A Letter from the Executive Director: Missy Spears

After over a year of working behind the scenes on this project, our team couldn’t be more excited to bring you Bourbon and Belonging: Kentucky’s Queer Bourbon Week. Over five days and across eight cities in October, participants will partake in dozens of curated experiences across Kentucky including rare tastings and tours, upscale dinners, pool parties, art events, drag brunches, dance parties, and experiences specifically planned for our sober community.

Leading the charge on a statewide bourbon week spanning eight markets isn’t within our normal scope of work at Queer Kentucky, but at its core Bourbon and Belonging is about including the LGBTQ+ community in Kentucky’s largest industry. We are moving past Bourbon’s predominantly cis, male, straight, and white image to show that bourbon, as well as Kentucky, is queer, inclusive, and for all of us.

We live in a state, and a country, that works hard to push our community down. This event is us pushing back, hand in hand with the biggest bourbon brands in the world.

Let’s face it, the LGBTQ+ community has had a complicated relationship with corporate America over the years. The rainbow profile pictures come down on June 30 as quickly as they go up on June 1, representing that their time of allyship has come to a neatly packaged end for the year. Love it or hate it, we live in a society where freedom and fairness are determined by where the money flows, and our elected officials are far more likely to back off of anti-queer legislation when AT&T or Toyota speak up, instead of their actual constituents.

As conflicted as I have felt at times, I have so much fear for the day that they don’t bother to show up at all. And with events like Bourbon & Belonging, I continue building hope for Kentucky.

Kentucky is Bourbon, Kentucky is beautiful,

Kentucky is complicated, and Kentucky is Queer. And this October, I invite all of you to celebrate this with us.