Transgender in the Heartland: Seeking Community in Small Town Mid-America

This project uses oral history testimonies to reveal the ways in which coming out as transgender in smaller communities across the Midwest has presented a specific set of challenges for some transgendered people in overcoming gender binaries and discrimination, and finding community, education, and support. Since last spring, I have interviewed more than a dozen transgender Midwesterners – largely white, working class, people in their thirties and beyond – and we cover much ground, from growing up in the Midwest and learning about gender to coming out to parents, children, and employers to transitioning in various ways. What has struck me most about being transgender in the Heartland is the range of geographic challenges: at times this means lack of resources, education about gender identities, a supportive community, and acceptance. At other times, however, being transgender in the Heartland means finding community in unusual places. In South Bend, Indiana, where I live, several transgender women met only by taking an 80-mile road trip to a transgender clothing store in the Chicago suburbs. Other transgender people have found community at church, at drag king performances, and at a veteran support group. I’ll discuss some of the ways in which people searched and found community in non-traditional, ingenious ways. I have started donating the audio recordings and transcripts to Midwestern archives to add to scholarly knowledge about growing up transgender in small town Mid-America.