Gregory Hinton will give a presentation to UI students about the history of LGBTQ culture in the American West 6 p.m. Wednesday in the Crest and Horizon rooms of the Idaho Commons.
Hinton is the creator of Out West, a national program that offers programming, including lectures, films, plays and exhibitions, giving audiences more information about LGBTQ history in the western sphere.
“The history department is always looking to bring in people who are discussing historical topics that are also very topical in today’s university campus,” said Rebecca Scofield, a UI assistant professor of American history. “I also work with the program in Pacific Northwest Studies, and they, too, are always looking to bring in people who can talk about the past and about how that past lives within the present.”
Scofield knows Hinton through his work with the International Gay Rodeo Association. Scofield’s current book project partially focuses on the group. She vouches for his character, activism and work in archiving LGBTQ history in the West.
“A really cool thing he did was that he was able to help negotiate the Brokeback Mountain shirts,” said Scofield. “The props from the movie had been privately collected and he convinced the collector to put them on permanent display at the Autry Museum of the American West.”
According to KPBS News, Hinton has also researched William ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody, friend of Oscar Wilde and Rosa Bonheur. Wilde, a gay playwright, author and poet, is well known for his “The Picture of Dorian Gray” and “The Importance of Being Earnest.” Bonheur, a painter, required a government permit to dress as a man.
This program coincides with the LGBTQA Center’s month-long celebration of LGBTQA History Month. Scofield said she is grateful scheduling worked that Hinton could visit UI in October.
“I think a lot of our current atmosphere has been about this sort of ahistorical vision of America, vision of the American West, vision of rural spaces as places that were not diverse, that did not include people of all sorts of shapes, colors, creeds, lifestyles,” said Scofield. “I think it’s really important for students and for the community at large to understand that because of the region’s history of settler colonialism, because this place we live in was a real borderlands place that brought together all sorts of people from all over the world, it was an incredibly richly diverse place and that we built communities in that way and if we want to move forward as a nation, a lot of that strengths comes out of acknowledging these diverse histories.”
Scofield hopes in addition to gaining knowledge from the presentation, students will enjoy Hinton himself. She encourages students to ask questions and engage with him about the material of the Out West program and other areas of interest and research.
“If you are interested in American culture, American history, American politics, if you’re interested in the ways we both understand but also resist these mythologies, I think that this talk would have a lot for you,” said Scofield. “It’s so wonderful to see experts speak on a subject and see what they’re putting out in the world because hopefully that will inspire you to think about what contributions you can be making.”