About Us

Blue Ridge Pride LGBTQIA+ Archive is a physical artifacts and oral history cultural heritage project dedicated to preserving LGBTQ+ history of the South.

Dr. Amanda Wray launched the project in January 2019 with the help of community volunteers, undergraduate research students, and Blue Ridge Pride. Our archive is home to over 112 oral history interviews and thousands of images representing physical artifacts (e.g., PRIDE festival paraphernalia, personal correspondence, travel scrapbooks, organizational newsletters, reader-written periodicals, T-shirts, buttons, and more).

Our project continues to actively recruit diverse LGBTQ+ stories and to train local communities in oral history methods. Want to get involved? Just reach out.

Amanda Wray
awray@blueridgepride.org