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Chenault, Wesley. "An Unspoken Past: Atlanta Lesbian and Gay History, 1940-1970," American Studies, University of New Mexico, April 2008. Advisor: Alex Lubin
The purpose of this study is twofold. Through oral histories and other primary source material, it tells one story of lesbian and gay history in Atlanta from 1940 to 1970. Firsthand accounts of the experiences of gay women and men provide a partial picture of individual lives, budding social networks, and an emergent culture, which provided sustenance during decades where once private matters were increasingly publicized and politicized. Another purpose of this study is to record the specificities of the realms of the private and the domestic-homes, apartments, intimate relationships-which in lesbian and gay history tend to be overshadowed by narratives of public persecution, identity, and sex.
In addition to oral history, this project employs traditional historical methodologies to interpret Atlanta’s social, cultural, economic, and political past-the changing context of gay and lesbian life in the city. I draw upon multiple theoretical frameworks and approaches, including cultural geography, communication studies, and queer theory, as a means to better understand the everyday lives and experiences of lesbians and gay men in Atlanta during the 1940s through the late 1960s. The theoretical and historical contexts that frame this project include key forces that changed the city and region, the effects of race, gender, and World War II in Atlanta, historical narratives of coming out urban enclaves, and ideas about open secrets and closets.
By focusing on small places, the day-to-day and the domestic, and on personal memories, this project presents a part of gay and lesbian history that has been unspoken and unwritten until recently. Importantly, it allows us to imagine everyday women and men, not as victims smothered by an overwhelmingly oppressive environment of legal and military sanctions and medical models of abnormality, but as historical agents who willfully and knowingly found ways to thrive and live fulfilling lives amid the considerable obstacles surrounding them. It also reminds us that the histories of these women and men are inseperable from the history of the city itself.
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