@amybertsch.bsky.social
Northern Virginian with day job outside of my archaeology, architecture, African American, LGBTQ+, Appalachian and local history interests.
Transcript from ChatGPT: Me: Are you just making stuff up? Response: Thought for 2m 7s> You’re right to call that out. I’m sorry—I didn’t actually read the PDF and I invented details. That’s not okay.
I decided to see if ChatGPT could help with some transcribing, probably just getting a few words here and there to get me started and maybe save some time. Instead of it saying it couldn't read a PDF of faded handwriting, it completely made stuff up.
17.10.2025 15:04 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Alexandria hosting public meeting on improvements to Douglass Memorial Cemetery
15.10.2025 20:44 — 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Many thanks to the Arlington Public Library for hosting our “Queer Virginia” author event for LGBTQ+ History Month! We definitely appreciated the insightful, engaged audience! #queerhistory @uvapress.bsky.social
11.10.2025 23:39 — 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Historian and NSU professor Charles Ford to discuss “Queer Virginia” from @uvapress.bsky.social at Library of Virginia this Tuesday
27.09.2025 21:40 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Author Talk: “Queer Virginia: New Stories in the Old Dominion” | ARLnow www.arlnow.com/events/autho...
12.09.2025 23:37 — 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
On September 27, George Mason student Andrew Snowman is presenting "Policing of Black Bodies in Antebellum Fairfax County" librarycalendar.fairfaxcounty.gov/event/15195106
21.09.2025 15:40 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Reservations are now open for Halloweddings on Oct 31 at historic Gadsby's Tavern in Old Town Alexandria apps.alexandriava.gov/Calendar/Det... #halloween
20.09.2025 18:16 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
#DMV friends, hope you can join me Oct 9 at this Arlington Library event with Charles Ford and Jay Watkins, co-chair of @lgbtqhistorya.bsky.social, as we discuss our new book “Queer Virginia” from @uvapress.bsky.social arlingtonva.libcal.com/event/15366220
15.09.2025 23:59 — 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Two images. Rural road with large oak tree on one side. Close up of stoneware crock with cobalt decoration and stamped maker's mark reading L Gardner.
Twenty years ago, I took a historical archaeology class in the Public History and Historic Preservation program at @novacommcollege.bsky.social that changed my life. My program classmates were brilliant and continue to do amazing research and I still work on the project I was assigned that semester.
05.09.2025 16:09 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Editors of "Queer Virginia: New Stories in the Old Dominion," published by @uvapress.bsky.social, to speak at Library of Virginia September 30 #queerhistory #lgbtqhistory lva-virginia.libcal.com/event/15187738
23.08.2025 19:25 — 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
It was a pleasure to read and write about Marni Sandweiss's new book, "The Girl in the Middle" for the Emerging Civil War blog.
It also gave me a chance to experiment with book review writing style, which was great fun!
emergingcivilwar.com/2025/07/31/b...
On August 8, in remembrance of lynching victim Benjamin Thomas, the Alexandria Community Remembrance Project welcomes historian Steven Hahn who will present "Political Violence, Racial Terror, and the Perpetual Struggle of American Democracy"
10.07.2025 15:51 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
“Queer Virginia: New Stories in the Old Dominion,” released last month, presents a record of LGBTQ+ people in the commonwealth and their struggles for acceptance.
09.07.2025 13:26 — 👍 3 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
Co-editor of queer Virginia history anthology: “We wanted a happy medium between popular history and academic history.”
08.07.2025 19:54 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Book reading “Proximity to Power: Rethinking Race and Place in Alexandria, Virginia” by Krystyn R Moon and cover design with a photo of an African American woman sitting among file cabinets
So excited to receive Krystyn Moon’s “Proximity to Power: Rethinking Race and Place in Alexandria, Virginia” from @uncpress.bsky.social today!
11.06.2025 22:49 — 👍 4 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 1
Happy #pubday to "Queer Virginia: New Stories in the Old Dominion", edited by Charles H. Ford and Jeffrey L. Littlejohn
A new, definitive queer history of the Commonwealth
upress.virginia.edu/title/10093/
#readUP #booksky
Full Schedule! Join Invisible Histories on Sunday, June 8, 2025, at 11:00am CST / 12:00pm ET for our annual Queer History Teach In—a virtual storytelling event spotlighting LGBTQ+ histories from across the South and beyond! Presenter schedule coming soon!✨🌈
Register at: givebutter.com/teachin2025
Book opened to show first page of chapter on left and cover of book, Queer Virginia, on right. Book cover has historic map image in background. Chapter is titled: Beyond ‘Red Wigged Boy-Girl’ Perceptions of a Black Transgender Woman in Northern Virginia before Queer Liberation
Thrilled to receive “Queer Virginia: New Stories in the Old Dominion” from @uvapress.bsky.social and to share the story of Hannah Nokes, a Black transgender woman who testified for the Commonwealth in Loudoun in a major case in civil rights history www.upress.virginia.edu/title/10093/ #transhistory
11.05.2025 14:33 — 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Happy to share my bimonthly (or so) newsletter, Discovering Lives--writing tips, book review of Last Seen, and more.
mailchi.mp/fullcircle/d...
A dear friend of my parents is a retired CIA officer. He included Vaclav Havel’s words on hope in his holiday letter this winter.
06.04.2025 13:54 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
"Queer Virginia: New Stories in the Old Dominion" now available for pre-order. Use promo code 10VABOOKS for 30% discount upress.virginia.edu/title/10093/ #QueerHistory #TransHistory #LGBTQHistory
04.04.2025 23:55 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
New: Their kids died at Sandy Hook. Their tip line prevents school shootings (18 so far) and teen suicides, no paywall: wapo.st/3RqMHbU
31.03.2025 11:56 — 👍 7 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 0
Stonewall National Monument New York Info Alerts Maps Calendar Fees “By the time of Stonewall...we had 50 to 60 gay groups in the country. A year later...1500.” Before the 1960s, almost everything about living openly as a lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) person was illegal. The Stonewall Uprising on June 28, 1969 is a milestone in the quest for LGB civil rights and provided momentum for a movement. Five visitors and one park ranger standing next to an iron fence as they post rainbow flags. Plan Your Visit Located in Greenwich Village, New York City, Stonewall National Monument is one of the many parks in New York Harbor. Educational images of leaning at Stonewall National Monument Education No Matter where you are, we can bring Stonewall National Monument to your classroom. Find teachers resources here. A rainbow flag overlaid with "Stonewall National Monument, Established 2016" with the NPS arrowhead. LGB Flags What are LGB flags and what days should we celebrate them? Click here to find out.
The National Park Service has removed "T" and all mention of transgender people from the Stonewall National Monument.
Trans women were some of the most influential activists behind the Stonewall movement and what followed.
3 articles of clothing laws were why raids happened.
Erasure.
Program for 2025 Virginia Forum history conference now posted. Please join us at Sweet Briar next month virginiaforum.net/2025-virgini...
12.02.2025 18:48 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Black passengers who resisted changing their seats when their bus entered Virginia faced arrest, jail and violence upon reaching Alexandria #BlackHistoryMonth
alextimes.com/lifestyle/ar...
Maybe @lgbtqhistory.bsky.social or @lgbtqhistorya.bsky.social can help
26.01.2025 19:59 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0In 1984 Republicans in NJ led the effort to allow transgender people to obtain amended birth certificates and have the original record sealed.
#transhistory 🏳️⚧️
In an 1862 photo, a baby named Fannie sat in the lap of her mother Lucinda, surrounded by other family members, all of them enslaved. In the 1941 photo, Fannie held baby Marcus Scruggs, grandson of her first cousin Sarah. This week Marc, 84, joined the ancestors. May his memory be a blessing
