With the death of openly gay mayoral candidate from Clarksdale, Miss., Marco McMillian, Mississippians lost a leading figure in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer equality movement in a time of discrimination and limited LGBTQ visibility.
As Mississippi lawmakers refuse to budge on their stance on same-sex marriage and conservative views on homosexuality remain culturally relevant, many members of the LGBTQ community in the South choose to live “in the closet.”
However, some conservative figureheads like former governor of Mississippi, Ronnie Musgrove, have expressed their support of same-sex marriage.
According to TheTrevorProject.org, Mississippi exists among one of the eight states that stigmatizes and isolates LGBTQ youth.
Deborah Jackson, assistant professor of clinical mental health and an LGBTQ counselor, said belonging to the LGBTQ community in the South is challenging because of the traditional values and the way pastors preach against homosexuality.
“I don’t think people who identify as LGBT are as willing to come out and be open about their sexuality here in the South because for many, there is a perceived fear that there is a safety issue,” she said. “I’ve had students tell me they fear for their physical safety.”
Although some believe bullying only occurs in high school, Jackson said bullying also occurs in college, but most incidents fail to be reported.
She said the administration at Mississippi State University is intolerant of any disrespectful behavior toward students and recognizes the special needs that come with LGBTQ students, including increased harassment that can affect someone mentally and physically.
“You have low self esteem, depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation. When people treat you as a second class citizen or treat you like you aren’t worth anything, it does affect the way you think of yourself,” Jackson said. “With bullying there is psychological trauma and perhaps physical trauma.”
As an openly gay faculty member at MSU with a same-sex marriage feature published in “Jet Magazine,” Ravi Perry, assistant professor of political science and scholar activist, grew up with highly academic parents involved in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. Moving from place to place, Perry said he noticed his sexuality resonated differently according to different locations such as Ohio, Michigan and Rhode Island.
After moving to Mississippi, he said his sexuality has been much more pronounced along with his racial identity, but he said he has received genuine encouragement.
Despite the support, he said Mississippi is stuck in its ways.
Seeing the Confederate flag and conservative bumper stickers, something Perry said is unfamiliar to him, constantly reminds him of his location.
“I know (those ideals) are not necessarily the majority. Also, education is powerful, and I think being here, I hope that I can be of some use to others to believe that it is possible to live in the rural South as an openly gay person and do so successfully,” he said.
Harry Hawkins, a graduate student studying clinical mental health and president of the LGBTQ group MSU’s Spectrum, said the LGBTQ community should be more visible on campus because homosexuality exists.
“I am ready to be an old gay in my 50s,” Hawkins said. “I’m ready for the day where it’s not even a thing anymore. It was like ‘Oh God, there’s a group of African-American people standing over there. Oh God.’ Now, it’s okay. You don’t sit there and start grouping anymore, and that’s what I’m ready for – that period of time where we are not even grouped anymore.”
As president of Spectrum, Hawkins said he hoped the organization would bring people together to create a family feeling. He said he noticed new members were a little reserved at first, but over time, they become a part of the family.
Recently, Hawkins, along with Spectrum members, attended a LGBTQ conference at the University of Alabama where a speaker mentioned LGBTQ hardships were a new chapter in the Civil-Rights Movement. Hawkins said he agreed discrimination against the LGBTQ community is a civil rights issue.
“I think we need to come together and support one another and realize we could get more done because we’ve all suffered relatively the same. There are some differences, in variation. But I think that’s it. It’s being perpetrated, and it’s 2013,” Hawkins said. “Now, we have a mayoral candidate that is dead in Coahoma County that is possibly because he’s gay. I don’t understand another reason he was killed. I think it’s alarming.”
For more information about Spectrum and LGBTQ visibility, meetings are held on Tuesdays in the Mitchell Memorial Library at 6 p.m.