Following a presentation last month on LGBTQ history in Alabama, Senator Chris Elliott from Baldwin County wants to cut at least $5 million from the Alabama Department of Archives and History.
Elliott said he came up with his idea after learning that the Alabama Department of Archives and History held its LGBTQ presentation despite being told not to, saying the state legislature isn’t the place to discuss sexual orientation.
“A number of my colleagues and I just simply had some issues with that,” explained Elliott. “You know, the problem is that we don’t believe that the things that happen in folk’s bedrooms ought to be the topic of conversation or really the underlying issue for conversation.
Every third Thursday of each month, the Alabama Department of Archives and History holds “Food for Thought” segments where speakers discuss Alabama history topics.
Another instalment of that series was held on June 15th to discuss LGBTQ history and figures in Alabama.
The view of Elliott perpetuates a harmful narrative, say LGBTQ activists such as Bryan Fuenmayor.
“I think it’s wrong to think that LGBTQ equals adult material. It’s not,” explained Fuenmayor.“It’s very simple way to explain it to kids. Just how a family has a mom and a dad, a family could have two dads or two moms.”
During Montgomery’s special legislative session, Elliott plans to have Kay Ivey sign the bill. Elliott plans to discuss his bill during the special session, which is about congressional maps.
“It’s incumbent upon us to exercise the authority that we have to represent the people of the state of Alabama, who I feel certain are not in support of this type of programing taking place at archives and history, certainly not the majority of them,” explained Elliott. “We have the power to appropriate it. We have the authority and power to to call back those appropriations. And so that really was was it more than anything else. It is also, frankly, to send a message to other bureaucracies in the state to say this is not the type of programing that is going to find favor with the Alabama legislature.”
The bill doesn’t cut funding directly for the agency, but it removes the extra funds they got last session,
“The $5 million comes out of the education budget supplemental. Archives and History currently gets funding from both the Education Trust fund budget and the general fund budget,” Elliott explained. “And once and then additionally last year, they got another $5 million in supplemental money, so as I said before, and I think it’s important to say this is not defunding the department of Archives and history.”
A statement from the Alabama Department of Archives and History was sent to WKRG News 5 in response to Elliott’s proposal:
We hope that upon closer examination of the Food for Thought installment, legislators will agree that it was a program about historical figures and the use of historical records in understanding the past—topics appropriate to the mission of the agency. We recognize, of course, the authority and responsibility of the Legislature to make decisions regarding the appropriation of state funds.
Alabama Department of Archives and History
Fuenmayor thinks Elliott’s approach won’t get very far in the legislature, but if it does, he says it could send a bad message to people who want to learn about their past.
“It’s important for everyone to know all of our history, the good, bad, ugly, the parts that you disagree with, the parts of it that you do agree with is all history,” Fuenmayor explained. And so any attempt to try to like, erase history, I think is bad for Alabama.
Elliott’s plan is not supported by LGBTQ activists like Corey Harvard, who works with Prism United, a group that helps LGBTQ youths.
Not long ago, gay people in our country could be refused hospital visitation rights to see their loved ones or get kicked out of the military just for being who they are. The history of the gay rights movement is about fairness and human dignity, and it’s a part of the American story that deserves to be told and remembered. For Chris Elliot to reduce our history and lived experiences down to a “political agenda” or something that happens in the bedroom is dishonest and harmful. LGBTQ people aren’t political props—they’re human beings.”
Corey Harvard, Executive Director Prism United
The Alabama Department of Archives and History also says that the money Senator Elliott wants to take away from them was not used to pay for the agency’s operations but rather for two other projects.
Senator Elliott says he thinks Governor Ivey will sign this bill into law on July 17.
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