In February 1987, members of a queer-student group at Queens College, in New York, started jotting down their private thoughts in a communal composition book. As in a diary, each entry was signed and dated. Members wrote about parties they’d attended, speakers they wanted to invite to campus, questions they had about their sexuality. The book, now housed in an archive at the college, was also a place to vent and snipe. In November 1991, a student wrote in all caps, “I HATE QUEENS COLLEGE. I HATE HATRED. I HATE MY HAIR.” Below that, a member responded, “I hate your hair too.”

It’s hard to imagine a future historian getting such an up-close glimpse into the thoughts and anxieties of the club’s contemporary members. Around 2019, the group abandoned the composition books and migrated to the m

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