{"id":345493,"date":"2026-06-03T22:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T22:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/345493\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T22:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T22:12:11","slug":"fresno-state-lands-126k-grant-for-lgbtq2-rainbow-archives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/345493\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresno State Lands $126K Grant for LGBTQ2+ Rainbow Archives"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amidst Pride celebrations, a group at Fresno State has been quietly working to preserve LGBTQ2+ history, ensuring wider access and celebration.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a true community archive.\u201d \u2014 Tammy Lau, head of Special Collections Research Center and University Archives, Fresno State <\/p>\n

The California State Library awarded the university\u2019s special collections research center a $126,000 Preservation and Accessibility of California\u2019s LGBTQ2+ History grant<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The center plans to use funds to expand the Central Valley Rainbow Archives, adding new collections.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThis tremendous California State Library grant does two things for the rainbow community,\u201d Fresno State development director Dr. Peter Robertson said. \u201cIt increases the academic repository of LGBTQ2+ culture and history in our region. Most importantly, it also sends a powerful message that our community\u2019s history matters and that Fresno State values the responsibility of preserving this significant collection of rainbow-related artifacts and stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

Public Workshops Coming<\/p>\n

The grant will also allow the research center and Qistory<\/a>, a local LGBTQ2+ history organization, to offer public workshops on archiving, oral history and processing historical materials.<\/p>\n

This training will allow the community to assist in organizing the archives and make these resources accessible for everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited for the students and their future research, for us in having such a seminal collection and all the collaborative, community partnerships this will engender,\u201d said Tammy Lau, head of Special Collections Research Center and University Archives at Fresno State. \u201cThis is a true community archive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fresno State will Preserve Jeffery Robinson\u2019s Collection<\/p>\n

The research center\u2019s first course of action will be to preserve Jeffery Robinson\u2019s collection of Central Valley-related historical LGBTQ2+ materials accessible to the public.<\/p>\n

Robinson, a respected LGBTQ2+ community activist and organizer who died in 2022, possessed materials spanning over five decades.<\/p>\n

These items include photographs from the 1970s to present, oral histories, Fresno Pride Parade videos, HIV\/AIDS community records, activism ephemera, LGBTQ2+ bar materials and newspaper archives.<\/p>\n

Robinson\u2019s collection will serve as the foundation of the Central Valley Rainbow Archives at Fresno State.<\/p>\n

Fresno State is working in collaboration with Qistory and Trans-E-Motion<\/a> to complete the collection.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are fortunate to live in a state where our LGBTQ2+ artifacts are valued as integral to the history of this place,\u201d Dr. Katherine Fobear, associate professor and founder of Fresno State\u2019s LGBTQ2+ studies minor, said. \u201cThere is so much incredible and diverse LGBTQ2+ history in the Central Valley, yet much of it has not yet been preserved, recorded or written about.\u201d<\/p>\n

This will be the first public and academic archive dedicated to LGBTQ2+ history in the San Joaquin Valley.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amidst Pride celebrations, a group at Fresno State has been quietly working to preserve LGBTQ2+ history, ensuring wider…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-345493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}