Mural by Rebekah Tarín and visiting artists –  Peñasco Theater – Peñasco, NM – July 2014

ART / PROJECTS / BUSINESSES of Country Queers we’ve interviewed:  

Help Country Queers survive and thrive in rural communities by supporting the art, farms, creative projects, and businesses of country queers we’ve had the pleasure of meeting along the way!

• Jonah from CT made a great film documenting queer farmers in the U.S. called Out Here.
• Sam and Ethan (from Southwest VA and East KY) write a hilarious Fabulachian blog The Down Home Divas.
• Candace and Autumn own and operate the amazing Ed’s Sno-Cones in Angleton, TX.
• Courtney and her family are the hardworking farmers at Homestead Ranch in Lecompton, KS.
• Crisosto Apache is the Director of the Two Spirit National Cultural Exchange, based in New Mexico.
• Mattie owns the historic Hotel Ritchey in Alpine, TX which she’s fixing up to re-open!

ORAL HISTORY PROJECTS:

• LGBTQ Oral History Hub:  AMAZING list of links to dozens of queer oral history projects compiled by the Digital Collaboratory.

ORGANIZATIONS:

• Southerners On New Ground (SONG):  building a political home across race, class, culture, gender & sexuality in the South
•  The STAY Project (Stay Together Appalachian Youth) : regional network of Central Appalachian youth, 14-30, working towards a more sustainable and inclusive future in the mountains
• Kansas Queer Youth Network (KQYN): a Kansas statewide GSA Network 
• Two Spirit National Cultural Exchange:  dedicated to the positive development of two-spirit people and culture       
• Green Mountain Crossroads: supports rural LGBTQ communities in becoming stronger, healthier, and more visible -based in Brattleboro, Vermont.
• Rural Organizing Project: the Rural Organizing Project uses values-based organizing to advance a progressive vision of democracy in Oregon, with a focus on Democracy & Civic Participation, Immigrant Fairness, LGBTQ Justice, Economic Justice, and the Cost of War.
• USDA’s Rural Pride Campaign:  In an effort to elevate the voices of the LGBT community living in rural America, USDA and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, launched the #RuralPride campaign in 2014.  The centerpiece of this campaign is a series of day-long summits hosted by USDA, NCLR, and a number of local partners based in rural communities across the country.

REPORTS / ESSAYS / RESOURCE MANUALS : 

• GLSEN Strengths and Silences Report on the Experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Students in Rural and Small Town Schools:  2012
• SONG’s Small Town Cross Roads Report   2013                                                                                  
• QUEER RURALISM:  An Essay in the Harvard Journal of Law by Bud W. Jerke  2011

BOOKS:

Academic/Non-Fiction:

Walk Till The Dogs Get Mean: Meditations on the Forbidden from Contemporary Appalachia.  2015.  Edited by Adrian Blevins and Karen Salyer McElmurray.

Bodies of Evidence:  The Practice of Queer Oral History.  2012.  Edited by Nan Alamilla Boyd and Horacio N. Roque Ramirez.

Exile & Pride:  Disability, Queerness, and Liberation.  2009.  by Eli Clare.

Out in the Country:  Youth, Media, and Queer Visibility in Rural America. 2009.  by Mary L. Gray.

 In a Queer Time and Place:  Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives.  by Jack Halberstam.

Another Country:  Queer Anti-Urbanism.   2010.  by Scott Herring.

Rednecks, Queers, and Country Music.  2014.  by Nadine Hubbs.

Just Queer Folks:  Gender and Sexuality in Rural America.  2013.  by Colin R. Johnson.

Sweet Tea:  Black Gay Men of the South.  2008.  by E. Patrick Johnson.

Fiction:

The Evening Hour by Carter Sickels.

The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich.