Nat DiFrank: Our Deepest Apprecation
The GSWS and FQT team wants to express appreciation and warmth for Nat DiFrank, who is shifting his position at Penn from GSWS/FQT to the LGBT Stories Project Coordinator. While his location on Penn campus is a (Locust!) walk away, his practice of community archiving and oral history continues in his new role at the LGBT Center.
Through his work as the manager of the Philadelphia Trans Oral History Project since 2019, Nat has archived indispensable trans histories, ranging from organizations such as the Morris Home, to political campaigns such as Riders Against Gender Exclusion, as well as collected oral histories of trans Philadelphians since the 1960s and 1970s.
In 2024 Nat convened a panel at the William Way Center, “Sustaining Momentum,” that brought together trans artists, activists and movement workers from across Philadelphia to strategize about sustaining movements and communities in times of poly-crisis. The Philadelphia Trans Oral History Project also hosted a 2025 panel discussion on Philly’s Black LGBTQ+ Nightlife Scene featuring performers and artists and activists' showcase of Black trans Philadelphia social and aesthetic history.
In collaboration with photographer and Penn Extended Reality Lab co-founder and director Kyle Cassidy, and FQT podcast editor and artist Lane Speidel, Nat co-created the Philadelphia Trans Oral History zine, an amazing archival zine that is publicly accessible and fits in your pocket!
Nat’s work has extended beyond campus and brought in community members and institutional partners into the fold, ranging from the Philadelphia Free Library, to Soapbox, the William Way Center and other organizations, through ongoing zine folding parties that they coordinated.
Nat’s work on Philadelphia trans oral history continues, please stay tuned for more updates about his phenomenal projects!