Southerners on New Ground
About Southerners on New Ground
Southerners on New Ground is a political home for LGBTQ liberation serving communities throughout the South from its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1993, SONG has built a regional base of LGBTQ organizers, particularly those from marginalized communities including poor and working-class people, immigrants, people of color, and rural residents who have historically been isolated from movement spaces. The organization creates intentional community for Southern LGBTQ people by breaking the isolation that prevents full participation in economic, social, and political life, offering members a space to develop political analysis, build relationships across difference, and grow as leaders in their own liberation. SONG members describe the organization as a place of belonging where they can be unapologetically themselves—Black, queer, trans, Southern—while engaging in rigorous, base-building work that centers the most marginalized. The organization's approach emphasizes inter-generational relationships, deep listening to community conditions, and the linking of social movements to build understanding of how different oppressions interconnect. SONG's vision reflects a commitment to restoring collective humanity and recognizing our interdependence with the Earth, working toward a sustainable South that transforms economic, social, spiritual, and political relationships. For LGBTQ people across all lines of ability, age, culture, and immigration status, SONG serves as a catalyst for political education, community care, and the strategic power-building necessary to shape the South's future.