Queering the Midwest: Forging LGBTQ Community

Clare Forstie

Published by New York University Press 2022

Queering the Midwest

Forging LGBTQ Community

Clare Forstie

https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9781479801893.001.0001

Overview
Contents

About this book

How LGBTQ community life in a small Midwestern city differs from that in larger cities with established gayborhoods

River City is a small, Midwestern, postindustrial city surrounded by green hills and farmland with a population of just over 50,000. Most River City residents are white, working-class Catholics, a demographic associated with conservative sexual politics. Yet LGBTQ residents of River City describe it as a progressive, welcoming, and safe space, with active LGBTQ youth groups and regular drag shows that test the capacity of bars.

In this compelling examination of LGBTQ communities in seemingly “unfriendly” places, Queering the Midwest highlights the ambivalence of LGBTQ lives in the rural Midwest, where LGBTQ organizations and events occur occasionally but are generally not grounded in long-standing LGBTQ institutions. Drawing on in-depth interviews and ethnographic observation, Clare Forstie offers the story of a community that does not fit neatly into a narrative of progress or decline. Rather, this book reveals the contradictions of River City’s LGBTQ community, where people feel both safe and unnoticed, have a sense of belonging and persistent marginalization, and have friendships that do and don’t matter. These “ambivalent communities” in small Midwestern cities challenge the ways we think about LGBTQ communities and relationships and push us to embrace the contradictions, failures, and possibilities of LGBTQ communities across the American Midwest.

Author / Editor information

Forstie Clare :

Clare Forstie is Education Program Specialist at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Educational Innovation. She holds a PhD in Sociology from Northwestern University.Clare Forstie is Education Program Specialist at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Educational Innovation. She holds a PhD in Sociology from Northwestern University.

Reviews

Forstie ‘Midwesternizes’ LGBTQ studies, convincingly demonstrating that conventional understandings of community gleaned from gayborhoods don’t always hold water beyond the big city. It is impossible to be ambivalent about this timely account of the role of that emotion in LGBTQ life today. As rich and satisfying as mom’s hotdish, Queering the Midwest is a landmark study.

Queering the Midwest is a readable book about the complex way that community happens. I appreciated the way this research centers friendship instead of partners, organizations, or bars in the lives of LGBTQ people. This book makes us rethink the role of institutions and relationships in making LGBTQ community in small cities and in the Midwest.

We are everywhere—even in small post-industrial cities in “flyover country.” Queering the Midwest offers an astute analysis of the ambivalence many of us feel toward the LGBTQ communities that nurture us. We can’t live with them, but can’t live without them. It upends simple notions of progress, coming out, and even liberation without diminishing their importance for overcoming stigma and anchoring the self.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1 River City LGBTQ Life in a Small City Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
2 Should I Stay or Should I Go? Social Contexts of Ambivalent Experiences Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	33
3 Out, but Not Too Out The Line between Inclusion and Invisibility Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	49
4 What Do You Mean Your Gay Friend? LGBTQ Friendships Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	70
5 Straight Woman in a Gay Man’s World Allyship and Diversity Resources Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	95
6 “There’s Varying Degrees of Friendship in Here” Creating Ambivalent Community Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	124
7 “We Haven’t Jumped over the Need for One” Inclusive, Progressive, and Exclusive Approaches Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	141
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	155
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	177
Appendix A. Interview Script Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	179
Appendix B. Terminology Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	185
Appendix C. Participants’ Descriptive Statistics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	189
Appendix D. Reflections on Methodology Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	193
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	197
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	201
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	215
About the Author Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	223

Language: English
Publisher: New York University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Illustrations
- Other: 8 b/w illustrations
Keywords: LGBTQ; Inequalities; Communities; Identities; Small-Towns; Midwest; Midwestern; safe spaces; families; River City; San Francisco; New York City; Chicago; rural; gay communities; small-city LGBTQ community; LGBTQ allies; LGBTQ friends and organizations

eBook

Published: October 25, 2022
ISBN: 9781479801893