Looking back helps us look forward, and earning your Gay Card necessarily includes learning LGBTQ history. But all the historic facts and milestones in the world can’t tell queer personal stories quite like a single vintage photograph.

An increasing number of books, sites and queer academics are collecting these images for posterity, and we find ourselves mesmerized by the results.

The more things change, the more some LGBTQ stories stay the same, and its written all over the faces on the following pages.

Sources: HomoHistory.com,ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives, The Archives of Human Sexuality and Identity, The Invisibles.

This feature was originally aggregated and compiled in Q magazine. Read the full issue below, and pick up a new edition each Thursday.