Reasons to Have Pride in 2012, Part 4

Because StoryCorps is putting LGBT lives in the Library of Congress

NPR’s partner phenom StoryCorps is recording 30-minute conversations with LGBT people for posterity. So what is StoryCorps? Only one of the largest oral history efforts ever. It’s a nonprofit project that seeks to record, share, and preserve the stories from the lives of everyday Americans. Since 2003, more than 50,000 people have interviewed family and friends and made their conversations part of the American Folklife Center collection at the Library of Congress — including transgender parents, lesbian cancer survivors, Stonewall activists, and ordinary folks.

“Whenever people listen to these stories, they hear the courage, humor, trials and triumphs of an incredible range of voices,” says Dave Isay, StoryCorps’s founder. “By listening to one another, we can illuminate the true character of this nation, reminding us all just how precious each day can be and how truly great it is to be alive.” StoryCorps actively recruits LGBT folks all year long in cities across the U.S. Each participant gets a CD of the interview, and their pieces are sometimes aired on National Public Radio, as some segments air each week on NPR’s Morning Edition.