visible - [viz-uh-buh l]
- apparent; manifest; obvious
- being constantly or frequently in the public view; conspicuous
- the quality of being known to or noticed by the public
The development of the project came from the awareness that the highly visible and positive civil rights victories for LGBTQ Americans suggests that America is more approving of homosexuality. But these advances are contradicted by the fact that antigay hate violence against LGBTQ people is more virulent and prevalent than ever. These incidents are an ever-present backdrop to the American gay experience. Yet, the majority of this violence remains invisible and unknown to most Americans.
The title of the multimedia project The Visibility Tapes is meant to spark curiosity while playing on the tensions between what is kept cloaked in secrecy and what needs to be exposed. Like the 1970s era Nixon White House Tapes that contained classified information of political cover-ups, criminal activity, and well-organized systems of conspiracy, The Visibility Tapes contain equally unlawful, harmful and incriminating information. With such mystery, we are compelled to hear what’s concealed on these tapes. But those implicated in The Visibility Tapes aren’t a United States President and a few key players in the White House involved in a political scandal. Those implicated on these tapes are an entire society.
The Visibility Tapes is a multimedia platform that seeks to expose the harsh realities of antigay prejudice and violence perpetrated against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender individuals. Through advocacy journalism and powerful storytelling, the project explores sexual stigma, an aggressive hegemonic masculinity, and rage-filled homophobia, which work together to fuel antigay attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors within American culture. The series also examines the little-discussed term of heterosexism - analogous to racism and sexism - the systemic prejudice against non-heterosexual and non-gender conforming individuals as filtered through the nation’s institutions:
- Schools
- Churches and Synagogues
- The Criminal Justice System
- The Workplace
- The Military
- The Government
- Health Care
- The Media
- The Family
The radio series, webstories, and podcasts showcase the lives of LGBT people and their allies who have been victims of violence and whose stories are often underrepresented and underreported in mainstream media.
The website also serves as an educational tool, providing content and materials that employ interactive data in the form of photo slideshows, a glossary of LGBTQ terminology, audio transcripts, and up-to-date equality maps. A History page resurrects some of the unknown stories of mass murder and pays tribute to victims of antigay violence. Timelines offer chronological lists of the overlooked historical civil rights movements of LGBT people, and the Get Involved page holds resources and links to organizations for individuals seeking help or for those who would like to join the fight against antigay violence.
By framing individual incidents of anti-gay violence using these larger social dimensions, the project serves to provide a platform for both understanding and better addressing the root causes of antigay violence.
The current material on the site, radio and Vimeo features are produced from over 50 recorded interviews conducted in more than ten cities; from New York City, Laramie, Wyoming, Chicago, and Iowa, to Washington D.C.