Tami Albin said she was tired of hearing stereotypes about Kansas,
especially regarding the lives of gay and lesbian people. Some people
showed Albin, KU undergraduate instruction and outreach librarian, pity
once they learned she lived in Kansas.
“They made comments, just
derogatory comments that had no bases,” Albin said. “Kansas, full of
tumbleweed a wasteland, nothing was happening here. There wasn’t any
kind of progressive politics happening in the entire state.”
In response, Albin started an oral history project, “Under the
Rainbow,” in the past year to challenge stereotypes about gay and
lesbian people living in Kansas. She interviews gay, lesbian, bisexual,
intersex and queer people, or GLBTIQ, in Kansas to find out how they
feel about living in the state. She received several research grants,
including a two-year fund from the KU Center for Research.
“I think this project will create a better understanding,” Albin
said. “Progress can be gained through understanding stories of people
living in Kansas.”
About 72,500 gay, lesbian and bisexual people lived in Kansas as of
2005, according to the Williams Institute at University of
California-Los Angeles School of Law.
Albin talked to more than 20 people, including Gilbert Baker from
Wichita, who created the Rainbow Flag in 1978. Albin said more than 90
people across the state had contacted her and wanted to share their
stories. She plans to travel to western Kansas this summer to conduct
more interviews.
“The goal is to keep on going and do as many as I can in my spare
time,” she said. “If people want to talk to me, I should listen.”
Albin plans to open a database on the KU Scholar Works in September.
Her oral and visual interviews will be available to any researcher who
is interested in GLBTIQ issues in Kansas.
Holly Mercer, interim coordinator for scholar services, said the
database was an innovative use of the KU Scholar Works.
“That’s a really nice component not to just read someone’s story but
to be able to hear them talk about their stories themselves,” Mercer
said.
Milton Wendland, graduate teaching assistant of women’s studies,
contributed research material to the database along with his students.
Wendland taught the course “Gay and Lesbian Cultures in the United
States” last spring. His students worked on research projects related to
GLBT people in Kansas.
He said the research topics varied from domestic violence in same-sex
relationships to the Gay Games to how fraternities and sororities at
some Kansas schools had dealt with homophobia.
“Not all LGBT history happens in New York, L.A. and San Francisco,”
Wendland said. “This database, I hope, is going to be like a gold mine
for scholars who are interested in starting to look beyond the coast.”
Matthew Blankers, Claremont, Calif. junior, conducted research about
violence against queer people in Kansas and created a bibliography that
would help researchers to learn about the issue.
“One of the biggest things I’ve learned is how difficult it is to
find a lot of information about various queer people in Kansas,”
Blankers said.
Albin said she hoped the project would help researchers and also
people who thought they might be gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender,
intersex or queer.
“When you are realizing that you might be gay or lesbian or any of
these categories, it’s a really hard and lonely process,” Albin said.
“Having access to material that other people have gone through same
things is very, very helpful.”
- Edited by Deepa Sampat
