Independent. Inspired. Relentless.
Founded by Don Schwamb, the Wisconsin LGBTQ History Project seeks to reconnect Wisconsin with its lost history and heritage. Since 1994, the Project has become the state’s largest digital collection of historical LGBTQ media.
Our mission is to reconnect Wisconsin with its long-hidden history and heritage to inspire a more colorful and inclusive future. We are committed to researching, documenting, preserving, celebrating and elevating our local LGBTQ history.
The project provides inclusive education, guided tours, outreach events, curated exhibits, presentations, articles, publications, podcasts, media support, research services, and consulting services.
Our collection continues to grow every day through ongoing crowdsourcing, conversations, and collaborations.
We are independently funded, not-for-profit, all-volunteer, and community-driven.
We honor Louis Stimac (1941-1994,) gay rights activist and founding member of Gay People's Union, who is considered to be Wisconsin's first true LGBTQ historian.
Since 2021, we have been an incorporated educational non-profit in the State of Wisconsin, led by a Board of Directors and a statewide network of 25+ Community Advisors.
The Wisconsin LGBTQ History Project Inc. is a sponsored project of the Cream City Foundation Inc., and accepts tax-exempt donations through the Foundation as our 501c3 fiscal agent. We are a member of the LGBTQ History Association and a partner organization of History UnErased.
Our world has changed tremendously since 1994, when Jim Kepner of the ONE Institute of Los Angeles toured America to seed local LGBTQ history projects in the wake of Stonewall's 25th anniversary, including ours.
What will never change is our purpose: to document and make widely available the historical record of LGBTQ people, places, organizations and events throughout the state of Wisconsin.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
© 2025 Wisconsin LGBTQ History Project. All Rights Reserved.