Mason Funk

OUTWORDS is the first archival project to travel America recording the stories of LGBTQIA2S+ elders: the people who witnessed our history, and made it happen. A nonprofit organization, OUTWORDS was founded by Mason Funk who was inspired by the Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive of interviews with Holocaust witnesses and survivors. Half-day interviews are conducted on high-definition digital video by film crews, primarily in the homes of interview subjects. Interviewees include lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex individuals, as well as representatives of various sub-communities of the LGBTQ community including drag queens, leather daddies, lesbian separatists, and allies. Most interviewees are over 60 years old. In May 2018, OUTWORDS received a Creator Award in the Community Giver category from the co-working company WeWork. In May 2019, the first compilation of OUTWORDS interviews, entitled THE BOOK OF PRIDE, was published by HarperCollins, to help commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. The OUTWORDS searchable digital platform makes video interviews freely available to the public.