IC News

Historic Ithaca presented a 2020 Historic Ithaca Preservation Award  in the Creative Project category to the Ithaca College Center for LGBT Education, Outreach and Services, in recognition of excellence for the  Ithaca LGBTQ Local History Tour. The award recognizes the students, alumni and staff who worked tirelessly to document and preserve the LGBTQ history of the local area. 

Luca Maurer, director of Ithaca College’s Center for LGBT Education, Outreach and Services says the tour was meant to explore the questions of whose stories get told, how and by whom. “How can our ancestors’ lives, activism and advocacy inform our lives today; and how does our past inform our future, and ultimately our liberation,” said Maurer.

“Ithaca College is surrounded by LGBTQ history,” said Maurer. “It is embedded in the fabric of our campus and in the places we call home, but many of the people and places that make up our past have been forgotten, erased, overlooked or ignored.”

The tour was created in 2019 by Rachel Steinmetz ’19, Cal Goodin ’19, Rachel Kreidberg ’18, and Gianna Caputo ’19 with Maurer’s help.

“LGBTQ History is so important to me because it lets me know that people like me have always existed and always will, no matter the odds,” said Cal Goodin ’19. “Working on this tour was so eye opening to me because I think often queer identity and history is associated with big cities like San Francisco and New York City. This tour sheds light on the reality that LGBTQ people are and always have been everywhere. Wherever we go, we always have roots.”

“We hope our tour can help fill in the gaps about local LGBTQ history and serve as an example of resources and approaches anyone can use to document and share the LGBTQ history of their own location or region,” said Maurer.

The Preservation Awards are an award program presented by Historic Ithaca to encourage excellence in historic preservation efforts within the City of Ithaca and throughout Tompkins County. The awards were conferred virtually this year.