The Atlanta LGBTQ+ History Project, an initiative to gather, preserve, and share stories of LGBTQ+ lives in the South, will be returning after a hiatus.
The multimedia project, founded by designer and creative director Sam Landis and journalist Rachel Garbus Benitez, used photography, oral history, archival materials, and the Out Down South podcast.
The first season of the Out Down South podcast featured local LGBTQ+ leaders and changemakers Monica Helms, Sam Park, Mary Anne Adams, Joshua Lesser, Kim Jackson, and Grant Henry.
The Project also includes in-person and online exhibitions honoring LGBTQ+ people who have changed Atlanta’s queer landscape.
In a post to Instagram, Garbus Benitez and Landis announced the Project would return after receiving grant funding. The Project hasn’t been active since the end of 2024.
“There is joy in this work, but we also feel the pain our community is experiencing, especially here in the South,” Garbus Benitez and Landis wrote on Instagram. “From restricting trans youth from accessing critical healthcare to calls to roll back same-sex marriage, there are some who believe they can bully the LGBTQ+ community into hiding. Let ‘em try. As the folks we celebrate in our project can tell you–these bullies didn’t pull it off last time, and they’re not going to this time. Queer history was made here in the South, queer people are thriving here in the South, and queer Southerners are here to stay.”
A new season of the podcast is currently being produced, and the Project team is working on a traveling version of the exhibit.
To support this new work, the team will be expanding. The Project is currently accepting applications for a podcast producer and showrunner to lead the creative and production direction of Out Down South and a research fellow to research and develop content for the Project. Applications for these positions must be submitted by Sept. 18.
Later this fall, the application will open for the 2027 Spring Intern, who will support the research and podcasting team. Applications open on Nov. 1 and close on Dec. 1.
Updates on the Atlanta LGBTQ+ History Project can be found on Instagram and the Project’s newsletter.
