An old rotary dial phone painted in all the colors of the rainbow sat atop a plastic table, its curved handle and curly cord hearkening back to a bygone era when phones were tethered to walls instead of carried in pockets.
Scattered about it lay pamphlets for hotlines and resources, beckoning those who felt isolated to reach out and connect with a caring voice on the other end.
A Keene-based group, Voices of Pride, is extending a similar invitation to Monadnock region residents: Share your stories.
On Feb. 7, the Voices of Pride team hosted an open house at the Historical Society of Cheshire County. At the event, zines, board games, stickers and snacks were provided for attendees and Historical Society members between 9 a.m to 4 p.m. The event had a total of 22 attendees over the seven hours the open house was available to the public.
Voices of Pride is designing an oral history project to communicate LGBTQ+ stories and events through individual voices in the Monadnock region. This project supports the historical society’s goals to connect, educate and archive, with the purpose of the open house being to advocate for the organization’s oral history project.
LGBTQ+ support hotlines were provided at the event, drawing attention to resources for queer people, and including an old phone that was used at the hotline office. Small pamphlets included the numbers for the LGBT National Hotline, the LGBT National Youth Talkline, LGBT National Senior Hotline and the Coming Out Support Hotline.
The hotlines also included and advertised for one-on-one online support and moderated youth chatrooms, which are provided through the LGBT National Help Center.
Ian Kaplan, the former coordinator for the office of community and belonging at Keene State as well as LGBTQ+ community liaison and outreach coordinator for Voices of Pride, spoke on the goal behind the event.
“The project works to uphold LGBTQ+ identities in the Monadnock region,” Kaplan said. “To show that queer people have always existed here. We are living in a moment that is now history.”
Kaplan also spoke on the interview system Voices of Pride has been working on, which involves speaking with participants about their experiences in the queer community.
“On our booking website, people can book interview slots. We do the interviews in our oral history studio,” said Kaplan.
The oral history studio is located in the basement of the Historical Society and includes a few exhibits about queer history in the Monadnock region.
During the event, Kaplan hosted an interview with a participant for the oral history project, emphasizing, “The vibe is there are no wrong stories to tell.”
Gail Golec, another LGBTQ+ community liaison and outreach coordinator for Voices of Pride, encouraged attendees to connect with each other.
“We have these postcards that we hope people will take to give to people they know,” she said. “We want to meet people who are interested in our project.”
The postcards at Golec’s table acted as a way for “people to check up on one another,” with the LGBT National Help Center and online resources taking up the other half of the table.
Other organizations advertised included Keene Pride, Out in the Open and New Hampshire Outright.
Kaplan said the group will host two more events, one on March 7 from 1-7 p.m. and a second on April 18 from 10-12 p.m. Kaplan said while the April date will be a “board games and chat kinda day,” the March date will focus on oral history, and “that night there is a drag show with Monarchs of Mayhem (MOM).”
Monarchs of Mayhem consists of drag kings and other performers. The organization’s page on Linktree describes it as “trans-inclusive, Sapphic and AFAB-centric, but ALL are welcome.”
Chloe Erno can be contacted at
