Sexuality and the Cities

Abstract

The Twin Cities GLBT Oral History Project, launched in 2003, was a collective devoted to documenting and interpreting the formation of queer identities and politics in the Twin Cities through the collection of oral histories, through other forms of archival and ethnographic research, and via community-engaged collaborative public projects. This chapter examines the project’s formation and history as well as the challenges of working in an interdisciplinary group. Further, it highlights our decision to disavow identity politics in our research and writing and to deploy instead the queer analytics of the “politics of sexuality.” Finally, it considers the challenges of producing the volume Queer Twin Cities as one broadly accessible to multiple public audiences, even as it engaged with social and cultural theory, addressed controversial topics, and provoked debate about sexuality and politics.