Farm Boys: Lives of Gay Men from the Rural Midwest

353 Pages·2001·89.09 MB·English

by  Will Fellows

Farm Boys
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FARMBOYS
Lives of Gay Men from
the Rural Midwest
Collected and edited by
Will Fellows
THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN PRESS
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The University of Wisconsin Press
1930 Monroe Street
Madison, Wisconsin 53711
3 Henrietta Street
London WC2E 8LU, England
Copyright © 1996, 1998
The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
All rights reserved
9 8
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fellows, Will.
Farm boys: lives of gay men from the rural Midwest /
Will Fellows.
352 pp. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-299-15080-1 (cloth: alk. paper)
ISBN 0-299-15084-4 (paper: alk. paper)
1. Gay men-Middle West-Case studies. 2. Farmers
Middle West-Case studies. 1. Title.
HQ76.2.U52M534 1996
305.38'9664-dc20 96-6058
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Whatever actually happens to a man
is wonderfully trivial and insignificant,
-even to death itself, I imagine.
-Henry David Thoreau
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CONTENTS
Preface IX
Acknowledgments Xlll
How These Stories Were Discovered xv
Farming Glossary xxvii
Introduction 3
PART 1: Coming ofA ge Before the Mid-1960s
Introduction 31
Cornelius Utz, Missouri 34
Robert Peters, Wisconsin 47
Henry Bauer, Minnesota 59
Harry Beckner, Nebraska 68
Jim Cross, Iowa 76
Dennis Lindholm, Iowa 84
James Heckman, Indiana 93
John Beutel, Wisconsin 103
Myron Turk, Wisconsin 112
Norm Reed, Ohio 115
Ronald Schoen, Minnesota 124
PART 2: Coming ofA ge Between the Mid-1960s
and Mid-1970s
Introduction 129
David Foster, Wisconsin 132
Doug Edwards, Indiana 143
Bill Troxell, Indiana 154
Larry Ebmeier, Nebraska 156
Vll
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Vlll Contents
Martin Scherz, Nebraska 160
Richard Kilmer, Wisconsin 170
Heinz Koenig, Wisconsin 180
Tom Rygh, Wisconsin 182
Dale Hesterman, Ohio 191
Frank Morse, Wisconsin 199
Mark Vanderbeek, Nebraska 202
Everett Cooper, Indiana 206
John Berg, Minnesota 215
PART 3: Coming of Age Between the Mid-1970s
and Mid-1980s
Introduction 221
David Campbell, Ohio 224
Jahred Boyd, Minnesota 228
Steve Gay, Wisconsin 231
Rick Noss, Iowa 234
Richard Hopkins, Indiana 243
Lon Mickelsen, Minnesota 251
Steven Preston, Wisconsin 260
Connie Sanders, Illinois 269
Randy Fleer, Nebraska 281
Ken Yliniemi, Minnesota 284
Clark Williams, Wisconsin 292
Joe Shulka, Wisconsin 294
Todd Ruhter, Nebraska 304
Afterword 311
Postscript 317
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PREFACE
This work is about the lives of gay men who grew up on farms in the mid
western United States during the twentieth century. I have done this
work in the interest of promoting a fuller appreciation of the varied ori
gins of, and perspectives within, the population of gay men in the U.S. I
hope that the reader will find these plain-spoken narratives to be engag
ing and illuminating in their candor, insight, and sense of humor. It is also
my hope that this work will be of value to individuals who are exploring
issues related to sexual and gender identity.
These men describe how they perceived and responded to a variety of
conditions that existed in many of the farm communities and families of
their boyhoods: rigid gender roles, social isolation, ethnic homogeneity,
suspicion of the unfamiliar, racism, religious conservatism, sexual prud
ishness, and limited access to information. While none of these conditions
is unique to farm culture, they operate in a distinctive synergy in that set
ting.
They also have a lasting impact. More than just boyhood memories,
these stories describe the long-term influences that many of these men
believe their upbringings have had on the course and character of their
lives. How has their farming heritage influenced their choices and identi
ties as gay men? How do they see themselves in relation to gay men from
urban or suburban backgrounds? How do they fit into their local gay
communities? Inherent in these stories are the very different experiences
and perspectives of men who came of age in earlier decades of this cen
tury and those who came of age in more recent decades-especially in the
1970s and 1980s.
In preparing these narratives from interviews, I have seen myself as
something of a midwife, listening to men who had something to say and
delivering their experiences and perspectives to the reader in their own
distinct voices. If! had believed that soliciting contributions from profes
sional writers would have yielded as diverse a cross-section of gay "farm
IX
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