Gay Family Members and Family History.
/
Gay family members and family history.
Today, gay family members are finally able to enjoy the same open life that straight family members have enjoyed throughout modern history. However, this was not always the case: in the past, gay family members often had to hide their sexual orientation due to the stigma—social and in some cases, legal—against gay people throughout history. In some cases, we can catch glimpses of past gay family history through old family photographs, old letters, and even family memories. Let’s take a closer look at what you can do to preserve the memory of gay family history in your family’s history.
Why Has Tracing and Recording Gay Family History Been Historically Difficult?
Since gay people have not been able to enjoy the same rights, privileges and acceptance as straight people until relatively modern times—remember that it is only in the past 10 years that gay marriage has become legal in many countries—historically, many gay people were not able to be open regarding their lives. This means that there are gaps and misinformation in family history, particularly regarding gay family members. For instance, you might remember an uncle who lived with a friend—they were lovers, but to the outside world, they had to present themselves as “bachelor friends.”
Check out our 10 questions to ask your parents before it's too late!
How You Can Start Preserving the History of Gay Family Members
It is important to preserve family memories and family history for future generations, and part of that preservation should include gay family history that has been long overlooked or even forgotten. You can start preserving the history of gay family memories in many ways, including:
Researching family documents for more information about gay family members
This can include looking for old family letters where mentions of their gay relationships may have been written down, looking for documents regarding gay family members who may have lived less than openly with their spouses during a time period, and so on.
Collect old family photographs relevant to gay family history
You can also start looking for old family photographs that are related to gay family history. For instance, look for old photographs of relatives who were unable to be open about themselves during their lifetime. Do they have any photos with their spouse, who was at the time portrayed as a “friend” of the family member? In some cases, there may be old family photographs that were kept hidden that show gay family members having (“unofficial”) weddings or engaged in intimacy such as hugging their same-sex spouse.
Preserve the history through digitization
Whenever you find documents and photos related to gay family history, it’s important to preserve them so that they can be passed down to later generations and shared among current family members. The best way to preserve these documents and photos is through digitization, such as scanning or photographing the documents with a high quality camera. The digital files can then be copied to hard drives, disc and the cloud so that they can be shared with the future generation of the family down the line.
To learn how to back up our old photographs click here.
To learn how to share your old family films safely click here.
