TMI Project’s Gay Agenda uses true storytelling to:

1. Record LGBTQIA+ History: Marginalized populations are often left out of mainstream media and history books and rely more heavily on oral history to record and preserve their lived experience.¹

TMI Project has given me the profound opportunity to write and share a series of stories about my life, starting in the 1950s to the present time, dealing with both horrible and wonderful things that happened around sexuality and gender. It’s my personal time capsule to share with the world. I believe TMI Project is essential because we're missing the ability to be empathetic, to put yourself in someone's shoes, and have a curious nature prior instead of judgment. - Zelda, aka Judith Z. Miller

2. Engage and Train Emergent LGBTQIA+ Activists and Leaders: Research shows it’s crucial that training the next generation of LGBTQIA+ activists and leaders is rooted in a foundation of self love and acceptance.² TMI Project has seen our storytellers, time and again, let go of fear and step into their potential when they share their story. In many instances it is the catalyst that sparks their journey as activists and changemakers in social justice movement building.

The first night I told my TMI Project story, I could not stop shaking. After I was done, all of my fear went away. Everything in my life that I'd been afraid to go after because of failure just left. I’ve since come out as transgender, which I’ve known for 15 years but was afraid to admit. I volunteer for The Trevor Project and told my story twice at Trevor Live. I’ve gone to film school and have started making films. My goal is to challenge Hollywood and normalize queer stories; not to just tell the ones rooted in trauma, but to also the happy, joyful, adventurous ones. - Ray Taylor

3. Explore and Claim LGBTQIA+ Identity: Having a space to bravely explore and claim our personal identities plays a significant role in how we value ourselves– and in determining how we navigate challenges and become changemakers.³

I'm 50 years old. When I was a youngin’, we didn't have the language that we have today to express identities. I called myself a boy-girl because I didn’t have the word nonbinary. My story is a proclamation. TMI Project provides a platform to be able to tell the world we are real. We can't be swept under the rug. We can't be killed. We've been here, and we're gonna be here. Our lives are important. Our stories have helped shape this world in many different ways. Telling them is grounding. - Kiebpoli

4. Save LGBTQIA+ Lives: When the world encourages silence, it is important to have a space to safely explore and claim who you are. Legislation like “Don’t Say Gay” and sweeping anti-trans bills can incite suicide among the LGBTQIA+ community, particularly youth. ⁴ LGBTQ youth are more than four times more likely to attempt suicide than their peers; up to 50 percent of all trans people have made a suicide attempt, many before the age of 25.⁵

I feel much more comfortable with myself now, having told my story. I thought I was just this bipolar queer kid who was gonna kill themselves by age 27 – join the 27 club. That's what I imagined for myself. Now I'm 28. That's the best part of the story for me. I’m 28, and I’m alive. - Windy Sharpe

5. Celebrate Queerness! The joy the LGBTQIA+ community brings to the world is often left out of the narrative. Let’s celebrate being alive in the face of it all. ⁶

Having the support of my friends and my partner cheering on me while I told my story about getting top surgery was beautiful. I have more freedom. I never felt the sun on my chest before. I never felt it on my stomach before either because I'd been so self-conscious about my entire body, stemming from my discomfort with my chest. I’m more confident now. I got a chest tattoo. It's the sun. I'm going to get a full chest piece, and I'm so excited to show it off for the rest of my life. - Erik Harris