Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

"Well, We're Fabulous and We're Appalachians, So We're Fabulachians": Country Queers in Central Appalachia

"Well, We're Fabulous and We're Appalachians, So We're Fabulachians": Country Queers in Central... Southern Voices "Well, We're Fabulous and We're Appalachians, So We're Fabulachians" Country Queers in Central Appalachia b y Rac h e l Ga R R i n G e R In July 2013 I founded an oral history project called Country Queers out of intense frustration at the lack of rural queer visibility. The project aims to document the experiences of rural and small town LGBTQIA folks throughout the United States in all their complexity. Southeastern West Virginia, where the author grew up and founded Country Queers. All photos courtesy of the author. Five years ago I moved home to the farm where I was raised in southeastern West Virginia. For a decade I had bought into the dominant narrative in lGbtQia spaces that because I am queer I could never live back home. I was told--in not so many words--that I could not have my queerness and my mountains, too, that I would not be safe there, that I would not be able to survive, much less thrive. This is a common experience for those of us who have left the small towns and rural areas where we grew up.1 Mainstream lGbtQia media and movements have long http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Southern Cultures University of North Carolina Press

"Well, We're Fabulous and We're Appalachians, So We're Fabulachians": Country Queers in Central Appalachia

Garringer, Rachel
Southern Cultures , Volume 23 (1) – Apr 16, 2017
Download PDF
13 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/university-of-north-carolina-press/well-we-re-fabulous-and-we-re-appalachians-so-we-re-fabulachians-nMHgCvAIbR
Publisher
University of North Carolina Press
Copyright
Copyright © Center for the Study of the American South.
ISSN
1534-1488
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Southern Voices "Well, We're Fabulous and We're Appalachians, So We're Fabulachians" Country Queers in Central Appalachia b y Rac h e l Ga R R i n G e R In July 2013 I founded an oral history project called Country Queers out of intense frustration at the lack of rural queer visibility. The project aims to document the experiences of rural and small town LGBTQIA folks throughout the United States in all their complexity. Southeastern West Virginia, where the author grew up and founded Country Queers. All photos courtesy of the author. Five years ago I moved home to the farm where I was raised in southeastern West Virginia. For a decade I had bought into the dominant narrative in lGbtQia spaces that because I am queer I could never live back home. I was told--in not so many words--that I could not have my queerness and my mountains, too, that I would not be safe there, that I would not be able to survive, much less thrive. This is a common experience for those of us who have left the small towns and rural areas where we grew up.1 Mainstream lGbtQia media and movements have long

Journal

Southern Cultures – University of North Carolina Press

Published: Apr 16, 2017

There are no references for this article.