Organizers of the non-profit have an eye toward a "Rainbow History Trail" throughout the Deep South.

When most people think of queer history and the movement for our liberation their mind goes to Stonewall. Perhaps if they are a bit more informed, they consider earlier actions in New York City and Los Angeles.

Few, however, think far outside these areas, and that, according to Maigen Sullivan (below), the director of development at Invisible Histories Project of Alabama, is doing real damage.

“The litmus test for us, what success, what organizing, what progressiveness looks like, is way different than a large wealthy city on the West Coast. We cannot measure ourselves and our communities against that, because we’ll always fail,” she told New Now Next.

“The idea that that is the hallmark really erases the amazing radical work that’s being done on the ground, in the Deep South especially.”

Increased Attention Brings Telling Reactions

The project, created to fight against that simplistic trend, is in its second year of existence, collecting historical documents—including a range of protest banners, gay bar directories, early queer publications, and organizer’s papers—and oral histories from community members, and received a boost in interest and attention when the Associated Press ran a story on the nonprofit.

The national exposure has resulted in more people wanting to help with donations of items and money they can use to do their work, as well as some interesting comments across the multiple publications that picked it up.

Sullivan admits she couldn’t keep from reading them, despite colloquially passed down wisdom, and found it interesting that there was, mixed among the positive feedback and expected anti-LGBTQ hate, another well-represented group: Non-Southern queer people who couldn’t believe such a project was underway in Alabama. Many suggested they flee the South, instead of fighting for a place there for the community, which has always existed there alongside those who tried to destroy them.

“The idea that that is the hallmark really erases the amazing radical work that’s being done on the ground, in the Deep South especially. Because some of the most radical, amazing people I’ve ever met were from rural Alabama,” she noted.

“This idea that there’s this queer haven, and if you can just get out and go there, is really harmful for Southern Queers and all the work that we’re doing. It erases so many of the people who have done so much in their neighborhoods, and not despite the environment that we’re in but because of it. It really shapes who we are.”

And it’s why these stories need to be told, she continued.

The plans to branch out into other states were already underway but have picked up steam, and include Mississippi and Georgia, as well as some other cities with whom talks have been initiated.

Growth Brings New Initiatives

The work has taken on a number of new forms recently, including what Joshua Burford (below, right), the director of community engagement, called community mapping projects, which takes shared oral histories and translates that data into a map that illustrates queer Alabama history in a way that has never been done.

They have already held two, one in Birmingham, where the ages ranged was 21 to 78, thanks to invitations that were deliberately cross-generational, and one in Tuscaloosa, where it was standing room only. Several more are planned, for cities such as in Montgomery, Auburn, and Florence.

“At the end, we’re going to take all of this data that we’re collecting and we’re going to turn it into an interactive map, which physically maps out the Alabama queer experience, at least from the perspective of these people,” he explained.

“There’s already so much interesting overlap, about what people’s first gay bars were, and what they remember, and listening to them talk to each other about their experiences. There’s so much commonality, even across the generations, about how people are deciding to come out and where they’re doing it.”

And there are already moments that have allowed them to see what the work they are doing looks like as it impacts real people in real-time.

The talks begin with screening a documentary of the first ever Pride march in Alabama, which took place in 1989, in Birmingham, which follows. The film, which displays revolutionary, unapologetic LGBTQ Southerners, affects all who see it, but one man was particularly moved.





“We were in a bar in Birmingham and we screened it, and afterwards this guy, this gay man, comes up to me and Josh just in tears, having a moment,” Sullivan recalled. “And he’s like, ’I just saw my cousin, who was estranged from the family because he had AIDS. And he died in the early 2000s, and he was marching in that parade.'”

“So, we had that moment of joy and grief that is very special for queer folks, especially with the AIDS epidemic, and (folks during) the march were talking about that too, just all the people that were lost. And it was just beautiful.”

Another serendipitous moment took place at Tuscaloosa Pride, where Sullivan was spotted as “the History Project,” which is how she says both she and Burford are often referred to around town.

“I’m in the movie!” she informed.

“Apparently her and her current partner were on their very first date, and they’re in the film holding this Tuscaloosa Lesbian Coalition banner, marching,” Sullivan said. “And I was like, ‘Oh my God, I want all your crap! I want everything you’ve ever done, and I want to get your oral history.’ She was like, ‘Yes, I want to tell you all the things.’ Her and her partner are just like, ‘Yeah, we’ll tell all the stories, this is so important and so great.’”

With each new collection, and each new oral history, more of the South’s hidden queer history comes to light, such as a photograph of a gay man in full drag in 1923, given to the collection by the man’s great nephew, who heard about the project on Facebook.

That will pair nicely with the gay-themed poetry they already collected, also written during the first part of that century by one Joe Hulse (at left, below).

In addition to the statewide, community gatherings, the Invisible Histories Project will host a conference, called Queer History South, bringing together individuals from a network the organization has been building the past couple years, to unite similar efforts throughout the region.

“We’re going to be hosting a gathering of historians, oral historians, archivists, and community activists here in Birmingham next March. I think it’s going to be amazing,” Burford said. “We’ve got nearly 100 people signed up to come, all working in the American South, all doing queer stuff.”

The Smithsonian Institute will also be on hand to present.

The “working conference,” as Burford described it, will allow them be able to take partner sites and “help them get setup so we can come up with a two-year plan where they’re collecting all the time.”

“And it also means shared resources, so we’ll share our web platform with them, we’ll share our development people with them, so we’ll look for grants that we can write together, and then we’ll come up with a fundraising strategy.”

Building a Southern Rainbow History Trail

That same philosophy of shared knowledge and resources will be put toward creating historical markers to honor the people and places who shaped our collective march toward a more liberated present and future.

The community mapping efforts will be utilized to make the site selections, of which several potential locations have already been staked out in Birmingham.

“So, if you want to do a marker in Charlotte, or in Lexington, Kentucky, or in Louisiana, this is how we did it,” Burford envisions explaining to advocates in other locations looking to replicate the work. “And then the city and IHP are going to help people get these markers up and going. Because ultimately what we want to do is create a rainbow history trail in the South.”

“When it’s all said and done, what we hope is that people will be able to start in West Virginia, or Virginia, and be able to do an actual queer history trail through the Deep South, all the way into Louisiana and Texas.”

The stories that connect us will thus be connected, and the history that has been invisible for too long will come to the forefront and help further shape the way we understand the actions and lives of those who deserve to be seen, because they allowed us all to be more visible.