Old gay farmers
In a black and colorless photo snapped in the early s, a juvenile, central Ohio farm young woman beams from beneath a straw hat. Around her neck is a miniature scarf; she wears a pair of overalls. The photo arrived with a simple but joyfully direct note from the subject, now a year-old farmer in rural Ohio: “Here’s me, butch Gael!”
Only age 9 when it was taken, she already had a faint understanding that she was a lesbian.
Aware of her differences, Gael buried a lack of love for frills in acceptable rural tomboyishness. For more than a decade she hid that she was a lesbian, until coming out while attending Vassar College (she would become one of the animal skin-clad Wolf Girls). Gael says that throughout her early life, a quiet understanding prevailed. “Growing up, I recall that there were others on farms, farming alone, in the fields.” These were the bachelor farmers, living together, who claimed to sleep in twin beds, but no one really knew.
Now in her autumn years, Gael flies a rainbow flag outside the acre Ohio farm where she lives with her longtime partner. From the porch where her flag flies, Gael says she’s been able to witness great attitude changes
Ralf Schaab
Co-founder,
Hof Erbenheim
Wiesbaden, Germany
What’s your farm like?
I specialize in fruits and potatoes and pumpkins and fruit processing (like juice production and marmalade and jelly). We have a farm shop and a delivery service to the kitchens in kindergartens and schools. The farm is on 50 acres, mostly orchards, and between five and seven people work there – from the part-time year-old trainee to my father, who is turning
How is it as a German gay farmer?
Well, before you know you are gay, at least in my case, you perceive that you are a farmer. I was born into farming and knew from the start that I wanted to be a farmer. In the beginning, you feel lonely because there are so few others like you around – and you feel even more lonely when you discover that you are gay.
Is your husband a farmer?
My husband is an operational uncertainty manager at Allianz Global Investors in Frankfurt, but he likes to support on the farm whenever he has time. And he loves to operate in the garden
What has changed since you began farming?
Life as a queer in the countryside has become more and more “normal.” The acceptance in our society is g
Young, Queer Farmers Are Here to Change U.S. Agriculture
&#;If my existence is rebellious, then my work should be too,&#; says Tegan, a year-old nonbinary farmer in Tennessee.
Tegan grew up in Chicago and hadn&#;t thought about much farming until college. In college, they studied women&#;s health and the environment, and through this work were exposed to their university farm. Since then they have worked on seven farms in various capacities. They currently manage a farm in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Mariam, a year-old pansexual female who grew up farming in Iowa, says her love of farming started before she realized and accepted her queerness but that her queerness has influenced her desire to farm for her career.
&#;[Being queer] has pushed me to try and discount the societal pressures (and what capitalism says we should be doing) and look at what I really want to complete and push myself to step outside of the box.&#;
I became interested in the connection between queerness and farming while doing an AmeriCorps service year in Minnesota. I was in a small cohort of young folks who had also recently graduated from college. Since the program was environmentally focused, it was no surprise
Farmers first and foremost, these gay graziers are breaking stereotypes
When Jon Wright came out as gay as a year-old farmer, he found support from the community and family — a welcome relief for the grazier after many years of inner turmoil.
"The biggest struggle you have is the struggle you possess with yourself," he said.
"It takes a long hour to become comfortable with your sexuality.
"And I estimate the relief was just not having to be situated anymore, not put out any fires anymore, just to be able to be yourself."
Mr Wright is a fourth-generation cattle farmer based at Woodstock, proximate Cowra, in New South Wales' central west.
"I wouldn't call Cowra the gay centre of New South Wales," he laughed.
"But there certainly are other gay people around the town."
Mr Wright said that after coming out, he would frequently visit Sydney to find kindred spirits.
"Just to be in a place where I knew everybody in the room was gay, because my experience was, wherever I was before, I sort of virtually knew everybody in the room wasn't gay," he said.
"And so that made just a feeling of acceptance."
But de
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