Gay and Pleasant Land? Explorg Sexualy, Ageg and Ruraly a Multi-Method, Performative Project on JSTOR

Contents:

• GAY RAL AMERI: UP TO 5 PERCENT OF RAL RINTS ARE LGBTQ, REPORT FDS
• QUEER THE COUNTRY: WHY SOME LGBTQ AMERINS PREFER RURAL LIFE TO URBAN ‘GAYBORHOODS’
• TEXAS C: A REALISTIC PORTRA OF GAY RURAL LIFE
• A VERMONT PRODUCTN OF 'FARM BOYS' EXPLOR GAY RURAL LIFE 
• LGBTQ LERATURE: FARM BOYS: LIV OF GAY MEN OM THE RURAL MIDWT

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

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.

Those who returned home om urban gayborhoods also told me they found gay cy livg rarely livered on s promis of pannship and cln.

QUEER THE COUNTRY: WHY SOME LGBTQ AMERINS PREFER RURAL LIFE TO URBAN ‘GAYBORHOODS’

Rural LGBTQ Amerins are ls likely to participate inic gay rights events like the Pri para, terviews and survey data fd. Such ments ll to qutn certa assumptns of the ntemporary gay rights movement, cludg that “gayborhoods” are the pnacle of gay life and that ral Ameri is no place for LGBTQ people. 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.

TEXAS C: A REALISTIC PORTRA OF GAY RURAL LIFE

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 stori llected by Garrger over the years have been shared on the Country Queers webse and Instagram page, and startg June 30, the new “Country Queers” podst will but on Apple Podsts, Spotify and ‘monotony and fabulosy’ of ral lifeFor the past seven years, Garrger has terviewed 65 people om 15 stat — om Arizona all the way to Vermont — and has llaborated wh queer anizatns cludg the Two Spir Natnal Cultural Exchange, the Kansas Queer Youth Network and the Internatnal Gay Roo Associatn. “When I tell my story, I tell people that I me out twice: one is the Wtern sense of beg gay, and the send was more of a cultural sense of beg gay, ” Apache told NBC News.

“When I have nversatns wh people back home, there was a sort of fear or a kd of apprehensn when I said I was gay, bee their ncept, they thk of the gay person as somebody not livg unr rervatn, who didn’t have any rponsible ti to the cultural aspect of the tribe, which I thought was kd of an tertg perceptn, but wasn’t until I clared that I was g out as a Two Spir person that that nnectn ma more sense"‘I had to go back to the mountas’Hermelda Cortés, who serv as an edorial adviser for the new podst, was featured one of Country Queers’ Instagram takeovers.

Sce 2015 I have nducted terviews wh 40 ral LGBTQ people and analyzed var survey data sets to unrstand the ral gay study rults, now unr peer review for publitn an amic journal, found that many LGBTQ people ral areas view their sexual inty substantially differently om their urban unterparts — and qutn the mers of urban gay e, easy goThe 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 this ral exod story is plete.

A VERMONT PRODUCTN OF 'FARM BOYS' EXPLOR GAY RURAL LIFE 

” The gay protagonists of the films are lonely, seldom able to exprs their sexual my analysis of a 2013 Pew Survey of LGBTQ Amerins — the latt available prehensive natnal survey data on this populatn — showed that LGBTQ ral rints are actually more likely to be legally married than their urban unterparts — 24. The ral LGBTQ people I spoke wh placed a high value on monogamy — on what many of them nsir a “normal” who returned home om urban gayborhoods also told me they found gay cy livg rarely livered on s promis of pannship and cln. And they had missed the charm of small-town Nevar/Getty ImagNo peThe ral LGBTQ people I terviewed seemed to place ls importance on beg gay than their urban muni had.

Downplayg their sexual or genr inti, many emphasized other aspects of themselv, such as their volvement mic, sports, nature or rejected an urban gay culture that they felt was shallow and overly foced on gayns as the fg feature of life.

LGBTQ LERATURE: FARM BOYS: LIV OF GAY MEN OM THE RURAL MIDWT

”Such ments ll to qutn certa assumptns of the ntemporary gay rights movement, cludg that “gayborhoods” are the pnacle of gay life and that ral Ameri is no place for LGBTQ may be ls te, though, for Black and Lato LGBTQ people. My study rults, now unr peer review for publitn an amic journal, 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. He is -edor of The Gayborhood From Sexual Liberatn to Cosmopolan Spectacle and Fotten Founrs and Other Neglected Social Theorists published wh Lexgton Books.

I grew up on a farm ral Kansas, and like a lot of gay boys, I saw my dad e home seven days a week, dirty and tired, and went, "Nope! I me out to my fay and iends after llege and they were all pretty chill about , so while I know there is a chance that some good ol' boy will bash my head , I'm willg to play the part of the gay guy that I uld have ed as a role mol as a kid.

I gus I'm jt worried I'm havg to choose my dream reer and life I enjoy over Beg Gay(tm), and I'm lookg for assurance that I'm not gog to turn to that lonely, creepy 60-year-old old guy on Grdr that regrets never gog to Folsom, gettg married, or whatever else I may or may not do. We share equipment and knowledge between all our What are your thoughts on wantg to live the big cy to have a big gay life? I thk s worth startg wh the ia that the gay experience is not limed to amount of time spent large ci like San Francis and New York and jt livg there don't mean that you're gog to live the betiful life picted Instagays' Te, te, not everyone n be me.

It's a tough cisn to make and I wish I uld fively say "move ral and be gay, " but 's a huge risk movg to a place that might make you ultimately feel isolated.

Ultimately, I thk the ia that you have to choose between gay bliss or rigid tradnalism is the wrong way to approach this cisn. One study of lbian, gay, bisexual, and qutng (LGBQ) youth found that, although both ral and non-ral LGBQ youth reported signifintly greater risk of prsn pared to their non-LGBQ peers, there were no signifint differenc prsn when parg ral LGBQ youth to LGBQ youth om urban and suburban areas (Price-Feeney, Ybarra, & Mchell, 2019).