Appalachia has long been considered the "other" to the American "mainstream." However, the complexity of queer life in Appalachia is not limited to geography, but also relies upon class differences and an association with rural poverty. The intersection between queerness and socioeconomic status appears frequently in LGBTQ Appalachian literature, such as Julia Watts' Finding H.F., a young adult novel, as well as Fenton Johnson's novel Scissors, Paper, Rock and accompanying short story "Bad Habits." In these texts, being queer and a rural Appalachian is a struggle. This paper argues that the struggle is further complicated by issues of social standing and each character's lack or acquisition of Pierre Bourdieu's economic, social, and cultural forms of capital.
Furthermore, this paper employs Jack Halberstam's theory of metronormativity to examine the urban/rural binary in these texts and the ways in which characters sometimes support but ultimately subvert the metronormative mindset, which privileges the urban over the rural by positing that queer individuals can find happiness only in the former. These Appalachian characters show that urban life does not always result in a happy ending for queer individuals and that remaining in the rural setting, despite challenges and heartaches, can be a valid choice.