Navigating southern spaces: queer narratives from below the Mason Dixon

The southern United States is known for being historically and contemporarily religious and conservative. This study seeks to investigate the many ways that queer individuals navigate and degrees of safety individuals feel when embodying their identities in these spaces. Temporary pockets of safe space can be created by individuals in various geographic locations to serve as a means of feeling like a valid human being while inhabiting a minority status. It is hypothesized in this paper that these spaces are vital to the continued living, working, and learning of individuals as they provide temporary relief of dichotomous pressure of dominate society while allowing the individual to embody their identities as they deem appropriate. This study encompasses narratives from three queer people living in North Carolina and uses the narratives in combination with social theory to illuminate queer lives in the southern United States