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Abstract
This project expands upon the historical work done in the master’s thesis “The Carolina Gay Association, The Southeastern Gay Conferences, and Gay Liberation in the 1970s South,” and builds on its work through an examination of public history’s impact for LGBTQ+ southerners. The audiovisual exhibit, both physically and online, investigates queer southern activism within the context of the Carolina Gay Association and its subsequent conferences, the Southeastern Gay Conferences. The public history work uncovers how activists remember their own involvement within the organization and how they were connected to national conversations surrounding gay liberation. The photography portion of the project represents the activists as they are today, some 50 years after the founding of the CGA, and places them within the present-day conversation on queer activism in the South, as well as the blurred line between public activism and domestic space. The paper stimulates conversation on how documentary processes can assist in historiography and archiving.
