I’m queer, and I’ve lived in rural places my entire life, and I think that it’s especially interesting how most people assume that queer people don’t exist in rural places, period. Or, more interestingly, that they don’t want to live in rural places at all. There’s a lot of beauty and benefits to living more remotely, just as there is discrimination and homophobia, and I appreciate it when books can present a balanced, nuanced take on queer identities and rural settings. I’ve rounded up a list that approach these subjects from all different angles, and wherever possible I tried to include as many diverse voices as possible. However, there is a dearth of queer voices of color on the subject of rural living, and I hope that we get to see more queer authors of color from all backgrounds published going forward. And if you’d like a couple more perspectives, pick up Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby, which is about two (straight, cis) men avenging the murders of their gay sons, who were a couple, and it deals with a lot of the tensions of being queer in small towns in the South, and is very intersectional. Then look for Woodsqueer by Gretchen Hegler, forthcoming in 2022, which is a memoir about creating a sustainable farm in rural Vermont with her partner.
