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Here at SAGE, we know that stories hold power — they can undoubtedly change hearts and open minds. Our community is full of rich history that is far too often overlooked. In this spirit, we are honored to recognize our next 2024 Equity Innovation Lab recipient: the Red River Rainbow Seniors. This organization is doing incredible work to memorialize our community’s voices in the Red River Valley and ensure that their stories are not only heard but are celebrated.

In June, SAGE announced the eight recipients of its Equity Innovation Lab (EIL) program for 2024. This program offers financial and technical support to uplift marginalized and historically under-resourced LGBTQ+ elder communities nationwide. The EIL provides an $8,000 grant to each recipient, year-long technical assistance, and other helpful services. We are proud to support groups like the Red River Rainbow Seniors. In case you missed it, check out our first spotlight on the North Durham Farmers’ Market.

Read on to hear from Tammy Lanaghan all about how Red River Rainbow Seniors is preserving the stories and history of our LGBTQ+ elders.

Could you tell us about your organization?

“The principal home for Red River Rainbow Seniors is Fargo, North Dakota, and Moorhead, Minnesota. The group was founded in late 2016 for the purposes of providing advocacy, education, support, and fun for 2SLGBTQIA+ folks 50+ years old and their allies living in the Red River Valley. From the beginning, we have dedicated a major part of our efforts to conducing our oral history project entitled “Breaking Barriers: Harvesting LGBTQ Stories from the Northern Plains.” Through this effort, we are preserving the life histories of 2SLGBTQIA+ ‘pioneers’ and their allies from our region, which includes North Dakota and Northwestern Minnesota and the border areas of South Dakota and Montana.

The interviews, transcriptions and other materials are deposited as part of a permanent collection at the North Dakota State University Archives. This resource preserves the legacy of this traditionally hidden community so that all citizens of our region can learn about the contributions made by 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals to our collective local, regional and national history.”

How do you support LGBTQ+ elders through your work? What resources will you provide through the Equity Innovation Lab’s support?

“At the most basic level, our project seeks to preserve the voices of individual 2SLGBTQIA+ elders in our region by recording them as they speak about their personal experiences of growing up and living in our region. In an environment where 2SLGBTQIA+ elders have had to hide away so much of themselves because of the very real risks to their person and livelihood, finally being able to be seen and heard as fully themselves can be profound. Many of our participants report about how the experience of reflecting over their lives and telling their stories helps them to see just how rich their lives have been and how much they have accomplished. These are stories about great resiliency and high self-worth!

We are also working to create stronger relationships between our Fargo-Moorhead based team and 2SLGBTQIA+ elder community groups in our regional centers. Our goal is to develop an archival resource that represents the wide spectrum of 2SLGBTQIA+ experience throughout our entire region. Each regional center has its own distinct character for how 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals and their allies interact with each other. Building connections across and between these centers helps us to overcome the isolation that regional ‘islands’ have traditionally created. This makes us more aware of one another as well as strengthening bonds needed to engage with and support one another. This is especially important in light of the hostile political environment 2SLGBTQIA+ people experience in this conservative part of the United States.

In addition to enabling us to engage in this networking, the Equity Innovation Lab grant will enable us to plan for a new, explicit focus on the ‘pioneer’ generation of the transgender/gender diverse members of our community. While we have interviewed several transgender people using our current oral history questionnaire, we recognize that there are specific experiences and issues facing the transgender/gender diverse community in our region. This is most visible in the radically different approaches taken by the North Dakota and Minnesota legislatures in 2023. North Dakota passed eighteen anti-LGBTQIA+ laws, the vast majority targeted at transgender youth. Minnesota, by contrast, passed laws reinforcing 2SLGBTQIA+ equal rights and making Minnesota a ‘sanctuary state’ for transgender/gender diverse people. We hope to capture the stories of the experiences of the transgender/gender diverse ‘pioneers’ as they navigate through these new realities.”

 

Why are oral histories important?

“We elected to embrace oral history as the centerpiece of our project because we understand the power that comes from the voices of 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals talking about their experiences growing up in their contexts. As John D’Emilio has written in Queer Legacies: Stories from Chicago’s LGBTQ Archives, ‘The texture and the challenges of what it means to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender at different times and in different places will only fully emerge if we make an effort to collect a broad range of our life stories.’ The voice is one the most expressive tools to convey meaning that goes beyond what words can convey, revealing insights into the inner life of the story tellers.

We also recognize that our work is about advocacy. By collecting our stories and making them publicly available, we provide a resource for 2SLGBTQIA+ youth to learn about those who came before them in their own towns and schools. We also seek to educate the public about the experiences and contributions made by 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals to our local, regional and national communities. We believe that this encounter will help transform the negative attitudes and stereotypes shaped by conservative religious and political teaching into better informed understanding of, and inclusiveness toward, the 2SLGBTQIA+ community in our region. Individual stories are one of the most powerful ways to undermine the negative stereotypes and labels that are too easily bandied about by those in power who make decisions motivated by homophobia and transphobia.”

What are some of the unique challenges LGBTQ+ elders in your community face?

“The senior 2SLGBTQIA+ community in our region continues to have to navigate a world that is filled with homophobic and transphobic attitudes fueled by conservative church teachings and conservative political agendas. We hear participants in our project express a great deal of anxiety about the possibility that the recent advances that have been made toward 2SLGBTQIA+ equality, such as the legalization of same-sex marriage, will be stripped away. One couple commented that every two years when the legislative session comes around their mental health deteriorates because of the heightened levels of stress they experience about ‘what is going to be taken away this time.’

Away from Fargo-Moorhead (where the 2SLGBTQIA+ community has a public presence that is reasonably well accepted), 2SLGBTQIA+ elders continue to live their lives largely ‘under the radar.’ Perhaps the challenge most often identified is the fact that there is no 2SLGBTQIA+ gathering place (for example, the gay bar), even in Fargo-Moorhead. This means that it is hard to meet people, especially if you are new to an area or visiting one of the regional centers. The Red River Rainbow Seniors have monthly socials to try to combat this, and there are occasional dances. House parties remain the primary context for get togethers. But there is a universal longing for a place where it is possible to go and spontaneously meet 2SLGBTQIA+ people.

As 2SLGBTQIA+ people age and health issues start to become more prominent, there is considerable anxiety about how a transition into long-term healthcare facilities might negatively impact them. There continue to be instances of 2SLGBTQIA+ people being kicked out of church-run nursing homes (which are predominant in our region) because they are 2SLGBTQIA+, and so people worry about whether they are going to have to go back into the closet to receive the care they need. Red River Rainbow Seniors has had some conversations with representatives of the larger local nursing homes in the Fargo-Moorhead area, but more work needs to be done across the region in this area.

 

Finally, 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals living in North Dakota continue to be without equal rights protections for housing, employment and healthcare. People continue to tell stories of fired or refused a rental contract or mortgage because they are gay or lesbian. Finding supportive and informed healthcare professionals for 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals continue to be difficult, especially outside of the Fargo-Moorhead area.

All of this is felt most acutely by the members of our transgender/gender diverse community. Barriers to employment, housing, transgender-supportive healthcare, etc., have been legislated into existence in North Dakota in 2023. For some, the only livable option available is to move out of North Dakota. While Minnesota is a ‘sanctuary state,’ but that does not mean that there is widespread acceptance of transgender/gender diverse people in our region. The transgender/gender diverse people I have spoken to lately express their profound exhaustion, frustration and anger. Yet, I also hear a strong message of hope and resiliency as older members of the community say to younger people things like, ‘We have always found a way around the barriers to live our lives. We will help you do so too.’ It is our hope that we can preserve these experiences in our project as a snapshot of this ‘pioneer’ moment so that our community can look back on and celebrate this resiliency amid the anger and injustice.”

How can people support your mission and/or share their story? Do you have any socials or resources you’d like to share?

“Our project relies upon the willingness of 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals and their allies to share their stories with us. We always need help to identify new people to interview. Often, we learn about candidates through other people we have interviewed or by means of the underground word-of-mouth networks. It is particularly challenging for us to identify people who live in the more rural areas of our region. More often than not, 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals in rural communities remain closeted and wary to engage those outsides of their circle of trust. In addition, it is not a very common experience for people to be asked to share their life experiences on tape, so the idea can be daunting. But with encouragement from friends and peers, those who follow through have reported having a surprisingly uplifting experience.”

You can find Red Rainbows on Facebook. If you’re looking to share your story or browse the oral history archives, visit their website here. The “Breaking Barriers: Harvesting LGBTQ Stories from the Northern Plains” permanent collection is available to the public online.

This interview was edited for clarity and length.