Finding My Front Porch

Abstract

This essay uses narratives from the author’s life (childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood) to claim that regional identity is an overlooked aspect of intersectionality. By focusing on the intersections of queerness and the U.S. South, this essay approaches region as an example of Yep’s “thickening” intersectionality, using poetry and narrative to make the case that regional identity is a complicating, messy, and inseparable aspect of intersectional identity including preconceived cultural associations and systemic attitudes. By locating narratives along the lines of everyday performance of self, focusing on text and voice, this essay illustrates the inextricable intersectional relationship of place, space, and identity.