Rewinding Hawaiʻi's queer history through the Out in Paradise collection

The following post is Morgan’s end of semester reflection on working with us at the archive and, in particular, on the Lei Pua ʻAla collection.  Learn more about this collection and how you can access episodes below. Thank you to Morgan for a great semester and congratulations on becoming a full-fledged information professional!

During my internship, I have been so honored to work with the Lei Pua ‘Ala: Queer Histories of Hawai‘i collection. I was able to inventory and process over 170 analog videotapes, as well as quality check and catalog 15 digitized episodes of Out in Paradise.

Out in Paradise was produced, directed, and edited by John G. McDermott, whom I had the pleasure of meeting when he visited ʻUluʻulu to talk story with myself and cataloging archivist Koa Luke about the show and some of the people featured in it. The show, which was originally created by Kate Sample and Sara Banks and titled “Out and About,” aired on ʻOlelo Community Access Television from the mid-90s to the late 2000s. In the newspaper’s TV pull-out section it was advertised “Celebrating the many contributions of Hawaii’s  LGBT+ community.” The show followed the “60 Minutes” format of several short stories, often depicting footage of pride parades, drag performances, song and dance, art shows, and other events that spotlighted the joy and vibrancy of the LGBTQ+ community in Hawaiʻi. The show also covered more complex topics, such as coming out, discrimination, familial relationships, HIV/AIDS, and the fight for marriage equality.

During our talk with John, who was born and raised in New York, and came to Hawai‘i in 1985 after completing his Masters in Divinity from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley to receive his Certificate in Pastoral Education at the State Hospital in Kāneʻohe– a surprising start to a journey that brought him to producing LGBTQ-focused community media. Originally expected to return to the Congregation of the Holy Cross on the mainland, he fell in love with Hawaiʻi and her people and knew Hawaiʻi was home. During his time as a residence director at UH Mānoa’s Johnson Hall, he was elected president of the University Gay & Lesbian ‘Ohana student club. When a gay student wrote a letter to the Ka Leo student newspaper contemplating suicide, John was asked if, as UGLO president, he would write a response. Worried about the negative reactions he might face, John was pleasantly surprised when many of the students at Johnson Hall came to sit with him in the cafeteria to show their support. “From there,” John said, “it just started snowballing. The UGLO meetings were originally just for UH students, but I started inviting everybody from any school and any age and that really helped create the beginnings of a state-wide LGBT+ ohana.”

The encouragement that he felt from his students in 1988 mirrored the strong community support that Out in Paradise received when it was on the air. According to John, despite at least one detractor appearing in the footage of a pride parade in 2008, it was very rare that the film crew faced any type of overt hostility. Rather, he remembered receiving grateful phone calls and letters from people saying, “I watch your show faithfully, I don’t have the courage to come out… so, you bring that to me, to my house, to my bedroom. They would watch this show, and it would uplift them. That’s why the theme of the show is celebrating– celebrating the many contributions [of the LGBTQ+ community].” This sentiment is reflected in the closing credits of each episode of Out in Paradise, which dedicates the program to the “many gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals who have contributed so much to Hawaiʻi and make us all proud.”

Over the course of my internship, I had the chance to watch all of the digitized episodes, which only make up a fraction of the total collection. Out in Paradise depicts a picture of Hawaiʻi that is unvarnished, yet brimming to express love and aloha. The charmingly unpolished nature of the production–“a lot of the reporters I used weren’t really reporters, they were just friends,” laughs John–gives the show an earnest, human quality. There is a sense of community that can be felt from the efforts of everyone who gave their time (almost entirely as volunteers) to make this show possible. As an archival student, I am so appreciative of having the chance to catalog and describe the digitized footage, noting the names of the individuals featured on camera so that their identities can be preserved for future generations interested in sharing in the appreciation of the LGBTQ+ community of Hawaiʻi. I am also grateful for ʻUluʻulu and the Lei Pua ʻAla Queer Histories of Hawaiʻi project for providing support and stewardship for programs such as Out in Paradise. In what feels like an increasingly divisive time, portrayals of our history which unapologetically uplift activism, love, and community seem ever more important to preserve and share.

Some of the digitized episodes are available on the Queer Histories of HI youtube channel. And more will be made available through our Recollect site as cataloging is completed. Please keep checking back for more!

Thank you to  Lei Pua ‘Ala Queer Histories of Hawai’i for your support and partnership in preserving and making these works available to the public. We look forward to the work ahead!

Quotations have been lightly edited for clarity.