Diversity in Our Collections

"Male and female homosexuality in twentieth century music," including Benjamin Britten, John Cage, Billy Strayhorn, Boy George, and more.

"Opera, homosexuality, and the mystery of desire"

Dr. Frederick Henry Brengelman (1928-2019) was a professor of Linguistics at Fresno State for 50 years and an early pioneer and advocate for LGBTQ rights who curated his own LGBTQ book collection. These are the books from his collection, donated to the Special Collections Research Center by his family in 2019.

"Musical technologies of queer identity from Homer to Hedwig." "Listening to the Sirens analyzes the musical ways in which queer individuals express and discipline their desire, represent themselves, build communities, and subvert heterosexual expectations. It covers a wide range of musical experiences, including medieval songs; works by Handel, Tchaikovsky, and Britten; women's music and disco; performers such as Judy Garland, Melissa Etheridge, Madonna, and Marilyn Manson; and the movies The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Hedwig and the Angry Inch."

Interviews with LGBTQ elders who came out in different historical eras from the 1950s through today.

"Tells the little-known story of the first known act of collective, violent resistance to the social oppression of queer people in the United States - a 1966 riot in San Francisco's impoverished Tenderloin neighborhood, three years before the famous gay riot at New York's Stonewall Inn."

In 1969 the police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City's Greenwich Village, leading to three nights of rioting by the city's gay community. With this outpouring of courage and unity the Gay Liberation Movement had begun. After Stonewall chronicles the history of lesbian and gay life from the riots at Stonewall to the end of the century.

Short video on the life of Marsha P. Johnson, a key figure in the Stonewall uprising.

A selection of recordings from the "Empress of the Blues."

The Duke Ellington Orchestra plays music of Billy Strayhorn.

Original compositions by a transgender pioneer of electronic music.

Composers include Ruth Anderson, Pauline Oliveros, Annea Lockwood, Eve Beglarian and more.

Composers include Lou Harrison, Lee Hoiby, Robert Helps, Ned Rorem. David Del Tredici, and more.

Composers include John Cage, Aaron Copland, Henry Cowell, Harry Partch, Samuel Barber, Marc Blitzstein, and Virgil Thomson.