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David Boyles

David Boyles (they/them) teaches writing and rhetoric at Arizona State University, where they also developed the Discovery Seminar course, “LGBTQ+ Youth in Pop Culture and Politics.” They are a co-founder of Drag Story Hour Arizona and past board president of the Drag Story Hour national network. They were honored for their contributions to the Phoenix LGBTQ+ community with the 2022 Phoenix Pride John Bircumshaw Community Spirit Award and have given presentations and hosted events on LGBTQ+ history around the valley. Most recently, they are the founder of Queer Freedom School, a new community education initiative centering LGBTQ+ history and culture. David Boyles (they/them) teaches writing and rhetoric at Arizona State University, where they also developed the Discovery Seminar course, “LGBTQ+ Youth in Pop Culture and Politics.” They are a co-founder of Drag Story Hour Arizona and past board president of the Drag Story Hour national network. They were honored for their contributions to the Phoenix LGBTQ+ community with the 2022 Phoenix Pride John Bircumshaw Community Spirit Award and have given presentations and hosted events on LGBTQ+ history around the valley. Most recently, they are the founder of Queer Freedom School, a new community education initiative centering LGBTQ+ history and culture. David Boyles (they/them) teaches writing and rhetoric at Arizona State University, where they also developed the Discovery Seminar course, “LGBTQ+ Youth in Pop Culture and Politics.” They are a co-founder of Drag Story Hour Arizona and past board president of the Drag Story Hour national network. They were honored for their contributions to the Phoenix LGBTQ+ community with the 2022 Phoenix Pride John Bircumshaw Community Spirit Award and have given presentations and hosted events on LGBTQ+ history around the valley. Most recently, they are the founder of Queer Freedom School, a new community education initiative centering LGBTQ+ history and culture.

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David Boyles's Presentations

Arizona/Southwest History

Mapping the Hidden Landscape of LGBTQ+ Arizona

Like many marginalized communities, LGBTQ+ communities are often invisible on official maps. But what happens when we start to illuminate the “invisible map” of LGBTQ+ Arizona? And how does it change our understanding of our state? Join David Boyles as we map LGBTQ+ Arizona. We will visit contemporary places such as Phoenix’s Melrose District and Bisbee’s nationally-renowned Pride celebration. But we will also visit nearly-forgotten places like Adobeland, a radical lesbian commune that sprung up in the desert outside Tucson in the 1970s, and the Sri Ram Ashram in Benson, birthplace of the influential spiritual movement the Radical Faeries. We will look at how contemporary scholars are using archives to reconstruct the map of LGBTQ+ Arizona, tracing the physical history of Pride parades and other celebrations and the opening and closing of bars, coffee shops, and other spaces. And we will discuss the importance of preserving the history of our communities to ensure that their place on the maps of the future.