The Beginning of the Queer Outdoors Recreation Movement is a presentation by California Great Outdoors journeying through the decades of the queer outdoors recreation movement, with the SoCal outdoors LGBT+ community being at the heart of the movement. Great Outdoors is the longest running queer outdoors organization in the United States with a rich history. We will travel through the decades, starting from when Great Outdoors was ideated in 1977 by founders Greg Carmack and Paul Breton to today’s thriving national and global queer outdoors recreation movement.
Join Great Outdoors Archivist Tyler Roosden as they set the stage with a historical account of The Beginning of the Queer Outdoors Recreation Movement through the archives of California Great Outdoors, ultimately culminating into a modern Leadership Studies approach to creating queer belonging in community. Our program will discuss themes like culture, technology, pride, recognition, and core values. Specific topics will include leadership training, awards programming, event planning, organizational design, gender equity, language, global pandemics, arts, access, and community collaboration. Our history is highlighted by the stories of BIPOC and queer trail blazers including volunteer-members Patrick McCollum, Darlene Bjork, Mack Gerighty, Dixie Paradise, Rowena Muldavin, and Jamie Charles.
The virtual presentation, including 30 minute Q&A, will take place on Saturday October 10th 10:00am to 11:30am PT. This project was made possible thanks to the Lambda Archives of San Diego staff and ongoing archival support of ONE Archives at the USC Libraries (California Great Outdoors’ official archives).
Participant Bios
Tyler Roosden, Vice President of Outings (Great Outdoors San Diego)
The Beginning of the Queer Outdoors Recreation Movement is organized by Tyler Roosden as part of the 2026 Circa: Queer Histories Festival, presented by One Institute.