Gay trucking

All truckers are familiar with the meditative din of the road, but for the LGBT community, the siren song of the highways can be especially luring. But LGBT truckers face discrimination from. Shelle Lichti founded the industry’s largest online support group for LGBTQ truckers in to honor a close, gay trucker friend who was gang-raped and committed suicide. Truckers don’t talk too much about gay stuff – but that doesn’t stop Tim Anderson.

He’s unabashed about his sexuality and his love of trucks and rodeos, and he declares it on his site, too. The trucking industry has been a tumultuous journey for many members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. While the industry is coming around and becoming increasingly more accepting of all genders, the industry still needs support. LGBTQ truck drivers are not new to the profession, but their visibility and rising prominence within the industry is.

Nic Richelle and Carla Grimsley are a married lesbian couple team driving. 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. 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.

Though the trucking industry is a consistent, stable backbone of America, and wheelers continue to crisscross the country transporting everything we eat and wear and use much as they have for generations, at the same time trucking is experiencing a dizzying rate of change in the 21st century. For example, in December of the ELD mandate went into effect. Many truck drivers fought this new rule, and protests were organized preceding its roll out.

That was just over two years ago and the effects have been dramatic. Many trucks already had ELDs and nothing much changed for them. One thing that did change is that older engines were exempt from the ruling, so highways saw an increase in older rigs, many of which have no or limited pollution controls.

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Was this an unintended consequence? Steer Haulers and small fleets worked to maintain their loopholes. But bureaucracy marched on.

As a trucker approaches the end of their 11 hours allowed driving for a day, they need a workable plan of where to park because once they hit that mark they are in violation: ticketable, fireable, scared. Since the ruling, trucker fatalities have soared. However, as the risks of the job increase, and the pay decreases, more and more queer, trans, and non-white truckers enter the workforce.

She had been in the truck stop bathroom at night, brushing her teeth, unwinding before going out to sleep in her truck. Suddenly, she realized that ALL the other women in that bathroom were, like her, trans. She laughed out loud, and they turned it into an informal support group. But very few of these women make it past the first year. Training is worse than terrible, harassment is numbingly common, and leaving home is crushingly hard.

But women keep doing it. Black women, unhoused women, transwomen, women who do not lack courage and toughness. Trucking is shifting so rapidly it feels like a hurricane, which makes it hard to grab onto any aspect of it and take a stand. We are dense on the ground in these jobs, which means both that we need support from those more able to influence policy, and that we have the courage, the humor, and the desperation to ignite change.

The seeds of queer liberation are being sewn in a truck stop bathroom outside Salt Lake City. Visit her website or follow her on Twitter. You must be logged in to post a comment. Semi Queer is now available in paperback for the first time. Trucking Gets Queerer Though the trucking industry is a consistent, stable backbone of America, and wheelers continue to crisscross the country transporting everything we eat and wear and use much as they have for generations, at the same time trucking is experiencing a dizzying rate of change in the 21st century.

Increased regulations do not increase safety. Search Search Close. Loading Comments