We envision an intersectional LGBTQ+ community dedicated to authentic conversations that strengthen a sense of belonging, connection, agency, and hope, where all voices are heard, valued, and respected.

The mission of Telling Queer History is to connect Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer + people across generations and identities through storytelling gatherings, which bring communities together to foster compassion, empathy, and healing.   

Why

LGBTQ people continue to face transphobia, racism, poverty and violence, even in their own communities and relationships. Telling Queer History shows attendees that we have shared struggles and goals. Through sharing stories, our events unite us as a rooted and connected community.

Queer people often feel isolated because so much of our history is buried by systemic violence. Through our events, Telling Queer History works to eliminate isolation so attendees feel empowered to lead in a community they feel connection to. Bearing witness to our current, personal stories and how they relate to past histories gives us a crucial sense of place, pride, belonging, and empathy which allows us to better work together. 

Our Team

Rebecca Lawrence, executive director

Rebecca Jean Lawrence is the Founder and Executive Director of Telling Queer History. They are also a photographer, working primarily with LGBTQ+ community to document events, nonprofits and make portraits for the last 10 years. Rebecca was raised in Minneapolis and attended college at Seattle University in Washington. They have work with many companies to connect with LGBTQ+ community and history including Twin Cities Public Television (TPT), Minnesota Opera, Kaleo, Metro Transit, and Metro State.

Rebecca also spends a lot of time cooking, reading about queer history, gardening, raising chickens, learning and practicing herbal medicine, dancing, and listening to podcasts.

Mounica kota - contract researcher

Mounica Kota (they/them) is a disabled, South Indian educator, scientist, and community organizer.

Their science background is in evolutionary biology and animal behavior. They have taught in a lot of different contexts. Most recently, they coordinated and taught in a college in prison program for a couple of years, working with incarcerated students pursuing higher education. They also work at the Abolitionist Teaching Network.

They organize locally and nationally around issues of disability justice and mad liberation, prison and police abolition, land defense, and abolishing caste supremacy. They are especially passionate about organizing fellow oppressor-caste South Asian communities to unlearn and fight against caste supremacy, Hindu nationalism, and settler occupation. They are deeply committed to the liberation of Palestine, Kashmir, and all occupied peoples in global liberation struggles.

Outside of community work, Mounica loves spending time with their partner and menagerie of cats and reptiles, reading political ed and sci-fi/fantasy books, watching bad reality TV, and sleeping.

Jaymie Wagner, Board Chair

Jaymie Wagner is one of the new board members joining TQH in 2022. Originally from Ohio, Jaymie describes herself as a queer, trans, and disabled nonbinary girl who has been studying Queer History since the early 2000s. Outside of TQH she is a chair emeritus of 3M's Pride employee resource network, where she works as an IT Analyst. In her spare time she plays the violin, writes novels about hopelessly gay werewolves, and has been a semi-professional NHL writer, a blogger, and a BBQ chef at different parts of her life. She currently lives in the Minneapolis suburbs with her cats Jet and Rocket and an increasingly alarming number of tiny giant robots.

Felicia Philibert - Contract Engagement & Logistics Coordinator

Felicia Philibert (they/she) is a genderfluid Haitian-American operations professional who specializes in organizational development, process improvement, healing justice, event planning, and detail-oriented administrative support. Felicia graduated with a Bachelor of Social Work from Augsburg University in 2020 and has worked in a variety of fields, including government, education, nonprofit, and electoral politics. In her free time, Felicia enjoys reading, playing video games, taking naps, watching anime, and eating delicious meals with their chosen family. As Engagement & Logistics Coordinator, Felicia is curating TQH’s traveling exhibit, which will display our extensive archive of LGBTQ+ stories at locations around the Twin Cities & Greater Minnesota.

NIKOLAS FOX, BOARD TREASURER

Nikolas Fox is a nomad and though he has lived in many different places throughout his life, he has lived in MN the longest. Nikolas joins the TQH board to help manage operating plans, P&L’s, and all things finance. Outside of TQH, he is a Finance Transformation Team Lead. When not buried in spreadsheets and translating data to understandable information, he likes to spend his time with his teenage son & ragdoll cat reading, hiking, or rewatching Lord of the Rings together.

gereon fuller, Board MEMBER

Gereon (he/they) is an educator, anthropologist, and disabled gender-fluid transman living in Bdé Ota Othunwe as a guest. He grew up in and around Salt Lake City, Utah, and has also lived in New Orleans. He named himself after a character from an Anne Carson book. Gereon has taught English to middle schoolers, worked in museum collections, analyzed ancient DNA, and done archaeology. He is a graduate student at the University of Minnesota in the Heritage Studies and Public History program. He is interested in queer history, decoloniality and indigenization, and critical disability studies. He loves cats, knitting, cooking, backpacking, painting, and foraging for natural pigment.

Gereon is passionate about storytelling and non-dominant narratives, and is pursuing history professionally to continue uncovering narratives that break mainstream discourse— anything that might make his Mormon ancestors spin in their graves! Gereon is interested in almost everything, from dinosaurs to WWII to herbal medicine. He wants to go into exhibition design and research after he graduates.

Mo mayo, BOARD MEMBER

Mo is currently a financial advisor and coach at Northwest Mutual who is passionate about helping people move through the emotion around money that is keeping them stuck. He has been a contractor and entrepreneur in the past. He has practiced taekwondo for years and is an outdoor adventure enthusiast.

Lucinda Pepper - Contract Communications & Operations Manager

Lucinda (they/them) is a speaker, writer, communications coach & consultant based in St. Paul, MN. Their work creates clarity and facilitates personal and collective transformation. For over twenty years they have spoken about and facilitated healing, trauma-informed wellness and resilience, self-care and community care, including as a Telling Queer History storyteller in 2017. More information is at LucindaPepper.com.

They began working with Telling Queer History as a contractor in August of 2022.

meghan lafferty, Board Secretary

Meghan Lafferty is the secretary of the board of Telling Queer History. She has been a part of Telling Queer History since 2015, making use of her information organizing skills. She was born in North Carolina and moved from state to state for various schools before moving to Minneapolis to work as an academic science librarian in 2004. She spends a lot of time with her dog, Leia, when she isn’t librarian-ing or working with Telling Queer History.

Cam PajYeeb Yang, Board Member

Cameron PajYeeb Yang (they/them/nws) is a second-generation HMong American queer, trans and non-binary individual born and raised in Saint Paul, Mni Sota Makoce. Through a variety of different storytelling methods, Yang’s artistic and professional focus aims to uplift the most minoritized voices of the Hmong American and LGBTQI+ communities in order to transform and/or abolish inequitable and unjust systems and institutions. Currently, Yang is a Ph.D. student at the University of Minnesota studying Education Policy and Leadership with an emphasis on the neoliberal transformation of America’s public education system and ethnocentric charter schools, and a Development Manager at a Black and Southeast Asian social justice movement nonprofit organization in Madison, Wisconsin.

Mycall riley, board member

Mycall (any pronoun) is the Director of the Gender and Sexuality Center for Queer and Trans Life at the University of Minnesota. They were raised on the northside of Minneapolis and returned here from time at DePaul University in the fall of 2022. He is a big book enthusiast leading book clubs since 6th grade, has a chihuahua companion, and is a style whisperer.