Title

Transgender in the Heartland: Transitioning and Seeking Community in Middle America

Description

Dr. Jamie Wagman and history students contributed to Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000, with an oral history project focused on the experiences of people who transitioned in midlife. It was published in 2020 and includes 20 oral histories, a document list, an introduction and abstract, photos and one video.

This IRB-approved oral history project provides knowledge about the lived experiences of 20 transgender people and LGBTQ allies who are neither born on nor flock to the coasts but instead remain in their hometowns in mid America. The project reveals the challenges of living as transgender in middle America in addition to the agency, resilience and strength of transgender people who find community in ingenious ways, from a veteran support group to a Mennonite church to roller derby to drag king communities. The project builds on the continual subverting of the narrative about the Midwest as the nation's closet for LGBTQ people. These stories underscore the ways in which different interest groups misinterpret the transgender umbrella, and the ways in which transgender people, in turn, define their gender in their own terms. These stories also share thoughts about belonging from Midwesterners who are simultaneously at home and not at home in the heartland, where they have worked, loved, raised children, and rented and bought homes and lived decade upon decade. Oral history explores the tension between fact and fiction, collective memory and objective reality. These particular stories, too, show people struggling to remember and acknowledging that memory is flawed, that for some the past is dotted with sharpened details while for others memories are blocked. This project contributes to Social Justice Studies, Digital History, U.S. History, American Studies, Gender and Women's Studies, and Transgender and LGBTQ Studies.

Link to Project Page

list of authors

Dr. Jamie Wagman

Contributor

Jordan Lolmaugh

Sarah Allen

Caitlin Mahoney

Megan Temple