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Country Queers is a podcast featuring oral history interviews with rural and small-town LGBTQIA2S+ folks. We uplift often unheard stories of rural queer experiences across intersecting layers of identity including race, class, gender identity, age, religion, and occupation. Produced by and for country queers all over, we hope these stories help add more complexity to conversations and ideas about rural spaces and queer communities.
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Country Queers: A Love Letter arrives October 8, 2024 from Haymarket Books! Listen to Rae multitask morning goat chores while telling you about the book and the fundraiser we've launched to support the costs of book tour travels. Featuring: ducks, goat bells, goats chewing, Rae walking through tall grass, and rambling without a script in the milkin…
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In 2023 state legislatures across the South and Midwest have introduced over 400 bills attacking trans adults, trans kids, and drag queens. This legislative session in West Virginia saw the introduction of more than 15 anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ bills. On Thursday March 9th, 2023 trans organizers held a rally at the Capitol Building in Charleston, W…
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Dorothy Allison is a 73 year old, white, feminist, working class story teller, who was raised in South Carolina and Florida and now makes her home in California. She is the author of many books including novels, short stories, a poetry collection, and a memoir. In this interview, recorded by Rae Garringer in August 2018, Dorothy talks about memorie…
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KD Randle (they/them) is a Black, southern, queer, genderfluid person currently living in Jackson, Mississippi. They’re a lifelong learner, visionary, creator, their mother’s youngest seed, a friend, partner, dog parent, and former farm apprentice at Sipp Culture. This episode weaves together audio diaries recorded on KD’s commutes to and from the …
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Dana Kaplan (he/him) is a white trans person and the Executive Director of Outright Vermont and he’s on a mission to make Vermont celebratory and affirming for all LGBTQ+ youth. When not working, Dana spends time making music, fermenting food, people watching, and hanging out with his spouse and their two kids. In this episode Zach Henningsen inter…
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Miguel Mendías is an interdisciplinary artist living in Marfa, Texas, occupied Jumano and Apache lands. He is Chicanx, Mexican-American, or Latinx (a term he dislikes). He is mestizo; of Czech, Basque, and Rarámuri (Tarahumara) descent. His father’s family has lived in Marfa, Texas for five generations. In this episode Kūʻiʻolani Cotchay (she/they)…
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Sharonna Henderson is a mother, an activist and a burlesque performer. She is a fat, Black, queer, woman who believes in liberation through rest and art. Her life is full of love and beauty and it’s her mission to share it with as many souls as possible during this lifetime. In this episode Toviah DeGroot draws from Bhanu Kapil's "The Vertical Inte…
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Sam Gleaves is a white gay man who was born and raised in Virginia and now lives in Kentucky. Sam is an old-time musician, educator, singer/songwriter, and a banjo, guitar, and fiddle player. This episode features Rae's 2013 interview with Sam where he talks about musical traditions, family, and finding a sense of belonging within the word "Fabulac…
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Adria Stembridge (she/her) is a goth, neurodivergent, white, queer, trans woman who was born and raised in Georgia where she still lives. She has been in bands like: The Endless, The Girl Pool, Vomit Thrower, Tears for the Dying, and more. Adria loves watching anime, roller skating, changing piston rings on her dirtbike, and operating heavy equipme…
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Kūʻiʻolani (she/they) is a queer, mixed-Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) living in their ancestral lands in Mākaha, Hawaiʻi. She is an educator, learning experience designer, musician/creative and plant person. In this episode Miguel Mendías interviews Kūʻiʻolani about Hawaiian history, lands, language, color theory, queerness, colonization, belongin…
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In this episode HB Lozito of Out in the Open and Rae Garringer of Country Queers welcome you behind the scenes of our collaboratively produced, rural-lgbtqia+ made Season 2 adventure! Our fellow-travelers and co-producers in this Season, who you'll meet along the way, include: KD Randle, Kūʻiʻolani Cotchay, Miguel Mendías, Tommy Anderson. Tovi DeGr…
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We're back with another season full of rural queer oral histories, but with a twist! In Season 2 we teamed up with our friends at Out in the Open and invited 6 rural and small town lgbtqia+ folks to join us in an experimental adventure in creating a collaboratively produced season: by us and for us. You'll hear participants - many brand new to audi…
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In this episode you’ll meet Tash Terry who is Diné and shares memories of spending time with her grandmother on a sheep camp on Black Mountain in the Navajo Reservation. Then, you’ll meet Elena Higgins who is of Maori and Samoan descent, and shares memories of spending time with her cousin and uncle who managed a huge herd of sheep in rural New Zea…
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In this "sheep-adjacent" episode, we’re diving into the some of the ways in which we relate to and communicate with animals. You'll meet Pony Jacobson - a white, queer and trans sheep shearer - who shares stories of training his border collie herding dog and working and living in conservative rural spaces. And you'll meet Penelope Logue - a white, …
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In this episode, we'll hear sounds of sheep and some queer and trans humans who love them. Host Rae Garringer shares memories of growing up on a sheep farm in West Virginia, Maja Black shares an audio diary of lambing season in Iowa, then we'll hear an interview with Grayson Crane who raises a flock of Icelandic sheep in western Washington, and fin…
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This episode features audio from a webinar hosted by the Women's and Gender-Non-Conforming Center at Berea College in October 2020 as a part of their virtual pride series. In it, Rae Garringer is joined by the Editorial Dream Team: Sharon P. Holland, Hermelinda Cortés, and Lewis Raven Wallace. We talk about how we came into story-telling and narrat…
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Robyn Thirkill farms on Monacan Territory in Prospect, VA where she raises goats, ducks, turkeys and pigs on land that's been in her family for 100 years. In this 2016 interview Robyn talks about her commitment to her family's heritage and history on the land, her adventures in beekeeping, and how Prince Edward County closed their public schools fo…
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Silas House is a nationally best-selling author of 6 novels, 3 plays, and a book of creative nonfiction. Silas grew up on Adena, Yuchi, Cherokee, and Shawnee land in Laurel County, Kentucky. In this interview - recorded in July 2018 at the Hindman Settlement School - Silas talks about growing up in the evangelical holiness church, how meeting his n…
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The next episode is in the works, but in the meantime, we wanted to tell y'all about a new favorite podcast. It’s called Transcripts and it’s about how trans people are remaking the world, from the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project. The production team is entirely queer and trans and the first episode features interviews with trans organizer…
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At the time of our interview, Kody Kay was 52 years old and he lived on Arapaho, Cheyenne, Ute, & Sioux land in Longmont, CO where he ran a heating and cooling company. Kody is trans and he's an announcer on the International Gay Rodeo Circuit. In this interview, recorded at the Rocky Mountain Regional Gay Rodeo on July 13, 2014, Kody talks about c…
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Elandria Williams identifies as a Black, southern/Appalachian, disabled, genderqueer, pansexual, Unitarian Universalist, “auntiemama” to 3 nieces and nephews and 4 god kids. E grew up on Cherokee land in Knoxville and Powell, TN. In this interview - recorded at the STAY Project's summer gathering at Highlander in 2013 - E talks about organizing, th…
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David Rodriguez grew up on Karankawa land in Wharton, Texas in a family whose roots reach back to before TX was a state. David was 26 and living on Tonkawa and Sana land in Bastrop, TX at the time of our interview in June 2014. He shares stories of raising livestock for the FFA as a kid, his mom kicking him out of the house after coming out at age …
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Tessa grew up in Cookeville, Tennessee - which was built on Cherokee and Shawnee land. At the time of this interview, in November 2017, Tessa was 22 years old and studying chemical engineering at TN Tech. In this interview she talks about coming out to her parents, her work with Cumberland Gender Advocacy to support other trans folks in rural middl…
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Sharon P. Holland is a professor of critical race, queer, and feminist theory at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She lives on Catawba, Eno, and Shakori land. In this interview, recorded in June 2017, Sharon talks about her childhood in D.C. and Durham, NC, her journey towards finding an identity that fits, the 8 magical acres she c…
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Crisosto Apache was born and raised on the Mescalero Apache reservation in New Mexico. After coming out at age 17, they left home and spent years searching for a sense of belonging in gay scenes in Denver and Boulder, Colorado. In this episode, featuring an interview recorded in June 2014, Crisosto describes how coming out again as two-spirit later…
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When Rae Garringer set out to gather rural and small town LGBTQIA+ histories in 2013, they had no formal training in oral history or audio recording. They were motivated by a deep frustration that it was so hard to find rural queer stories, and an intense personal need to connect with other rural queers. In this episode you'll learn more about Rae …
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Country Queers is a podcast featuring oral history interviews with rural and small-town LGBTQIA+ folks. Season One uplifts often unheard stories of rural queer experiences across intersecting layers of identity including race, class, gender identity, age, religion, and occupation. Hosted and produced by central Appalachian country queer R. Garringe…
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