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The Queer communities of the Intermountain West have gone through major changes in the past century, many of which have gone undocumented due to the community’s marginalization. Folklore graduate student John Priegnitz initiated the Intermountain West LGBTQ+ Oral History Project after the passing of a friend who witnessed firsthand the transformation of Salt Lake City’s Queer community from the 1950s to 2020. This project was created out of a need to record firsthand Queer oral histories from community elders who are rapidly disappearing.

Beginning in 2021, Priegnitz conducted interviews with participants from a wide variety of backgrounds, recording Queer experiences that lie at the intersections of class, race, gender, faith, and politics. This digital collection consists of sixteen recordings of these interviews and their corresponding transcription documents. The stories shared in the interviews evolve and change with each generation. While older informants speak of trauma and survival, younger informants have conversations about visibility and representation in everyday life. Through recording and compiling these accounts and through other Queer public history projects conducted at universities around the state, a significant cultural shift in the Intermountain West is beginning to be documented. This project is intended not only to help create a sense of heritage, belonging, and pride among the Queer community by sharing its stories, but also to create a home for Queer voices to be preserved.

The Queer experiences shared in this oral history project help fill a gap in Utah State University Libraries’ Special Collections and Archives by providing a space where this marginalized community will have its voices heard and made accessible to future generations.

Attached to this digital collection is a companion paper in which Priegnitz provides reflection on his methodology, thoughts on future oral history interviews, and preliminary analysis of stories shared by the informants.

Many of the stories documented are survivor stories that bear witness to the culture and attitudes of the region that go as far back as the 1960s. Traumas that are discussed include coming-out stories, violence, sexual awakenings, and surviving a culture hostile to sexual minorities. These stories, while at times difficult to listen to and read, are part of the historical landscape of the region. They are shared with cautious optimism in the hope that they become part of a dialogue in creating a more tolerant and inclusive Intermountain West.

USU Libraries and archives collect and preserve a broad spectrum of material. Some materials in the USU Libraries’ collections contain sensitive or harmful content. This collection has been identified as having such content. For the full statement on sensitive or harmful content, or to submit feedback, please visit the USU Libraries’ website.