Yeah, That Greenville: Revisiting the 1997 S.C. Gay and Lesbian Pride March with In Unison Magazine

This paper (re)tells the story of the 1997 S.C. Gay and Lesbian Pride March held in the City of Greenville just one year after Greenville County Council passed a resolution condemning “lifestyles advocated by the gay community” (Greenville County Council, Resolution No. 96-014). Through analyzing issues of In Unison, a Columbia-based alternative lifestyle magazine, this paper questions how local forms of alternative media, particularly those queer in nature, complicate dominant historical narratives and, interrelatedly, serve as a powerful means to record histories un(der)reported. In identifying how gay and lesbian communities portrayed in In Unison organized, reported, and reflected on the 1997 S.C. Gay and Lesbian Pride March – and the events leading up to it– this paper additionally stands to disrupt both historical and contemporary narratives that present the U.S. South, specifically its heavily conservative locales, as devoid of queer life, culture, and community.