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spectrumsouth

“Drag has long been a vibrant and multifaceted p

“Drag has long been a vibrant and multifaceted part of LGBTQIA+ culture, embodying themes of creativity, resilience, and community cohesion. Recently, however, the relevance and legitimacy of drag have been challenged, particularly in rural locales where LGBTQIA+ visibility is notably sparse. Now, more than ever, it’s imperative to understand and affirm drag’s critical role in these spaces as a signifier of enduring queer culture and social progress.” ✍️: @juicywithjake
Read more—link in bio.

On the season three finale of the Asking for a Fri

On the season three finale of the Asking for a Friend podcast, host Dr. Laura McGuire (@drlauramcguire) sits down with the Rev. Dr. Megan Rohrer (@mmrohrer), activist, author, and the first openly transgender Bishop in a major Christian denomination, to discuss being our own cheerleaders, finding hope in our current climate, and the evolution and ongoing restrictions of coming out. 🎙️Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and at the link in our bio.

On this month’s episode of the Asking for a Frie

On this month’s episode of the Asking for a Friend podcast, host Dr. Laura McGuire (@drlauramcguire) sits down with Sarah Luna (@saritaluna), a Texas-born sociocultural anthropologist, professor, and award-winning author, to discuss her coming out experience in San Antonio, her research on migrants, sex work, and missionaries, and her latest project on sapphic and transfeminist activism in Mexico City. 🎧Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or at the link in our bio.

As an ally, there’s plenty you can do to reshape

As an ally, there’s plenty you can do to reshape the workplace and amplify LGBTQ+ voices. Actionable steps, like calling for authentic representation, can push employers to reconsider their position on diversity and help LGBTQ+ peers get the promotions and pay raises that they deserve. Read more on how allies can and should shape diverse workplaces—link in bio.

Professor Jerry Watkins serves as an associate tea

Professor Jerry Watkins serves as an associate teaching professor in the Harrison Ruffin Tyler Department of History at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. His fascinating book Queering the Redneck Riviera: Sexuality and the Rise of Florida Tourism focuses on the LGBTQ history of a region not often discussed on the map of the queer South: the Florida Panhandle.

Spectrum South's Nikita Shepherd sat down with Watkins to chat as he was wrapping up his semester of teaching. They learned a lot about the unconventional queer history of an overlooked region—where Stonewall made no impact, but tourism reigned supreme, and efforts to “unqueer” the region were fought not with protests, but with beach parties. And they also learned about one southern gay man’s defiant journey out of shame into pride, in which it took a trip across the Atlantic to be able to learn the history of the gay bar in the humble coastal town where he grew up. Read the next installment of our "Historians of the Queer South" series—link in bio.

On this month’s episode of the Asking for a Frie

On this month’s episode of the Asking for a Friend podcast, host @drlauramcguire sits down with Dr. Erin Atkinson, a prenatal genetic counselor in Houston, Texas, to discuss queer family building, access to competent sexual healthcare, and the nuance of sex chromosomes. Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and at the link in our bio. 🎙️🎧

On the Pride month episode of Asking for a Friend,

On the Pride month episode of Asking for a Friend, host Dr. Laura McGuire sits down with Sunflower Summit, a queer Latinx artist, producer, and mental health professional, to discuss finding wholeness in their queer identity, how their music and mental health journeys have intertwined, and the importance of storytelling. Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and at the link in our bio. 🎧

"As a queer of faith and the product of generation

"As a queer of faith and the product of generations of Jewish people who fought to continue to exist and queer brethren who paved the way for me to live openly, I cannot help but continue to pray for one more moment of courage—one more moment of strength in the battle I need to fight." Spectrum South writer @drlauramcguire offers their fellow LGBTQ+ siblings a prayer for Pride month—link in bio. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Fifty years ago this weekend, a horrifying tragedy

Fifty years ago this weekend, a horrifying tragedy struck the New Orleans queer community. On June 24, 1973, an arsonist attacked the Up Stairs Lounge, a French Quarter gay bar, killing 32 people. Until the Pulse massacre in Orlando in 2016, it was the most lethal attack on the LGBTQ community ever perpetrated in the United States. Yet even today, few people have heard of it.
Robert Fieseler, @wordbobby, has done more to change that than nearly anyone. His 2018 book Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation won a slew of awards and quickly became the definitive account of the tragedy. During a recent trip to New Orleans, Spectrum South writer Nikita Shepard sat down with the author at a cafe in the Bywater neighborhood near the home that he shares with his husband of 17 years.
Over nearly three hours of avid conversation, they got the inside story behind the lethal fire and its impact on the history of LGBTQ New Orleans. Read the next installment of our “Historians of the Queer South”—link in bio.

Down in Oxford, Mississippi, Jaime Harker serves a

Down in Oxford, Mississippi, Jaime Harker serves as a professor of English and the director of The Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies at the University of Mississippi. She’s the author of several books, including "The Lesbian South: Southern Feminists, the Women in Print Movement, and the Queer Literary Canon," teaches popular classes on literature, women’s studies, and LGBTQ topics, and helps organize programming and activist events in the area. And if you happen to be passing through Water Valley, Mississippi, on a Saturday, be sure to swing through @violetvalleybooks, the queer feminist bookstore that she co-founded in her town of not quite 4,000 people.

For our first installment of our “Historians of the Queer South” series, Spectrum South caught up with Dr. Harker to learn about the fascinating story of how a passionate group of lesbian writers and publishers sparked a southern feminist literary renaissance whose legacy is still with us today. Link in bio.

Queer southerners have faced hostility from state

Queer southerners have faced hostility from state governments, police, media, and religious leaders across the region throughout the last century. Yet, they’ve never been able to stamp us out. We’ve managed to flourish in the most hostile climates, in tiny towns and big cities, from Memphis to Mobile to Miami.

We know this, in part, because of the tremendous work that historians of the queer South have done over the years to excavate these hidden stories—stories that, oftentimes, the powers that be would prefer to sweep under the rug.

That’s why we’re launching “Historians of the Queer South,” Spectrum South’s new series of articles profiling the writers and researchers who are helping to tell our stories. Each month, we’ll share a new article highlighting a scholar who we think has made a particularly important contribution to our understanding of the queer southern past. We’ll tell you a bit about their life and the journey that led them to explore our history, and share some of the stories they uncovered over their time spent digging through dusty archives or interviewing elders on front porches across the region.

In honor of Pride month, we will be launching the first two installments in the series, so stay tuned! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ More info in the link in our bio.

Dear Dad, Our relationship was a tapestry of comp

Dear Dad,

Our relationship was a tapestry of complexity, to say the least. As a gay son growing up, I found myself grappling with how to forge my identity within the vast and audacious world you inhabited. I was figuring out how to receive your love and acceptance while, at the same time, starting my own journey of self-discovery, learning how to love and honor myself. . . .

This Father's Day, Spectrum South writer @retherton87 pens a vulnerable open letter to his late dad on the complexities of a father and gay son relationship—link in bio.

On this episode of Asking for a Friend, host Dr. L

On this episode of Asking for a Friend, host Dr. Laura McGuire welcomes the podcast's first international guest, queer and trans Jewish scholar Orlando Meier-Brix, to discuss his conversion to Judaism, queer inclusivity in the Jewish faith, coming out as non-binary in his home country of Austria, and evolving trans rights in Europe. Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and at the link in our bio.

Spectrum South’s Asking for a Friend podcast is

Spectrum South’s Asking for a Friend podcast is BACK! On the season three premiere, host Dr. Laura McGuire sits down with Sarah Saint and Milan Pham, two queer southern lawyers, to discuss the future of marriage equality in the wake of the Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe v. Wade, queer parental rights in family planning, and the evolving legal landscape for trans folks in the South. Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and at the link in our bio! 🎧

TONIGHT: As part of the Festival of Films From Ira

TONIGHT: As part of the Festival of Films From Iran, the @asiasocietytx, in partnership with @rice.vada, @mfahfilm, and @thenormalanomaly, will present producer and director Saeed Gholipour’s 'This Is Not Me,' a moving documentary portrayal of the lives of two young transmasculine youth in Iran. Read Spectrum South writer @bluejuniper’s preview of tonight's film—link in bio.

This #GivingTuesday, Spectrum South would greatly

This #GivingTuesday, Spectrum South would greatly appreciate your support! Your generous donations will help us to produce more quality articles, videos, and podcasts, invest in our talented LGBTQ writers and photographers, allocate funds for maintenance and operations costs, and to continue to reach and inspire queer folks and allies just like you across Texas and the greater South! DONATE LINK IN BIO ✨🌈

When @marcelthemovie hit theaters in the summer of

When @marcelthemovie hit theaters in the summer of 2022, millennials flocked to see the sentient one-inch seashell we had all come to know and love from the viral YouTube video of the same name. Marcel is charming and humorously witty and leaves viewers with that comforting tingle one can only experience following a healthy dose of nostalgia. The media frenzy surrounding Marcel’s release was more than filmmaker @biancaclinedp was used to, but it offered her the opportunity to not only discuss the brilliant cinematography that went into bringing the seashell to life, but to also address the notion that, this film you love? A trans woman made it.
Read our full interview with Cline—link in bio. ✍️ by @barrett.png

A huge thank you to @outsmartmagazine’s readers

A huge thank you to @outsmartmagazine’s readers for voting us the Gayest & Greatest in the following categories! We're so proud of our hardworking team's continued dedication to covering LGBTQ identity and culture across the South. 🏳️‍🌈

Best Local LGBTQ News Source: Finalist, Spectrum South

Favorite Local LGBTQ Podcast: Finalist, Asking for a Friend, a Spectrum South podcast hosted by @drlauramcguire

Favorite Female Community Photographer: Winner, @danibenoitmedia, Spectrum South's Lead Photographer and Videographer

The new film 'Loving Highsmith,' premiering this w

The new film 'Loving Highsmith,' premiering this weekend at @mfahouston, takes a deep dive into the previously unexplored queer love life of Patricia Highsmith, the Texas-born author of 'Carol.' Spectrum South's @barrett.png spoke with MFAH film curator @marianjluntz ahead of tonight's screening. Read the full preview—link in bio.

"Take time to sit in your moment of exploration an

"Take time to sit in your moment of exploration and know it is perfectly normal. The thrill of life centers around discovery. At some point, exploration brings clarity. Venture until you have it." Spectrum South’s @drlauramcguire sat down with Kollyn Conrad, Executive Director of @pblclyprvt, to discuss the evolution of identity and his personal experience of finding his way as a queer person in the South. Read the full interview—link in bio.

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