The LGBT Political Landmarks in the Americas project is an interactive timeline charting significant events in the history of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans* (LGBT) activism in the Americas and (eventually) around the World. In addition, the timeline will serve as an open access data visualization platform for an extensible digital data collection. With origins in one of the first published works in English focused on the comparative politics of LGBT issues in Latin America, The Politics of Sexuality in Latin America, co-edited by Javier Corrales (Amherst College) and Mario Pecheny (University of Pittsburgh Press. 2010), the LGBT timeline project initiates an important digital resource for future scholarship, teaching, and general information in this area.

Fully implemented, the timeline will offer three services. First, it will capture and make openly available standardized event data about global LGBT activism. Primary source material and digital media documenting those events are used to enhance event descriptions. Second, special search tools will become available, allowing users to conduct custom-made forms of organizing and retrieving the data according to various themes categories, not just according to time. This includes incorporating text analysis and data visualization tools. Third, the platform will create opportunities for citizenship journalism: it will act as an open resource for students, scholars, and others with to to contribute additional data. The ability of academics, students, researchers, journalists and citizens from around the world to both draw data from and contribute data to the Timeline will not only enrich the database for generations to come, but will also help re-frame the often U.S.-centric discourse on LGBT history.

Project Members

Javier Corrales
Professor of Political Science, Amherst College

Julio Capó
Professor of History, UMass-Amherst

Aaron Coburn
Programmer, Amherst College