Reclaiming the Past, Demanding Futures: Queer Community in Kern County, California

Abstract

In this thesis I use a mixed methods approach to investigate the ways in which queer communities in Kern County have survived systems that constrain their life possibilities, including the grip oil and carceral institutions have on Kern County’s economy and spatial imaginary. In contesting the myth of non-survivability in Kern County, I also contest the common perception that queer space and queer community does not exist outside urban spaces. Through archival work and oral histories, I recover some of the lost and suppressed memories of queer survival and queer community. In collaboration with local queer community members, I have co-created the Kern LGBTQ+ Community Archive, which is an online, free to access archive that houses the stories and histories compiled for this study.