Beginning on September 1, 2020, a group of fourteen of us at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey -- comprised of graduate students, undergraduate honors college students, and a history professor -- began to journal about our experiences of living through the COVID-19 pandemic. We will continue to journal into December 2020. Some of us are located in Newark during this period, but more of us are located elsewhere in New Jersey; a few are in other places in the United States and the world. We represent a wide range of backgrounds, ethnicities, and life experiences and range in age from late teens / early twenties into our forties. Each week, one student will curate excerpts from some of our journals, and we will share them publicly. Our goal is to offer a window into our subjective experiences of life during the pandemic in near real-time. We also aim to create a usable archive for future historians.

Because journaling is a personal activity, many of us elected to be identified by pseudonyms, initials, or first name. A few chose to use their full real name.

Archival versions of all linked material is available (or will be shortly) in the collection Pandemic Life: Fragments of Our Stories.

Across nations and cultures, sexuality is universal. And yet, even in 2020, sex is still taboo, across nations and cultures. The following exhibit seeks to record a snapshot of human sexuality during the Covid-19 pandemic. More specifically, in what ways has the pandemic affected the sex lives of gay and bisexual men?

Admittedly, this collection of oral histories was originally intended to represent a broader spectrum of humanity. However, the LGTBQ+ community is hardly monolithic. Seeking out interviews across the entire spectra of gender and sexuality is time consuming. Unfortunately, the scope of this oral history project was indeed truncated by time constraints. Also, not all members of the LGBT+ community are equally straightforward about their sex lives, taboos are powerful forces in society. Additionally, social networks, digital and otherwise, do not universally criss-cross between gay, lesbian, bisexual, and trans circles. It should be recognized that countless voices are missing from this exhibit. And yet, diversity still exists, even within a thin slice of the spectrum.

The following voices represent gay and bisexual men of a variety of ages, ethnicities, and professions. As a student of history, it is in my nature to analyze and seek to interpret. However, as the creator of this exhibit, functioning as an archivist, I feel it important to present these voices with minimal distortion. Therefore, this exhibit does not intend to offer analysis nor interpretation. Each voice is accompanied by only a brief expository introduction and a curated selection of quotations from each interview. Please click on a story to the right, and enjoy listening to history from the ground up.

Welcome!

On March 11th, 2020, the sports world was brought to a screeching halt. Fans were shocked as the anticipated game between the Oklahoma City Thunder and The Utah Jazz was cancelled minutes before tip-off. Rudy Gobert, star center on the Utah Jazz, had come down with a relatively unknown and scary virus, COVID-19. In the coming days, almost all of the  major North American sports leagues, including the NHL, NBA, and MLB, had postponed their seasons. For the first time in over a generation, it was March, and there was no major sports on television. The question on every sports fans' mind at the time was, what would these sports leagues do next?

This exhibit aims to cover how major North American sports leagues handled the COVID-19 pandemic. Sports leagues covered in this exhibit include the National Hockey League, the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, and World Wrestling Entertainment. The National Football League, which is traditionally grouped amongst these leagues, is not included in this exhibit. While the NFL too was and is affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, unlike the other leagues mentioned, they were in the middle of their off-season on March 11th. On the other hand, the WWE, which is not traditionally consider a sport, will be included in this exhibit. Even though professional wrestling is scripted, it is done in front of a live audience. Thus, WWE too had to adjust bacause of the pandemic. All four of these leagues will be covered in full with their own seperate section.

This exhibit will cover all major actions and events from these four leagues between the dates March 11th, 2020 to December 7th, 2020. When this exhibit was created, the pandemic was still raging on. It is extremely likely that sports world will experience more major moments past the end date of this exhibit. Most notably, how all of these leagues handle the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. For knowledge on these subjects, further research will need to be done.