Southern Exposure was an award-winning print journal published by the Institute for Southern Studies, publisher of Facing South, from 1973 until 2011. Southern Exposure earned a national reputation for its writing on a broad range of political and cultural issues in the South, with a special emphasis on investigative journalism and oral history.

On the 50th anniversary of Southern Exposure’s birth, Facing South and the Institute will be publishing a full digital archive of the journal over the course of the year. The initial installment of the archives available in March 2023 includes issues from the magazine’s launch in 1973 through 1981.

Vol. 16 No. 3 - Fall 1988
< Previous / Next >

Mint Juleps, Wisteria, and Queers

  • Dateline: The South

    Compiled by Jacob Cooley

    2

  • Southern News Roundup

    4

  • Southern Highways, Nuclear Byways

    The feds want to truck radioactive waste across the South. Is it too late to stop them? By Wells Eddleman

    8

  • Censored

    The Supreme Court says principals can censor school papers, but Southern students fight for a free press. By Jacob Cooley

    13

  • The Myrtle Beach Bitch

    A gay paper in the wartime South. By Allan Berube

    20

  • We're Looking for a Few Good Women

    Two Southern lesbians who battled the U.S. Marines. By Deirdre Lutz

    24

  • Off Base, Home Free

    Brandy Alexander runs the only bar in the country that's off-limits to soldiers. By Don King

    26

  • Boys Will Be Girls

    A Southern tradition of playing dress-up has made drag shows more popular in Nashville than New York. By Jere Real

    30

  • Faerie Culture

    Pagan ritual, country living, and a little magic. By Barry Yeoman

    33

  • Lesbian Land

    Women-only communities are spreading across the South. By Janelle Lavelle

    36

  • Rabbit

    Family, sex, and race—on ancestral ground. Interview by Allan Troxler

    39

  • No More Back Seat

    Civil rights activist Bayard Rustin refused to move gay pride to the back of the bus. By Peg Byron

    45

  • Who the Enemy Isn't

    From Afghan Hounds to equal rights. By Gary Kaupman

    46

  • "We Will Do the Hokey-Pokey"

    Building a new Southern Freedom Movement. By Mab Segrest

    48

  • Fiction: A River of Names

    By Dorothy Allison

    50

  • Can't Budget

    A special section on West Virginia and Louisiana, the two states hardest hit by hard times.

    55

  • The Last Word

    64
Full PDF