Growing Up Gay: The Experiences of Rural Youth in North Dakota and Minnesota

Abstract

This study looks at how gay adults experienced their youth in rural North Dakota or Minnesota. The purpose of the study was to discover if gay youth experienced their environment differently from their urban peers and if the internet or television affected their experiences. The study recruited ten participants ages 22-30 for a qualitative study that used thematic analysis as its method. The study found that among the participants the use of gay slurs evolved over time, television and internet did not appear to influence how the participants experienced their environment, and lastly, many of the participants displayed behavior that they believed was not normative behavior for their gender.