This panel will explore new research on LGBTQ history in the U.S. South. The eleven states of the former Confederacy each established some form of sodomy law early in its history. In most states, these laws prohibited oral sex, anal sex, and any kind of homosexual sex. Politicians, ministers, and public figures in the South often spoke out against the gay and lesbian communities to demonize people who violated what they perceived as the Biblically sanctioned, historically established heterosexual norms of Southern society. Indeed, when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Southern sodomy laws in Bowers v. Hardwick (1986), newspapers throughout the region celebrated the decision.

The panelists in this session will explore the various ways that members of the LGBTQ community experienced and challenged the discrimination that was so prevalent in the U.S. South during the late twentieth century. Dr. Charles H. Ford, the co-editor of a forthcoming collection entitled Queer Virginia, will explore the tragic case of Sharon Bottoms, a young, newly-out lesbian mother, who was sued by her mother Kay for custody of Sharon’s infant son because Sharon was living in a committed relationship with another woman. Virginia Circuit Court Judge Buford Parsons and the Virginia Supreme Court ruled in favor of the grandmother stating bluntly that Sharon was inherently unfit to be a parent because sodomy was a crime in Virginia. Dr. Ford’s paper will closely analyze the arguments on both sides, concentrating on the family values arguments in the decisions by Judge Parsons and the Virginia Supreme Court.

Dr. La Shonda Mims, author of “Drastic Dykes: The New South and Lesbian Life,” will explore how Queer congregants interacted with their evangelical churches in the U.S. South. While much has been written on Pentecostalism and queer sexualities, particularly in the fields of anthropology and sociology, there is a paucity of scholarship uniting this research with the history of queer identity in the U.S. South. Inspired by the role of southern church leaders, who in her first book manuscript demonstrate a powerful connection to politicians in controlling local politics and policing gender and sexuality norms, she is now researching the silenced histories of queer people who occasionally found a path to membership, community, and leadership in Pentecostal churches.

Dr. Wesley Phelps, the author of a forthcoming monograph entitled Before Lawrence: Texas Sodomy Laws and the Making of a Queer Social Movement, will examine legal challenges to the homosexual conduct law in Texas, the South’s largest and most diverse state. His paper will show that legal efforts to overturn the Texas sodomy law between 1960 and 1999 were critical because they helped establish a blueprint for the personal sacrifice, adaptable legal strategy, and robust organizational support that was necessary to successfully challenge the Texas sodomy law. Indeed, when the U.S. Supreme Court finally returned to the sodomy issue in Lawrence v. Texas (2003), overturning homosexual conduct laws in fourteen states, ten of those jurisdictions were either Southern or border states.