#Samantha Allen

[pansyboybloom]

Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States, by Samantha Allen - A Review (8 out of 10)

"That's precisely the question we asked ourselves on November 9th. To stay, or not to stay? I found my answer at the top of the pride flag: there's no way of course that the color of its first stripe was a commentary on our geographically divided political climate. Red didn't mean Republican and blue didn't mean Democrat until the year 2000 anyway. Red is simply the first color in the rainbow, not a sign from the cosmos for me personally. But back when Gilbert Baker first designed that now ubiquitous emblem of LGBT rights in 1978 he did want that red stripe to signify life."

Samantha Allen, a reporter, wife, and transgender woman who was raised in Utah amidst the heart of the Mormon Church and left the South and its redness behind after beginning her transition, asked herself the questions that many Americans, especially queer ones, asked themselves after Donald Trump's win in the United States Presidential race in 2016. But, instead of moving out to Canada, Samantha decided to move down. Down to Utah, Texas, Indiana, and other red states that had seemingly made it clear that she and people like her weren't wanted, to answer a question that she couldn't shake:

Why weren't the Southern queers leaving?

"What makes an oasis, an oasis?"

In Real Queer America, Allen snakes through the south to pockets of queer safe havens ranging from queer bars in small rural towns, to LGBT shelters across from Mormon temples, to protests in Austin, TX, and places of safety throughout all of red America, no matter how small

As a Southerner, this book called to me. It was written with love, with the respect that only a Southern queer can give to other Southern queers. Allen examines the parts of the queer South that those outside its borders might struggle to understand, like LGBT youth political groups that work with the Mormon church to secure transgender rights in Utah. The chapter on Utah struck me in particular. I won't pretend to have any good opinions of the Mormon establishment, but the fondness Allen has for the community who raised her, even after it hurt her, is mind-blowing. Hearing from people like an ex-Mormon radical who works hand in hand with the church to secure LGBT safety, a mother who is deeply supportive of her transgender son because of her Mormoness, not despite it, a gay youth rights advocate who stated in the heart of Mormonism out of an unshakable faith in the goodness in the people of Utah, and, most remarkable, a trans man who has been told by the church that, should he continue his medical transition, he would be excommunicated, but chooses to love God anyways.

Of course, another favorite chapter was that on Texas. As a Texan, I am all too familiar with names like Paxton and Abbott, but also Wendy Davis and the Briggle family. Allen shows the Briggle family as human, and continues that humanity into her trek into the Rio Grande Valley, an often forgotten part of the state, demonized by both the North for its poverty and the South for its tie to immigration from Mexico. Allen approaches the complexities of race interacting with queerness with attempted grace, but her analysis seems to fall flat-- something she acknowledges later on, in Indiana, in which she has in-depth conversations with a black trans woman on how while Allen may feel safe holding hands with her wife here, her blackness will forever keep the 'queer eutopia' she lives in from truly being safe.

She tells Allen: "There is a difference, it seems, between an oasis and a eutopia. When you're in a desert, an oasis can be a single well of water in the sand, or in this case, one college town with an incredible queer bar. A watering hole doesn't make the desert safe, it just makes it habitable. Even then, when you arrive at the refuge that is Bloomington, so much of your experience here depends on the identities you bring with you. And eutopias? Well, eutopias don't exist. If they did, every LGBT person in the country would move there, and queer making would end."

Allen also carries some of the uncomfortable, if not plain disheartening, pro-veteran beliefs quintessential to the South, spending a long time speaking in depth with veterans surrounding Trump's trans military ban. She repeatedly references a shirt she saw while at an Austin rally: I fought for your right to hate me. The reverence she holds and the anger she feels for veterans was upsetting at times and showed further Allen's privilege.

Still, Allen's beliefs need not be perfect in a book about how the Northern need for perfection leads to the Southern LGBT community being abandoned. This abandonment is mentioned in the Indiana chapter when discussing Mike Pence and his 'return to religious freedom' act, which lead to North wide economic protests and boycotts-- that affected the queers of Indiana far more economically than it did Pence. It was grassroots organizations and local state fighters that pushed back the collection of bills, and many, like the ones Allen interviewed, felt abandoned by blue states that seemed to care more about protesting through inaction than action.

Grassroots education, safety, activism, and community are a recurring theme in Real Queer America, unsurprising to any rural or Southern queer. One such example is the Back Door, a queer bar-- not gay, but specifically queer, an active choice maybe by the "dyke daddy" of the club-- that serves as a bastion of fun and sex in a rural town, but also as a place to come together and practice activism.

"The 'Back Door' is a perfect example of the red state queer ethos-- that being politically active is a responsibility, not a choice."

Allen stresses one thing above all: community. The queer chosen family, and the queering of friendships, she argues, are just as threatening to the average bigot as her sex life or her gender identity, if not more. Together, Southern queers thrive-- something many Northerns don't see. Allen critiques Northern journalism from her own writing background, citing that Northerners only care about Southern queer lives when a politician is passing a bathroom bill, a gunman is shooting up a night club, or a high school has their first trans homecoming king, not out of a desire to share his joy, but to further stress how backward the South is. Amidst the shared meals with bisexuals in Tennessee, watching the dancing queers of the Back Door, the support groups across from Mormon temples, the protests in Austin, and more, Allen asks the reader, is the most radical thing to do as a queer person to simply live and love? Is living, thriving, fighting together, arm in arm-- is all of this what being queer in the South means? She finds answers in each place she goes, and while I will leave her answer up to the reader, I find her comment when meeting with the trans cafe owner of Allen's college youth to shine clear:

"Watching Rachel run her own small business in south central Indiana was my first vision of a future where I turn out okay."

Please, check to see if your local library or bookstores have Real Queer America before buying on Amazon! Let's support local reading!

#real queer america #real queer america: lgbt stories from red states #real queer america lgbt stories from red states #samantha allen #queer book recs #queer books #queer nonfiction #queer media #queer book #trans books #trans book #trans media #trans author #queer author #book review #queer book review #long post #ant reads

[haveyoureadthishorrorbookpoll]

Have you read...

note: If you did not finish but feel you read enough to form an opinion, you may choose a ‘Yes’ option instead of 'Partly' (e.g., Yes, I didn’t like it). Similarly, if you’ve never heard of a book until now but formed an opinion from this post, you may wish to select a “no” option e.g., “No, but I want to.”

When the final four women in competition for an aloof, if somewhat sleazy, bachelor's heart arrive on a mysterious island in the Pacific Northwest, they mentally prepare themselves for another week of extreme sleep deprivation, invasive interviews, and of course, the salacious drama that viewers nationwide tune in to eagerly devour. Each woman came on 'The Catch' for her own reasons—brand sponsorships, followers, and yes, even love—and they've all got their eyes steadfastly trained on their respective prizes. Enter Patricia, a temperamental, but woefully misunderstood local, living alone in the dark, verdant woods and desperate to forge a connection of her own. As the contestants perform for the cameras that surround them, Patricia watches from her place in the shadows, a queer specter haunting the bombastic display of heterosexuality before her. But when the cast and crew at last make her acquaintance atop the island's tallest and most desolate peak, they soon realize that if they're to have any hope of making it to the next Elimination Event, they'll first have to survive the night.

submit a horror book!

#Patricia Wants to Cuddle #Samantha Allen #horror books #horror #bookblr #books #sapphic horror #sapphic books #wlw horror #wlw fiction #lesbian #horrorbookpoll #this premise cracked me up sm LOL

[haveyoureadthistransbook]

M to (WT)F: Twenty-Six of the Funniest Moments from My Transgender Journey by Samantha Allen

goodreads

Samantha Allen, award-winning journalist and author of Real Queer America, delivers an intimate look at the unexpectedly hilarious moments of her gender transition. In this poignant audio piece, Samantha Allen takes listeners along for the wild ride of her own transition: the good, the bad, but mostly, the funny. Because once she began this life-changing journey in earnest, Samantha realized that while the emotional trials of gender dysphoria and self-discovery could be harrowing, there were so many laugh-out-loud moments along this winding road. Think about it: While her 20- and 30-something peers were settling into the people they were going to be for the rest of their lives, Samantha was going through puberty all over again, taking the whole womanhood thing step by glamorous step - from learning the differences between men’s and women’s public restrooms to figuring out how to take off a bra without taking her shirt off first. Recognizing these moments of humor brought her joy in times she needed it most - and sharing them, she learned, could be revelatory. Part deeply personal memoir, part comedic adventure, and part insightful exploration of how gender informs the ways we see the world, M to (WT)F is a delightful listen that proves how powerful it can be to find humor in hardship.

Mod opinion: I haven't read this one, but it sounds like a fun memoir.

#m to wtf #m to wtf twenty six of the funniest moments from my transgender journey #samantha allen #polls #trans lit #trans literature #trans books #lgbt lit #lgbt literature #lgbt books #trans woman #own voices #memoir #nonfiction

[lgbtqreads]

September 2023 Deal Announcements

Adult Fiction Author of the forthcoming SHOOT THE MOON Isa Arsen‘s THE UNBECOMING OF MARGARET WOLF, set in 1956, about two Shakespearean actors in a lavender marriage during one summer that will either bring them closer than ever or rip them apart for good, again to Kate Dresser at Putnam, by Chris Bucci at Aevitas Creative Management (world). Creative Writing PhD and former bookseller Gianni…

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#Freydís Moon #Maria Ingrande Mora #Mesha Maren #Remi K. England #Samantha Allen #Shae #Zachary Sergi

[libraryleopard]

Adult nonfiction

Follows journalist Samantha Allen on a cross-country road trip through red states in America to explore queer community and activism, visiting drag shows, rallies, queer bars, and more

Also reflects on her experiences as an ex-Mormon trans woman now married to another woman

#really liked this as a showcase of queer lives and activism #the people she talks to were all interesting and thoughtful so it's not just a road-trip memoir about her own perspective #it was interesting for me to read as someone who was raised in new england and went to college in a very liberal bubble in the midwest #real queer america #2023 reads #YES i'm still trying to review books i read last year haha #samantha allen #nonfiction #lulu speaks #lulu reads #lulu reads real queer america #books

[wordsgood]

my second book of the year! (the first is always four quartets by t.s. eliot.) I’m a queer southerner and I can already tell this book is going to make me cry.

“Even with an attorney like Jeff Sessions whispering in the president’s ear, I would much rather be queer in Alabama than queer in the Castro District. I’m happier in Florida, where I can drive down to No Name Key on a whim as lightning shreds a stormy summer sky, than I would be in Brooklyn, where I could, I guess, take a train out to Montauk? And at a moment when some progressives are weighing the option of abandoning red states or even fleeing the country altogether, I think it’s important for people with the privileges I have - like financial security and whiteness - to do exactly the opposite: to dive deeper into the heart of this country and prove that it can’t possibly be unqueered.”

[image description: two photos of real queer america by Samantha Allen, set on top of a printout of Popsugar’s 2023 reading challenge. end description.]

#real queer america #Samantha Allen #amreading #bookblr #queer reads #read the first chapter so far and I’m already like……. Troy barnes clearly tearing up voice yall I never cry—

[onebluebookworm]

30 Days of Literary Pride 2023 - June 22

Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States- Samantha Allen

#30 days of pride 2023 #30 days of pride #real queer america #samantha allen

[radedneko]

Describing Jeremy is like trying to describe the empty space inside an atom; he's technically there, but for all intents and purposes, he isn't. He's not nothing; he's worse than nothing.

~Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Allen

#quotes kelly likes #patricia wants to cuddle #samantha allen #horror

[biglisbonnews]

15 LGBTQ+ Writers, Actors, and Directors Redefining TV A shortlist of rising queer and trans TV stars whose work you should be watching. https://www.them.us/story/lgbtq-tv-writers-actors-and-directors-you-should-know

#Entertainment #Samantha Allen #them.

[ardentpages]

Book Report for Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States (2019)

ID: a photograph of Samantha Allen, a white woman with shoulder length blonde hair, holding a copy of her own book, Real Queer America. A closer up image of the cover shows the title on a glowing road sign with a highway stretching behind it. / end ID

____

Read in: Dec 2022 (audiobook format)

Readability: This was a quick, easy read — the narration is engaging, and it's not a long book.

Recommendation: I would highly recommend this book to all USAmericans!

Those who live in red states will be buoyed up by the stories Allen tells about the close-knit communities and committed activists that call this large stretch of the USA home. I'm originally from Ohio but have spent the last decade in the South, and I can't count the number of times a passage in this book had me glowing with love and pride for the people who live here.

And those who don't live in red states, who live in New England or the Western coast, will find compelling reasons to stop writing off such a large portion of the USA's queer life. Maybe you'll see that queer folks in the South and midwest have things to teach the queer folks in places like San Francisco and NYC.

Further thoughts:

For me, there was something powerful in each chapter. I found myself re-reading certain passages multiple times.

The chapter on Mormons in Utah challenged me to rethink some biases about queer folks who choose to stay Mormon; the chapter on Tennessee reaffirmed for me how non-romantic, non-sexual relationships can be just as queer in the ways they challenge societal norms; the chapter on Georgia has me motivated to go seek out some more queer community in this state I now call home, and on and on...

#bookblr #book report #real queer america #samantha allen #queer life #queer culture #queer south #december 2022 #2022 reads

[wolfythoughts]

Book Review: Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Allen

Book Review: Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Allen

A reality tv dating show is filming its final four – including a closeted bisexual – on an island in the Pacific Northwest, but things take a fantastical horrifying turn the night before the penultimate decision day. Summary:This season’s Catch is a slightly sleazy bachelor who helped fund Glamstapix, which explains why so many of the final four women are Glamstapix stars. There’s Vanessa a car…

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#bisexual #Black woman main character #book #book review #horror #humorous #lesbian moms #monster #pacific northwest #patricia wants to cuddle #Renee #Review #samantha allen #sasquatch #satire #slasher

[olympain]

The world will get more Invincible in uh... late 2023.

#invincibleedit #animationedit #invincible #mark grayson #allen the alien #atom eve #samantha wilkins #steven yeun #gillian jacobs #seth rogen #invincible amazon #original #*gifs

[garciajey]

Boink!

#invincible #invincible comic #mark grayson #omni man #terra grayson #atom eve #samantha eve wilkins #eve x mark #eve wilkins #oliver grayson #debbie grayson #mark x eve #allen the alien

[haveyoureadthistransbook]

Love & Estrogen by Samantha Allen

goodreads

In this unforgettable meet-cute, Samantha Allen traces her story of self-discovery during gender transition and the life-altering partnership that began with a simple hello in an elevator.

Feeling "unfinished" at the liminal age of twenty-six, the author had already accumulated decades of emotional baggage growing up in a Mormon family and living with gender dysphoria. When she met Corey midtransition, she felt even more like an awkward shape-shifter. Now Samantha shares how taking a chance on that fortuitous encounter meant having the courage to be herself.

Mod opinion: I hadn‘t heard of this one before, but it sounds really interesting!

#love & estrogen #samantha allen #trans books #trans lit #trans literature #lgbt books #lgbt lit #lgbt literature #trans woman #own voices #romance #memoir #nonfiction #polls

[lgbtqreads]

New Releases: June 28, 2022

New Releases: June 28, 2022

Bad Things Happen Here by Rebecca Barrow Luca Laine Thomas lives on a cursed island. To the outside world, Parris is an exclusive, idyllic escape accessible only to the one percent. There’s nothing idyllic about its history, though, scattered with the unsolved deaths of young women—deaths Parris society happily ignores to maintain its polished veneer. But Luca can’t ignore them. Not when the…

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#Aliette de Bodard #Ann McMan #Bad Things Happen Here #Bi #Castleton Hearts #Chelsea M. Cameron #Davey Davis #Dead Letters from Paradise #Dr. Julia Shaw #Godslayers #Harlem Sunset #Just One Look #Nekesa Afia #Patricia Wants to Cuddle #Rebecca Barrow #Samantha Allen #X #Zoe Hana Mikuta

[artblooger19moon]

Invincible

Season 1: March 25 - April 29 2021

Season 2: November 29 2023 - April 4 2024

#invincible #mark grayson #debbie grayson #omni man #oliver grayson #atom eve #samantha eve wilkins #amber bennett #william clockwell #rudy conners #monster girl #rex splode #dupli kate #allen the alien #cecil stedman #donald ferguson #thaedus #the immortal #angstrom levy #annisa #viltrumite #general kregg