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This online exhibit was first published in 2006. Cornell University Library archived the original version of the online exhibit in 2024. This site includes the original version's content and images with an updated web design.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has worked to garner political influence and leverage it on behalf of greater equality for lesbian, gay male, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Americans since 1980. The historic records of the Human Rights Campaign are now open for research in Cornell University Library’s Human Sexuality Collection.
Through changing – and charged – political climates over the years, HRC has been able to articulate persuasive views on issues regarding sexuality. Drawing from the original documents preserved in the HRC records, this online exhibition spotlights some of the key issues HRC has addressed as well as the organization’s primary activities: building the organization, supporting and educating candidates, lobbying for legislative change, mobilizing voters, and serving as a think tank.
Documents from other collections preserved in Cornell’s Human Sexuality Collection provide additional political and historical context about activism during this time and in decades prior. Cornell invites researchers to delve into the rich and comprehensive sources on these topics available in its Library.