#rural queer

[serpentandthreads]

This is your reminder that telling rural queers to move to bigger cities or different countries because they are often more "queer friendly" is not a solution. There will always be queer people in rural towns, and not all of us want to leave our small towns. Those who do are probably stuck financially because, in case some of you don't know: relocating to a different city or country is fucking expensive.

[farmerlesbian]

I just heard about this website called TransRural Lives which just went live! Go check it out! You can also find them on Instagram, Facebook, and Youtube.

"A digital storytelling project exploring and celebrating the lives of transgender older adults who live in or have strong ties to rural areas and small towns in the Pacific Northwest."

The stories are audio recordings from the trans elders themselves, and I find it incredible to listen to their stories and literally hear their voices. This is definitely worth checking out and maybe even getting connected and sharing your story. You will also find a variety of resources and archives on the website. Check it out!

If you want to get involved, they're taking volunteers, donations, help to spread the word, and stories from rural trans people. Here's some info from the website on who they are looking to hear stories from:

Who is eligible to participate in the project? 

Transgender* adults 50 years of age and older who live in or have strong ties to rural areas and smaller cities/towns in Washington State (outside the Sea-Tac metro). In 2024, we will be expanding the project to include transgender older adults who live in Oregon, Idaho, western Montana, and British Columbia.  

* We include and welcome anyone and any identity that falls outside the gender binary, including nonbinary, genderqueer, gender-diverse, gender non-conforming, and Two-Spirit folks. 

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Edit to add: I am in no way associated or affiliated with this project. I simply came across it while surfin' the web and thought yall would be into it and wanted to share it with tumblr! If you have thoughts or feedback or want to get involved or just want to talk to the project, I encourage you to reach out to them. Check out the website! I have zero affiliation with it.

[bitchwholoveslife]

The thing about being androgynous or gnc in a rural area is that...

You don't want the stares. Not really. But you do want to be the kind of person who gets stared at. So eventually, you come to equate being stared at with doing something right. And maybe it never stops hurting, the way that the locals eye you like you're some kind of spectacle. But it also becomes encouraging in its own way.

[rawrsatthetree]

Hello LGBTQ+ community!!!

If you’re queer and grew up in a rural community I need you’re help!!

Our community is facing so much censorship and violence. I want my exhibition to share the untold story of the LGBTQ+ community that grew up in rural areas. Please share anything you feel comfortable sharing! If you don’t like google forms, please DM me I can just send you the questions!

I’m pansexual and nonbinary, and grew up in a small town of only 3,000 people. This project means so much to me!

[queer-altars-mt]

welcome to our altar!

this blog is dedicated to stories, poetry, art, and images of queer altars in montana. in chronicling the spaces made divine by queer & trans folks in this state, we hope to weave together a vision of montana that many have not had the fortune to witness.

this is a companion of the fourth edition of forward montana's transcendent joy zine, a zine by and for queer and trans montanans.

read past editions here.

if you live in or are from montana, and would like to submit written work to this blog, please share your altar at this link. if you have photos that you would like to submit to our zine, you can learn more and submit through this form.

love & rage,

koy runs behind (they/them)

[vital-information]

Gay Resurrection

(Unbury your Gays)

I am he that liveth, and was dead

and behold, I am alive for evermore

Amen.

Stranger Things // In the Flesh // The Summer Hikaru Died

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Going out and about to yard sales and the farmers market and three different plant stores today while wearing my vest with "Here & Queer" painted on the back and "faggot" beaded on the front has really given me more faith and pride in my community.

Like. I live in a small town in Kentucky. I was kind of expecting at least one bad reaction.

Instead, I had a person several years older than me come up to compliment the embroidery on my vest, and then when they saw the back they got super excited and introduced themself and told me they were nonbinary, I said I was too, and they high fived me and said they were adopting me now, then they gave me their number "in case I ever needed to talk." Made my fucking week.

I talked to an old lady about crochet for like 10 minutes and she showed me the stuffed animals she crocheted and seemed very proud that she'd managed without a pattern.

I talked to another about the upcoming home and garden fair, because she recognized me from every time I've entered in the last like 5+ years. She complimented the flower embroidery on my vest.

I talked to a different old lady about diamond painting and jigsaw puzzles, and she told me me how shed just graduated college a couple years ago at 52, and I told her it was very impressive. When we started talking about teacups, I mentioned I use mine to drink monster, and she thought it was a very nice idea.

I gave an old man at the feed store directions to the new plant store and we talked about flowers and vegetable plants.

I talked to people at the farmers market about my vest and about flowers and honey and zucchini.

Idk. People talk like the South is completely horrible, enough so that I've kinda bought into that. I mean, I've had plenty of bad experiences of my own, because some people here Do suck, but like. Fuck the idea that everybody in the South is all of the -ists and -phobics there are to be, and fuck the idea that queer people from the South should hate where they're from. It's fine if you do, because god knows it can be hell, but actually I kinda love where I'm from. I'm proud of it. The American South isnt some unsalvageable wasteland full of (only) neo nazis. Theres community and culture here and they're valuable.

[beezlebutch]

As a southern queer, me, the rural queers, and the Appalachian queers are all making out

[jarofrebukepodcast]

A huge thank you to all of our listeners who have brought us to 100,000 listens! ❤️💚 We're very excited to be returning this summer! We'll be giving more updates as time comes closer~.

[serpentandthreads]

Happy Pride Month to those who only recently discovered their identity.

Happy Pride Month to those who are still exploring their identity.

Happy Pride Month to those who are still in the closet.

Happy Pride Month to those who have been ostracized by the community (aro/aces, bisexuals, transgenders, etc).

[poetry-feeling42]

Vague posting time!

I moved to the twin cities about 6 months ago, and I've noticed people here seem very nationalistic for the state of Minnesota. Lots of people act like Minnesota are the best state ever because a bunch of progressive policies got passed last year, some of which were lots of protections for trans people. But those changes were only possible because of a 51% democratic majority in the state legislature. I had to move away from Kansas for a reason, but I miss all the rural areas I've lived in my life, and I hate it when Minnesotans try to act so smug about their state, because they were almost in the same position as me, having to leave everything and move because of transphobic legislation.

It's not everyone, but I don't think enough people here realize that people aren't moving to Minnesota because it's the best stolen land ever, but because we aren't safe in our home states where we lived our most of lives, realized we were queer, came out to friends, fell in love, ended relationships, made new friends, everything.

Some people don't realize that a not every queer person wants to pack up and move to metropolis, some of us want to stay in rural areas. They don't realize how much similar their states are to the ones they vilify.

[bitchwholoveslife]

My new neighbor is the coolest fucking person EVER.

She was asking about my haircut, and eventually said "but I couldn't get a haircut like that because I would look like a lesbian--oh no, are you a lesbian?! I didn't mean to offend you if so!" To which I flushed and freaked out a little bc I was there with my dad, our other neighbor neighbor/plug, and his wife.

But after explaining that I'm "bi" (as i put it publicly), and not offended by her lighthearted comment, the conversation recovered well. And she, a 64 year old woman in Alabama, told us about how she is asexual, and even defined it for us! It was such an amazing experience for me, as she was definitely the oldest queer person I've ever met, and I was simply floored by her level of confidence and pride in her asexual identity. It was the highlight of my day :)

[hyenabeanz]

Country doesn't belong to white supremacist shitheads.

[marionto]

[vital-information]

“But the Berea students’ Lobby Day experience…demonstrates the dilemmas rural young people face when they rely on similar strategies of visibility and assertions of difference deployed by their urban peers. Unlike urban gay and lesbian communities able to mobilize significant numbers of people and dollars to generate visibility, rural youth and their allies live and work in communities and legislative districts that prioritize solidarity, rely on familiarity, and lack the public or private resources to underwrite sustained, visible dissent to assert queer difference. These are also places where media representations of LGBT people outpace the tangible presence of locally organized constituencies able to or invested in prioritizing queer recognition.

This book [Out in the Country] addresses how young people in the rural United States who lay claim to LGBT identities confront the politics of gay visibility, expectations, and constraints that define and shape the recognition of LGBT-identifying people in popular culture and public life. I take an interdisciplinary approach to examine how rural queer and LGBT-identifying youth, contrary to popular narratives of escape to urban oases, stand their ground to name their desires and flesh out local meaning.”

Mary L. Gray, Out in the Country: Youth, Media, and Queer Visibility in Rural America

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