Choice Outstanding Academic Title of 2016 Rural queer experience is often hidden or ignored, and presumed to be alienating, lacking, and incomplete without connections to a gay culture that exists in an urban elsewhere. Queering the Countryside offers the first comprehensive look at queer desires found in rural America from a genuinely multi-disciplinary perspective. This collection of original essays confronts the assumption that queer desires depend upon urban life for meaning. By considering rural queer life, the contributors challenge readers to explore queer experiences in ways that give greater context and texture to modern practices of identity formation. The book's focus on understudied rural spaces throws into relief the overemphasis of urban locations and structures in the current political and theoretical work on queer sexualities and genders. Queering the Countryside highlights the need to rethink notions of "the closet" and "coming out" and the characterizations of non-urban sexualities and genders as "isolated" and in need of "outreach." Contributors focus on a range of topics-some obvious, some delightfully unexpected-from the legacy of Matthew Shepard, to how heterosexuality is reproduced at the 4-H Club, to a look at sexual encounters at a truck stop, to a queer reading of TheWizard of Oz. A journey into an unexplored slice of life in rural America, Queering the Countryside offers a unique perspective on queer experience in the modern United States and Canada.

Winner of the 2009 Ruth Benedict Prize for Outstanding Monograph from the Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists Winner of the 2010 Distinguished Book Award from the American Sociological Association, Sociology of Sexualities Section Winner of the 2010 Congress Inaugural Qualitative Inquiry Book Award Honorable Mention An unprecedented contemporary account of the online and offline lives of rural LGBT youth From Wal-Mart drag parties to renegade Homemaker's Clubs, Out in the Country offers an unprecedented contemporary account of the lives of today's rural queer youth. Mary L. Gray maps out the experiences of young people living in small towns across rural Kentucky and along its desolate Appalachian borders, providing a fascinating and often surprising look at the contours of gay life beyond the big city. Gray illustrates that, against a backdrop of an increasingly impoverished and privatized rural America, LGBT youth and their allies visibly-and often vibrantly-work the boundaries of the public spaces available to them, whether in their high schools, public libraries, town hall meetings, churches, or through websites. This important book shows that, in addition to the spaces of Main Street, rural LGBT youth explore and carve out online spaces to fashion their emerging queer identities. Their triumphs and travails defy clear distinctions often drawn between online and offline experiences of identity, fundamentally redefining our understanding of the term 'queer visibility' and its political stakes. Gray combines ethnographic insight with incisive cultural critique, engaging with some of the biggest issues facing both queer studies and media scholarship. Out in the Country is a timely and groundbreaking study of sexuality and gender, new media, youth culture, and the meaning of identity and social movements in a digital age.

Have you ever had a moment that redefined everything you thought to be true about life, family, and faith? Derek L. Gray had such a moment in the fall of 2014, when he suffered a series of personal and professional setbacks that left him seeking answers to life's biggest questions. He was greeted by God and a host of spiritual guides more than happy to provide answers. In this book, he acts as a messenger of God, sharing what he learned over the course of two years. During that time, he spoke with angels, witnessed life hours after his birth, observed life before he was born, and crossed the veil to speak to his dad again. These amazing experiences-along with working side by side with his spiritual mother, Liese, and his spiritual guide, Harman, shape the life-changing messages in this book. If you've always been convinced that we can learn nothing more about God than what is written in the Bible, then open your mind to new ideas.

In Intersectional Tech: Black Users in Digital Gaming, Kishonna L. Gray interrogates blackness in gaming at the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and (dis)ability. Situating her argument within the context of the concurrent, seemingly unrelated events of Gamergate and the Black Lives Matter movement, Gray highlights the inescapable chains that bind marginalized populations to stereotypical frames and limited narratives in video games. Intersectional Tech explores the ways that the multiple identities of black gamers some obvious within the context of games, some more easily concealed affect their experiences of gaming. The normalization of whiteness and masculinity in digital culture inevitably leads to isolation, exclusion, and punishment of marginalized people. Yet, Gray argues, we must also examine the individual struggles of prejudice, discrimination, and microaggressions within larger institutional practices that sustain the oppression. These ""new"" racisms and a complementary colorblind ideology are a kind of digital Jim Crow, a new mode of the same strategies of oppression that have targeted black communities throughout American history. Drawing on extensive interviews that engage critically with identity development and justice issues in gaming, Gray explores the capacity for gaming culture to foster critical consciousness, aid in participatory democracy, and effect social change. Intersectional Tech is rooted in concrete situations of marginalized members within gaming culture. It reveals that despite the truths articulated by those who expose the sexism, racism, misogyny, and homophobia that are commonplace within gaming communities, hegemonic narratives continue to be privileged. This text, in contrast, centers the perspectives that are often ignored and provides a critical corrective to notions of gaming as a predominantly white and male space.

This book provides an updated overview of the processes determining the influence of solar forcing on climate. It discusses in particular the most recent developments regarding the role of aerosols in the climate system and the new insights that could be gained from the investigation of terrestrial climate analogues. The book 's structure mirrors that of the ISSI workshop held in Bern in June 2005.

The Anticipated Series Finale to the 2021 Carol Award-Winning Novel, Love and a Little White Lie Their faith will face its toughest test yet. Four years after getting the biggest break of his life, Cameron Lee's music career has taken a nosedive, leaving him two options: become a sellout or give up on his lifelong dream. He reluctantly returns home for his sister's wedding, hoping to avoid his past and find his love for music again. Single mom Lexie Walters has suffered her fair share of tragedies and setbacks, but she has finally scraped together the money to achieve her dream of going into business with her cousin as an interior designer. When Lexie's life is at an all-time high, she runs into her teenage crush, Cameron Lee. Lost in the emotional turmoil of failure, Cameron is immediately drawn to Lexie and her infectious smile and optimistic spirit. Moreover, he adores her mouthy, no-holds-barred daughter. But fantasies only last so long, and soon Lexie and Cameron must face the real world, the one fraught with heartbreak, disappointment, and questions that sometimes can only be answered by a leap of faith.

In Your Face: Stories from the Lives of Queer Youth is a unique collection of real-life accounts that explores the lives and identities of lesbian, gay, and bisexual teens. Fifteen youths, age 14-18, bravely tell of the hardships and emotions they experience because of their sexualities. Readers will explore stories that touch on several issues, such as:
-- coming out to yourself
-- coming out to family and friends
-- dealing with the school environment
-- getting involved in the queer community
-- realizing how religion impacts one's sense of self

As a hit man, Dan Collins has come face-to-face with death on many occasions. But he's recently had an epiphany-he wants out of the game. It's time to pick up the pieces of his marriage and repair his relationship with his estranged wife, Amy. But before that can happen, he must face death once more . Delano's time is drawing near to the end, and he needs to pass on the "gift" to someone who is worthy of it. A dark and dangerous man, Delano calls himself a Reaper-one of a legion of harvesters in the employ of the Creator. When Dan unwittingly intervenes in a divine event, Delano thinks he's found his man. But Dan dismisses Delano as a religious zealot and rebuffs him outright, leaving Delano in a titanic quandary. If Dan doesn't accept this gift, the power to harvest and store righteous souls-and the true source of the Creator's power-will fall into the hands of a rogue Reaper, Etan, and mankind will be lost . A soul-stirring novel, Righteous Souls explores good versus evil, the symbiosis of the supernatural and the human experience, and the healing power of love.

In "Man, Woman and Marriage", noted experts discuss such subjects as the ways in which people choose their mates, how the family social system can entrap its members in neurotic "games," and the complex nature of marital love. Each of the essays has been significant in major controversies on family research and represents a progressive exploration of the "psychosocial" aspects of marriage and family life in the United States.Alan L. Grey's penetrating Introduction traces the history of family research, reviews earlier theories of social interaction, discusses typical research approaches, and furnishes a stimulating commentary on each paper that enumerates the key ideas and themes most relevant to the main emphasis of the debate. Representative of the variety of viewpoints highlighted in this book are the pioneer efforts of Robert F. Winch and his co-workers, and the critical evaluations by George Levinger and Roland G. Tharp as they point out the numerous complexities of the interpersonal process. At the same time, Gerald Bauman and his co-workers demonstrate the use of more flexible and sensitive research devices, Melvin Cohen shows evidence of a type of family homeostasis, and Mirra Komarovsky offers a social-class comparison of typical kinds of husband-wife relationships.Despite the contrasting opinion presented in the volume, the central theme runs through much of social science - the quest for better descriptions of small group process and the actual ways in which family participants affect one another. Bringing together original source materials that are both controversial and cross-disciplinary, "Man, Woman, and Marriage" promotes classroom discussion and is of immediate significance to all studies of marriage and family life whatever social-science discipline is emphasized.

This book is written in a simple, straightforward manner without complicated mathematical derivatives. Compiled by experienced practitioners, this guide covers topics such as basic principles of vadose zone hydrology and prevalent monitoring techniques. Case studies present actual field experiences for the benefit of the reader. The Handbook provides practitioners with the information they need to fully understand the principles, advantages, and limitations of the monitoring techniques that are available. The Handbook of Vadose Zone Characterization & Monitoring expands and consolidates the useful and succint information contained in various ASTM documents, EPA manuals, and other similar texts on the subject, making it an invaluable aid to new practioners and a useful reference for seasoned veterans in the field.