Tuesday, May 30, 2023, 7:00 – 8:00 pm

Virtual – Zoom Webinar

In 2019, a class of student researchers at Central CT State University led by Professor William Mann, in collaboration with the Connecticut Historical Society, uncovered and chronicled the deep, rich history of the state’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer communities. What they stitched together was four centuries’ worth of challenges, triumphs, heartache, and achievement. Connecticut might not have had the high-profile history of New York or California, but by carefully sifting through the sources, Mann and his students discovered the state was often ahead of the curve: the first protests here predated the Stonewall uprising of 1969, considered the launchpad for the modern LGBTQ movement. The timeline the students constructed with the help of CHS shows the diverse, colorful, influential, and enduring legacy of Connecticut’s queer communities. 

Please register; Zoom link will be sent out before the event.

Until he retired last year, William J. Mann was an Assistant Professor of History at Central Connecticut State University, where he taught, among other courses, LGBTQ History and History of AIDS. He is the New York Times bestselling author of several books on film and political history, including The Contender: The Story of Marlon Brando and The Wars of the Roosevelts. From 1989 to 1995, he was editor and later publisher of Metroline, Connecticut’s original LGBTQ newsmagazine, as well as coordinator of Your Turf, the first LGBTQ youth group in the state. With Terri Reid, William founded the long-running queer film festival known today as Out Film CT. He has won the 2015 Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime and the 1999 Lambda Literary Award for Biography. He’s written for Vanity Fair, Architectural Digest, The New York Times, Connecticut magazine and many other publications, and has appeared on CNN, Turner Movie Classics, the BBC and various documentary series and films. He divides his time between Connecticut and Cape Cod.