In the absence of such arrangements, discovery of significant collections is left to serendipity. Having conservators who themselves are knowledgeable about glbtq culture is also helpful.

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For example, when lesbian archivist Linda Long began a new job at the University of Oregon she came across 30 unprocessed boxes marked "Jean and Ruth Mountaingrove" that turned out to be, in the words of Carolyn Gage, a "mother lode of lesbian culture."

These writings, images, and videotapes documented the Oregon rural lesbian communities of the 1970s, including material gathered by the Southern Oregon Country Lesbian Archival Project (SO CLAP!) spearheaded by Tee Corinne. Without the attention of a knowledgeable conservator, this history might have remained inaccessible for decades.

Conclusion

Probably the best assurance against future loss of glbtq records is their proliferation and duplication in different formats among multiple collections. Modern preservation methods, secure storage in brick-and-mortar facilities, and digitization are necessary, while the Internet also provides creative possibilities for exhibition and dissemination.

Most importantly, all segments of the queer population must recognize that their stories and images will continue to provide vital affirmations for future generations.

The contemporary literary awards given specifically to honor glbtq books may be seen as an outgrowth of the modern American gay rights movement, so intertwined are they with the movement for equality.

Governments, publishers, editors, and even gay writers themselves have censored gay content in literature from the Renaissance to the present.

Although the question of homosexual identity is a complex one, it has polarized activists, theorists, and literary critics into two primary camps, essentialists and constructionists, both of which can contribute usefully to an understanding of the gay and lesbian literary heritage.

The Metropolitan Community Church, a Christian denomination founded to minister to the glbtq community, has grown into a worldwide ministry with over 40,000 members in 18 countries.

As part of its agenda to preserve an "Aryan master race," Nazism persecuted homosexuals as "asocial parasites"; more than 100,000 men were arrested on homosexual charges during the Nazi years, with 5,000-15,000 gay men incarcerated in concentration camps.

Oral history has been an especially effective tool for lifting the curtain of invisibility from glbtq history.

James Baldwin, a pioneering figure in twentieth-century literature, wrote sustained and articulate challenges to American racism and mandatory heterosexuality.

The shy superstar of lesbian erotica, American artist Tee Corinne is especially known for her frank and sensuous depictions of lesbian sex.

Award-winning Harvey Fierstein is one of the finest gay male playwrights currently working in the American theater.

A pioneer in the American gay rights movement, Barbara Gittings worked tirelessly within the American Library Association to make material with glbtq content more accessible to the reading public.

Radclyffe Hall, who lived her lesbianism openly and proudly, is best known for The Well of Loneliness, arguably the most important lesbian novel ever written.

Activist Harry Hay, an original member of both the Mattachine Society and the Radical Faeries, is recognized as one of the principal founders of the gay liberation movement in the United States.

German-born Magnus Hirschfeld deserves recognition as a significant theorist of sexuality and the most prominent advocate of homosexual emancipation of his time.

Philanthropist and political activist James C. Hormel became the first openly gay United States ambassador despite the vociferous opposition of conservative groups.

A founder of the Sociologists' Gay Caucus and a pioneer researcher in the study of homosexual behavior, Laud Humphreys combined academic study with political activism of all kinds.

The work of African-American activist and writer Audre Lord was greatly influenced by her lesbianism.

Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin were among the founders of a lesbian liberation movement that developed and enlarged the very definition of lesbianism.

One of the earliest American gay movement organizations, the Mattachine Society was dedicated to the cultural and political liberation of homosexuals; but in the face of McCarthyism, it adopted conservative policies of accommodationism.

Harvey Milk, among the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in the United States, was assassinated in San Francisco's City Hall, making him the American gay liberation movement's most visible martyr.

The fiction of Isabel Miller explores and celebrates relationships between women, often across class lines.

Through her writing, teaching, editing, and activism, Joan Nestle has devoted her life to promoting awareness of glbtq culture and advancing glbtq equality.

Adrienne Rich, who aestheticized politics and politicized aesthetics, is America's most widely read lesbian poet.

Admired through the ages as one of the greatest lyric poets, the ancient Greek writer Sappho is today esteemed by lesbians around the world as the archetypal lesbian and their symbolic mother.

José Sarria, a San Francisco singer, drag performer, and activist, exemplified gay pride before the phrase was invented.

Berlin's Schwules Museum [Gay Museum] is a private institution dedicated to preserving, exhibiting, and discovering homosexual history, art, and culture.

As one of the key figures that western civilization has used to define itself, William Shakespeare stands in a complicated, fiercely contested relationship to homosexuality.