Redneck men gay
By Dr. Laura McGuire
I was born in Tennessee on a bright Thanksgiving morning, surrounded by the same Appalachian Mountains my family had called home since the 1790s. My mother is Mediterranean and Hispanic and hails from the Northeast, but my father’s family has thrived for nine generations in the deepest part of the South. As a little lady, I played on my great-papaw’s 87-acre farm, fishing, shooting, and eating grapes off the vine. Life’s pace is different here. I was gifted my first gun at the age of eight, my papaw still owns a active farm, I perceive how a persimmon can predict next year’s weather, and a dirt-crusted pickup feels like house. But my connection with my heritage and identity is messy, as messy as biting into a summertime peach, and oftentimes, is painful.
Laura McGuire (l) with her great-papaw, Quince, on their Appalachian farm.
There is beauty in this part of America—white chapels nestled in rolling mountains, streams that flow forever, lush vegetation and rich clay that supply precious minerals and food to the rest of the country. Our history, music, and art are a mix of the Irish, German, Scottish, Black, and Indigenous people who possess lived, loved
Redneck TV star ignites gay outrage
A Short History of Redneck
In the cotton counties along the river in Mississippi, where there are three black skins for every white one, the gentlemen are nervous . But not of the Negroes. Indeed, the gentlemen and the Negroes are afraid together. They are fearful of the rednecks . . .who in politics and in person are pressing down upon the rich, flat Delta from the hard, eroded hills. They may lynch a Negro; they may destroy the last of a civilization which has great vices and excellent virtues, beauty and ability, responsibility beside arrogance, and a preserving honesty beside a destructive self-indulgence.
—Jonathan Daniels, A Southerner Discovers the South (1938)
Arkie, clay-eater, corn-cracker, compone, cracker, dirt-eater, hillbilly, hoosier, lowdowner, express white, peckerwood, pinelander, unfortunate buckra, poor white, needy white trash, redneck, ridge-runner, sandhiller, tacky, wool hat. . . . And this, of course, does not exhaust the list. Rural poor and working-class white southerners have endured a broad range of slurs throughout US history, many derived from geographic regions, dietary habits, physical appearance, or types of clothing. Epithets aim
I was at the inaugural annual Intercollegiate Adventist GSA Coalition (IAGC) meeting the first time I saw Seventh-Gay Adventists, a film that documents the lives of three couples who identify as members of both the queer community and the very conservative Seventh-day Adventist faith community.
A year and a half later, I have seen the film in eight states across the nation.
I hold helped with every screening I’ve attended by manning the booths and representing IAGC. During these screenings, I have become fasten to the dynamic husband-and-wife duo who produced and directed the film. Stephen Eyer and Daneen Akers are part of my family now.
It has been such a blessing to witness firsthand the transformative power of this documentary. At every screening, the crowd reacts differently, falling on unique points in their kind of sexual orientation, gender, faith, beliefs, race, and backgrounds.
It is always a special experience, but them most recent screening I attended was certainly my favorite. Collegedale, Tennessee, is known for organism a primarily Seventh-day Adventist town. It is home to Seventh-day Adventist owned corporations such as Small Deb