Digital Transgender Archive

Randy Burns papers

"The bulk of the collection consists of materials relating to LGBT American Indians, Two-Spirit people and American Indian history collected by activist Randy Burns, co-founder with Barbara Cameron, of Gay American Indians (GAI). The collection includes materials related to Burns, GAI and other LGBT Indian organizations across the United States and Canada, including a typescript of 'Living the Spirit: A Gay American Indian Anthology' by the GAI History Project. One major topic is AIDS, communities of color and cultural competency. There are facilitator’s manuals for safer sex workshops, and materials from the National Native American AIDS Prevention Center, the People of Color HIV/AIDS Advisory Committee and the Third World AIDS Advisory Task Force. Newsletters in the collection include 'In the Wind,' 'Native AIDS Brief,' the American Indian/Alaska Native Community AIDS Network Newsletter, and 'Positively Native.' The collection also contains materials by and about Mohawk poet Maurice Kenny, anthropologist Walter Williams and scholar Will Roscoe. The collection has drafts and typescripts of Roscoe’s papers, including several pieces he wrote with Harry Hay, and correspondence and ephemera related to his work. Other topics and organizations represented in the collection reflects Burns’ activism in the Indian, anti-racist and LGBT communities and include materials from Gay Freedom Day and Bay Area Gay Liberation (BAGL), such as 'Criticism of the June 28th Union.' Types of materials include academic papers, correspondence and memos, fact sheets and statistics, flyers, meeting minutes, newsletters, programs, reports and buttons."