Digital Transgender Archive

Unfiltered Voices of the LGBTQIA+ Community

We're thrilled to report that the Zines collection has been greatly expanded with materials from one of our newest collaborators, the Queer Zine Archive Project. The collection now includes an assortment of zines that serve(d) as a communication network among queer communities. These zines tell various stories of queer people, ranging from life as a trans Jew to the lives of sex workers. Having no sponsors or other affiliations, the writers of these zines take on a frank and unabashed tone in telling these stories. This candor provides the reader with the raw arguments of sexual empowerment and identity politics discussed in queer communities.

One zine that the DTA team found particularly interesting was a guide for transgender people to aid in dealing with health care systems. This guide distinguishes transgender health needs as different from those of the general LGBTQIA+ community. It provides a list of helpful terminology as well as an extensive collection of resources––both physical and digital––for assistance in dealings with health care professionals. In addition, the guide provides tips for how to locate further resources. This zine demonstrates how queer communities were able to make use of these privately produced magazines to share vital knowledge in their communities and the wider LGBTQIA+ community as a whole.