ABSTRACT
Tell me if you’ve heard this story. Against their better judgment, a cash-strapped, multimarginalized queer/trans person accepts a job in a provincial town. Awash in a sea of normies, they lay low and dream about making it back to the city. But faced with a crisis, our queer/trans protagonist allies themselves with the locals, confronts their own prejudgments, and learns a valuable lesson about life. While this plot bears a striking resemblance to The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, it also narrates how I came to political organizing in Indiana. Drawing from these experiences, I argue that rural areas might not be as politically regressive as we’d imagine—and that engaging in these spaces can teach us a lot about rhetoric and about political organizing. But before I get ahead of myself, I’ll explain how I got here in the first place.
