Not in our community: Queer women challenge religious homophobia in rural Kentucky

Abstract

“Not in my backyard” (NIMBY) movements emerge when a social or political event spurs opposition from local residents. Much research on NIMBY movements concentrates on local residents’ efforts to defend their community from unwanted “outsiders” or elements, such as a waste incinerator or sex offenders. Little is written on how NIMBY activism can redefine a place to be more inclusive of sexual minorities and supportive of progressive social initiatives. After the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling in favor of marriage equality in Obergefell v. Hodges, Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples citing her religious beliefs. Davis’ actions galvanized marriage-equality and religious-freedom activists in the region. Pro-marriage-equality activists included lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, and queer women who viewed Davis’ action as an attack on their legitimacy in the community. Drawing on 11 interviews with queer women in Kentucky, we explore how their activist work in Rowan County challenged small-town intolerance and religious homophobia and helped to re-form the region as more a progressive space for sexual minorities.

Keywords:

• Kentucky
• Kim Davis
• lesbian activism
• marriage equality
• not in my backyard (NIMBY) activism
• religious freedom
• rural queer studies

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Anna Blanton, Kathleen M. Blee, Toni Hobbs, Nashia Fife, and all the interview participants for their support of the project. The authors gratefully acknowledge the data collected by, and the support of, MSU’s Rowan County Marriage Equality and Religious Liberty Project (MERL). We also acknowledge Research and Sponsored Programs and the Department of Sociology, Social Work and Criminology at Morehead State University and the University of Cincinnati’s University Research Council and Charles Phelps Taft Research Center for generously supporting this study. Finally, we thank Emily Kazyak and three anonymous reviewers at the Journal of Lesbian Studies for their thoughtful feedback.

Notes

1 According to 2018 US Census estimates, approximately 94 percent of Rowan County, Kentucky, residents identified as non-Hispanic whites. Therefore, it is unsurprising that all of our respondents identified as white.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bernadette Barton

Bernadette Barton is Professor of Sociology and Director of Gender Studies at Morehead State University. She is the author of Stripped: More Stories from Exotic Dancers (2017), Pray the Gay Away: The Extraordinary Lives of Bible Belt Gays (2014), and Raunch Culture (forthcoming).

Ashley Currier

Ashley Currier is Professor and Head of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Cincinnati. She is the author of Politicizing Sex in Contemporary Africa: Homophobia in Malawi (2018) and Out in Africa: LGBT Organizing in Namibia and South Africa (2012).