Connecting Rainbows with the Rural LGBT Community
For many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer people, the city is a place of sanctuary. We build up our gayborhoods, lined with clubs and restaurants like walls keeping us safe from the hatred in the world outside. While we are by no means fully safe from homophobia inside our sanctuaries, we do find community, support and protection. But not all of our LGBTQ family has the luxury of the city. Many LGBTQ youth and adults find themselves tucked away in small Texas towns, surrounded by conservative ideology, and indeed, homophobia.
Tiffani Bishop, a grassroots, queer activist in Austin, Texas, wanted to reach out to queer youth in small towns to show them that they are "somebody," while spreading the message that bullying is bad. "[Not reaching out to LGBT people in rural areas is] a huge failure on the part of our community. They are screaming for help. They are dying to get involved and a lot of them have no idea where to begin or are too terrified. So, I think it's been a huge failure on our part as a community to reach out to them and to embrace them and kind of bring them into this family we've created in many of the big cities.
After speaking with a school teacher friend and finding out that Lampasas, Texas suffered from a very severe bullying problem, Tiffani developed a plan to start curing our failure. She began her first "walk" as part of the Connecting Rainbows initiative and headed off to Lampasas with a rainbow flag and colored chalk.
Tiffani's plan was to write anti-bullying messages on the sidewalks in and around local schools. Thereafter, she would go house to house talking to residents about civil rights issues related to LGBTQ people. In spite of being told by the local sheriff's office that she risked charges for vandalism by writing on the sidewalks in chalk, she was compelled to reach out to LGBTQ youth, stating, "If it's somewhere that I'm terrified to go, which I was, then imagine what the people that are queer that live there feel like."
The chalking began on a Sunday evening. The first leg of Tiffani's project went off without problems. She successfully painted the town, adorning the sidewalks with messages like "You are somebody," "Queers are people, stop abusing them," "Love = Love," "Gay Does Not Equal Stupid," and "Safe Schools Now." However, when Tiffani arrived back the next morning to interview townspeople, all of her messages had been erased.
Tiffani spent the remainder of the day attempting to engage townspeople in a public opinion survey on civil rights. She strapped a rainbow flag to her back and began knocking on doors. No one would answer her questions. After knocking on 40 or 50 doors and not finding a single willing participant, Tiffani decided to go to the local grocery store. There, she was met with more refusals, laughter and comments like, "You are not welcome here."
It was clear that Tiffani's message wasn't one that the people of Lampasas, Texas, wanted to hear. They washed away the chalk messages, laughed at her, ignored her or—at best—politely declined her requests. Tiffani reached out beyond the safety of her home city of Austin and likely started the townspeople of Lampasas talking. The word-of-mouth effect began. Conversations, good or bad, were had between neighbors. The conversation she started continued from ear to ear and now lands in print 122 miles south of its origin, safely within the sanctuary of the city. Rainbows have been connected.
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