Queer In and Out of Montana Oral History Project

The Queer In and Out of Montana Oral History Project seeks to document the lives of LGBTIQ2S+ Montanans living both inside and outside of the state. University of Montana faculty, students, and alumni from across campus collaborated with community members and local organizations to launch this project in 2024. At its inception, the project aimed to capture the perspectives and experiences of LGBTIQ+ people leaving Montana, or contemplating doing so, in response to the state’s increasingly hostile political climate. In 2025 the project expanded to include the life stories of Two-Spirit and LGBTIQ+ persons who have called Montana home at any point during their lives.

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Axel Samano Interview, October 16, 2025

Axel Samano

Axel Samano reflects on coming out as a transgender woman in her forties, connecting that experience to her family relationships and her upbringing in rural Mexico. She discusses her longstanding interests in engineering, philosophy, and writing, as well as her move to Butte, Montana, in ... Read More
Bree Sutherland Interview, February 1, 2025

Bree Sutherland

Bree Sutherland (she/they) discusses her choice as a transgender electrician in Missoula, Montana to move to Portland, Oregon with her wife Charlotte Macorn, in search of a more queer-friendly environment. Sutherland describes her experiences in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality classes at the University of Montana, ... Read More
Charles Martin Demery Interview, November 17, 2025

Charles Martin Demery

Charles Martin Demery discusses his past experience as a young, cisgender man within the Leather Community living in San Francisco, California, during the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. Demery reflects on the Leather Community’s role in queer history, and how embodying the core values of ... Read More
Charlotte Macorn Interview, January 21, 2025

Charlotte Macom Bromley

Charlotte Macorn (they/she) moved to Hillsboro, Oregon, in 2024 with their wife, Bree Sutherland, after living in Montana for 40 years. They studied Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) and African American Studies at the University of Montana. After earning their degrees, Charlotte returned to ... Read More
Chloe Maryjean Cat-Sìth Interview, November 2, 2025

Chloe Maryjean Cat-Sìth

Chloe Maryjean Cat-Sìth recounts their experiences growing up as a closeted queer person in both rural Montana and in the city of Missoula, Montana in the 1990s and early 2000s. They describe finding friends and chosen family in the kink community and how that has ... Read More
Cosmo Roots Interview, January 29, 2025

Cosmo Roots

Cosmo Roots (he/him) grew up in Bozeman, Montana, but moved to Eugene, Oregon, for a fresh start. As a trans man he finds that Eugene allows him to exist more comfortably as himself than Montana. Roots discusses his experiences with hormone replacement therapy, the evolution ... Read More
Donna Bulatowicz Interview, February 7, 2025

Donna Bulatowicz

Donna Bulatowicz (she/her) currently lives in Maryland after spending her first 19 years in Billings, Montana, then moving to Oklahoma, California, Pennsylvania, back to Montana, and eventually, Maryland. Bulatowicz compares the culture of Billings from her childhood to present day, noting that Billings used to ... Read More
Eros Moore Interview, February 12, 2025

Eros Moore

Eros Moore (they/them) discusses their journey coming to identify as nonbinary and demisexual as well as the ways in which their identity has shaped their decisions. Eros describes how their identity has changed over time, reflecting on their personal experience and growth growing up in ... Read More
Hallie Appel Interview, November 23, 2025

Hallie Appel

Hallie Appel describes living as a lesbian woman in Missoula, Montana, after having grown up in Orange County, California, and having lived in Wisconsin, the Boston, Massachusetts area, and Seattle, Washington. Appel talks about her experience growing up queer in Orange County in the 2000s, ... Read More
Johnny Barber Interview, January 28, 2025

Johnny Barber

Johnny Barber (they/them) begins by addressing some key aspects of their identity such as being queer, being a partner, and a soon-to-be parent. They describe how their upbringing in a religious family living in Miles City, Montana, greatly influenced their coming out experience. They describe ... Read More
Julie Williams Interview, February 25, 2025

Julie Williams

Julie Williams discusses growing up in rural Livingston, Montana, as a queer person and how the lack of support has impacted her adult life. Williams describes how such experiences led to her moving away for college to explore different communities, which ultimately helped her accept ... Read More
Key McCarthy Interview, November 23, 2025

Key McCarthy

Key McCarthy shares about growing up in Montana, coming into their queer identity and their first queer relationship after moving from Helena to Missoula for college in 2017. McCarthy discusses coming out to their family and the revelation of support that they have received as ... Read More
Kyla Rock Interview, November 7, 2025

Kyla Rock

Public servant Kyla Rock discusses her childhood in Arkansas, Illinois, and Nevada, where she was active in her community and a member of the LDS Church. Rock describes a generally idyllic upbringing with a loving family but, in hindsight, reflects on some LDS Church practices ... Read More
Lonnie Johnson and Ronald Fournier Interview, February 26, 2025

Lonnie Johnson and Ronald Fournier

Couple Lonnie Johnson and Ronald Fournier detail their lives in different cities around Montana, including Columbia Falls, Helena, Butte, and Hamilton. The couple take turns explaining their origins, highlighting they have been a couple for over thirty years. They describe living comfortably in Montana when ... Read More
Mary Venegas Interview, November 24, 2025

Mary Venegas

Mary Venegas reflects on her childhood in Caracas, Venezuela, and her relationships with family members. She discusses the challenges she faced after coming out, particularly in her relationship with her mother, and how that relationship ultimately healed over time. Venegas also speaks about her experiences ... Read More
Natalee Wheeler Interview, October 30, 2025

Natalee Wheeler

Natalee Wheeler discusses what it was like growing up in rural Montana in a Christian, conservative household, and how this affected coming to terms with her identity as a queer person. Wheeler details moments from her adolescence that started to form cracks in her belief ... Read More
O'Maste-win Foster Interview, December 1, 2025

O'Maste-win Foster

O'Maste-win “Oma” Foster (they/she) discusses their experiences as an Amskapi Piikani (Blackfeet), Fort Peck Assiniboine, and Dakota person living in Missoula, Montana. Foster reflects on how growing up on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota and on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana shaped their values ... Read More
Parker Mickel Interview, February 3, 2025

Parker Mickel

Parker Mickel (they/them) describes their gender identity as nonbinary and sexual orientation as queer/demisexual. As a military brat, their childhood involved living in multiple places and moving frequently. They describe opening their eyes to politics and how queer communities are established and how they evolve. ... Read More
Richard Schade Interview, February 7, 2025

Richard Schade

Ricky Schade (he/him) describes himself as a cis white dude, and a queer person. He discusses his decision to leave Montana and move to Portland, Oregon, with his partner and their child, Clem. As a child, Ricky moved around a lot within Montana. He was ... Read More
River Segar Interview, November 2, 2025

River Segar

River Segar (he/they), an M.A. student in Social Work at the University of Montana, reflects on his childhood in Victor, Montana, where he fondly remembers exploring the forests with his twin sister and growing up in a place he experienced as happy and familiar. He ... Read More
Robin Kendall Interview, November 24, 2025

Robin Kendall

Robin Kendall describes moving from the U.S. South to Missoula, Montana in 2011, in a relationship with someone she met online. She soon fell in love with the state and took a job with Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI), making Missoula her home. Robin reflects on ... Read More
Shaunagh McGoldrick-Barber Interview, February 2, 2025

Shaunagh McGoldrick-Barber

Shaunagh Mary (she/her) is the mother of a trans child and spouse to a trans partner. She discusses her experiences moving from New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Montana and how that’s impacted her own understanding of her identity. Shaunagh briefly joined AmeriCorps, earned a Master’s of ... Read More
Stacey Haugland Interview, March 5, 2025

Stacey Haugland

Stacey Lynne Haugland, born in 1965, moved to Cut Bank, Montana, as a child then moved to Great Falls, Montana. After graduating high school, they attended Carleton College in Minnesota. Stacey discusses the difference in acceptance of queer people then versus now and how the ... Read More
Vance Jacobs Interview, November 1, 2025

Vance Jacobs

Vance Jacobs discusses his childhood in Wichita Falls, Texas, and Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and reflects on how those environments shaped his sense of self and identity as a bisexual person. He describes his move to Missoula, Montana, to pursue a degree in Creative Writing at the ... Read More
Zoey Aller Interview, October 27, 2025

Zoey Aller

Zoey Aller reflects on growing up in Big Timber, Montana, where small-town expectations around sports, religion, and conformity often left her feeling out of place. After moving to Missoula to attend the University of Montana, she found a community more welcoming of difference, creativity, and ... Read More