#QUEERSOUTHERNSTORIES

Southerners on New Ground (SONG)

Reflective of the major cornerstones shaping Southern life, SONG’s work today is heavily focused on LGBTQ Southerners of color and matters of racial justice.

The South is home to one in three LGBTQ people in the United States, and more than four in 10 LGBTQ people in the South are people of color. Contrary to stereotypes about the possibilities for political progress in the South, LGBTQ Southerners are often leading the way nationwide in innovative programming, organizing, and strategies to support their own communities and make meaningful change on their own terms. What can we learn from LGBTQ Southerners on building coalitions & nurturing community? MAP’s blog series on #QueerSouthernStories highlights the organizations featured in Telling a New Southern Story: LGBTQ Resilience, Resistance, and Leadership, amplifying the vital work already being done by advocates, activists, and community organizers in the region.

Southerners on New Ground (SONG), founded in 1993, is an organization whose mission is to “build, sustain, and connect a southern regional base of LGBTQ people in order to transform the region through strategic projects and campaigns developed in response to the current conditions in our communities.” In the organization’s own words:

“We formed to build understanding of the connections between issues and oppressions, do multi-racial organizing, and develop strong relationships between people who could and should be allies. During our life as an organization we have learned that movement building requires grassroots organizing, leadership development, deep analysis, listening/data collection, inter-generational relationships, the linking of social movements, and good long-term planning. Some of SONG’s major accomplishments include: crafting the first-ever Southern, LGBTQ-led, traveling Organizing School for small towns and rural places all over the South; training over 100 Southern and national racial and economic justice organizations to integrate work around homophobia and transphobia into their work; holding over 50 Southern sub-regional retreats for Southern Queer People of Color; continuing to be one of the only LGBTQ organizations in the US that truly listens, responds, and represents LGBTQ folk in small towns and rural places; and in 2008 holding the largest gathering specifically for Southern LGBTQ organizers in the last 10 years.”

Reflective of the major cornerstones shaping Southern life, SONG’s work today is heavily focused on LGBTQ Southerners of color and matters of racial justice, especially in the context of the criminal legal system. For example, SONG’s “Free From Fear” campaign works to end racial “profiling and state violence against people of color and LGBTQ people in southern towns and cities,” with a particular focus on ending the use of cash bail and pre-trial detention, as well as ending local and state law enforcement’s cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the region.

SONG also offers many programs and events centered on building joy and community, another central feature of Southern LGBTQ organizing as discussed in this report. Some of SONG’s programming in this area includes annual events like “Queer South Revival” and “Gaycation” that bring together LGBTQ Southerners for in-person connection. These events, along with other SONG programming like the annual Out South and Bayard Rustin Convening, also work to build the skills and strengths of SONG’s members, helping expand the capacity of both these individuals and the broader Southern LGBTQ community to organize in pursuit of change.

The organization’s core focus on the intersecting experiences of LGBTQ Southerners is present throughout its work:

All of our work centers the shared interest of women, LGBTQ people, people of color, and immigrants — in who we are as SONG’s leadership and membership, and the analysis and work we create. We start at the place of lifting barriers and breaking the isolation that prevents people from participating fully in economic, social, and political life through creating an organizational home for LGBTQ Southern organizing and LGBTQ Southern people. This creates a space for Southern LGBTQ people to enter a political home: a space for understanding conditions and patterns, building analysis, and organizing. From this space, we grow the work of liberation.

Take Action

• To learn more or to donate, visit www.southernersonnewground.org.
• We want to hear your #QueerSouthernStories! Use the hashtag on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to celebrate some of your favorite photos, memories, or organizing tips for moving LGBTQ equality forward in Southern states! We’re impressed every day by the gorgeous community of organizers, activists, and storytellers who are here, queer, and ready to make change. We look forward to seeing your stories and amplifying!