The rise of Queerphobic policies and rhetoric, including drag bans and attacks on transgender youth, uniquely impacts rural communities, including rural Appalachia, where Queer-affirming resources are limited, and conservative anti-Queer politics are prevalent. Nonetheless, in the rural Southwest Virginia region of central Appalachia, drag artists routinely organize and perform a variety of shows. With theoretical understandings from drag pedagogy (Keenan (b) provides a source of confidence and resilience; (c) builds community and kinship centering safety and joy; (d) as disruptor monoliths of rurality.
Whitten et al. (Sat,) studied this question.