About the Documentary

Wisconsin Pride invites us to witness our state’s history through a new lens. This two-hour documentary brings hidden LGBTQ+ stories to the foreground and reconsiders the long narrative of Wisconsin in light of the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ people in our state.

Premiering on PBS Wisconsin and available for streaming online in June 2023, the documentary is a groundbreaking collaboration between PBS Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Historical Society.

LGBTQ+ history is Wisconsin history. Learn about trailblazing Wisconsinites who – facing intolerance, cisgender heterosexism and transphobia – responded by forming community, chosen family, living authentically, and fighting for their rights. In a word: manifesting pride.

The film demonstrates how diversity in sexual orientation, gender identity and expression are a broadly shared part of the human experience. It tells stories of Indigenous two-spirit people prior to and after European settler colonization and Wisconsin statehood, and continues through the 19th and 20th centuries — exploring how forward-looking Wisconsinites challenged LGBTQ+ harassment and injustice in visionary ways, long before LGBTQ+ activism reached the national stage.

Wisconsin Pride features and celebrates R. Richard Wagner’s work as a historian and author. Wagner, who passed away in 2021, was a beloved activist, gay rights leader, elected official and public servant who worked for the state of Wisconsin for 33 years. His two-volume history from the Wisconsin Historical Society Press — We’ve Been Here All Along: Early Gay History in Wisconsin and Coming Out, Moving Forward: Wisconsin’s Recent Gay History — provides guidance and inspiration for the program. 

Ariel Beaujot, PhD
Professor Ariel Beaujot is a public historian from the University of Wisconsin La Crosse and the Executive Director of Hear, Here, an international award-winning oral-documentary project highlighting stories told by historically underrepresented groups. Beaujot has written about queer La Crosse with co-author Víctor Macías-González, for the edited volume Queer Sites in Global Contexts: Technologies, Spaces, and Otherness (2020).

Patrick Farabaugh
Patrick Farabaugh is the founder and publisher of Our Lives magazine, created in 2007 to provide a living record of the local and state LGBTQ+ community. As publisher for the past 16 years, he’s established the magazine as Wisconsin’s premiere LGBTQ+ media. Originally from Indiana, Farabaugh moved to Madison in 2005 and, shortly after arriving, founded the Madison Gay Hockey Association—now the world’s largest LGBTQ+ hockey league.

Víctor M. Macías-González, PhD
Víctor M. Macías-González is Professor of History and an affiliate of the Department of Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at UW La Crosse. He was the inaugural recipient of the LGBT Studies Research Fellowship from Yale University (2015), served on the governing board of the American Historical Association’s Committee on LGBT History (2018–20), and on the advisory board of OutHistory.org. He is a prolific published scholar.

Scott Seyforth, PhD
One of the founders of the Madison LGBTQ+ Oral History Project and the Madison LGBTQ+ Archive at UW-Madison Archives, Scott Seyforth has been actively involved in collecting, archiving, teaching, and telling the history of the local LGBTQ+ community for the last fifteen years. Seyforth holds a PhD in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis from the University of Wisconsin–Madison where he is the Assistant Director of Residence Life.

Virginia Harrison (Advisory Board Chair)
A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism, Virginia Harrison has served in an editorial capacity with Our Lives magazine for most of its 16 years, including editing Dick Wagner’s history columns. Our Lives is Wisconsin’s LGBTQ+ bi-monthly print and online magazine.

Robyn Bayland
Robyn Bayland is a Milwaukee-based multimedia storyteller whose freelance work has appeared in online news, videos, podcasts, public radio and traditional print media. Her 2019 short film project, “Pride Prom,” tells the story of Marquette University’s first LGBTQ+ Pride Prom, and was an official selection at the 2019 Milwaukee Film Festival.

Jenny DeRocher
Jenny DeRocher is a librarian at the La Crosse Public Library in the Archives & Local History Department. She earned a master’s degree in Library and Information Science from Simmons University in Boston. In La Crosse, Jenny guides seasonal history tours, one of which focuses on how La Crosse and the Midwest fit into our national LGBTQ+ history.

JoAnne Lehman
JoAnne Lehman is Senior Editor in the Office of the Gender and Women’s Studies Librarian at UW-Madison. There she develops topics, recruits authors and writes columns for the academic journal Resources for Gender and Women’s Studies: A Feminist Review. Lehman is also the editor for the PBS Wisconsin partnership project, Wisconsin Women Making History.

Kristen Whitson
Kristen is a researcher, archivist, member of the LGBTQ+ community and lifelong Wisconsinite. She has worked in several community archives, including the Madison LGBTQ+ Archive, and is currently a Digital Projects Specialist with WiLS (Wisconsin Library Services). Along with Jenny Kalvaitis, Kristen is the co-author of We Will Always Be Here: A Guide for Exploring and Understanding LGBTQ+ Activism in Wisconsin.