PERSPECTIVES
Country Roads
A Gay Appalachian’s Search for the Place He Belongs By
Andrew Price
There’s a joke in West Virginia, my home state. The joke tells of a worn-out shell of its former self. It’s a testament to a town – and a man traveling through every state, at each stop finding a golden state – devoted to a single, sooty industry; the slow downhill journey phone with a sign advertising “Direct calls to Heaven: $1,000,000.” of the coal industry took coal country with it. Still, this is not my only When he arrives in the hills of West Virginia, however, he can’t seem home in the state. I have lived in three different parts of West Virto find the familiar phone with the familiar sign. Asking a local ginia. I hail from the holler in the South, received a bachelor’s degree woman, the traveler is directed to an unassuming payphone along the in the steep hills of the Northern Panhandle, and finished my edustreet, where he finds a weathered sign advertising “Direct calls to cation with a master’s degree earned on the banks of the Potomac in Heaven: 99 cents.” Shocked, he implores the local woman to tell him the Eastern Panhandle. Living in these vastly different areas taught why it is so cheap. She laughs and explains, “It’s a local call.” me about the state, Appalachia, and being queer. The story in each I must speculate that the local woman was not standing there region is familiar but not the same. with her wife, nor did she appear to be gender nonconforming. While Today, having left West Virginia, I work at a large university in West Virginia can be “Almost neighboring Virginia. My queer sibHeaven,” it depends on the lens lings, misled by stereotypes of my through which you look. It is a state, often ask what it was like As with broader Appalachian beautiful state: a beacon for outgrowing up gay in West Virginia. culture – prideful and nostalgic, doorsy folks, its borders brimming I’ve struggled to answer this comwith Appalachian pride. However, plex question of identity and culture, while simultaneously riddled the state presents a bind for us queer often unsuccessfully. folks. As with broader Appalachian I grew up surrounded by workwith injustice and inequality – culture – prideful and nostalgic, ing-class families. I didn’t realize it while simultaneously riddled with at the time, but my hometown was queer identity in a rural state is injustice and inequality – queer notably diverse in identity and marked by contradictions. identity in a rural state is marked by thought. I remember seeing visibly contradictions. In the same breath, diverse communities and spaces. you want to love your state and Numerous religions were practiced decry its ingrained bigotry. You want to stay nestled in its beautiful in the various churches and mosques in the area. Nonetheless, openmountains, while simultaneously clawing your way out. You feel pride mindedness was chilly at best – especially around gender diversity while acknowledging the dirt under your nails. and sexuality. Growing up, everyone learned the roles they played and I grew up in Southern West Virginia in a breezy town seated in acted accordingly, especially young men. Manufacturing communities the valleys at the foot of East River Mountain. At the height of the mirror their industry – reproduction – so individuality was not often coal era, the town was akin to a small New York; now it has become praised. Long hair was for girls, not boys. Men wore specific clothes 150 | Boston Pride 2018
