LGBTQ Life In America Is Flourishing Outside Of Small-Town Pride Celebrations
Beck Banks, University of Oregon
LGBTQ people in rural places and small towns are often ignored in the larger conversation surrounding queer life and culture. Even with these omissions, Pride celebrations in those locations are sweeping the nation, often encountering initial resistance.
As a transgender person from Central Appalachia and a doctoral candidate who studies rural transgender media activism, I still find myself sometimes conflating metropolitan with queer, despite knowing that reduces the complexity of transgender and queer lives. The day I reluctantly traveled to eastern Kentucky’s Pikeville Pride, I was doing just that.
Don’t get me wrong; I like myself, and I am proud of the LGBTQ people who are working toward self-respect and celebrating who they are and what Pride repre...