not accept this, and he had varied reactions from friends when coming out to them. Some would not acknowledge his identity, continuing to call him by a name with which he did not identify and using she/her pronouns. Others did not feel comfortable being his friend any more. Still, a few others began to call him Ray and use he/him pronouns. He came to the U.S. in 2017, where he found a vastly different response to the LGBTQ+ community. Feeling this acceptance made it easier to be himself, and he started transitioning. When his family began to see that there was a community that accepted him, and that he would have a future somewhere, they finally began to accept his identity as well. He recounts that the community in the U.S. is not only much more accepting but more expansive in its understanding of gender and orientation. He even remembers in Spain how younger gay kids would come to him for advice because they had no other resource, which he finds disheartening. He hopes that Spain will eventually become a place where the pride flag is seen more than just in Pride parades.
Vanessa Vanderzee. Born in Hoffman Estates, IL, Vanderzee grew up in the Chicago suburbs with her parents and younger sister. After graduating from Schaumburg High school, Vanderzee went on to earn her bachelor's degree from Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois. Following two years of work for her mom’s small business, Vanderzee returned to school to pursue a master's degree in women, gender, and sexuality studies at Oregon State University. Vanderzee’s thesis research centers on asexuality, and uses social media and critical discourse analysis to explore asexual-identifying individuals' experiences accessing health care services. In addition, she has served as a graduate teaching assistant (GTA) for the WGSS department, primarily instructing WGSS 223: Women, Self and Society.
Raven Waldron. Waldron was born in 1995 and grew up in Silver Lake, Oregon with her two younger brothers, Wyatt and Levi. In 2018, she graduated from Oregon State University with an Honors Bachelors of Science in BioResource Research with an option in Toxicology and minors in Social Justice and Chemistry. She has always been very involved in advocacy work at OSU and is proud to be a queer Navajo woman and activist. At the time of this recording, Raven is pursuing a doctorate of pharmacy here at OSU, and hopes to work in indigenous healthcare in the future.
Lee Wilcox. Born and raised in the Silicon Valley in California, Wilcox is 21 years old and identifies as agender, panromantic, and asexual, as well as queer. They are working on a degree in child development and want to be a preschool teacher. Using their education, Wilcox wants to bring LGBTQ+ awareness to younger ages in ways that they can understand.
Luhui Whitebear. Whitebear is a member of the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation and multiple-degree OSU alum (ES, ANTH, WGSS, QS). Her hometown is Coastal Chumash territory in what is now called Santa Barbara, CA although she has called Oregon home for many years. Luhui is a mother, poet, and activist that is passionate about disrupting systems of oppression.
Julie Williams. Williams was born in Corvallis, Oregon, in 1962 to a Catholic family. Her father was the director of the laboratory at Good Salem Hospital and her mother was an insurance biller and nurse at the same hospital. Williams is the youngest of six children, and has been an athlete throughout her life. Born and raised in Corvallis, she attended the local elementary school and continued on to Corvallis High School, attending from 1976 to 1980. After graduating high school, Williams matriculated at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana (1980-1981) on a volleyball scholarship, but later returned to Corvallis to attend and play volleyball for Oregon State University (1981-1983). Although she received her bachelor’s degree in Pre-Therapy, Williams realized she wanted to be a teacher two weeks before she left for therapy school. For this reason, she decided to return to school to pursue her master’s degree in Education. In 1987, Williams became a teacher at Corvallis High School, serving first as the school’s volleyball coach, and later as a Physical Education and health teacher. As an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights in education, Williams traveled around the Corvallis School District ensuring LGBTQ+ rights and policies were enforced and that such students could feel safe at school. In 1996, she became the advisor for the Gay Straight Alliance club (GSA) at Corvallis High School, the first club of its kind in Oregon. In 1999 Williams became the last recipient of the Harvey Milk Award, presented by the After 8 organization. Williams has recently taken up activism for sustainability and climate change, and now teaches Sustainability and Climate Change classes at Corvallis High School.
Minerva Zayas. Zayas was born in Riverside, CA but spent most of her life in Eastern Washington with her mother and brothers. From a young age, Zayas worked multiple jobs to help her mom since she is the oldest child. Growing up in a Catholic home did not provide much space to explore or discuss her sexual identity until she left the house to attend college at Eastern Washington University. As an undergraduate, she double majored in Psychology and Women & Gender Studies. At Oregon State University, she is a graduate student in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies with research focused on queer Latinx women in activism. Zayas also helped establish the Women of Color Caucus at OSU to create community at the predominately white campus.
Vickie Zeller. Zeller is a fourth-year student at Oregon State University studying fisheries and wildlife. Zeller has been involved with Rainbow Continuum, a student-run club that seeks to create a safe space for LGBTQ+ students, from freshman year, acting as a member, co-director, and now advisor for the organization. In addition, Zeller has collaborated with the Pride Center to plan Pride Week and other events, and has co-hosted the annual OSU drag show.
Accruals: Additions to the collection are expected.
More Extent Information: 57 sets of video files; 4 audio files
Statement on Access: Collection is open for research.
Acquisition Note: Interview files were donated to the OSU Queer Archives by the interviewers beginning in 2015.
Related Materials: This collection is a part of the OSU Queer Archives (OSQA). Other collections related to LGBTQ+ history include the Pride Center Records (RG 236), the Thomas Kraemer Papers, and the OSU Queer Archives Oral History Collection.
Preferred Citation: OSU Queer Archives Oral History Collection (OH 34), Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.
McConnell, Kiah
Bisexual college students--Oregon--Corvallis.
College environment--Oregon--Corvallis.
Gay college students--Oregon--Corvallis.
Lesbian college students--Oregon--Corvallis.
Oregon State University. Pride Center
Born digital.
Oral histories (literary genre)
(0:38:15) In the interview, retired Oregon State University faculty member and administrator Brenda McComb begins by describing her early life in a conservative, blue-collar family, and growing up on a New England farm. McComb details how she struggled with gender identity for most her life, not knowing who to talk to or how to articulate her experience. Having no one to confide in, McComb explains that she always preferred to share her time with her dogs and other animals, spending long hours in nature. McComb describes the many ways that gender expectations were rigid in the 1950s and 60s, and how the actions of her peers made it clear from a young age that it was not safe to reveal her true self.
McComb explains how and why she continued living under her assigned gender for most of her education and career, all the while struggling with severe depression and depending on coping mechanisms like throwing herself into work and abusing alcohol. Nevertheless, McComb did her best to maintain a “normal” life, marrying her wife Gina and raising two sons. Not long after their son's birth, McComb and her wife decided to move to Oregon, where she taught and conducted research in the Department of Forest Sciences and the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Oregon State University. After moving to teach at the University of Massachusetts, McComb explains that she finally began to seek therapeutic help for her depression and suicidal thoughts. She describes how this was a breakthrough moment in her struggles with gender identity, given that this was the first time she understood the cause of much of her unhappiness. In the interview, McComb describes the difficult situation she faced at this point in her life—to continue suffering with depression and risk suicide, or to begin the transition process and finally fell comfortable with herself.
McComb shares that she waited to “come out” to her colleagues and students until her oldest son had graduated from high school, as he had requested. When this time came, on a Friday afternoon, McComb sent an email to over 300 faculty and undergraduate students stating that on Monday she would like them to use she/her pronouns and referred to her as Brenda. After years of silence, depression and struggle, McComb was finally able to live her life openly and honestly. Interviewers: Evelynn Castillo, Madeline Mathewson, and Sami Quintero. Interview video and index available online.
(1:11:00) In the interview, Bond-Frojen describes her atypical childhood in Florence, Oregon, under the care of an extremely progressive, politically active mother. Bond-Frojen explains that drugs and alcohol were prevalent in her early life, due to her “pot smoking” parents, and her father’s struggles with alcoholism. Although she describes her mother as a good parent, she also recognizes that drugs and alcohol sometimes interfered with consistency in her upbringing. In Bond-Frojen’s youth, she was heavily involved in the Evangelical Christian church and was extremely passionate about music—participating in both her school’s drumline, marching band, and jazz band. Bond-Frojen shares that religion and spirituality have played a large role throughout her life, and she forged many meaningful relationships with mentors through the church as a young person. Bond-Frojen did not identify as lesbian throughout most of her youth, and so experienced no conflict between her sexual identity and religious beliefs. Although LGBTQ+ issues were not discussed in her K-12 schools, Bond-Frojen recalls her mother using terms like “lesbian” and “gay,” and giving her the classic book Our Bodies, Ourselves to help her explore her sexuality. Bond-Frojen’s mother even told her that she knew Bond-Frojen was a lesbian and that she was supportive of it—even though Bond-Frojen herself was offended at the time, given that she did not yet identify as such.
Bond-Frojen describes how she continued to express her faith after high school, attending Christian universities for both her undergraduate and graduate education. Bond-Frojen earned her bachelor’s degree in Bible and Christian counseling from Eugene Bible College, after taking a 15-year break from her education. Bond-Frojen details how she spent her time during this break—working with adults with developmental disabilities for five to seven years, and as a receptionist at Portland’s Adventist Medical Center for almost a decade. Following this period, Bond-Frojen pursued a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy from George Fox University from 2006 to 2010, even receiving a student-of-the-year award for her major. Bond-Frojen explains that it was during her time in graduate school that she came to identify as lesbian, though she did not feel safe “coming out” for fear that it would jeopardize her educational opportunities. In the interview, Bond-Frojen also describes the inner turmoil she faced when her spiritual and religious beliefs came in conflict with her sexual identity.
After much reflection, and while working as a mental health counselor following her academic career, Bond-Frojen found a way to reconcile this conflict. In the second half of the interview, Bond-Frojen describes her relationship with her wife Robin Frojen, whom she met online through the dating website OkCupid. This portion of the interview includes a lengthy discussion of Searainya and Robin’s relationship, including how it has evolved over time. In addition, Bond-Frojen briefly speaks about how the marriage equality act affected them as a couple. Interviewers: Brooke Wendland, Sanghyeon (Han) Yu, and Ariana Rabette. Interview video and index available online.
(1:03:35) The interview with Brooke Collison ranges from topics such as discussing LBGTQ issues with those uneducated on the subject to the importance of counselling and creating stronger community outreach. Professor Collison discusses his Midwestern childhood in which the size of the small towns he lived in never gave him the chance to meet and learn about those within the LBGTQ community. Also during the first decades of his life, as for many during this time, Professor Collison observed little to no activism regarding the LBGTQ community. Professor Collison describes that for years, there were only “whispers” about men who seemed effeminate and thus must, in the eyes of peers and adults, be gay. As activism progressed and events such as Stonewall occurred, it gave many such as Professor Collison the chance to learn more and do more for those around them. During his tenure at Oregon State University he took the first steps in creating an outreach program for LGBTQ folks at OSU. The importance of creating safe space and support for LGBTQ youth was matched by its risk. Professors and other parties at the time risked their jobs and careers for creating the Opening Doors Conference which included fellow professors, public school teachers, students, and counselors. During the 1990s, LGBTQ activism had started to reach national levels, yet for a small community such as Corvallis there were still risks for professionals who encouraged LGBTQ youth to discuss their lives openly and seek support. Social stigma, community backlash and lack of support would clash with the progressive ideals of aiding those who needed guidance for a better understanding of their true identity.
Professor Collison goes on to detail the importance of activism and the effort it took from all parties involved: students, parents, teachers, counselors, and administrators. In the interview, Professor Collison also outlines his previous and ongoing work with the Methodist Church. It is well known that the Methodist Church is one of the most accepting sectors of Christianity for groups in the LGBTQ community. Professor Collison explains that his work has not been confined to the United States, for he has done an enormous amount of outreach and collaboration in Kenya, specifically at the Kenya Methodist University in Meru. Interviewers: Brooke Collison Interviewers: Alexa Huewe, Luke Van Lehman. Interview video and index available online.
(0:57:25) In the interview, Marlene Massey begins by describing her early life growing up in a middle-class New Jersey suburb with two siblings—a younger brother and sister. During this first portion of the interview, Massey touches on the highly visible pushback against sex education in New Jersey schools, and the complete lack of discussion surrounding “alternative sexualities” which occurred during her youth. Massey explains how she came to realize her sexuality through a crush on a female gym teacher, and by getting in trouble for being too close or “too much of a sister” to her fellow Girl Scouts in high school. Massey describes how neither she nor her lover Barb in high school identified as lesbians or used the term, they would sneak out of their houses at night to see one another. Massey moved to Oregon in the 1980s with a woman she had, funny enough, met at her Girl Scout camp.
Following a discussion of her youth, Massey describes an incident which occurred while she was teaching preschool in Oregon. She describes how the assistant director of the school attributed a student’s problems to their lesbian mother, and Massey disagreed. A year later, that same assistant director cut Massey’s hours, but no one else’s. When no one at the school came to her defense, Massey left to find another job, and says she decided not to pursue a legal case based on advice from a friend. Massey discusses why she joined the Benton County LGBT organization After 8, describing herself as not political but motivated by a desire to live a normal life with her partner. Her involvement with After 8 included doing the decorations for the Harvey Milk dinner, picking up trash for a sponsored highway section, and helping organize for the “Gay Games” event. Then Massey explains how her involvement with After 8 ended, when she was hospitalized for a rare brain injury, and discusses her experience with being hospitalized. Massey then explains how her involvement with After 8 planted the seeds for her current activism. Massey shares her views of the similarities and differences between advocating for disability justice and LGBTQ+ rights. Massey then discusses her work with the local public library and the Unitarian Church. Finally, she reflects upon changes she has seen in attitudes towards the LGBTQ+ community both locally and nationally. Interviewers: Angela Dunham, Jessica Osborn, and Pedro Arenas. Interview video and index available online.
(1:07:08) In the interview, Merry Demarest begins by discussing her youth, including her many relocations during childhood and young adulthood, and a tumultuous family dynamic after her mother remarried. Following this portion of the interview, Demarest focuses on her social justice activism through the years, which began fairly early in her life. Demarest discusses her involvement with the National Organization for Women (NOW), her positions within the organization, and her campaigning for the federal Equal Rights Amendment. After this, Demarest proceeds to a discussion of her work campaigning for Hillary Clinton by encouraging constituents in Texas to attend party caucuses for the Democratic nomination. After 8 is the next organization she discusses, including her involvement with that organization in fighting Corvallis Measure 02-06, a homophobic measure written by the Oregon Citizens Alliance. She then talks about campaigning for Bill Clinton in the 1984 gubernatorial election in Arkansas. Demarest’s involvement with the Democratic Party of Oregon and her chairing of the Democratic Oregon State Fair booth for 12 years are the next topics she discusses. Demarest then describes the importance of Emily’s List to her extended family because of their early involvement. Demarest then outlines how she became the founding chair of the LGBTQ+ organization Basic Rights Oregon after being a co-chair of the anti-Oregon Measure 9 campaign, and what the organization’s goals were both when it was founded and at the time of the interview, in 2017.
In the latter portion of the interview, Demarest details her involvement with the Human Rights Campaign and the award she and her husband Harry received from the organization. She then returns to a discussion about campaigning in Utah for the Equal Rights Amendment, and her interactions with the women opening their doors to her. One of the last topics Demarest spends time on is her work campaigning for Hillary Clinton, and then for Barack Obama in the 2008 election. Demarest gives her thoughts on the 2016 presidential election and advice for today’s young activists, and explains what her more recent involvement with the Benton County Democrats has been. Finally, Demarest discusses her current project: trying to encourage local music venues to refuse to book the Eugene, Oregon band Cherry Poppin' Daddies. Interviewers: Justyn Jacobs, Lucy Hillenbrand, and Meredith Bowers. Interview video and index available online.
(1:12:00) Bradley Boovy is a professor in World Languages and Cultures and also teaches courses in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Oregon State University. In this oral history interview, Bradley first talks about his childhood growing up in the vibrant city of New Orleans, Louisiana and attending religious schools, including a Jesuit High School. He describes his early experiences with LGBTQ people and identities, paying special attention to the role religion played in mediating these experiences. Bullying was common during his primary school years and affected his sense of belonging to the community. He also discusses his relationship with his family, both during his childhood and later on in life, especially his mother and father.
Moving on from his childhood and adolescence, Bradley talks about going to college and discovering a love for language. His college years were important in shaping his understandings of religion and social justice as well as his own personal identities. He struggled to come out to his girlfriend of many years and spent some time in Texas and Germany afterward before coming back to Oregon to teach in the position he currently holds. Coming out to his family was also difficult and has affected his relationship with many of his family members. He has yet to tell some of them, and probably never will, for fear of their reactions. Finally, the interview concludes with Bradley talking about his hopes for the future. Interviewers: Dalton Holt, Ian Lipanovich, and Elizabeth Jung. This oral history interview is only available in the SCARC reading room.
(1:42:49) In this interview, Miss Dharma Prada MacPherson (Dharma Mirza) begins by describing her early life growing up in a strict Islamic household in Utah with several siblings and a religious father. During this first portion of the interview, she describes many of her childhood and adolescent experiences, which were often traumatic and greatly impacted her relationship with various members of her family and community. She also talks about coming into her own identities and how her self-perceptions have changed over time, due to shifts in language, experiences with discrimination, discovering popular culture representations, and other catalysts. Much of her background is marked by experiences with violence and harm, including, among other things, sexual violence, substance abuse, being diagnosed as HIV positive, employment discrimination, and persistent transphobia. These experiences are one of the main reasons why Dharma has become such a fierce activist and advocate for queer and trans people today. During this portion of the interview, she also talks about her experiences in school, including mentors she had growing up, her experiences with work, and her experiences with moving from Utah to Oregon.
In the second part of the interview, Dharma speaks to the often uneasy relationship between drag performances/cultures and trans people/communities. She believes that drag often does become transphobic, especially when it is narrowly defined as cross-dressing, but that it can ultimately be a form of resistance for trans and gender non-conforming folks as well as anyone who wants to trouble gender norms. For her, drag has provided a space to engage in activism surrounding a number of social issues: her performances often take on a political edge and founding the “Haus of Dharma” has enabled her to create a community for herself and other trans drag performers, who are so often mistreated and isolated. In this portion of the interview, she also discusses how drag relates to other aspects of her identity, such as her nationality. Finally, based on themes that emerged throughout the oral history, the interviewer (Sam Shelton) poses two additional questions. The first question asks Dharma to discuss the relationship between transness and trauma, which is often (problematically) talked about in causal terms with traumatic experiences causing transness. Dharma asserts that transness is trauma in the sense that being or becoming trans means that an individual will have many traumatic experiences throughout their life as a result of systems of power that make transphobia and violence so pervasive. The second question asked Dharma to expand on the relationship between transness and religion/spirituality. Her response offered insights into how she has brought these two aspects of her identity together and navigated through the tensions between them. Interviewer: Samuel Shelton. Interview video and index available online.
(2:41:39) Bryant Everett’s life begins in Philomath, Oregon, in a rural, isolated home on the outskirts of the town. She explains that not being able to express herself openly in the tight knit community left her feeling hopeless after high school. She then describes that once she found her footing in employment, and quickly moving up the ladder into a national management position, she began a long-term relationship that would change her forever. At the end of the relationship, she temporarily left Oregon and began therapy where she was introduced to the phrase ‘gender dysphoria’. Everett's new dialogue in describing her personal experience was the start of her transition journey. This journey began while she continued to travel over the United States and train employees on a weekly basis. She expresses that since transitioning, she has a new way in interacting with the world. Sharing her experiences is not only part of her self-care, it is also at the root of her activism. Representation, being outspoken, self-reflection, and inner strength are traits that Everett brings into the LGBTQ+ community. Towards the end of the interview she discusses her enrollment in college as a Biochemistry and Pre-Med double major, and living in Eugene, Oregon. Interviewer: Natalia Fernandez. Interview video and index available online.
Content Warning: Various parts of the interview discuss sexual abuse/assault, domestic violence and suicide.
(01:18:07) Dr. Mina Carson shares her life experiences as a lesbian woman and coming out later in her adult life. She was born in San Francisco in 1953 and shortly thereafter moved with her family to Brunswick, Maine where she grew up with her two sisters. She described what life in Maine and the late divorce of her parents. For Carson, homosexuality was not talked about while she was growing up. Her earliest recollection of questioning stemmed from her first childhood crushes that she described as “really intense friendships.” She then delved into the process of her coming out. While in graduate school, during the summer in New York, she stumbled upon the Pride Parade. Now this was before she was out of the closet, so she found herself participating and chanting but still apologetic about her identity. In Missouri, she worked at Northeast Missouri State (now Truman State University) in the College of Liberal Arts. It was there that Carson had her first recollections of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. She remembers the shock and horror she felt that people her age were dying of this disease. She attributes her hyperawareness of the disease to her generation and a fear that many experienced. While in Corvallis, the anti-homosexual ballots of the 1990s in Oregon added to Carson’s fear. Ballot Measure 8 was in response to Neil Goldschmidt’s order for anti-discriminatory protections for gay and lesbian people. The measure overturned this order, causing fear, hate and joblessness for many people in the LGBT community. Carson noted living in downtown Corvallis and having a campaign poster in her lawn torn down. When she got the opportunity to move to a different area, she did and noted part of her reasoning was from being scared of the hate. Now, the reactionary political climate and the current Donald Trump Administration have focused Carson’s attention on climate change, abortion rights, and preservation of the Supreme Court and Constitution from corruption.
Toward the end of the interview, Carson touches on the importance of music in her life, especially as a coping mechanism. She started writing songs when she was a teenager and to this day uses music to bring all parts of herself together. She describes her relationship with music and songwriting as a hobby that allows her to bring about emotional release and address the things that are important to her, including politics and relationships. The most important parts of life are her kids. In this interview, Carson describes getting a master’s degree at Portland State University in Social Work and trained in psychotherapy and working as a therapist. However, in wanting children, having two careers was simply not viable and returned to the sole career of teaching to be a mother. She describes the process of adoption and parenting and the importance of her children in her life. Throughout the interview, Carson adds important commentary on the way fear has affected her life and her relationships and details her struggles with self-acceptance, doubt, and bravery. She closes the interview with a statement that she realizes she owes her community honesty and the wish that she was bolder and less cautious in owning her identity and strives to be that way. Interviewers: Sarah Carroll and Paige Sim. Interview video and index available online.
Series seven includes seven interviews featuring nine interviewees conducted by a spring term 2023 course, WGSS 521 Feminist Leadership, taught by Dr. Kali Furman. The class consisted of 8 graduate students, most of whom, but not all, were students within the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program. The course consisted of a term-long oral history project, with the interviews added to this collection due to the Queer Studies Program’s development as part of the WGSS Program, as well as for the content and perspectives shared within the interviews. The interviews provide a range of perspectives on the OSU WGSS Program and what feminist leadership means; the students wrote the interview summaries.
The series also includes a Trans Story Circle.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.