#queer appalachia

[bookquotesfrombooks]

“Disability may stem from injustice, but it is not itself injustice. To equate disability with suffering is to ignore the value of disability, disabled people, and disability culture.”

Rebecca-Eli Long

“An Appalachian Crip/Queer Environmental Engagement”

Published in Y’all Means All: The Emerging Voices Queering Appalachia

[orthopunkfox]

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT! EXCITING NEWS!

Hello my dear friends and siblings! I am so terribly sorry for my absence but I have been working on some big things and I have some VERY exciting news.

As some of you may know, I have been working with an affirming and inclusive parish, Saint Thekla Independent Orthodox Church. The priest and I have been working together for several months now and share a vision of building an inclusive and affirming community here in Indiana. To that end:

ANNOUNCEMENT ONE: I have been granted permission to found an offspring community under the umbrella of Saint Thekla. I am proud to announce the official opening of Holy Protection Orthodox Christian Community! Although we are mostly online currently, Mother Thekla and I will be working diligently to establish in-person meetings locally. That said, our online ministry will continue and I invite you all to participate. Our virtual Coffee Hour is especially great and not to be missed! (links below). Eventually we hope, by the grace of God, to grow into a fully functioning parish with a priest serving weekly Divine Liturgy. Which brings me to my second announcement:

ANNOUNCEMENT TWO: I have been granted permission to begin the process of reading for Holy Orders with the goal of ordination to the priesthood. I will submit my official application later this week but my spiritual director is confident given my ministry experience (and my brief time in Anglican seminary before my transition) my application will be welcomed and granted quickly. This process will take a couple of years. but I'm very excited to finally complete my journey to the priesthood after so many years. Glory to God for all things!

I will try to post here more regularly and consider this blog as an extension of the online ministry of Holy Protection. I invite you all to please participate in our online community and for those of you who live in my neck of the woods, I hope to invite you to in-person meetings soon! In the meantime, please like the Facebook page and join the Facebook group to stay up to date on our development!

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61563480251752

Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/ecxTi3GAJ8iZiAa6/

Youtube channel (in development): https://www.youtube.com/@AffirmingOrthodoxy

[kapricorndear]

Writing a research essay about how applied theatre can help marginalized communities and am focusing on Queer Appalachia and the more I read and research the more I ASCEND I LOVE YOU APPALACHIA

[anarchypumpkincowboy]

I just started listening to old gods of Appalachia and y’all it is so nice hearing my accent and like that familiarity has gotten me hooked quicker than any other podcast I’ve tried listening to

[rook-writes-empty]

[trash-and-trash-accessories]

I'm from the Southeastern United States (kind of, my lore is complicated) and living in Appalachia. One thing I've notice living here is that people who were raised in Leftist/Liberal and/or Northerner households are actually MORE sexist towards the Southern Women than the locals who were raised in more traditional Southern families. The Northern/Liberal-raised people respect women in an abstract way. They have immense respect for the strong, direct, pragmatic women in their own lives and families. But they do not respect what I would call Southern Ladies. Not at all. They think Southern ladies are incredibly stupid, have nothing to contribute, and they simply do not respect them. And those are the majority of women around here.

And I have found this disconnect to be a cultural difference. Southern women tend to speak in a very indirect way and are taught to do that. They would never say "You're doing it wrong, you idiot" they would say "The last guy did it different" and describe how the last man did it. They wouldn't say "This is the solution to your problem moron" they would say "Well sweetie, my daddy had a similar problem and he did x thing." They assign their own knowledge and opinion to a third party instead of claiming to know things or be experts. This is a linguistic norm that came about because of the extreme sexism of the society Southern women were living in, but now it's so codified in their language and norms that southern men understand this language and when a woman says "my daddy did it a different way" he knows that she is telling him he's doing it wrong and perhaps even calling him stupid. But she's maintaining social norms while doing so, and usually these women also say these things privately, and politely so as to spare his feelings. Though not always. Many Southern women ARE very assertive. It's just different than it is in other regions.

So these men who were raised by liberals and leftists and northerners who didn't grow up with these linguistic norms hear the Southern women speaking this way, they hear them say things like "I'm confused, is it supposed to look like that?" and they take their words at face value, and assume those women are stupid. They take corrections from polite Southern women as statements of ignorance and stupidity. A woman is correcting them, but they take away that she doesn't understand how it works and is stupid. I see this happen all the time.

Southern men will hear, "Sweetie is it supposed to look like that?" as as a correction, as "it's not supposed to look like that you did it wrong." Whereas the people not raised with these traditional norms will assume she genuinely doesn't know.

Since I was raised with this soft, indirect linguistic style and have generally always been regarded as a woman, I have and sometimes still do experience this firsthand. And the consensus among Southern women about this phenomenon is that these men are extremely stupid. If a man doesn't understand these secret linguistic codes they regard him as an idiot and begin treating him with immense disrespect.

I try to explain this to my liberal Northern friends and they say things like "why doesn't she just say that then" or "She should be more direct then" but You came into HER culture. People go to, say, Japan and try their best to navigate cultural norms that differ from their own but they simply refuse to do it when coming to Appalachia and the South. Even though the culture here is very different and distinct. She IS being direct with you, in the context of her culture. You simply don't understand it and assign ignorance and stupidity to her in a way that you likely would not as readily assign to a man. (though I do see this happen to men too, to a lesser extent, because of this same indirect and polite communication style)

[loganhowlet4t]

oh yeah. the not deer. I’m familiar

- queer from some dark holler in wv

Love to hear from fellow queers in Appalachia! Were here, were queer, and we belong here!

[princip1914]

I loved your fic The False and the Fair. While I was reading it, I thought, this is so good, the author should rework this into an actual novel, then in the endnotes you mentioned that you were planning on using elements of it to write a novel. I would love to read it if you do, though I don't know how I would find out about it. Would you announce it on your Tumblr if you did? I would definitely buy it if you manage to publish it. Thank you for writing it.

Thank you so much for such a lovely ask! Yes, I am working on a novel that is (sort of) based on TF&TF, but I’ve been working slowly in part because I the fic is so special to me and, if I did publish an original novel, I’d want to do it in such a way that I can keep the fic up on AO3 and also let the tumblr crowd know about the novel. I am also working on a few other unrelated original fiction projects that are higher on my priority list right now (partially because I am a much more enthusiastic writer than editor haha).

So yes, I suppose in the hypothetical distant future when the novel is finished, I would likely make a post here so that y’all could check it out. But I’m not rushing into that future any time soon!

One of the reasons I wrote TF&TF was because I hadn’t read much published queer fiction that dealt with themes that have been meaningful in my own life (especially: telling a happy story that involves HIV, telling a story where being queer in a rural area isn’t reduced to homophobia and hate crimes). I am so happy that fandom has provided a way for me to share this with the world! ❤️

If you want to read The False and the Fair check it out here! (It’s archive locked so you do have to log in to read it).

[blunt-hound]

As someone from Appalachia, can confirm Bigfoot AND Mothman ate my ass on separate occasions

(And almost drove off the edge of a road into forested area to many times.)

“I’m going to drive through Appalachia, should I be scared of the inbred hill folk and the cryptids? 😱😱😱😱” no bitch, be scared of sliding off a mountain into a valley and not being found for months or years.

[bookquotesfrombooks]

“In its rendering as a place sitting stagnant in the past, in which “modernity” is a goal to achieve not a point on a timeline, Appalachia has been discursively queered for the greater part of the twentieth century. It has been suspended in a never-where of the past and denied access to the present as long as it remained an unruly and “unproductive” part of the body of the nation-state.”

Hannah Conway

“Crafting Queer Histories of Technology”

Published in Y’all Means All: The Emerging Voices Queering Appalachia

[orthopunkfox]

☦️🦊🌞🌿🐝🥧🦋🐦🍯🍞🪺🌝🫖🏳️‍⚧️🍂🐞🍓🪻☦️

Hello friends! Peace be unto you! 

My name is Hilaria, I’m a genderqueer trans girl raised in the hills and hollers of Appalachia. Currently, I live with my partner, our children, and our dog. 

Having been raised in an extremely abusive household where religion was used as a weapon to keep my quiet and obedient, I was overjoyed to find the beauty of an inclusive Holy Orthodoxy. I was overwhelmed by the mercy of the true Jesus who extends love to all. Slowly He began to heal my wounded heart. I also discovered a queer Orthodox community where I was welcomed and began the journey of realizing the queer woman God made me to be. 

Here you will find the love of Jesus Christ expressed in queer community. Here in the icons and the incense, you will find the truth of inclusive Orthodoxy. Here in the chant that echoes across the hills and the hollers, I hope you will find rest.  

☦️🦊🌞🌿🐝🥧🦋🐦🍯🍞🪺🌝🫖🏳️‍⚧️🍂🐞🍓🪻☦️

[tribadenerd]

Sometimes I get homesick for the home I used to have. 

It turns in my belly and tickles at my eyes.

I don't fit there anymore.

Hundreds of acres and no room for me.

Wide open spaces before me, I still made myself small.

I'm homesick for a place I don't belong, I hope one day I will.

[anarchypumpkincowboy]

Poor Appalachian’s Trans Masc Workout

What you’re gonna wanna do first is load up the tub with dirty clothes, water, and detergent.

Then find a large stick to swirl said clothes in said soapy water (I use my bokken but any large stick will do)

Do this for an indeterminate amount of time until clothes are clean, really get in there and swirl them

Wet clothes are heavy as shit this is a great upper body workout especially in the winter your muscles will be screaming by the third load

Play working class folk music, or really any kinda anti capitalism music, for the duration of your workout

[rook-writes-empty]

I love you, Appalachia. My blood is in your red clay soil. All my bones, too. Mothers and fathers and all the sins of generations—buried and held and growing things new again.

The people here, they want to spit me out. Like we ain’t made of the same gravel and grit and vinegar piss—but there’s queers in these hills.

Always has been.

These mountains have broke my bones, same as they’ve done yours—and I ain’t leaving home.

Not for you.

—

[thevoicesblur]

Never going to stop thinking about how much this song means to queer Appalachia. A story showing not only the consequences of the coal mining industry but a beautiful queer couple with love and support from their friends is SO important. And to come from a white man in country music, it really makes my heart full <3

“In Your Love” by Tyler Childers

[princip1914]

Oh my god how dare this gay Appalachian music video love story come out on this Day of Good Omens truly the world is conspiring to not let me get any work done.

I wrote an essay below but tl;dr grab a box of tissues and watch this video right now and then scream with me about it!

I love this. It’s a little hokey, it’s sweet, it’s a country love ballad that is *so incredibly in keeping with the genre* that my guess is people who don’t like country music and country iconography won’t really like it…and that’s kind of the point.

So much stuff that’s about queer rural identity is made for outside eyes looking in, by outside hands (even in my own writing I worry about this constantly, as someone with family roots in Appalachia but who grew up outside of the region and has lived in a big city for the past 11 years). This video feels like it’s made from the inside for the inside—and, in fact, it is! It was written by Silas House (probably the best known Appalachian writer), all the extras and nature shots are from Kentucky, and the artist is a genuine country artist—not someone dipping a toe in the genre for something different.

The iconography is country—there’s beer, there’s tractors, there are flannel shirts. Of course, this is not the only way to be queer and country, but it’s a way that we don’t see represented nearly enough—these dudes love each other but they also fit into the culture, it doesn’t make them less country to be queer. I also love that the story is not just about homophobia. Homophobia isn’t ignored but it’s not centered, it’s not the point.

Also let’s talk about the ending (sorry there are spoilers here for a 4 min video, watch it then come back to this). The ending—tragic in the way of country love ballad endings everywhere—is somewhat open to interpretation. Frequently in queer love stories set in a certain era AIDS is implied if not stated…this video is very clever because it subverts that expectation while still stating nothing outright. I’ve watched it several times now and I’m convinced that what’s implied is lung disease from the mines. This shifts the story from a message about the inherent risk of being gay to a labor story about the inherent risk of being a *coal miner* that’s in keeping with the politics of OG country music and creates a tragic romance without pathologizing queerness.