Real Queer America
LGBT Stories from Red States
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Narrated by:
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Samantha Allen
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By:
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Samantha Allen
About this listen
A transgender reporter's narrative tour through the surprisingly vibrant queer communities sprouting up in red states, offering a vision of a stronger, more humane America.
Ten years ago, Samantha Allen was a suit-and-tie-wearing Mormon missionary. Now she's a senior Daily Beast reporter happily married to another woman. A lot in her life has changed, but what hasn't changed is her deep love of Red State America, and of queer people who stay in so-called "flyover country" rather than moving to the liberal coasts.
In Real Queer America, Allen takes us on a cross-country road-trip stretching all the way from Provo, Utah to the Rio Grande Valley to the Bible Belt to the Deep South. Her motto for the trip: "Something gay every day." Making pit stops at drag shows, political rallies, and hubs of queer life across the heartland, she introduces us to scores of extraordinary LGBT people working for change, from the first openly transgender mayor in Texas history to the manager of the only queer night club in Bloomington, Indiana, and many more.
Capturing profound cultural shifts underway in unexpected places and revealing a national network of chosen family fighting for a better world, Real Queer America is a treasure trove of uplifting stories and a much-needed source of hope and inspiration in these divided times.
©2019 Samantha Allen (P)2019 Hachette AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"Real Queer America is a book necessary for anyone in—or allied with—the queer community, especially those of us who see the bad news day after day. [Allen is] sharing the beauty of the spaces that LGBTQ+ people have carved out for themselves, and she's giving credit where credit is very much overdue, because it's the queer folk who live and stay in red states—whether by choice or due to a lack of options—who have to survive there and work to make them better."—Los Angeles Times
"A powerful book of memoir and reportage...It is difficult to capture universality in a way that also celebrates uniqueness. Allen does so through the diversity of the individual stories she uplifts, giving any reader an entry point into LGBTQ lives... [She writes] with a vulnerability and humility as approachable and accessible as it is profoundly moving."—New York Times Book Review
"Allen's award-winning work as an LGBT journalist for platforms like Fusion and The Daily Beast is both radically empathetic and comprehensively analytical. This is a balance she has upheld admirably in Real Queer America, an exploration of queer communities in conservative parts of the country-communities that are often overlooked in conversations about what it means to be queer, American, or both. Use this title to help you chart the course of your next cross-country road trip."—Harper's Bazaar
Featured Article: The Best Trans and Nonbinary Listens
As our society becomes more inclusive, some of our most underrepresented communities are getting a much-needed opportunity to tell their stories. For this list, we’ve come up with some of the best trans and nonbinary listens, across all genres and age categories. And because we know that authenticity is important to listeners, our selections are almost exclusively written by queer, trans, and nonbinary authors.
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How she stressed Creole, but I guess it was a badge if honor not being regular black.
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The Song and the Silence
- A Story About Family, Race, and What Was Revealed in a Small Town in the Mississippi Delta While Searching for Booker Wright
- By: Yvette Johnson
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
"Have to keep that smile", said Booker Wright in the 1966 NBC documentary Mississippi: A Self-Portrait. At the time Wright was a waiter in a Whites-only restaurant and a local business owner who would become an unwitting icon of the civil rights movement. For he did the unthinkable: Before a national audience, he described what life was truly like for the Black people of Greenwood, Mississippi.
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Exceeded every expectation
- By ZeeJ84 on 05-23-21
By: Yvette Johnson
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The Wrong End of the Table
- A Mostly Comic Memoir of a Muslim Arab American Woman Just Trying to Fit In
- By: Ayser Salman, Reza Aslan - foreword
- Narrated by: Ayser Salman, Assaf Cohen
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Part memoir and part how-not-to guide, The Wrong End of the Table is everything you wanted to know about Arabs but were afraid to ask, with chapters such as “Tattoos and Other National Security Risks,” “You Can’t Blame Everything on Your Period; Sometimes You’re Going to Be a Crazy Bitch: and Other Advice from Mom,” and even an open letter to Trump. This is the story of every American outsider on a path to find themselves in a country of beautiful diversity.
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Not what I was looking for
- By Amazon Customer on 09-01-22
By: Ayser Salman, and others
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My Two Moms
- Lessons of Love, Strength, and What Makes a Family
- By: Zach Wahls, Bruce Littlefield
- Narrated by: Kris Koscheski
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
On January 31, 2011, Zach Wahls addressed the Iowa House Judiciary Committee in a public forum regarding civil unions. The 19-year-old son of a same-sex couple, Wahls proudly proclaimed, "The sexual orientation of my parents has had zero effect on the content of my character." Hours later, his speech was posted on YouTube, where it went viral, quickly receiving more than two million views. By the end of the week, everyone knew his name and wanted to hear more from the boy with two moms.
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You will not regret listening to this.
- By V. Brown on 06-07-12
By: Zach Wahls, and others
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Happy Wives Club
- One Woman's Worldwide Search for the Secrets of a Great Marriage
- By: Fawn Weaver
- Narrated by: Fawn Weaver
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
Everywhere she looked, Fawn Weaver saw negative portrayals of marriage dominating the airwaves and dooming everyone to failure. Looking at Keith, the love of her life, she knew that wasn't true. Happy Wives Club is Fawn's journey across the world to meet her friends and discover what makes their marriages great. Join her on this exciting, exotic trip across six continents and through more than 18 cities.
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beautiful
- By Amazon Customer on 07-13-18
By: Fawn Weaver
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Normal Gets You Nowhere
- By: Kelly Cutrone
- Narrated by: Kelly Cutrone
- Length: 3 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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With Normal Gets You Nowhere, Kelly Cutrone invites us to get our freak on. History is full of successful, world-changing people who did not fit in. Think Nelson Mandela, Joan of Arc, Eleanor Roosevelt, Amelia Earhart, John Lennon, and Rosa Parks. Instead of changing themselves to accommodate the status quo or what others thought they should be, these people hung a light on their differences - and changed humanity in the process. “I know you don’t feel normal, so why are you trying to act it and prove to everyone you are?” Cutrone says.
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For open minds and hearts.
- By Kelly on 01-06-12
By: Kelly Cutrone
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Love, InshAllah
- The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women
- By: Ayesha Mattu, Nura Maznavi
- Narrated by: Lameece Issaq, Piper Goodeve, Lauren Fortgang, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Romance, dating, sex and - Muslim women? In this groundbreaking collection, 25 American Muslim writers sweep aside stereotypes to share their search for love openly for the first time, showing just how varied the search for love can be - from singles' events and online dating, to college flirtations and arranged marriages, all with a uniquely Muslim twist. These compelling stories of love and romance create an irresistible balance of heart-warming and tantalizing, always revealing and deeply relatable.
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Sex, Love, & Feminism, in the Muslim Women's World
- By Susie on 03-06-13
By: Ayesha Mattu, and others
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Midnight in Siberia
- A Train Journey into the Heart of Russia
- By: David Greene
- Narrated by: David Greene
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Through the stories of fellow travelers, Greene explores the challenges and opportunities facing the new Russia: a nation that boasts open elections and newfound prosperity yet still continues to endure oppression, corruption, and stark inequality. Set against the wintery landscape of Siberia, Greene’s lively travel narrative offers a glimpse into the soul of 20th century Russia: how its people remember their history and look forward to the future.
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Long String of NPR Short Reports
- By Sara on 04-13-15
By: David Greene
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The Politician
- An Insider's Account of John Edwards's Pursuit of the Presidency and the Scandal that Brought Him Down
- By: Andrew Young
- Narrated by: Kevin Foley
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Like a nonfiction version of All the King's Men, The Politician offers a truly disturbing, even shocking, perspective on the risks taken and tactics employed by a man determined to rule the most powerful nation on earth.
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Politician Phony. A must listen!!!
- By Sherman on 02-09-10
By: Andrew Young
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How to Be Black
- By: Baratunde Thurston
- Narrated by: Baratunde Thurston
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Beyond memoir, this guidebook offers practical advice on everything from "How to Be the Black Friend" to "How to Be the (Next) Black President" to "How to Celebrate Black History Month". This is a humorous, intelligent, and audacious guide that challenges and satirizes the so-called experts, purists, and racists who purport to speak for all Black people. With honest storytelling and biting wit, Baratunde plots a path not just to blackness, but one open to anyone interested in simply "how to be".
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Funny yet insightful!
- By Theodore on 02-15-12
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Americanized
- Rebel Without a Green Card
- By: Sara Saedi
- Narrated by: Lameece Issaq
- Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
At 13, bright-eyed straight-A student Sara Saedi uncovered a terrible family secret: She was breaking the law simply by living in the United States. Only two years old when her parents fled Iran, she didn't learn of her undocumented status until her older sister wanted to apply for an after-school job but couldn't because she didn't have a Social Security number. Fear of deportation kept Sara up at night, but it didn't keep her from being a teenager.
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Corny Cheesy
- By Mina00 on 09-06-18
By: Sara Saedi
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The Very Worst Missionary
- A Memoir or Whatever
- By: Jamie Wright
- Narrated by: Madeleine Lambert
- Length: 4 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
After finding Jesus at a suburban megachurch, young Jamie Wright trades in the easy life on the cul-de-sac for the green fields of Costa Rica. There, along with her husband, kids, and the family cat, she intends to serve God and make converts. But she soon loses faith and falls into a funk of cynicism and despair. Fortunately, Knives the cat is there, looking on with just enough disinterest to make her laugh...and dare her to try another way. That other way turns out to be telling the truth. She launches a renegade blog, Jamie the Very Worst Missionary, which wins a large following.
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Didn’t like the book
- By Jonathan on 04-17-20
By: Jamie Wright
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It Was All a Dream
- A New Generation Confronts the Broken Promise to Black America
- By: Reniqua Allen
- Narrated by: Shayna Small
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Reniqua Allen tells the stories of Black millennials searching for a better future in spite of racist policies that have closed off traditional versions of success. Many watched their parents and grandparents play by the rules, only to sink deeper and deeper into debt. They witnessed their elders fight to escape cycles of oppression for more promising prospects, largely to no avail. Today, in this post-Obama era, they face a critical turning point. Interweaving her own experience, Allen shares surprising stories of hope and ingenuity.
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Great statistics and facts
- By Eve on 05-18-19
By: Reniqua Allen
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This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Ann Patchett
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Blending literature and memoir, Ann Patchett, author of State of Wonder and Bel Canto examines her deepest commitments: to writing, family, friends, dogs, books, and her husband in This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage. Together, these essays, previously published in The Atlantic, Harper, Vogue, and The Washington Post, form a resonant portrait of a life lived with loyalty and with love.
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Entertaining, engrossing, and elucidative essays
- By Bonny on 01-07-14
By: Ann Patchett
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Excellent Daughters
- The Secret Lives of Young Women Who Are Transforming the Arab World
- By: Katherine Zoepf
- Narrated by: Katherine Zoepf
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
For more than a decade, Katherine Zoepf has lived in or traveled throughout the Arab world, reporting on the lives of women, whose role in the region has never been more in flux. Only a generation ago, female adolescence as we know it in the West did not exist in the Middle East. There were only children and married women. Today, young Arab women outnumber men in universities, and a few are beginning to face down religious and social tradition in order to live independently, to delay marriage, and to pursue professional goals.
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Best book on Middle East written this decade
- By Zuzana B on 07-02-17
By: Katherine Zoepf
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From Jack the Ripper to the modern-day drug cartels, discover the most notorious crimes and criminals in history. With a foreword written and narrated by best-selling crime author Peter James, The Crime Book explores over 100 crimes and examines the science, psychology and sociology of criminal behavior. Hear the gory details of each crime and how they were solved, with renowned quotes and detailed criminal profiles letting you delve into the criminal mind.
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In the era of Grindr and same-sex marriage, gay bars are closing down at an alarming rate. What, then, was the gay bar? Set between Los Angeles, San Francisco, and London, Gay Bar takes us on a time-traveling, transatlantic bar hop through pulsing nightclubs, after-work dives, hardcore leather bars, gay cafes, and saunas, asking what these places meant to their original clientele, what they meant to the author as a younger man, and what they mean now.
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Hey, I'm Jamie, a 29-year-old trans guy from the UK. I've been transitioning for 12 years now after realising I was trans (by accident!) at sixteen years old. I knew I was a boy since the age of four, but realised whilst growing up that I was different. It was only in my teens that I found the words to express who I was and what I needed to do. Since then, I've been on testosterone for more than a decade - I know, I can't believe it either - I've also had top and bottom surgery and legally changed my sex, so I know a few things about the transitioning process and being trans!
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The Book of Pride captures the true story of the gay rights movement from the 1960s to the present, through richly detailed, stunning interviews with the leaders, activists, and ordinary people who witnessed the movement and made it happen. These individuals fought battles both personal and political, often without the support of family or friends, frequently under the threat of violence and persecution.
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Before We Were Trans illuminates the stories of people across the globe, from antiquity to the present, whose experiences of gender have defied binary categories. Blending historical analysis with sharp cultural criticism, trans historian and activist Kit Heyam offers a new, radically inclusive trans history, chronicling expressions of trans experience that are often overlooked, like gender-nonconforming fashion and wartime stage performance. Heyam looks to the past to uncover new horizons for possible trans futures.
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As the child of refugees of World War II Europe and a renowned philosopher and scholar of propaganda, Jason Stanley has a deep understanding of how democratic societies can be vulnerable to fascism: Nations don’t have to be fascist to suffer from fascist politics. In fact, fascism’s roots have been present in the United States for more than a century.
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A Warning Too Clear to Ignore
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How the Word Is Passed
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Beginning in his hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the listener on an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks—those that are honest about the past and those that are not—that offer an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping our nation's collective history, and ourselves.
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Sincerely grateful read
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Pageboy
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“Can I kiss you?” It was two months before the world premiere of Juno, and Elliot Page was in his first ever queer bar. The hot summer air hung heavy around him as he looked at her. And then it happened. In front of everyone. A previously unfathomable experience. Here he was on the precipice of discovering himself as a queer person, as a trans person. Getting closer to his desires, his dreams, himself, without the repression he’d carried for so long. But for Elliot, two steps forward had always come with one step back.
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Ah, I wish this were better. I'm disappointed.
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Who's Afraid of Gender?
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Judith Butler, the groundbreaking thinker whose iconic book Gender Trouble redefined how we think about gender and sexuality, confronts the attacks on “gender” that have become central to right-wing movements today. Global networks have formed “anti-gender ideology movements” that are dedicated to circulating a fantasy that gender is a dangerous, perhaps diabolical, threat to families, local cultures, civilization—and even “man” himself. In this book, Butler illuminates the concrete ways that this phantasm of “gender” collects and displaces anxieties and fears of destruction.
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Butler’s reading of Butler was stunning
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By: Judith Butler
What listeners say about Real Queer America
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- dupuytren
- 01-26-20
Shout-out to a queer hero for an excellent job!
The narrative of life as queer people know it is much different than what is reflected in a very small slice of lgbtq+ friendly national outlets and by a who's-who list of prominent people under the broad, inclusive and expansive queer umbrella. Queer life in the heartland is much more fulfilling and diverse than what it is depicted to be. Of course there are major challenges and everyday threats to our very existence and to the safety of our community but that does not mean that a conclusion to arise from that fact should be to pack up shop and leave town for metropoli where queer life can become uninspiring, people can become jaded and the very real connections that makes our relationships prosper at a deeper level can become flimsy threads. This book is an eye-opener for everyone who does not know enough about the queerness of red america. Humanity of people trumps indecency of everyday brinksmanship that we see from depraved politicians and anyone who has both the courage and the time to invest in real relationships with actual people will open up their heart and dispel any seed of prejudice and bias which basically is the result lack of information and connectedness. Terrific stories and inspired narration!
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6 people found this helpful
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- Benjamin Mengebier
- 11-18-20
Exceptional!
Satisfying curiosities you didn't know you had about diverse people you want to know by the end of the story. Samantha is an incredible storyteller, nourishing the senses throughout and make you ache for the foods, smells and sights enough to consider moving to a red state. I hope Samantha writes more books like this one.
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- storm baughman
- 04-03-23
So good!!
I loved this book! It's well written and thoughtful representation of the closeness of queer communities made me proud to be part of my own red state queer world ❤️
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- Kyle M. Palmer
- 07-08-19
Critical Commentary On Life Outside the Coasts
One thing I’ve always noticed growing up in the Midwest is how little my experience is reflected in the national media. Samantha Allen does an excellent job exploring the different facets of a full LGBTQ+ experience in America, in what can only be her voice. You have not read or listened to a book like this before and history will thank her for writing it.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Seth
- 08-12-23
Perfect!
As a gay ex Mormon from Utah, I related in some ways to Samantha’s experience. I thought for so long that I wanted to move to a bigger city. Don’t get me wrong. I still really want to leave Utah. It never felt like home to me. But reading this book has made me rethink on where I want to move to. It has left me with a lot of introspective questions.
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- Jessica T
- 12-12-19
This experience needed to be explored.
As a Floridian, I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed this exploration of LGBT activism in the south and in "red states" in general. I never identified as a "southerner" because I've always been very liberal. But a great deal of my childhood was spent camping, hiking and canoing in the woods of southern states, and I wouldn't trade that experience for anything. It is great to explore the space between two truths that seem to oppose each other, which this book does very well.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 06-08-22
I Might have given it a different title
It's a good book. I enjoyed it. The title is all wrong though. It's not really "Real Queer America: LGBTQ stories from Red States". She visited Austin, Houston, Provo, Atlanta and Bloomington, IN. All metropolitan areas in red states. Let's face it...cities typically lean liberal, even in the south. So, not really red. Bloomington? It's a college town home of the Kinsey Institute. I've have spent most of my life in Indiana, Bloomington is a college town and they tend to be far more liberal. She didn't visit say a LaPorte, IN which is ridiculously conservative and not very accepting of the LGBTQ community. And while she does tell really great stories about queer people and the things they're doing, it's mostly about how they relate to her and how it makes her feel. A better title would have been "My Transition in Red States by Samantha Allen". I like it. I do. The title is just all wrong.
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1 person found this helpful
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- L
- 09-28-20
Worthwhile and uplifting
I love Samantha Allen’s beautiful, uplifting perspective on America’s inherent queerness. Her descriptions of queer hotspots in “Red America” made me want to take a road trip and experience them all for myself - no easy feat! A very worthwhile read.
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- KingMB
- 06-28-21
Enjoyed very much!
Eye-opening, insightful, honest, sobering, hopeful, lovely, encouraging. Read this to prepare for a book club meeting at which the author will be present, and so glad I did!
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- Jackie Sp
- 12-17-19
Excellent read
This was such a wonderful book and it discussed some truly important topics which are especially urgent for cis-people to hear/read. The narration was beautiful, and Samantha's voice is so smooth and easy to listen to. I was truly sad when I reached the end of this book, so I anticipate revisiting it.
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