The group of scholars in this panel incorporate a vast array of approaches in the historicization and complication of the queer Midwest. G Angel examines the impacts of queer tourism in shaping social acceptance through their historicization of the Douglas Dunes Resort in Western Michigan, one of the largest queer resorts in the country opening in 1981, where the queer community “bought” tolerance in exchange for their tourism. Hannah Fuller explores the intricacies of Chicago lesbians’ interpretations of the queer experience in rural and urban space during the 1970s-1990s, deconstructing the urban/rural divide within queer American culture, while gendering the historical experiences of this divide and revealing an alternative relationship between the city and its hinterlands rooted in queer attachments to green and natural spaces. Brian Marra uses the lens of religion to explore how queer Iowans constructed their identities and activism in the 1970s, with some embracing Christianity as believers and others ironically taking advantage of religious hypocrisy, to reinforce a confrontational space spurring deep political division between queer and anti-queer activists. Max Monegan argues that the inter-war Midwest was a center of queer activity whose possibilities were enabled over wide geographic spaces by the inter-urban transit system which allowed men to travel freely and created spaces for queer sexual encounters that did not assist in the creation of recognizable homosexual subcultures or communities but instead generated possibilities for sexual encounters between men in dispersed locations.

Regardless of the differences in approach and temporality, this panel coalesces around an exploration of the queer Midwest that generates key interventions in the construction of queer identity and community in the region. We demonstrate that throughout the twentieth century, mobility, religiosity, and tourism all contributed to the establishment of a Midwestern (homo)normalcy. These projects also tackle the key question of space exploring cultural differences between rural and urban spaces and how the physical and ideological construction of rural/urban divide complicated queer settlement and politics in the Midwest. Additionally, the panelists explore multiple means of pleasure in an attempt to emphasize the diverse social structures that characterized the queer community in the Midwest during the twentieth century. Above all, this panel aims to historicize the complexities of the queer Midwest to further emphasize the need to centralize not only the Midwest but marginal spaces that have been left out of queer American histories.