Episode 0: Introducing Country Queers
When Rae Garringer set out to gather rural and small town LGBTQIA+ histories in 2013, they had no formal training in oral history or audio recording. They were motivated by a deep frustration that it was so hard to find rural queer stories, and an intense personal need to connect with other rural queers. In this episode you'll learn more about Rae and the history of the ongoing multimedia oral history project: Country Queers.
Host/Producer/Lead Editor: Rae Garringer. Assistant Editor/Composer-Performer of Acoustic and Electric Guitar Music: Tommie Anderson. Editorial Advisory Dream Team: Hermelinda Cortés, Sharon P. Holland, and Lewis Raven Wallace. Theme Song Composer/Banjo: Sam Gleaves. Theme Song Pedal Steel: Rebecca Branson Jones. Special thanks to Laura Starecheski and AIR Media’s mentorship program for additional editorial support on this episode. And to Hideo Higashibaba, Riley Cockrell, Abby Huggins, Deya Terrafranca, Annie Terrafrance, Sam Gleaves, Benny Becker, Sam Hamlin, Beth White, Yasmine Farhang, and my mom, Lynn Creamer, for feedback on the first draft. Big thanks to Jai Arun Ravine and Theresa Smith-Garringer for website work. Thanks also to Brandon Jent for support in research and pronunciation of the names of the Indigenous people whose land I grew up on.