OUTWORDS is the first and only national organization dedicated to recording professional-quality, on-camera interviews with LGBTQ+ elders across the United States. OUTWORDS was founded in 2016 on the belief that these unique narratives are essential to preserve as a priceless record of an unprecedented American social change movement. We use media arts and storytelling to promote social equity of all types and to address systemic inequities in our society.

To date, OUTWORDS has recorded more than 345 interviews with LGBTQ+ elders in 45 states and Washington D.C. We share our full interviews (transcripts + video) on our website which functions as an online digital archive. We record 40-50 new interviews per year. An average of 4,850 unique users visited the OUTWORDS site per month or 158 users per day in 2023.

OUTWORDS functions simultaneously as a media production company (for the purpose of gathering new interviews), an archive (for the purpose of organizing and preserving our assets), and a distribution company (for the purpose of sharing our extraordinary elder stories with the LGBTQ+ community in LA and beyond through multiple channels). Our distribution occurs primarily through our website (www.theoutwordsarchive.org) and through an array of public events in CA and beyond, corporate DEI trainings, partnerships with LGBTQ+ organizations, and social media.

50% of our interviews come from the trans, gender non-conforming, and intersex (TGI) community and 60% of our interviews feature Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC).