The Un-Natural State: Arkansas and the Queer South

CONTENTS

vii CONTENTS Acknowledgments ix Introduction ■ Outing Opal, Outing Arkansas 3 PART ONE The Diamond State 1 ■ Powder-Puff 17 2 ■ Drag and the Politics of Performance 19 3 ■ Drag in the Daylight 43 4 ■ Rags to Drag Riches 51 5 ■ The Current Reigning Symbol of Excellence 63 PART TWO The Natural State 6 ■ A Crime Unfit to Be Named 75 7 ■ The Ingredients of Offense 83 8 ■ Race, Sex, and Queer Renegotiated 89 9 ■ Redefinition 95 10 ■ Public and Private Prejudice 109 11 ■ Constructing a Gay Life 121 PART THREE The Land of Opportunity 12 ■ Creating Space, Separating the Self 131 13 ■ Losing Space, Separating Identities 137 14 ■ Mansion on the Hill 157 15 ■ Economic Opportunity and the Queer Community 167 16 ■ And Then She Came 177 Epilogue ■ Queer Comes Home 183 Notes 191 Selected Bibliography 225 Index 239 ...