At that point-the mid-seventies-there were no positive gay characters to speak of in movies or on TV, and there certainly wasn’t any internet that might have helped me get a glimpse of gay life outside Appalachian small towns, so I had no role models to pattern myself after. I was super lucky in making some lesbian friends even before I came out, which meant that when I did realize I was gay, I already had a small support system, and that was lifesaving, but I didn’t know any other gay guys. Jeff: I suppose it was the sense of isolation. Julia: What was the hardest thing about growing up gay in Appalachia? In this conversation, Mann and Watts take a closer look at what growing up queer in Appalachia was like for them and how their identities influenced their reading and writing. In the newly published LGBTQ Fiction and Poetry from Appalachia, editors Jeff Mann and Julia Watts have collected works “that give Appalachian queer voices-members of a double minority-an opportunity to be heard at a time when many people in power would prefer to silence or ignore them.” This collection, the first of its kind, gathers original and previously published fiction and poetry from lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer authors from Appalachia.
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