Queer folk on the AT

[DebW]

I've done alot of AT hiking with a lesbian friend. It's not at all obvious that she's gay except when her partner meets us. If people had to guess which one of us is gay they'd probably get it wrong (I'm the one who starts the hike with unshaved legs). In fact, once we were chatting with a couple of male hikers on the trail and they asked her if she was married, didn't ask me (she wears rings and I don't). The only time I get upset is when people ask if she's my daughter.

[Skyline]

The adoption or co-opting of the word "queer" instead of "gay" seems to be a generational thing IMO, Jensine. Those of us old enough to remember McCarthyism, Ike, Nixon, and even Anita Bryant worked very hard to change the language but now we have TV shows with titles like "Queer As Folk" and "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" (horrible show IMO). And the younger generation of gays indeed embraces this word.

Would blacks tolerate TV shows with the "N" word in the title? Jews with the "K" word?

Back on topic, tho: There does seem to be more lesbians on the A.T. than gay men. There may in fact be more, or maybe the gay men out there are just more intimidated and stay deeper in the closet when in the woods? Every year I section hiked I met both gay men and women, albeit in small numbers. Some were open, some just kinda let it be known after they knew you for awhile. A big non-issue usually on the Trail, tho I'd be a little more discreet in trail towns and not just in the South.

[jensine]

Sorry, but when I made the response, the TV programs you mentioned were not on the air yet. I responed in March of 03.
Jensine

[jensine]

P.S. I'll be 54 on Halloween. Yipes!!!!!

[karensioux]

we're here, we're queer..........get used to it!

[radar]

I'm not obvious about my sexuality and only came out directly to the folks I was hiking with regularly but I found the trail community to be a pretty supportive place for gays and lesbians. For whatever reason, lesbians seem to be more numerous and visible than gay men but I don't remember hearing any comments that particularly upset me during my time on the trail in the last two years toward either group.

I know of a few gay men who have hiked in the last couple of years on the AT or PCT. If there is anyone else out there who is thinking about hiking and has questions, please feel free to contact me. I'd be happy to respond.

I'd also be interested in hearing from any other gay long-distance hikers interested in staying in touch with each other.

[email protected]

[Dharma]

The only problem I have is when my friend (a lesbian) and I go BPing together, she will flurt with the girls I'm interested in. No fair!

[greyowl]

The only concern that I have is that there are those who think that they have the right to shoot lesbians. I have Eight bullets by Claudia Brenner on my desk right now and I was on the trail when Julianne Williams and Laura Wimans were murdered. There are those who also think that they have the right to attack women, and the latter murders may not have been motivated by sexual preference. Having said all of that I have not heard of any real problems on the trail about a hikers sexual preference. Be cool, hike with a group (for protection) and enjoy your hike.

Grey Owl

[c.coyle]

Has it occured to anyone that this subject has generated less controversy than whether or not to treat water? Sounds like progress to me.

[Grampie]

Go Gal.

[sdoownek]

ccoyle: aqua-mira! bleach! Or nothing!

[moonnsun]

I am a lesbian planning my first thru hike as well. Although my sexual orientation has crossed my mind, i tend to not dwell on it. I am just a hiker. There are so many minorities out there and so many different types of hikers that you will be fine. I would worry more about getting sick, getting hurt or running out of water or food then being queer. Just enjoy your hike and be who you are!

[greyowl]

Too many people spend too much tme looking for differences. We all have a lot in common, probably more than we want to admit to. So Moonnsun said I am just a hiker. A simple statement that speaks volumes. That is one thing that we all have in common, we are just hikers.

Grey Owl

[Cabo]

Everyone on the trail looks the same to me. However, some smell worse than others, but that's probably fuel for a different thread.

[The Weasel]

As a 'straight' with (regrettably) more than common empathy with the gay community, I am a bit more sanguine than the posts above, and I would caution gays and lesbians to be rather more cautious and quiet along the trail than they may otherwise be.

I've walked from Springer to Troutville, and sectioned a lot of the rest. But I'm speaking mostly here of the GA->VA segments up to Damascus. The towns, and the people, along the way are consistently kind, and generally welcoming, and far more private than in many other parts of the country. That is good.

But - and while I strain against stereotyping any group of people - this stretch, perhaps more than the rest of the Trail, is an intensely conservative, highly religious, and not entirely tolerant part of America, a nation which even as a whole is not as tolerant as it sometimes thinks it is. Despite many of the changes that have come over the last 40 years or so, especially in the South, prejudice is very close to the surface in many places (perhaps, in a sense, more honestly than it is, say, in my home region of Detroit/Southeast Michigan, where racism is both endemic and rarely spoken of). In one town before Fontana - I don't think it matters which - a physician who treated me spoke casually (once he learned that I was an attorney) of how "the Jewish lawyers control New York" while saying, innocently, "I have many Jewish friends, of course." In another town on the other side of Davenport Gap, a driver I hitched with said, "Yes, we have almost no crime here. Of course, we've never let a nigra family live inside the city limits." His tone of voice was essentially the same matter-of-fact manner as we when he told me that "Yeah, there's a barber shop in town." In a few places, I "learned" that AT women were "easy" since they hiked alone with groups of men. (How sad I sometimes felt to know how wrong the speakers were! Dang!)

I don't mean that this is common in the sense that people of color, women, different religions, or different sexual orientation need to feel any sense of fear. They don't, any more than I was afraid for being a Yankee who doesn't feel a close and deep reverence for the "Cause." But just as I wouldn't speak ill in a trail town of that scum, Nathan Bedford Forrest - yes, he did found the Ku Klux Klan - and would, instead, keep my peace, I do not think that it is wise to be particularly "open" about homosexuality in trail towns. I encourage avoiding public displays of affection, public discussions (including with friends, in bars and restaurants, where others may overhear you) and, frankly, were I gay I would be reticent about who I fully shared my life history with, including along the trail until I was confident that they would not embarass me or share my personal life with others who were not appropriately tolerant.

I'm sorry. This will offend many when I say these things; there will be some who feel it wrong to hide a part of themselves that they shouldn't have to hide; others will correctly deny that prejudice is widespread among thruhikers, townies and others; still others will remonstrate with me (also correctly) that there is prejudice elsewhere.

But despite the proximity of the trail to more accepting communities whether small - Ashville, perhaps, comes to mine - or large - such as Atlanta - the fact remains that the AT is in an intensely conservative part of America - "the buckle of the Bible Belt" - that has strong feelings on this topic. That is part of the beauty of the Trail, realizing that this is a nation of many parts, including some that cannot accept all of the other parts. That is a truth every bit as much a part of trail life as is knowing that you hang your food in shelters and that you don't mess with bear cubs.

Don't provoke the wildlife, and the wildlife will leave you alone, and you will find the Trail a wonderful place.

The Weasel

[Nightwalker]

However realize that the South is the South, and a handful of people I've met in the South are pretty conservative and racist, but in general I wouldn't worry about it.

It's really upsetting to me (here in South Carolina) that in a thread about negative stereotypes, you're busily propogating another one.

Frank

[MDSHiker]

Hey AmazinGrace...your book was terrific!

[goshawk]

I really do not think people care much on the trail about your sexaul preference. I have met a few men that I know were happy on the trail because of the gaydar I developed in the military. It sure didn't bother me. I did hear other hikers talking smack about them thou religious fanatics. Not to there faces thou. They were young guys that Have not really been around happy people much but I noticed they were reserved and didn't say anything to them directly.
I think you will be fine and so many other hikers out there would take your back against violent goons. People on the at don't really carry signs saying I'm gay or streight. Just be your self and fit in like everyone else. If anything the the religous extremists might give you the cold shoulder and there are a few of the quacks on the trail for sure. Bible thumper city. They seem to know what is best for all mankind. Just like any other religious fundementalists.
Good luck and enjoy the trail.

[alpine]

with drawn

[Rain Man]

I really do not think people care much on the trail about your sexaul preference. I have met a few men that I know were happy on the trail ....

Gosh, goshawk, I've been happy on the AT on both of my little section hikes. Except, that is, while cursing the folks who laid out the trail just north of Bly Gap, NC, but that's another story.

So, are you saying I'm homosexual or something? Or, a religious fundamentalist?