num_pages: 232
description: Long-haul trucking is linked to almost every industry in America yet somehow the working-class drivers behind big rigs remain largely hidden from public view. Gritty inspiring and often devastating oral histories of gay transsexual and minority truck drivers allow award-winning author Anne Balay to shed new light on the harsh realities of truckers' lives behind the wheel. A licensed commercial truck driver herself Balay discovers that for people routinely subjected to prejudice hatred and violence in their hometowns and in the job market trucking can provide an opportunity for safety welcome isolation and a chance to be themselves--even as the low-wage work is fraught with tightening regulations constant surveillance danger and exploitation. The narratives of minority and queer truckers underscore the working-class struggle to earn a living while preserving one's safety dignity and selfhood. Through the voices of drivers from marginalized communities who spend eleven- to fourteen-hour days hauling America's commodities in treacherous weather and across mountain passes Semi Queer reveals the stark differences between the trucking industry's crushing labor practices and the perseverance of its most at-risk workers.
language: English
title: Semi Queer: Inside the World of Gay, Trans, and Black Truck Drivers
publisher: University of North Carolina Press