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ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

A Different Kind of Community: Queerness and Urban Ambiguity in Northeast Ohio, 1945 - 1980

Monegan, Max Turner
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1555933063637255

Abstract Details

2019, MA, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History.
This thesis examines the LGBTQ+ community in and around Akron, Ohio, between the end of World War II in 1945 and the onset of the AIDS crisis in 1980. Relying primarily on oral history interviews with LGBTQ+ residents of the Akron area I argue scholars need to pay greater attention to rural and suburban locations to more fully understand the mid-to-late 20th century construction of LGBTQ+ identities and culture. Too often historical studies of LGBTQ+ identity and culture assume such identities and culture are only visible in urban places. Existing Scholarship centers the narrative of this history in major cities, most notably New York and San Francisco. Along with this urban narrative, comes a bias towards metronormative understandings of the LGBTQ+ community, culture, and created a series of binaries linking LGBTQ+ and urban, non-LGBTQ+ and rural. This narrow geographical centering of LGBTQ+ culture and identity in the past over-emphasizes an urban queer culture to the detriment and erasure of others. Documenting the stories of members of the LGBTQ+ community in rural and suburban spaces, while analyzing how LGBTQ+ identity and culture was navigated in conjunction with local culture this thesis troubles the notion that urban-queer is the sole useful lens of analysis for understanding LGBTQ+ history. My work aligns more closely with scholars who seek to de-center the city in our understanding of the LGBTQ+ community and actively seeks to focus on non-urban places when examining LGBTQ+ culture and broaden our understanding of the ways in which culture is sensitive to local conditions and region preferences. Differences between Northeast Ohio and the large, heavily urban cities like New York and San Francisco likely include blended rural-urban cultural norms within the LGBTQ+ community, a greater desire for privacy regarding personal identity, and a de-emphasizing of outward markers of queerness, among others yet to be discovered. In addition to the peculiar mishmash of rural, suburban, and urban environments found in Northeast Ohio, the location of Ohio on the fringes of the Midwest also impacts the local culture of the LGBTQ+ community. Small town ideas of gender, community, and belonging will mix with the urban ideals of what was then the manufacturing heart of the nation. The complex interplay of these notions of region and population create a queer place - unusual in its mixture of culture and outlook, as well as its attunement to both urban and rural modes of identity.
Elizabeth Smith-Pryor, Dr. (Advisor)
Kenneth Bindas, Dr. (Committee Member)
Elaine Frantz, Dr. (Committee Member)
112 p.
History
LGBTQ; Queer; Akron; Northeast Ohio; community; Gay; Lesbian; Bisexual; Transgender;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Monegan, M. T. (2019). A Different Kind of Community: Queerness and Urban Ambiguity in Northeast Ohio, 1945 - 1980 [Master's thesis, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1555933063637255

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Monegan, Max. A Different Kind of Community: Queerness and Urban Ambiguity in Northeast Ohio, 1945 - 1980. 2019. Kent State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1555933063637255.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Monegan, Max. "A Different Kind of Community: Queerness and Urban Ambiguity in Northeast Ohio, 1945 - 1980." Master's thesis, Kent State University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1555933063637255

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by Kent State University and OhioLINK.