Jonathan Coleman he/him Lexington

Raised in Eastern Kentucky, Jon was a James Still Fellow at the University of Kentucky where he received his doctorate in history in 2014. He often lectures on queer history and was a consultant for the Kentucky LGBT Heritage Initiative funded by the National Park Service. He is the Co-founder of the Faulkner Morgan Archive, Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to saving and sharing Kentucky’s LGBTQ history. Coleman’s book, Anywhere, Together: A Queer History of Kentucky, is forthcoming from the University Press of Kentucky.

Use one queer slang word to describe Kentucky!

Verse! The LGBTQ community of Kentucky encompasses every walk of life in our Commonwealth. We are drawn from a wide array of social classes, races, ethnicities, religions, abilities, and geographic regions. Nevertheless, we are united in a common queer experience.

How did you activate and organize your community for equality?

By sharing stories. Kentucky’s LGBTQ+ community is one of the brightest threads in the tapestry of our Commonwealth, and our history reflects that richness, offering inspiration, reflection, and hope for change. As we fight our present battles, it’s important to know we stand on the shoulders of giants, that we’re not the first, and that we’ve never been alone.

In the last 25 years, what is one moment that gave you hope for Kentucky’s fight in equality?

I was running errands on Main Street in Lexington, when I noticed two girls, probably high schoolers, walking past the state’s first historic marker commemorating Kentucky’s LGBTQ+ history, which the community had installed just about a year earlier. The girls stopped and read it. As they walked away, they clasped their hands together, and continued, hand-in-hand, down Main Street. I knew then that we were going to be alright.

What are Kentucky’s greatest strengths when it comes to the fight for Queer equality?

That’s easy: Kentuckians. Our people have always been our greatest strength. The ingenuity, sense of fairness, and bravery demonstrated by so many queer Kentuckians are consistent attributes that this historian knows will not be changing anytime soon.