Queering the countryside New frontiers in rural queer studies

This collection of essays is, in many ways, an important contribution to the study of LGBT individuals living in rural areas. By approaching this topic from a variety of disciplines and perspectives, the authors highlight the diversity of extra-urban experiences among the gay community. For rural sociologists, this is mostly unexplored territory. The essays challenge the idea of metronormativity--the idea that gay lifestyles are to be pursued only in large cities where diversity is tolerated and that gays in rural areas are left in the closet. A large literature across disciplines suggests that this simplistic binary conception is false. Rural gays are part of communities that can be supportive, and the evidence is clear that many LGBT individuals are attached to their rural places. Each essay has endnotes, and the resultant bibliography is extensive. There is much to appreciate in this collection, and it should open new avenues for research. Rural places have always shaped gender and sexuality, and the rejection of the stereotypical rural place as being hostile to the LGBT community is an important step in understanding queer life in the US. Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries. --Anthony A. Hickey, Western Carolina University