EMU’s Queer Student Alliance (QSA) hosted their third annual Queer History Month keynote speaker in Common Grounds right before the start of fall break. This year’s speaker, Annabeth (AB) Roeschley, who uses she/they pronouns, describes herself as a “queer abolitionist theologian, spiritual care curator, and politicized chaplain who dwells at the intersections of individual and collective healing.” AB spent their undergraduate years at Bluffton University and holds a Master of Divinity from Chicago Theological Seminary with a concentration in LGBTQ+ Religious Studies. Now, Roeschley serves as Executive Director of the Brethren Mennonite Council (BMC) for LGBTQ Interests, which is currently based in Chicago, Illinois.

The main theme that AB continuously touched back on throughout her address had to do with this current season of fall, and the earth renewing itself in “a great decomposition.” They noted that in a similar way to how compost has many layers, the history of the queer community also has a deep complexity to it. In preparation for their move to Chicago, the BMC leadership discovered a roughly 50-year archive with relics from this complex history stored in the attic of their home church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 

“Queer organizations do not often have evidence of existence like this, it is a blessing,” AB shared with the gathering in Common Grounds. Unfortunately, the size of this newly rediscovered archive made it impossible to take along in the relocation to Chicago. After much discernment, the BMC leadership decided to approach The Jean-Nickolas Tretter Collection in GLBT studies about donating the entire collection. Housed in the Anderson Library at the University of Minnesota, the public center is home to over 500 individual archival collections of queer and trans historical material. At first, the team was not sure how the Tretter would respond to their inquiry about the possibility of donating the BMC’s collection, but the response they received was an enthusiastic embrace of the material.

“Aiden (curator of the Tretter) saw our collection, and by extension this community…, we shouldn’t have to make a case for ourselves at all times,” vocalized Roeschley. On May 1, 2024, the BMC’s donation arrived in full at the Tretter, just across town from where their collection had been previously stored for decades. AB says that the collection could potentially be opened to the public at the end of this calendar year, but the staff at the Tretter have a lot of material to add to their system first. In closing their address, AB noted that “tending to the compost of LGBTQ history goes beyond policy change and pride events, and even Queer History Month lectures…, to be a liberatory celebration of our queer histories.”