California Humanities leader aims to amplify LGBTQ voices

by Matthew S. Bajko

With LGBTQ issues again a flashpoint in the country’s cultural and political arenas, the new leader of a statewide humanities organization in California is aiming to amplify the voices of LGBTQ individuals and organizations. The goal is to not just benefit those based in the Golden State, but those living and headquartered in states less affirming of LGBTQ rights.

For years California Humanities, the statewide nonprofit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities, has been funding LGBTQ initiatives and programs. It continues to do so, recently announcing grants to several LGBTQ agencies in the state.

But the current backlash against LGBTQ rights sweeping across the country, from Republicancontrolled statehouses in the South and Midwest to conservative-led school boards and city councils in California, has Rick Noguchi pledging to redouble Cal Humanities’ efforts in support of the LGBTQ community.

A straight ally, Noguchi took over as Cal Humanities’ president and CEO in May. In a recent interview with the Bay Area Reporter, the Los Angeles resident said he sees the agency as playing an important role in counterbalancing the anti-LGBTQ voices and rhetoric growing louder throughout the U.S.

“I believe that equity should be at the heart of the humanities. I am committed to continuing California Humanities’ efforts for supporting, sharing and respecting stories from across the state and including those from the LGBTQ-plus community,” said Noguchi, 55, formerly the chief operating officer at the Japanese American National Museum in his hometown. “We have a long tradition at California Humanities of amplifying those voices of the LGBTQplus community in California.”

As an example, for its emailed newsletter at the start of Pride Month in June, the agency highlighted the Hi-Desert Queer & Trans Oral History Project, a recipient of one of its quick grants this year for smaller organizations. The project is working to preserve the history of the LGBTQIA+ community in Southern California’s western Mojave Desert region.

“It was important for us to put that as the first story and to make that statement this is normality, or should be, in California. There are all these different stories, and we should celebrate the LGBTQ+ community,” said Noguchi. “I am very aware of my

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