Originally, I had given myself a very ambitious goal. I wanted to make a mural, as well as a website, dedicated to important queer individuals in United States history. However, due to the level of strain I was being put under from my personal life, I was unable to put in enough work to make both the mural and website the best they could be. And so I chose to do just the website. 

I was surprised about how many links were blocked by the school chromebooks. Because most of my work was done using the school-provided chromebook, it made it very difficult to find links I could include in my website. But I just continued looking for sources that could be accessed and did eventually find resources to include. 

The most meaningful part of the project to me is the conversations I had with people on my topic. In the roundtable discussions, the conversation I had with Professor Stacie Brensilver Berman, and the presentation at LeMoyne, all of them brought light to subjects like the problem with having standardized test-based curriculums and the people in history who get disregarded as a result of that, the politics surrounding people in the LGBTQ+ community through the years and how it reflects on the politics now, and how it is not uncommon for people who do not approve of the LGBTQ+ community to think that the community has not been around that long, when in reality there is evidence going as far back as the beginning of human history (much less United States history) suggesting the existence of queer and transgender people. It has never been a “new trend” or something harmful and dangerous, but just another part of human history, and being able to put queer people into the context of history will hopefully lead to a gain in support for the community. 

I think going forward, I would still like to make a mural of some sort dedicated to important queer individuals in United States history, or even open it up to people throughout world history. I have always been very curious about the history of this community, in part because of my general interest in history, but also in part because I am a part of the LGBTQ+ community. Growing up, I never saw queer or transgender people properly reflected in media, and only through my own research did I gain the perspectives I have now on human rights and identity. Though it has come a long way since the beginning of the LGBTQ+ rights movement, representation of queer and transgender, especially for people of color, has a lot of room for improvement. The most important thing is for that representation to be accessible and visible by not only people in the community, but people who know nothing about the community. It would show that queer and transgender people exist and are worthy of rights just like anyone else.