Farm Boys: Lives of Gay Men from the Rural Midwest

It's an interesting exercise. The author does say in the introduction that the participants are not particularly varied and that's certainly the case. They really only vary by age. They're all upper midwest (predominantly WI and MN) and overwhelmingly with German or Norwegian cultural heritage with a couple of outliers from NE, OH, IN, and IA.
Some of the stories are compelling but you have to wonder about some of them. First, are they even true, and second, were they selected for prurient interests. I did not grow up on a farm, though I was "farm adjacent", some of this is kind of out there. But there's a clear motif of the damage organized, and even unorganized, religion causes, as well as a "we don't talk about that" cultural show more attitude.
The postscript is interesting but somewhat self-servicing.
A good read. show less