SFA's Queer Legacy
"If you ever feel like you don’t belong, try to find somebody who helps you feel like you belong." - Meaghan Morton, ceramicist and staff advisor for the SFA Pride Alliance
On 6/13/26 I met with Meaghan (she/her), in Nacogdoches, TX, to talk about community and to dive into the SFA archives.
These oral histories are always a collaboration with the narrator, but when speaking with Meaghan she expressed that she is also passionate about archives and had many photos from the Stone Fort Yearbooks Collection of the East Texas Digital Archive to share. Thank you for helping to share these images Meaghan!
My goal for this fall is to lead some Queer history workshops. Please let me know if you’d be interested in hosting one :)
Let’s dive into our interview!
- Carolina (she/her)
Stone Fort Yearbooks
SFA’s yearbook, titled the Stone Fort, was first published in 1924 after the end of the first academic year of being open.1 Each edition from 1924-2012 are digitized and can be viewed on the East Texas Digital Archive website.
The first recorded and ‘official’ LGBT+ group at SFA was the Gay and Lesbian Student Association. From the yearbooks it seems to have only run for 2 years, 1995 and 1996.
Meaghan: [In the 1996 photo] everybody’s facing forward. But in [the 1995] one, you see the backs of the heads of people and it’s a larger group, too. Some people are not comfortable facing the camera, but I think it’s just brave in itself to show your back to the camera because sometimes you are still identifiable. The SFA Pride Alliance doesn’t turn their backs anymore, they use emoji stickers to cover people up. But it’s a shame that we have to do that and feel the need to do that just out of safety and protection.
The Purpose of the Gay and Lesbian Student Association is to build pride and give voice to the gay and lesbian population on campus, while fostering tolerance and acceptance within the community.
Meaghan: I think my first true encounter [of the LGBT+ community in East Texas] and where I got involved the most was with the LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus at SFA. I joined them, quickly became their social media person and enjoyed that quite a bit. They’re no longer a group, but they were formed in, I believe, 2020.
Although these are the only LGBT+ groups credited in the Stone Fort…
Meaghan: Who's to say that groups like this weren't happening organically, anyway? Because we come together naturally. We might not take pictures of it and post it in a yearbook or in the newspaper, but I mean, we come together!
On Campus Drag Shows
More than 250 enthusiastic audience members packed the UC Twilight Ballroom to see the first drag show ever presented at SFA. Sponsoring organization was the Student Activities Association.
SFA Pride Alliance
Meaghan: I am the adviser for the SFA Pride Alliance, they were established in 2023. There was a need on campus for a Queer organization, and this was at the same time that SB17 was being implemented (prohibition of all DEI initiatives at public universities.) I went to the then Office of Multicultural Affairs, that no longer exists because of SB17, and said,"We need to make this happen.” As somebody who was a student and part of an organization like that, I know how it impacts students to have that on campus. Our first interest meeting, was in a small conference room with under 20 people and ever since then, they have just gotten better every single year. Now- our first meeting of this year, 50+ people showed up, and that's just a three year difference.
Meaghan: The SFA Pride Alliance has this tradition of knighting the next person who's going to be president [at the end of year picnic]. The incoming president kneels and the outgoing president takes the axe handle for that year, because we’re lumberjacks, and dawns them in the L, G, B, T.
Meaghan: One of the most memorable moments that really solidified just how great of a community they've created is during one of the first interest meetings that included returners and new people, one student said to a room of 50+ people,"Well, I've started T” and just a roar of celebration happened. I don't think there's many other rooms on campus or anywhere in East Texas where that can be said aloud and that many people cheer about it and celebrate them for it.
Queer Joy is…
Meaghan: Queer joy is being able to feel safe and be who I am in public. Falling back on community, I get so much joy out of being around people that are Queer, because they’re so unabashedly Queer, it helps you be okay with living loud. I think the option to live loud is important and being who you are is important. So I find a lot of joy in other people, being involved in community, and experiencing others’ Queer joy. I love watching people grow and come into themselves and be able to be who they are. I get a lot of joy from that, and I think that’s why I always tend to go toward helping students and supporting them.
Get your history out of the closet!!! Message me here, insta @queerjoyetx, or facebook to set up an interview. If you don’t- history will say we weren’t here or Queer :(
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https://www.sfasu.edu/about-sfa/newsroom/2023/centennial-sfa-yearbooks-available-purchase
Thank you for sharing my story and the stories of the people in these photos. I wonder where everyone is now.
the parallel with people turning around in the 90s and then now using emojis to cover faces 😭