thanks to archivists at the GLBT Historical Archives in California, we now have open access to the first four years of TGForum.com, as compiled on an official CD-ROM back in 1999. it is an absolutely bonkers treasure trove of early-internet trans culture and politics, warts and all, and I wrote about it for Them!
this was a really fun piece to research but took a LONG time, so I hope you enjoy reading it! I have a few stories that I had to cut for room (I already doubled my planned word count as it is) so I will thread them here soon. If you find something cool in this archive I didn't mention, let me know in the comments!!
EDIT: I totally forgot that the archivist is on cohost! Give @caraesten some appreciation (and thanks @atomicthumbs for the reminder)
On December 14 at 1pm Eastern I'll be on KERA's live talk show/podcast Think talking about the history of TGForum and why queer archival work is so important! it would be very cool if you joined me.
you can listen live at https://www.kera.org/radio/listen/ or catch the recorded version when it goes up on think.kera.org! I was basically raised on NPR programming so this is very exciting and definitely not anxiety-inducing for me at all!!!!!
