This choice spares us the “hillbilly elegy.” Queer Appalachians are on their own

You can’t stop the Queer South Is Them’s series highlighting LGBTQ+ voices of resistance and resilience in the American South, created with guest editor Adrienne Maree Brown. Since these stories were published, Hurricane Helene has devastated areas in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and Virginia, leaving nearly 200 people dead, a million without power and countless homes destroyed or displaced. We ask readers to support local relief efforts wherever possible. Check out our Hurricane Helene Relief Resource Guide to learn how you can help.

At 9 a.m. on a hot July day in West Virginia, sweat was already streaming down my face in my goat milking barn when I received text messages from friends across the country: Donald Trump had chosen Ohio Senator JD Vance as his running mate.

We call JD A Crook in Appalachia and his memoirs Hillbilly Elegy came out in 2016. Most of the region spent well over a year talking about how much the book reinforced tired, false narratives about these mountains as monolithically white, conservative, poor and “backward” and anyone out here who is queer and trans is, further erased, Black and Brown and Indigenous. As is often the case when Appalachia sounds the alarm, no one nationally listened—until they were affected.

When friends in New York City or California texted me about Trump choosing Vance, all I could say was, “I’m still so tired of talking about him from last time.” When I sent a message to Appalachia, my tone was even more desperate: “Nobody ever listens to us.” I stayed off social media for a few weeks. I also decided to stop listening to the news in the milk shed in the mornings and left my phone in the RV, knowing that the quieter I am, the calmer the goats will be. I focused on the sounds of the milk hitting the metal bucket and the sounds of the goats chewing grain. I felt their bodies relax on the milk stand next to me as we settled into our morning routine.