"Be nice to my shadow"

Queer Negotiation of Privacy and Visibility in Kentucky

Abstract

This article examines the impact of privacy concerns on the lives and historical records of queer people across Kentucky in the late twentieth century. I analyze oral histories and organizational records to explicate the strategies used by these queer people to protect their privacy, and how those strategies affect historical methodology. While queer individuals and groups in Kentucky engaged with the politics of visibility emphasized by the national gay and lesbian rights movement, they also recognized the need for privacy and the real threats to safety presented by a lack of privacy, especially for queer people in rural areas like Appalachian Kentucky. Privacy concerns led to the creation of alternative paths to coming out and politically engaging than existed in more metropolitan areas. These privacy concerns significantly influence the historical record, often limiting the information that is available for scholars of sexuality to study by limiting whose stories are documented and archived and shaping the content of the stories that are recorded.