How gay roos upend assumptns about life ral Ameri |

GAY RAL AMERI: UP TO 5 PERCENT OF RAL RINTS ARE LGBTQ, REPORT FDS

* gay rural *

Fifty six percent of gay, lbian and bisexual people across the untry reported at least one stance of discrimatn or patient profilg a health re settg. "‘SETTLING INTO RURAL LIFE’While challeng for LGBTQ people n be “amplified” ral areas, the report also found bright spots for lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer people livg nonmetropolan upl and LGBTQ dividuals are raisg children ral areas at higher rat than urban areas. He moved to Philalphia when he was 18 part to be closer to gay life.

A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.

Stereotypilly, gay, queer and trans kids flee small towns to fd acceptance big, diverse ci like New York or Chigo. But evince shows many will eventually return to ral areas. * gay rural *

Yet he moved back 2013, to a small town outsi Erie to start his own said that while he felt safe Philly’s “gayborhood, ” he was often verbally harassed other areas of the cy and knew of vlent attacks on gay was nervo to move back to ral Pennsylvania, fearg social isolatn and reprsn. The guys who bullied me as a kid for beg gay, they’re my iends now. Pop portrayals of LGBTQ Amerins tend to feature urban gay life, om Ru Pl’s “Drag Race” and “Queer Eye” and “Pose.

But not all gay people live ci. Sce 2015 I have nducted terviews wh 40 ral LGBTQ people and analyzed var survey data sets to unrstand the ral gay experience. My study found that many LGBTQ people ral areas view their sexual inty substantially differently om their urban unterparts – and qutn the mers of urban gay life.

The standard narrative of ral gay life is that ’s tough for LGBTQ kids who flee their ral hometowns for inic urban “gayborhoods” like Chigo’s Boystown or the Castro San Francis – plac where they n fd love, feel “normal” and be surround by others like them.