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Research about sexuality in America typically focuses on sexual and gender minorities who live in urban areas, especially near the eastern and western coasts of the United States.147 This focus means that sociological research on LGBTQ life is quite lopsided. Although 2.9 to 3.8 million LGBTQ people live in rural areas in the United States,148 only about 3.5 percent of the sociological research into LGBTQ people in the United States examines rural residents.149 Most of the rest of the research focuses on major cities with large LGBTQ populations such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago. The focus on a handful of urban areas obscures the lives of rural and small-town LGBTQ residents. LGBTQ experiences differ in different communities due to different laws, customs, and levels of public support for equal rights.150 Rural and small-town LGBTQ people are no less “authentically” gay or lesbian than their counterparts living in major urban areas.151

Because of the emphasis on urban areas when it comes to exploring LGBTQ life, there is less awareness of the complexity of rural LGBTQ life. One downside of rural LGBTQ life is that many rural LGBTQ people experience isolation and prejudice. For instance, LGBTQ youth in rural schools face more hostile climates than those in urban or suburban schools.152 Rural LGBTQ people are also at greater risk of discrimination than their urban counterparts, for a variety of reasons. Rural areas are less likely than urban areas to have laws that protect equal rights, largely because cities tend to be more liberal than rural areas and straight rural residents are less supportive of equal rights than their urban counterparts.153 Living in areas with lower concentrations of same-sex couples—the case in many rural areas and small towns—also reduces the chances of forming a same-sex relationship.154 Not coincidentally, the risk of violence is high. For instance, the infamous 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard happened in Wyoming, the least populated state in America. At the same time, many rural LGBTQ people view rural locations as providing a number of advantages, among them privacy, easy access to the outdoors, and feelings of belonging in tight-knit communities.155

Rural LGBTQ residents often blend in with the local culture rather than being visibly queer, as is typically the case in cities.156 Community interconnectedness and feelings of sameness are important for rural people, including rural LGBTQ people.157 Indeed, research indicates that 42 percent of rural Americans feel very attached to their community and 39 percent feel somewhat attached, and 50 percent say their relationships with neighbors are very important to them.158 Similarly, rural residents are more likely to know their neighbors than are suburban or urban residents.159

But community interconnectedness can be a double-edged sword. While some rural communities accept LGBTQ people who have long been part of that community, others reject them, thus subjecting them to painful social isolation that is even more pronounced in rural areas than urban because rural areas are typically sparsely populated. Many urban LGBTQ people involve themselves in communities of other LGBTQ people, whereas rural LGBTQ people often have communities of people different in gender or sexuality but similar in other ways.

Navigating the world differently than urban LGBQ people does not make rural residents miserable: LGBQ people report similar levels of well-being whether they live in urban or rural areas.160 (Importantly, most research that distinguishes between urban and rural areas considers suburban areas to be urban, since they are part of a larger metropolitan area.) Rural life is not necessarily oppressive for those LGBTQ people who live in it,161 despite disadvantages. Further, recent research shows that about 1 percent of rural residents identify as gay or lesbian, 3 percent identify as bisexual, and 1 percent, as transgender or genderqueer.162 This combined 5 percent figure is about the same percentage as in the entire United States,163 showing that not all LGBTQ people live in cities, as stereotypes suggest. Some certainly do, but even some members of this group think fondly of their rural background.164

In sum, LGBTQ people live in all areas of the United States,165 and the rural/small-town/suburban/urban setting in which they live is not necessarily related to their level of well-being. It is undeniable that LGBTQ people typically face more discrimination in rural areas and small towns than in urban areas.166 That said, LGBTQ people everywhere face problems, and while these problems differ somewhat on the basis of where they live, it is overly simplistic to conclude that one type of living area is better for members of this group than another.

Geographic location shapes social life in complex ways,167 and research about gender and sexuality needs to take this into account. Addressing this issue will help us understand how physical location relates to how people understand their gender and sexuality. The fact that the men I interviewed identify as straight rather than bisexual or gay, as many would expect, highlights the unique ways in which rural areas and small towns affect how people perceive themselves. While some projects have researched rural masculinity or rural LGBTQ people, few have analyzed rural heterosexuality.