Countless visitors make the trek up the “Rocky Steps” of the Philadelphia Museum of Art every week, but two men did so last week with a unique prop — a pair of pink cowboy boots that has spent the last three-and-a-half months traveling to LGBT communities throughout the nation.
Nathan Manske and Marquise Lee stopped in Philadelphia last week as part of their 50-State Story Tour, an initiative organized by LGBT website I’m From Driftwood.
Manske launched the site early last year as a way to allow LGBTs from around the country to tell their personal stories. That effort was furthered in the fall, when Manske and Lee embarked on a cross-country trip to collect in-person stories from LGBTs and get a first-hand look at the diverse LGBT communities in towns large and small.
Before arriving for their two-day stay in Philadelphia last week, Manske and Lee had already visited 38 other states on a tour that kicked off Sept. 6 in Texas and will wrap Jan. 10.
The Driftwood site allows readers to suggest cities and towns Manske and Lee should visit on their tour, advice the pair followed. Once locations were decided, the two put out feelers for lodging, as they tried to stay away from hotels to cut down on costs.
Manske said the volunteers who have offered their homes have proven to be integral to the tour.
“That’s been one of the unexpected joys of the trip,” he said. “We’ve stayed in college dorms, in mobile homes, in people’s RVs, in big suburban homes. We didn’t want to just stay in the well-to-do gay family home. It’s been very diverse, and we’re very happy about that. Some hosts give us care packages when we leave, some make us dinner and others take us out. It’s this extra layer of what the tour’s about: We’re able to actually meet the community members and see the whole range of what makes up our community.”
So far, Manske and Lee have collected more than 100 video stories from their visits, as well as a bevy of written stories. They post one video and four written stories on the site each week.
Although the community members speak from their own experiences, some trends have emerged.
“Whenever we go to a small town, the community wants people to know that just because they’re in a small town in the middle of a red state, they still have a good community. They’re concerned that people look at them like they’re backwoods, but they want people to know, ‘Hey, we’re here too and we’re not all that way.’ And the opposite is true, too,” Manske said. “In L.A. we spoke with some kids, and they jumped on the chance to tell people that just because they live in L.A., it doesn’t mean it’s easy. It’s a big, progressive city, but they don’t live in the entire city. They live in their neighborhood, on their street, with neighbors who may not be OK with it. People are trying to challenge the perceptions of how the rest of the country views them and break stereotypes. They’re all saying it comes down to the individual: People should be viewed case by case, person by person.”
Lee noted that they’ve also seen a unity among LGBT communities in smaller locales that may not be present in some of the larger cities they visited.
“There’s less fragmentation in small towns. That’s one of the beautiful things about small towns. Everyone comes together — you have gay, lesbian, transgender people — and they focus on the issues they may be dealing with together whereas, in a larger city, we tend to separate ourselves and stay in our own little pockets.”
That harmony was very present in Anchorage, Ala., which Manske said has so far been the “surprise hit” of the tour.
“I was really curious about Alaska because it seems like it’s a whole different country. We went after Hawaii — which was great, but you’d expect Hawaii to be great — and with Alaska, we had no idea what to expect. But the community there was so tight and everyone really came together and were so excited to hear about our trip and what we were doing. We’d be walking down the street with the camera and people would stop us and give us recommendations about where to go and things to do. It was a really strong community, and it seems like they have the mentality that they’re so far away from the rest of the country that they really have to band together and stick together.”
One of the better-known small towns they visited was Laramie, Wyo., the site of Matthew Shepard’s antigay murder. Manske said they decided not to seek out Matthew Shepard stories, but many of their interview subjects offered them anyway.
The town’s reputation has been clouded by Shepard’s murder, but Lee said the negative characterization of Laramie is undeserved.
“It should have never happened there, that’s what their attitude is,” he said. “The way that this has painted the town really is unfortunate because it’s a really cool place. The people there are definitely trying to move on and paint another picture.”
Manske and Lee typically only spend two nights in each town, and most of that time is spent working, so their sightseeing opportunities have been limited.
They did, however, take a detour to see the Grand Canyon, but — after driving for several hours, spending a rare night in a motel, waking up at 4:30 a.m. and running to a shuttle bus to see the site at sunrise — they were greeted by a thick blanket of white fog.
“We finally got to where the lookout is and it was just white with fog. You couldn’t see anything,” Manske said. “We took pictures smiling, like this is the Grand Canyon behind us, but it might as well have been this white wall behind us. That was the one time we did something for ourselves — not getting stories or going to events or fundraisers — so it was like, oh man, I can’t believe it turned out like that. But it makes for a good story at least.”
Manske and Lee have been sharing some of the stories they’ve collected at reading events, like one held at the William Way LGBT Community Center last Wednesday, which was followed by a fundraiser at Uncles.
The Driftwood team stayed with former roommates of Lee — a resident of Philadelphia for six years — in Northern Liberties and, while in town, taped a video story of Allyson Hamm, Equality Pennsylvania statewide organizer.
Before leaving the city for Delaware last Thursday, Manske and Lee continued their tradition of photographing their pink boots with a local landmark.
Manske brought the boots to the team’s first fundraiser in New York as a collection dish. He selected the cowboy boots to symbolize his home state of Texas, where Driftwood is located, and spraypainted them pink for an LGBT significance. The boots were so popular with the crowd that they decided to take them on the tour and use them to collect donations.
The fundraising efforts have helped defray some of the costs associated with the recent publication of the “I’m From Driftwood” book, which Manske self-published as a compilation of some of the most poignant stories that have been submitted to the site. [Copies are available at PGN offices; contact [email protected] for details.]
Once the tour ends, Manske will return to New York City and Lee to Philadelphia, but their work will be far from over, as they will have to finish sifting through all of the video and written stories and publish them on the site.
While they both said they’ll be happy to be home, the end of the tour will be bittersweet.
“We’ve been on the road for four months, so not having to drive anywhere or stick to our schedule is going to be weird,” Manske said. “I don’t think we’re aware of it, but we’ve all been holding a big weight the past few months, so when all of this stops, it’ll be like ‘Ah,’ and we might fall forward a little because all of this pressure will be off our shoulders. But I think we’re going to miss it too. It’s been an incredibly unique and interesting journey. I really have no idea what to expect, but I’m bracing for anything.”
For more information or to donate to the story tour, visit www.ImFromDriftwood.com.
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].