[{"_1":2,"_99":-5,"_100":-5},"loaderData",{"_3":4,"_26":27},"root",{"_5":6,"_17":10,"_18":19,"_20":21,"_22":10,"_23":-5,"_24":-5,"_25":10},"user",{"_7":8,"_9":10,"_11":10,"_12":-5,"_13":-5,"_14":15,"_16":-5},"roles",[],"isAuthenticated",false,"isPremium","planName","subscriptionStatus","featureFlags",{},"insightsBudget","isDevelopmentHost","userPreferences",{},"recaptchaSiteKey","6LcvOJcUAAAAAHsB-gPGfGktcRlKpH7OTIU_dMTD","isImpersonating","impersonation","affiliateStatus","isFreedomPortal","routes/v2/article/layout",{"_28":29,"_30":31},"notFound",true,"relatedArticles",[32,75,87],{"_33":34,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":40,"_41":42,"_43":44,"_45":46,"_47":48,"_49":50,"_51":52,"_53":54,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":60,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":66,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":68,"_72":73,"_74":73},"mediaId",6180971,"mediaKeyId","5115693-6888d8eaefae1e803b296b9c1cdd9325","parentId",5115693,"title","Missoula project premieres 'Queer In and Out' film and Crossings exhibit documenting Montana transgender history","audioSeconds",3581,"startMs",3483590,"endMs",7064925,"viewUrl","/Search/View?dp=1&key=5115693-6888d8eaefae1e803b296b9c1cdd9325&start=3483&end=7064","thumbnailUrl","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/5115693-6888d8eaefae1e803b296b9c1cdd9325/thumbnail_3483590.jpg","articleUrl","/articles/6180971/Missoula/Missoula-County/Montana/Missoula-project-premieres-Queer-In-and-Out-film-and-Crossings-exhibit-documenting-Montana-transgender-history","mediaUrl","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6180971-bac252b6dfba895b6c75fe160ff5d733/orig.mp4?Expires=1771189221&Signature=fGKr4nBBKc7HLHq~B-fuXlmp4zB2uNwbPESpeH3s0sVtNHRYndQT0tbPxZyAKhkbRNsFrv74Y1Q~3m4U7QuQJdfHZU1Bv3i9tfpEg1uA~sG0sG4T~6~o6mUAC9lLGbg03DtR60wgua1Psh9t~trcMI646gh4NMuK0Xo3xOtscC1OgpsIVSU0cPhdfNefOG1QZcIZyqlW38HLQTSJZr9Papouvr~c0dBYDQJ3UoxCjgeQX3k9hBrqJMaCK7XXwbTJ3d09qfC7ZWFPC713rNAFMI~gMNW1ZntqiCFJYGSC2BoViFzwaqcfkSatm3iC5guaH8QM73LwjA1IRhc8iz1xoA__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","author","City of Missoula, MT","date","2025-07-02T08:28:58.61Z","article","River, a researcher for the Queer In and Out Montana oral-history project, introduced a short film and the new Crossings exhibit at the Missoula Public Library, saying the project aims to preserve stories of Two-Spirit, trans and gender-diverse Montanans before they become unreachable.

The film’s narration stated, “There is no question that Two-Spirit, trans, and gender diverse people have always lived here,” a line played as part of the project’s recorded interviews. River told the audience the team conducted numerous multi-hour interviews—each roughly two hours—and that, together with a colleague, they had completed approximately 40 interviews across Phase 1 of the project. River said the project focused on people who had left the state as well as those still living in Montana and that phase 2 would cast a wider net, including family members, health-care providers, educators and local officials.

Project staff and some interviewees spoke in on-screen segments about the political climate and safety questions. One interviewee in the film said the state’s climate had made remaining in Montana “unsafe” for some, and several contributors described the emotional difficulty of deciding whether to leave a place they considered home. River said the film and the Crossings exhibit are intended to underscore the depth of queer Montana history and to reinforce claims of belonging for local queer communities.

Organizers announced that Crossings—an exhibit of photos and panels about two centuries of trans and Two-Spirit lives in Montana—was now on display in the library and that phase 2 of the Queer In and Out project will launch this fall with broader outreach. River invited interested community members to sign up after the event.

","mediaType","Video","parentTitle","The Intermediaries and Their Allies","oneSentenceSummary","Researchers from the Queer In and Out project screened a short film and announced a Crossings exhibit at the Missoula Public Library, recording trans and Two-Spirit Montanans’ stories and planning expanded interviews in a second phase this fall.","taxTitle","Missoula, Missoula County, Montana","taxId",4050,"location","headline","","shortSummary",{"_33":76,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":77,"_41":78,"_43":79,"_45":80,"_47":81,"_49":82,"_51":83,"_53":84,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":85,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":86,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":68,"_72":73,"_74":73},6180976,"Author Brandy Scillace recounts Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute and pioneering transgender patient Dora Richter",2583,2817030,5400053,"/Search/View?dp=1&key=5115693-6888d8eaefae1e803b296b9c1cdd9325&start=2817&end=5400","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/5115693-6888d8eaefae1e803b296b9c1cdd9325/thumbnail_2817030.jpg","/articles/6180976/Missoula/Missoula-County/Montana/Author-Brandy-Scillace-recounts-Magnus-Hirschfelds-Institute-and-pioneering-transgender-patient-Dora-Richter","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6180976-c37de0b6e0b862efaa4f60e38b956268/orig.mp4?Expires=1771189221&Signature=Ot12VgYrLncZX5c7t7weg9du5~T9IFm5teiHiVNhDEQCyDgyMCzQ5h4d2hpL4t1BBwpblrrgpm4LSL222v9B-~-UwnE6QIeg9Ulo~thdqU68nGqWHnJ3o5XSzdzI9E8TDkK9Hs3b5YNW2hBQlzwAb4zuG2FeWwtWVfPfXs6e6sQE-t34KjL5Kr9YGNO7ELzKhVlTLNVIm1AAqtucXuJ4RrKANCr4t6fxTloL0wWHS~V33CJy3DBtavdmHnarsEA-UIAgSMPjiPtwKXxoV4jM8PHXxn8PtJAk6Iqx8Gu2vANjHmiuRYtCtsMBO0MH8L1WhapP3UVNn6jOQU~f18-HOg__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","At a Missoula Public Library talk, author and historian Brandy Scillace recounted the work of Magnus Hirschfeld and the Institute for Sexual Science in early 20th-century Germany and told the life story of Dora Richter, one of the institute’s best-documented patients.

Scillace described the institute, opened in 1918 in Berlin, as a hub of counseling, medical treatment, community education and social support. She said the institute offered counseling, job help, educational courses, a movie room, community dining and balls, and that it performed early forms of gender-affirming surgery and hormone treatment. Scillace said the institute’s approach combined medical treatment with community building and public education.

Scillace traced scientific precursors—work on hormones and early genetics—and showed how different scientific developments led to divergent political trajectories: one strand that she said supported acceptance and diversity, and another that fed eugenics and nationalist backlash. She said Hirschfeld viewed sex and gender variation as natural diversity and strove to use scientific research to reduce persecution.

Scillace told the personal story of Dora Richter, whom she described as born Rudolph Richter in a small village and who began living as a woman from an early age. According to Scillace, Richter attempted self-harm as a teenager, later lived a double life in several towns and ultimately traveled to Berlin, where Hirschfeld’s team interviewed and took her in. Scillace said Richter worked at the institute, supported other patients and underwent transition-related treatment; she described Richter as a central, stabilizing presence for other patients.

Scillace also recounted the attacks on Hirschfeld’s work: antisemitic and masculinist critiques, the loss of institutional support, and the notorious 1933 ransacking and book burnings that destroyed much of the institute’s collection. She gave specific figures for material losses, saying the institute’s holdings included about 20,000 books and 35,000 pamphlets and photographs, many of which were destroyed or looted.

Scillace closed by reclaiming Hirschfeld’s legacy and urging contemporary listeners to treat community and joy as forms of resistance. At one point she said, “Joy is a weapon,” a line she used to stress that public, authentic lives and community networks were central to Hirschfeld’s strategy for social change.

","Brandy Scillace described the Institute for Sexual Science founded by Magnus Hirschfeld, its services for sexual- and gender-diverse people, the trail of community and science it fostered, and the life of Dora Richter, a patient and later staff member who lived publicly as a woman.",{"_33":88,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":89,"_41":90,"_43":91,"_45":92,"_47":93,"_49":94,"_51":95,"_53":96,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":97,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":98,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":68,"_72":73,"_74":73},6180980,"Scholar presents Catherine Bement Davis’s study that reframed views of women’s sexuality",2311,475955,2787041,"/Search/View?dp=1&key=5115693-6888d8eaefae1e803b296b9c1cdd9325&start=475&end=2787","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/5115693-6888d8eaefae1e803b296b9c1cdd9325/thumbnail_475955.jpg","/articles/6180980/Missoula/Missoula-County/Montana/Scholar-presents-Catherine-Bement-Daviss-study-that-reframed-views-of-womens-sexuality","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6180980-52fa3676bab30ac2406485916d48f8ec/orig.mp4?Expires=1771189221&Signature=MrnVALxTxjm-MBatHZDtUU4D7vQL-ont7YCvNvbEfxImaw1YPSnLwj5Qa8~X~157SrQJ0zEhdFDMD~M1obfeMNlWv8057FQfDTs78breju9Ow3pDvZj3fGeKvtuqgSHx04hIgrzUs8w8UHOdgCqoQN5ztb31C49HA96Xow2nyJVPuxNctn2MgDXhELdvP0q3md14Wh5q2y0aPmmwAjFrYivWXVqHclqrdWv-Ob4bYpM4mYvrTvt~JXcC2XaC8H~8ZbXbTXfOzt7Udgi7Z0z0YFHuQrMU-unpZTRJkNUcW5-oWGHMfss0o66ugA0s7nlXY7I82cEqRTEMWBwhLQpXAw__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","Anya Jabor, a professor of history at the University of Montana, described the career and research of Catherine Bement Davis during a public event at the Missoula Public Library. Jabor said Davis moved from prison reform work to large-scale scientific study that, Jabor said, “redefined normal sexual behavior” in the early 20th century.

Jabor outlined Davis’s trajectory from teacher to the first superintendent of the Bedford Hills reformatory for women and later head of the Bureau of Social Hygiene, a Rockefeller-funded organization. At Bedford, Jabor quoted Davis’s condition for taking the job: “I will only accept it if I can run it as an educational institution. I have no interest in being the warden of a prison.” Jabor said Davis later used statistical methods and large-sample surveys to study the sexual lives of women who were, by the standards of the time, considered “average.”

Jabor said Davis selected a large but nonrepresentative sample—about 1,000 married women and 1,200 unmarried women—and asked extensive survey questions on sexual desire, contraceptive use, menstrual periodicity, childhood sexual play, and same-sex relationships. Jabor said Davis reported notably high rates of contraceptive use, nonreproductive sexual activity, and same-sex relationships among the women surveyed, findings that directly challenged early-20th-century assumptions that most women lacked sexual desire outside of marriage.

The historian connected Davis’s work to the political and legal context. Jabor noted the Comstock Act, a federal law that restricted distribution of information about contraception and abortion, limited public discussion and service provision at the time; she also cited Davis’s role in the American plan during World War I and her later support—often private—of birth-control work. Jabor said Davis published Factors in the Sex Life of 2,200 Women in 1929 and that chapters about same-sex relationships were among the most controversial.

Jabor also discussed Davis’s complicated public record: early in her career Davis supervised institutions that incarcerated women for so-called morality offenses and later became an advocate for scientifically based sex education and birth control. Jabor said Rockefeller funding and institutional politics factored into both Davis’s research opportunities and the professional setbacks she later suffered.

The presentation closed with Jabor noting Davis’s influence on later researchers and public debates about sexuality. The event included time for questions and a brief preview of related exhibits and book sales planned around the Missoula Bridal 2025 program.

","At a Missoula Public Library event, historian Anya Jabor summarized the life and work of Catherine Bement Davis, highlighting Davis’s 1929 study Factors in the Sex Life of 2,200 Women, her earlier role in prison reform, and how her research challenged prevailing assumptions about women’s sexual behavior.","actionData","errors"]

Article not found

Missoula project premieres 'Queer In and Out' film and Crossings exhibit documenting Montana transgender history

Author Brandy Scillace recounts Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute and pioneering transgender patient Dora Richter

Scholar presents Catherine Bement Davis’s study that reframed views of women’s sexuality