Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) activists and community organizers in Orange County have left a rich documentary trail over the past forty years, and we are preserving it! We have recently added three more collections to our available resources documenting this history and we are highlighting these below. Additional information about our OC LGBT archives is available here, under the tab “Selected Archival and Manuscript Collections.”
The Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center of Orange County Records, MS-R118: These are the records of The Center OC, one of the oldest gay and lesbian community centers in the United States, first 
established as a volunteer organization in 1971. As the finding aid shows, the collection is particularly rich in material concerning the Center’s initiatives to address the AIDS crisis through its AIDS Response Program, including Stop AIDS Orange County, a volunteer-based AIDS education program. The collection includes a very large number of photographs, circa 1987-1992, documenting the Stop AIDS Orange County as well as the Center’s social, cultural, and fundraising activities. Records in the collection also document the Center’s administrative operations with board minutes, correspondence, and related records. Video recordings documenting television coverage of the Center, events such as the 2003 Dyke March in Costa Mesa, and other activities are also part of the collection.
Photo above left: Stop AIDS Orange County, a volunteer-based AIDS education program of the Center OC, circa 1989-1990. Box 26:5.
The Brad Brafford Papers, MS-R146 : G.C. “Brad” Brafford (1929- ) is a veteran Orange County gay rights activist and philanthropist. As documented in the finding aid, he has been an active member of several organizations concerned with gay and lesbian rights, AIDS education and support, political activism, women’s rights, and electoral politics. In 1972 he was one of the founders of the Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center of Orange County (The Center OC), and he went on to serve on its first board of directors. He also served on the executive committee of Parents and Friends of
Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) of Orange County. He was very active in Christ Chapel Metropolitan Community Church in Santa Ana, California, and was involved with several gay social and recreation groups.
Brafford’s papers include many publications and ephemera from local, state and national LGBT-rights and other social justice organizations, as well as his own correspondence, notes, and other meeting and political organizing materials.
Image above right: Orange County Health Department public service advertisement in Focus: Orange County , a gay activist newspaper, 1971. Box 7:2
The Patric A. Magee Papers Concerning Transgenderism, MS-R133: A prominent Orange County activist, Magee is founder and facilitator of OCFTM (Orange County Female to Male), a support and social group for members of the female-to-male transsexual/transgender community. As indicated in the finding aid, Magee has also served as a board member for 
and is secretary of the Elections Committee of the County of Orange (ECCO), a nonpartisan political action committee for lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender, HIV/AIDS and women’s causes, and was the co-founder and director of the Orange County Transgender Coalition in 2004. His papers include personal correspondence, email, drawings, poems, and writings by Magee, as well as fliers, pamphlets, and brochures from Southern Californian and national LGBT and transgender organizations, materials from transgender conferences, materials detailing surgical and medical procedures, newsletters and magazines, and catalogs for products related to transgenderism.
Image above left: Transe Generation flier, Center OC, circa 2001. Box 5:9.