The Bentley has a number of collections related to LGBTQIA+ people and organizations at U of M and in the state of Michigan; this guide describes some starting points for your research but is not comprehensive.
If you want to request books, maps, and other publications, use the catalog. Archival collections are briefly described here, but most of them must be requested from the finding aids.
If you want to request specific folders from a collection, search here. Finding aids describe how archival collections are organized and how they were created in greater detail.
The Ruth Ellis papers include material related to Ellis's life and LGBT activism. Ellis was a Detroit resident, printer, and activist who passed away in 2000 at the age of 101; near the end of her life she was often idenfied as the oldest known out lesbian.
Jim Toy was a Gay, white and Asian American activist and founder of what would become the UM Spectrum Center (then known as the Human Sexuality Office). The James W. Toy papers and the Spectrum Center records have more information. This photo comes from Box 17 of the James W. Toy papers.
Kathy Kozachenko was a UM student and Ann Arbor city council member representing the Human Rights Party; when elected in 1974 she was the first openly LGBT candidate to be elected to political office in the US. The Bentley holds the Human Rights Party records.
The words used to describe LGBTQIA+ people, and the ways people define and categorize gender and sexuality, are different today than in past.
Try multiple searches with variations on your search term; include older related terms that may be outdated or offensive today. For example:
Think creatively about who else may have been interested or linked to what we'd now consider LGBTQIA+ topics, even if they don't state it explicitly. For example, researchers interested in gender and theater performance may want to check the scrapbooks of drag performer David Hummel, but also the less-obvious Michigan Union records. Early 1900s theater productions had students assumed to be male playing female roles; including at least one, Lionel "Mike" Ames, who became a professional performer.
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Not sure how to search for material on your topic? This book is focused on the UK, but has useful suggestions for search terms and types of historical records to check.
A Practical Guide to Searching LGBTQIA Historical Records
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A Practical Guide to Searching LGBTQIA Historical Records
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