Steel Closets
Voices of Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Steelworkers
Anne Balay
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press
Published: 04/2014
Pages: 192
Subject: Social Science
| University of North Carolina
Print ISBN: 9.78E+12
eBook ISBN: 9781469614014
DESCRIPTION
Even as substantial legal and social victories are being celebrated
within the gay rights movement, much of working-class America still
exists outside the current narratives of gay liberation. In
Steel Closets, Anne Balay draws on oral history interviews
with forty gay, lesbian, and transgender steelworkers, mostly
living in northwestern Indiana, to give voice to this previously
silent and invisible population. She presents powerful stories of
the intersections of work, class, gender, and sexual identity in
the dangerous industrial setting of the steel mill. The voices and
stories captured by Balay--by turns alarming, heroic, funny, and
devastating--challenge contemporary understandings of what it means
to be queer and shed light on the incredible homophobia and
violence faced by many: nearly all of Balay's narrators remain
closeted at work, and many have experienced harassment, violence,
or rape.
Through the powerful voices of queer steelworkers themselves,
Steel Closets provides rich insight into an understudied
part of the LGBT population, contributing to a growing body of
scholarship that aims to reveal and analyze a broader range of gay
life in America.
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