Rural LGBT people

Last updated

The conditions of LGBT people in rural areas in the United States encompass a spectrum of experiences, influenced by geographic, cultural, and social contexts. The rural population of the U.S. exists across a wide geographical area, containing within it a broad diversity of cultural constructs and attitudes which in turn influence the varied experiences of rural LGBT people and communities within the United States. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Contents

Contemporary scholars of the American South and Midwest have written studies and fieldwork on queer life in rural areas, challenging the perceived orthodoxy that rurality is inherently not conducive to queer sexual expression. [3] [2] [4]

Rural queer lifestyle

Masculine gender representations operate distinctly for women in rural areas because labor done by members of both sexes may be perceived outside of rural communities as masculine: rural women exhibit features and behavior that may be characterized as masculine, and enjoy acceptance within their rural communities. [5] This masculine dynamic allows for some lesbians to blend in quite easily, where typical female attire can be wearing flannels and cowboy boots. However, deviations in style, such as short hair or wearing ties, can still result in judgment from the woman's surrounding community.[ citation needed ] Emily Kayzak notes that "the sexual identity of rural butch lesbian women is not invisible in urban lesbian cultures, their more butch gender presentations do not do the same work in rural areas because those gender presentations are also tied to normative (hetero)sexuality". Rural spaces have even been referred to as makings for "lesbian lands". [6]

For rural men, on the other hand, "publicly disrupting normative gender expectations arguably remains as, if not more, contentious than homoerotic desires". [2] In many places, as long as a gay man subscribes to masculine representations and activities, such as wearing traditionally masculine attire and working in manual labor, acceptance comes much more easily.[ attribution needed ]

Queer individuals in rural areas face discrimination and violence. In small rural areas, perpetrators and victims are typically known to the surrounding community. Even police are known to commit crimes against sexually marginalized people. [7]

In contrast, queer urbanites have gained much more acceptance and visibility as a result of gay rights movements and the recognition of the potential of the queer economy. Higher urban acceptance of homosexuality, and urban institution of gay cultural centers (such as gay neighborhoods, bars, and other establishments) [8] have led to an increase of the migration of queer people from rural communities to metropolitan areas. Research on migration patterns between urban and rural areas also challenges a binary view of the two categories as well as the common narrative that queer-identifying individuals 'escape' to the city over the course of their lives. In Coming Out and Coming Back: Rural Gay Migration and the City, authors Meredith Redlin and Alexis Annes find that the migratory flow between urban and rural is not unidirectional, but rather a series of movements over time between the two spaces. Their essay illustrates how queer individuals move within and between rural and urban areas in response to the ways that each space limits and/or enables their identity formation and sexual expression. [9]

Rural queer farmers

Rural queer farmers have been studied to complicate ideals such as feminine "labor of the home" and masculine "labor of the field", which mark the conventional standard for gendered agriculture, [10] but expectations of masculinity and femininity do not directly correlate with a particular type of farm practice for queer farmers. [11] Janet Casey's research provides an example of attention to the rural body and material conditions as they relate to predominant images—like "labor, health, childbirth, and childcare" [10] Queer farmers grapple with these assumptions about a female laboring body, but they also grapple with assumptions about the nature-dominating male laboring body. [12] Queer farmers often organize in family structures and labor structures based around community and ambiguous role-definitions. [12]

Some queer farmers have taken to growing food in urban environments, so that they can maintain their agricultural practices as well as queer lifestyles. [13]

Identity has been identified as an important component to the construction of queer farm life. Gender research on queer rural farmers has considered the role of space in queer identity formation. Berit Brandth, a sociologist and gender labor researcher, argues that attention to "identity and place and to the co-construction of rurality and subjectivity prompted more critical and theoretically informed approaches to the study of rural gender." [14]

In the 1970s, women began to move to agricultural communes where they could live and work with other "country women". [15] In these communities, lesbian women built communes where they grew their own food and created societies away from men. They believed that living and working in nature allowed them to embrace their inherent connection with nature. Gay men also partook in similar activities; Bell and Valentine note how the Edward Carpenter Community in England hosts Gay Men's Weeks where they conduct events related to free-spiritedness and the embracement of one's sexuality.[ citation needed ]

Farmers and Friends, a helpline for closeted gay farmers in England, was created to help farmers deal with discrimination and to provide emotional support.

Queer rural political activism in the United States

Many queer political organizers believe reform is more difficult to pass in rural communities that are less tolerant of queer lifestyles. [2] It is harder to mobilize communities in rural spaces where queer populations are less dense and financial contributions are limited. [2]

A lack of visibility and political attention has left queer people more vulnerable to institutional discrimination. Compared to the heterosexual population, they have reduced access to housing and healthcare and face greater employment discrimination. In South Dakota, only 29% of rural same-sex households own homes, compared to 84% of married heterosexual couples. [16] There are generally fewer community resources and support groups for queer individuals in rural areas, as more limited local resources do not facilitate their existence. [2]

Stereotypes about rural intolerance have been identified as a vector of discrimination in the United States judicial system. In a 2006 custody case, a mother found herself unfit to care for her child and relinquished rights to a queer caretaker. [16] Once the new guardian's sexuality was discovered the court ruled against the biological mother's request, stating that "the adoption would not be in the best interest of the child." The court used rurality in their reasoning to reject the request, citing "stigma that the child may face growing up in a small, rural town with two women, in whose case she was placed at the age of six, who openly engage in a homosexual relationship." [16]

The Iowa Supreme Court struck down the state's defense of marriage statute, which made it one of the first states to allow same-sex marriage, affecting the predominantly rural population. [17] This action was met with political resistance. The Iowa electorate voted to not retain all three judges, marking the first time in Iowa's history that a judge had not been retained since 1961.

Queer visibility, which has been identified as playing a critical role in political activism, has not been a viable strategy for some rural queer people. Being openly queer can lead to more discrimination and isolation in rural spaces. [2] Rural queer individuals have had to reimagine how to make political and social progress in their communities. Regional scholars have argued that the reliance upon visibility politics within queer activism in the United States is urban-centric, excluding and erasing LGBT individuals and communities in rural areas across the globe. [2] [4] As the majority of national-scale queer activism reliant on visibility politics within the U.S. emerged from its major cities, this ideology was "tailor-made for and from the population densities; capital; and systems of gender, sexual, class, and racial privilege that converge in cities." [2]

New digital media has opened more political options for rural queer people. Access to queer people's experiences are available on blogs and websites and provide access to the terminology needed to describe and understand their experiences. [2] Today, Instagram functions as a site of activism to cultivate a queer farming community. Queer farming communities visible on Instagram[ example needed ] present political stances as valuable components of their farming practices, such as in hiring efforts. [18]

Perceptions

Many Americans assume rural queer people do not exist, or that they do only before moving to more urban and accepting communities. [19]

Stereotypes about rural homosexuality are sometimes crude. In media, rustic sexual expression can take the form of homosexual rape, as seen in Pulp Fiction and Deliverance , and bestiality, which is also a theme in these films. [20]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LGBT movements</span> Social movements

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movements are social movements that advocate for LGBT people in society. Although there is not a primary or an overarching central organization that represents all LGBT people and their interests, numerous LGBT rights organizations are active worldwide. The first organization to promote LGBT rights was the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, founded in 1897 in Berlin.

<i>Queer</i> Umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or not cisgender

Queer is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or are not cisgender. Originally meaning 'strange' or 'peculiar', queer came to be used pejoratively against LGBT people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to reclaim the word as a neutral or positive self-description.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sexuality and gender identity-based cultures</span> Variety of communities and subcultures

Sexuality and gender identity-based cultures are subcultures and communities composed of people who have shared experiences, backgrounds, or interests due to common sexual or gender identities. Among the first to argue that members of sexual minorities can also constitute cultural minorities were Adolf Brand, Magnus Hirschfeld, and Leontine Sagan in Germany. These pioneers were later followed by the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LGBT community</span> Community and culture of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people

The LGBT community is a loosely defined grouping of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals united by a common culture and social movements. These communities generally celebrate pride, diversity, individuality, and sexuality. LGBT activists and sociologists see LGBT community-building as a counterweight to heterosexism, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, sexualism, and conformist pressures that exist in the larger society. The term pride or sometimes gay pride expresses the LGBT community's identity and collective strength; pride parades provide both a prime example of the use and a demonstration of the general meaning of the term. The LGBT community is diverse in political affiliation. Not all people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender consider themselves part of the LGBT community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biphobia</span> Aversion to bisexual people

Biphobia is aversion toward bisexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being bisexual. Similarly to homophobia, it refers to hatred and prejudice specifically against those identified or perceived as being in the bisexual community. It can take the form of denial that bisexuality is a genuine sexual orientation, or of negative stereotypes about people who are bisexual. Other forms of biphobia include bisexual erasure.

Gender expression, or gender presentation, is a person's behavior, mannerisms, and appearance that are socially associated with gender, namely femininity or masculinity. Gender expression can also be defined as the external manifestation of one's gender identity through behavior, clothing, hairstyles, voice, or body characteristics. Typically, a person's gender expression is thought of in terms of masculinity and femininity, but an individual's gender expression may incorporate both feminine and masculine traits, or neither. A person's gender expression may or may not match their assigned sex at birth. This includes gender roles, and accordingly relies on cultural stereotypes about gender. It is distinct from gender identity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LGBT rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina</span>

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Bosnia and Herzegovina may face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Both male and female forms of same-sex sexual activity are legal in Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, households headed by same-sex couples are not eligible for the same legal protections available to opposite-sex couples.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Questioning (sexuality and gender)</span> Process of self-exploration

The questioning of one's sexual orientation, sexual identity, gender, or all three is a process of exploration by people who may be unsure, still exploring, or concerned about applying a social label to themselves for various reasons. The letter "Q" is sometimes added to the end of the acronym LGBT ; the "Q" can refer to either queer or questioning.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LGBT movements in the United States</span>

LGBT movements in the United States comprise an interwoven history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and allied social movements in the United States of America, beginning in the early 20th century. A commonly stated goal among these movements is social equality for LGBT people. Some have also focused on building LGBT communities or worked towards liberation for the broader society from biphobia, homophobia, and transphobia. LGBT movements organized today are made up of a wide range of political activism and cultural activity, including lobbying, street marches, social groups, media, art, and research. Sociologist Mary Bernstein writes: "For the lesbian and gay movement, then, cultural goals include challenging dominant constructions of masculinity and femininity, homophobia, and the primacy of the gendered heterosexual nuclear family (heteronormativity). Political goals include changing laws and policies in order to gain new rights, benefits, and protections from harm." Bernstein emphasizes that activists seek both types of goals in both the civil and political spheres.

This article focuses on Japanese definitions of gender and sexuality, Japanese reactions to queer life, the clash between traditional and contemporary ideas, and the cultural restraints of being queer in Japan. The Western term “queer,” an umbrella term for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) represents a change in thought pertaining to gender and sexuality in contemporary Japan.

Sexuality and space is a field of study within human geography. The phrase encompasses all relationships and interactions between human sexuality, space and place, themes studied within cultural geography, i.e., environmental and architectural psychology, urban sociology, gender studies, queer studies, socio-legal studies, planning, housing studies and criminology.

LGBT linguistics is the study of language as used by members of LGBT communities. Related or synonymous terms include lavender linguistics, advanced by William Leap in the 1990s, which "encompass[es] a wide range of everyday language practices" in LGBT communities, and queer linguistics, which refers to the linguistic analysis concerning the effect of heteronormativity on expressing sexual identity through language. The former term derives from the longtime association of the color lavender with LGBT communities. "Language", in this context, may refer to any aspect of spoken or written linguistic practices, including speech patterns and pronunciation, use of certain vocabulary, and, in a few cases, an elaborate alternative lexicon such as Polari.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sexual stigma</span> Form of social stigma

Sexual stigma is a form of social stigma against people who are perceived to be non-heterosexual because of their beliefs, identities or behaviors. Privileged individuals, or the majority group members, are the main contributors of placing sexual stigmas on individuals and their minority group. It is those who hold a higher status that determine within a society which groups are deemed unworthy of a higher status by labeling their specific actions or beliefs. Stereotypes are then produced which further the debilitating effects of the label(s) placed on group members with non-heterosexual beliefs or practices.

Bisexual politics are arguments surrounding individuals who identify as bisexual and their perspectives on issues involving sexuality, equality, visibility and inclusion. Some authors describe "bisexual politics" as a form of identity politics. One form of activism within bisexual politics includes the addition of the word bisexual onto lesbian and gay organisations and fighting employment discrimination for bisexual individuals.

LGBT migration is the movement of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people around the world or within one country. LGBT individuals choose to migrate so as to escape discrimination, bad treatment and negative attitudes due to their sexuality, including homophobia and transphobia. These people are inclined to be marginalized and face socio-economic challenges in their home countries. Globally and domestically, many LGBT people attempt to leave discriminatory regions in search of more tolerant ones.

Despite the history of colonisation and the resulting process of Westernisation since 1842, Hong Kong still embodies many aspects of Chinese traditional values towards sexuality. It is traditionally believed that heterosexuality is the nature, coherent, and privileged sexuality. Popular media marginalises and discriminates against LGBT members of Hong Kong in an attempt to maintain "traditional lifestyles".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of LGBT topics</span> Overview of and topical guide to LGBT topics

The following outline offers an overview and guide to LGBT topics:

Queer erasure refers to the tendency to intentionally or unintentionally remove LGBT groups or people from record, or downplay their significance, which includes lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people. This erasure can be found in a number of written and oral texts, including popular and scholarly texts.

Les is a derogatory local Vietnamese term of identification for more globally common labels like lesbian, queer woman, or female homosexual. It is derived mainly from scholarship by Vietnamese-American ethnographer Natalie Newton, who is, at present, the only Western scholar to have centred Vietnam's les as her subject of investigation. Her articles have been frequently cited as reference or point of entry to issues concerning Vietnamese queer communities.

Homonormativity is the adoption of heteronormative ideals and constructs onto LGBT culture and identity. It is predicated on the assumption that the norms and values of heterosexuality should be replicated and performed among homosexual people. Those who assert this theory claim homonormativity selectively privileges cisgender homosexuality as worthy of social acceptance.

References

  1. ↑ Bureau, US Census. "Life Off the Highway: A Snapshot of Rural America". The United States Census Bureau. Retrieved 2018-07-24.{{cite news}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Gray, Mary L. (August 2009). Out in the Country: Youth, Media, and Queer Visibility in Rural America. New York University Press. ISBN   978-0-8147-3193-2.
  3. 1 2 Howard, John (2001). Men Like That: A Southern Queer History (1st pbk. ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN   978-0-226-35470-5. OCLC   48881184.
  4. 1 2 3 Johnson, Colin R. (2013). Just Queer Folks: Gender and Sexuality in Rural America. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. ISBN   978-1-4399-0998-0.
  5. ↑ Kayzak, E. (2012). "Midwest or Lesbian? Gender, Rurality, and Sexuality". Gender and Society. 26 (6): 825–848. doi:10.1177/0891243212458361. S2CID   8546164.
  6. ↑ Valentine, G. (1997). "Making Space: Separation and Difference". Thresholds in Feminist Geography. Difference, Methodology, and Representation: 65–75. ISBN   978-0-8476-8437-3.
  7. ↑ Beemyn, B. (2001). "Gay Men and the Rural South: No Contradiction in Terms". American Quarterly. 53 (1): 178–184. doi:10.1353/aq.2001.0001. JSTOR   30041881. S2CID   144553665.
  8. ↑ Barrett, D.C.; et al. (2005). "Whose Gay Community: Social Class, Sexual Self-Expression". The Sociological Quarterly. 46 (3): 437–456. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.576.1525 . doi:10.1111/j.1533-8525.2005.00021.x. JSTOR   4120947. S2CID   55969446.
  9. ↑ Annes, Alexis; Redlin, Meredith (January 2012). "Coming out and coming back: Rural gay migration and the city" (PDF). Journal of Rural Studies. 28 (1): 56–68. doi:10.1016/j.jrurstud.2011.08.005. ISSN   0743-0167.
  10. 1 2 Casey, Janet Galligani, and Oxford University Press. A New Heartland : Women, Modernity, and the Agrarian Ideal in America. Oxford University Press, 2009.
  11. ↑ Keller, Julie C. "Rural Queer Theory." In Feminisms and Ruralities, ed. by Barbara Pini, Berit Brandth, and Jo Little, 155-166. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2015.
  12. 1 2 Little, Jo. "The Development of Feminist Perspectives in Rural Gender Studies." In Feminisms and Ruralities, edited by Barbara Pini, Berit Brandth, and Jo Little, 107-118. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2015.
  13. ↑ Sbicca, Joshua (2012). "Eco-queer movement(s) Challenging Heteronormative Space through (Re)imagining Nature and Food". European Journal of Ecopsychology. 3: 33–52. Archived from the original on June 17, 2016.
  14. ↑ Brandth, Berit. "On the relationship between feminism and farm women." Agriculture and Human Values 19 (2002): 107-117.
  15. ↑ Bell, D. (2006). "Bodies, Technology, Spaces: On". Sexualities. 4 (9): 387–407. doi:10.1177/1363460706068040. JSTOR   20003016. S2CID   143200764.
  16. 1 2 3 Jerke 2011, p. 281.
  17. ↑ Jerke 2011, p. 261.
  18. ↑ "Queer, BIPOC Farmers are Working for a More Inclusive and Just Farming Culture". Civil Eats. April 2021.
  19. ↑ Jerke 2011, p. 271.
  20. ↑ Brown, M.; et al. (2009). "Bestiality and the Queering of the Human Animal". Environment and Planning D: Society and Space.

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.