Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States

Fabulously resonant book reminding us that red states aren’t entirely right wing, bigots seeking to implement bathroom bills. I think we all know that, but especially in light of this week’s events, need to be reminded of it. Allen does a wonderful job in taking us through the places of importance to her and her transition.From Provo to Austin, Bloomington, East Tennessee and beyond. While the book includes sweet moments such as the elevator where she met her now wife, the book is far more about the people who remain in those communities doing the heavy lifting, something Allen admits she isn’t able to do herself. The advisors at Encircle, the owners of cafes and LGBT bars, the mayors, the activists are the real people who shine through in Allen’s writing.An excellent read at any time, and while I appreciate the closure in her epilogue on some issues, I also hope Allen revisits some of these themes in additional writing, especially the gentrification issues. With all the chaos of the Trump administration it’s amazing how distant the Indiana legislation seems

Real Queer America – Samantha AllenI thought this book amazing, and it made me happy…and hopeful. Now, how often can you say that about a book?It chronicles a journey of a transgender reporter and journalist as she revisits the small town communities that had important parts of her life, before and after transition.So, that means taking her back to Brigham Young University in 2007, and resigning from the church the next year. It goes on to Bloomington, Indiana, where she met her future wife in an elevator of the Kinsey Institute, a great story. More time, and some activism, was spent in Texas, Tennessee and Mississippi, each time marveling at pockets of outright acceptance, glossed over by being in red states. Her writing style is warm and inviting, full of vulnerability and perspective, and I would welcome reading about her future journeys.

The minute this book landed on my doorstep, I dove right in and didn’t come up for air until I had finished the chapter on Johnson City. Reading through Samantha’s queer roadtrip across America, I let the locales and characters wash over me. The political and social asides sprinkled throughout were never surprising to me, but always relevant to the passage at hand. They add historical depth and context for the familiar and unfamiliar alike. The story invites you in like a warm bath and tries to leave you with a gentle scrubbing of your biases and preconceived notions. It promises not to scald you with cries of “Transphobe!” and “Ignorant!” if the stories and humans within its pages don’t conform to your previous notions of queer life in red states. It gently leads you down the same road the author takes: heartbreaks, joys, and mundane inbetweens. I feel so represented in these pages as a member of the LGBT community, but it also gave me plenty to learn from and chew on. Your take-aways from this book are not prescribed like a lecture. But there’s hope that you might change your thinking in some way to be kinder, more gentle to the souls depicted therein. This book is well-written enough for either single-sitting bingeing or multiple-day digestion. I promise you’ll find the sense of joy and camaraderie everyone needs more of these days, regardless of your feelings on the topic at hand, with the same sense of nostalgia as though you had taken the road trip yourself. If you feel any desire to crack this one open, I promise you’ll enjoy it cover to cover.

I couldn't put this book down. It's such an important perspective that's so infrequently heard, especially on the coasts. We spend a lot of time sneering at red states and the South, but this book really slaps us in the face that for all our words about diversity and safety, there are areas where the LGBTQ community is doing more and going farther in red states than we do in blue states. It gave me hope and made me determined to work harder. Excellent book.

This book makes an important political and representational point about the U.S. today -- that we are not as divided between Red and Blue as our popular media depicts -- and that local LGBTQ efforts may be transformative in ways that national/international initiatives on the coasts cannot reach. Through offering her readers intimate and loving portraits of local activists, Samantha Allen gives us hopeful sites of collective action and activism, no less meaningful for happening "below the radar" of national attention.Beyond the important political work of this book, it is also just a pleasure to read, like sitting down for drinks with a witty friend after she gets back from a long road trip, full of stories. It's the kind of book one forgets one is reading.I call this "public intellectual work" because Allen artfully weaves together complex concepts in gender and sexuality studies with concrete examples in a readable and relatable way. While this book will likely be most popular among LGBTQ readers and allies, I can readily imagine sending this book to an interested parent or relative who wants to learn more about gender transitioning, queerness, and related experiences... Would make a great holiday gift!

This was an excellent read. Digging into the 'in between' states, the author covers her own personal journey intermingled with intimate portraits from others in key 'red' areas. Compassionate, well written, enjoyable to read overall. She was a bit defensive of the metropolis/coastal cities, but I can understand why.

Really interesting book which opens a window to life as an lgbtq person in red states. I thought it would cover more cities than it did but it was still very interesting nonetheless.The author doesn't hide her dislike for big cities but guess that's just personal opinion and I do agree (spoilers maybe!) that if we want to change red cities and we need to make an effort an live in them and try and change the scene. Overall very interesting