Tretter Collection

Our history is on display today at East Central Minnesota Pride! Always a lovely kick off to June - now celebrating 21 years of rural pride in Pine City, Minnesota. What a gift to steward their records in our archives and to have a presence each year with our traveling exhibit.

Join us in person at the Elmer L. Andersen Library or online this Friday, June 5th at 12pm CDT for our Curator, Aiden Bettine’s, lecture “Our Ancestors Held This: Intergenerational Memory Transmission through Q***r Archival Touch.”

The Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies holds thousands of objects and millions of sheets of paper that LGBTQ people have made, held, written on, drawn on, worn, flown, treasured, and gifted to the community. The archival materials in Tretter are meant to be touched and held by younger generations of q***r and trans people to transmit the knowledge of a deep rooted and robust community history. To touch is to make an underrepresented past tangible. This presentation will share the lessons we can learn when we enable touch in the Tretter Collection.

Lunch is provided in person. Happy pride 🏳️‍🌈

The Brethren/Mennonite Council for Le***an and Gay Concerns was founded in 1976. Originally named Brethren/Mennonite Council for Gay Concerns, the name has expanded overtime as the LGBTQ community has grown, becoming the Brethren Mennonite Council for LGBT Interests in 2002. The purpose of BMC is “to cultivate an inclusive church and society and to care for the Mennonite and Brethren le***an, gay, bis*xual, transgender, and allied community.” BMC was founded by Martin R. Rock, who served as the first coordinator of the organization. A member of the Church of the Brethren, Rock worked for the Mennonite Central Committee from 1966-1977 and was fired for being gay. A national organization, the BMC central office was based in Minneapolis from the spring of 1994 to 2022.

Image of the Sisters of Simplicity at the Stonewall 20th anniversary block party, 1989. Pulled from Tretter’s Publication Collection.

In 1986, inspired by the films found in Vito Russo’s The Celluloid Closet, University of Minnesota student began screening LGBTQ films in Minneapolis. A year later, she would curate the first official Minneapolis/St.Paul Le***an, Gay, Bi & Transgender Film Festival. Then known as Lavender Images: A Le***an & Gay Film Retrospective, the festival brought 10 films to the Twin Cities, including The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant, Taxi Zum Klo, Buddies, and Mädchen in Uniform to the University of Minnesota’s Coffman Union. The first of many festivals, the 1987 screenings were sponsored by the iconic Chicago theater, The Bijou, and featured a poster illustrated by Alison Bechdel. While Jenni Olson left in 1992 to become the co-director of Frameline in San Francisco, the festival would go on to screen hundreds of films until the early 2000s.

Equal Time cover, 1987. Lavender Images IV program, 1990. Pulled from the Tretter Information Files.

In the 1980s, after a long exclusion from gay culture, the bear community came out of hibernation. In San Francisco, Bear Magazine and the Lone Star Saloon became synonymous with bear culture. Simultaneously in Minnesota, St. Paul born Fran Frisch was creating the visual identity for the burgeoning bear scene–both at home and on the West Coast. As an illustrator, Frisch worked with local LGBTQ publications and organizations throughout the 1980s. His work for Twin Cities Gaze, the Main Club, and Twin Cities Pride often featured bears and kink, offering his community a chance to see themselves in print, on clothing, and in public for the first time. After three decades in the Twin Cities, Frisch moved to San Francisco in 1990, where he illustrated for the Bay Area Reporter and organized with the local bear community.

Twin Cities Gaze cover, 1989. Pulled from Tretter’s Publications Collection.

BLK was a Los Angeles based publication created by graphic designer Alan Bell in 1988. Having previously published Gaysweek for three years in the 1970s, Bell had initially retired from publishing. It wasn’t until the late 80s during the HIV/AIDS crisis that Bell realized there was no major publication by and for the black lgbtq community. Urged by his peers, he started BLK. The magazine published news, arts, culture, comics, and more, often featuring lgbtq stars such as Sylvester, Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, and RuPaul for their cover stories.

Filmmaker Marlon Riggs on the cover of BLK, April of 1990. Pulled from the Tretter’s Publication Collection.

In 1982 after the initial emergence of AIDS in New York, Minnesota activist Bruce Brockway was the first person in the state diagnosed with the disease. In 1983, Brockway with a handful of other gay community members formed the Minnesota AIDS Project (MAP). As a volunteer-run organization, MAP was one of the only organizations to provide education, prevention resources, and services for HIV-positive people and people with AIDS during the AIDS epidemic in the state. By 1985, MAP began receiving state and county funding, shifting a volunteer organization into a staffed non-profit critical to the health needs of the LGBTQ community. They operated with a two-pronged mission, to prevent the spread of the disease and to provide assistance and resources to those diagnosed as HIV positive. They operated a phone hotline to answer questions about the disease, created a buddy system for HIV positive people navigating the healthcare system, and provided workshops and resources on safe s*x. In 2018, MAP merged with to continue advocating for the health needs of the community.

Photo of Bruce Brockway’s partner René Valdes with friends at the Minnesota AIDS Project Pledge Walk, 1988. Pulled from the René Valdes Papers.

In 1989, North Star Gay Rodeo Association (NSGRA) was founded in Minnesota by a group of five people: Frank Bohlander, Jim Chalgren, Bob Jansen, Don Olson and John Ritter; by 1990 it became a member of the International Gay Rodeo Association. The first official annual meeting was held in September of 1990, and by 1991 their membership grew from 5 to 100 people. In June 1993, NSGRA hosted the first North Star Regional Rodeo, which included events such as goat dressing, steer decorating, calf roping, flag race, barrel race, and bull and steer riding; none of these categories are restricted by gender. Still in operation today, NSGRA hosts the rodeo at the end of every July outside of Hugo, MN.

Photo of Oklahoma Gay Rodeo Association rider, 1993. Pulled from the North Star Gay Rodeo Association and International Gay Rodeo Association Records.

Sometimes even our staff are surprised by some of the many gems that are archived in Tretter, including this rare 1933 issue of Voila magazine featuring Magnus Hirschfeld and Li Shiu Tong! Did you know that Tretter houses hundreds of local, regional, national, and international publications? From San Francisco’s Bear Magazine to Kansas City’s TransSisters, we’re home to a diverse range of periodicals. Did you know that researchers of all levels can request to research the majority of our zines, magazines, newspapers, erotica, and newsletters? You can! Check out the Collections Highlights page on our website and read the Published Materials section to get an example of what we offer. The links for our website and our research request form can be found in our bio.

Magnus Hirschfeld and Li Shiu Tong on the cover of Voila magazine, July 1933. Pulled from the Tretter’s Publication Collection.