The conference precedes the October, 1997 publication of Dr. James T. Sears' oral history of lesbian and gay southern life, to be published by Westview-HarperCollins. Dr. Sears' well-known 1991 book, Growing Up Gay in the South (Harrington Park Press) remains a primary text in southern gay studies. Also among the first analysts of gay southern life is the Republican bisexual humorist, Florence King, who wrote the hilarious Southern Ladies and Gentlemen in 1975. Her chapter, "He's a Little Funny But He's Nice" was seen by some as homophobic while others took Ms. King's insightful humor in stride. (See GayToday Archives, February 3 People feature.)

An exciting array of topics, including an aggressive denunciation of the "Gay Gene" theory, has been planned. Panels will profile new scholarship in southern queer history (such as studies of lesbian/feminist communities in Louisville, Atlanta, and Austin) and southern queer literary traditions (queer influences in southern gothic and anti-racist writing). Workshops will focus on issues ranging from the challenges of rural organizing to effective strategies for fundraising, coalition building, and the countering of anti-right rhetoric. The evenings will offer cultural events such as films, monologues, gospel drag, and performance art.

Novelist Jim Grimsley, author of My Drowning , and Winter Birds (finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award and winner of the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters) will be a keynote speaker, as will activist Pat Hussain, co-founder of Olympics Out of Cobb, an Atlanta-area coalition which succeeded in forcing the International Olympic Committee to change its venue from Cobb County, the home of an infamous anti-gay resolution. Ms. Hussain has had over twenty years of experience in direct-action, coalition politics in the South. She has worked for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, SONG (Southerners on New Ground), the Georgia Equality Project and the Executive Committee for the 1993 March on Washington.

Among the most controversial panel topics will be a planned critique (entitled "Rejecting the Gay Brain: Queer Choice") of the gay gene theory. Rob Nixon, writing in Atlanta's ETC. magazine, says that "voices within the gay community are being raised against the 'born that way' notion, questioning its validity not only as science but as political strategy."

A co-organizer of the Conference, Becca Cragin, a graduate student in the Institute for Women's Studies at Emory University, told Nixon., "Since so many of us know people who did convert one way or the other, to just cover our eyes and pretend they don't exist is foolish."

Cragin's ally on the "Rejecting the Gay Brain" panel is New Orleans-based writer-performance artist Frank Aqueno who is best known for his 1992 debate with gene-theorist Dr. Simon Levay on the Phil Donahue Show. The supposed link between biological factors and homosexuality was publicized, according to Aqueno, after LeVay advanced his psycho-biological explanation for sexual orientation and poorly informed gay movement activists accepted this explanation to argue with anti-gay fundamentalist zealots who cling in a judgmental fashion to "choice" as the reason homosexual desires are prevalent.

"Research like LeVay's," according to Aqueno, "has been done in a very questionable way."

Persons desiring more information about tomorrow's Queering the South conference may contact Donna Smith: telephone: (404) 727-0272 or e-mail: qtsmail@learnlink.emory.edu.