Let’s Get Real: There Are No Risks To Traveling The U.S. While Queer ‘When my [transgender] girlfriend, Lara, and I travel on the road, we have to take precautions,’ Joanne Spataro writes. ‘We’re constantly on guard against strangers.’By Chad Felix Greene
January 17, 2018 I recently took a road trip with my boyfriend from West Virginia to the Gulf Coast of Florida, traveling through Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia, then back up through Tennessee and Kentucky. I discovered many inconvenient truths about the people I encountered. First, let’s consider the perspective of another LGBT couple in a similar situation. Joanne Spataro wrote a New York Times article titled “The Risks of Traveling While Queer.â€
“When my girlfriend, Lara, and I travel on the road, we have to take precautions,†Spataro writes. “We’re constantly on guard against strangers. Lara is a transgender woman of color, and at rest stops I’m never far from her side…Lara doesn’t want to stop at gas stations, and she’ll have me pump gas so that no one can see her and try to size her up.â€
Joanne writes of an emotionally disturbing experience when stopping at a gas station felt extraordinarily unsafe: “As I filled the tank and Lara sat in the car, I saw a group of people who could have been extras on ‘Duck Dynasty’ gathered by two pickup trucks. I could feel them glaring at us.â€
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http://thefederalist.com/2018/01/17/lets-get-real-no-risks-traveling-u-s-queer/