Nelson Sullivan's Video Memories: YouTube Nostalgia and the Queer Archive Effect

Abstract

ABSTRACT:This article argues that Nelson Sullivan's video archive on YouTube reveals a "queer archive effect" on streaming platforms today. Through the nostalgic pull of witnessing everyday life in the 1980s, a period often historicized as one of loss amid the AIDS crisis, Sullivan's audience has found a space where they can unite as a queer community and gather the threads of a shared history. Long confined to the background of histories of other queer stars, such as RuPaul, Nelson Sullivan's video archive of the mundane offers a way to understand the nostalgic contours of queer spectator-ship and fandom online.