Not in our community: Queer women challenge religious homophobia in rural Kentucky.

"Not in my backyard" (NIMBY) movements emerge when a social or political event spurs opposition from local residents. Much research on NIMBY movements concentrates on local residents' efforts to defend their community from unwanted "outsiders" or elements, such as a waste incinerator or sex offenders. Little is written on how NIMBY activism can redefine a place to be more inclusive of sexual minorities and supportive of progressive social initiatives. After the Supreme Court's 2015 ruling in favor of marriage equality in Obergefell v. Hodges, Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples citing her religious beliefs. Davis' actions galvanized marriage-equality and religious-freedom activists in the region. Pro-marriage-equality activists included lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, and queer women who viewed Davis' action as an attack on their legitimacy in the community. Drawing on 11 interviews with queer women in Kentucky, we explore how their activist work in Rowan County challenged small-town intolerance and religious homophobia and helped to re-form the region as more a progressive space for sexual minorities.

How Like Perceives Like: Gay People on "Gaydar".

When lacking explicit knowledge of someone's sexual orientation, gay people commonly assess the likelihood that another is gay using their "gaydar." The term gaydar is a playful mix of the word gay with radar, suggesting that one can sense, intuit, or perceive some set of characteristics in another that signal a shared minority status. While commonly mentioned, the exact criteria a gay person uses when employing their gaydar are little discussed. Drawing methodologically on a series of five focus groups of self-identified lesbians and gay men, this study explores the physical, visual, energetic, and conversational cues gay people consider when they employ the trope of gaydar. Specifically, interview subjects most often described their gaydar as triggered by the following elements: physical presentation, including mannerisms, dress, and voice; interactions, especially eye contact; a presence or absence of certain conversational social norms; and, intangibly, as a kind of energetic exchange.

"Abomination"--life as a Bible belt gay.

Drawing on observation, autoethnography, and audio-taped interviews, this article explores the religious backgrounds and experiences of Bible Belt gays. In the Bible Belt, Christianity is not confined to Sunday worship. Christian crosses, messages, paraphernalia, music, news, and attitudes permeate everyday settings. Consequently, Christian fundamentalist dogma about homosexuality-that homosexuals are bad, diseased, perverse, sinful, other, and inferior-is cumulatively bolstered within a variety of other social institutions and environments in the Bible Belt. Of the 46 lesbians and gay men interviewed for this study (age 18-74 years), most describe living through spirit-crushing experiences of isolation, abuse, and self-loathing. This article argues that the geographic region of the Bible Belt intersects with religious-based homophobia. Informants explained that negative social attitudes about homosexuality caused a range of harmful consequences in their lives including the fear of going to hell, depression, low self-esteem, and feelings of worthlessness.

The house on transcript avenue.

Abstract "The House on Transcript Avenue" offers, in the style of If These Walls Could Talk, a true account of the parade of lesbian couples, friends, and ex-lovers through one house over a 13-year period. This humorous anecdotal tale illustrates the hilariously enmeshed lives of lesbian lovers, friends, and ex-lovers.