Digital Transgender Archive

Giving Voice to Trans History: Oral Histories of Transgender Activism

HeadshotThe DTA recently uploaded our first audio recordings of oral histories. These oral histories, a series of seven interviews with activists from the Milwaukee transgender community, are contained in the Milwaukee Transgender Oral History Project Interviews collection. The Milwaukee Transgender Oral History Project was conducted by Dr. Brice Smith in order to supplement the oral histories conducted by the Milwaukee LGBT History Project, which primarily focused on the stories of lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals.

One of the interviews that Dr. Smith conducted was with michael munson, an activist who has been involved in a number of organizations within the Milwaukee transgender community. In 1994 he founded FORGE as a social network and support group for queer people in Chicago. Since then, the group has done work to fight discrimination and violence against people who identify as transgender, gender nonconforming, and gender non-binary. FORGE has become a federally-funded, national organization that provides training and technical assistance to people who serve transgender survivors of sexual assault. Despite the impressive scope of FORGE’s work, munson states in his interview that he never intended to be an activist or to do trans work full time. But through his work and dedication, munson’s contributions to trans resources have helped people throughout the United States.