“Oh, By the Way, I’m”: Strategies for Negotiating Rural Queer and Trans Living

• In Event: 2167 - Analyses of Urban and Rural Spaces, and Racialized Sexual and Gender Identities

Abstract

In this paper, I analyze the strategies of rural queer and trans women. I do this by looking at the different ways that those I interview discuss their everyday lives and interactions with individuals, groups, and institutions in their rural communities. These strategies include: creating communities and families of support, strategic outness or selectively coming out to others, concealing their identities, living openly, and creating visibility, tolerance, and acceptance in their communities. While some individuals utilize only one of these strategies, the majority employ a combination of strategies depending on the situations and processes that they’re attempting to navigate, as well as their geographic and social locations. My analysis demonstrates how rural queer and trans women, despite the difficulties that many of them do face in their rural communities, are able to negotiate various situations and processes within their lives, suggesting that rural spaces can also be conducive to queer and trans lives. My findings also challenge the greater cultural narratives that often insist that queer and trans individuals are best suited for urban living.

Author

• Amanda A. Stewart, University of Illinois at Chicago