The life of silverware manufacturer Frederik Ernst (1892-1976) as a homosexual in the provinces forms the concrete, historical background for the research project "Queer in the provinces", which will examine how queer practices have been made and understood in their geographical, historically specific contexts. The project's goals consist partly of the ultra-local case of Frederik Ernst, which, based on his collection of letters, illuminates the cultural understandings of male homosocial relations in the period 1930-1950 and partly of an opening of the field of queer history that generates new knowledge about queer practices in the province. The overall project will result in a book with contributions from a large number of leading researchers in the field.

The narrative is familiar: if you are queer and grew up in the provinces, you must move to the big city to live freely and authentically. That is why Copenhagen has been the focal point for both LGBT history and research for decades. But what if that narrative is only part of the truth?

Queer in the provinces shifts the focus away from the big city and zooms in on market towns, villages, and local communities across the country. Here, queer love, desire, and gender transgression have unfolded in different ways—and at different rhythms—than in the capital.

The book is written by 11 leading researchers with different academic perspectives. The chapters focus on queer gender, queer literature, queer communities, and queer activism, spanning the period from around 1700 to the present day.

Through historical sources such as diaries, letters, novels, and memoirs, Queer in the Province brings previously overlooked queer lives to light. The reader encounters people who, in different periods and parts of the country, have lived queer lives—some in secret, others in demonstrative openness. Together, the stories show how the Danish provinces have both set limits and created opportunities for queer existence.

Queer in the Province thus draws a new queer map of Denmark. It is a book about visibility, place, and belonging—and about everything that has happened west of Valby Bakke.