Born and raised in Florida, Junara Quinn-Miller’s fears were growing in Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration. Quinn-Miller is a first year student at SIU pursuing her master’s degree in Communication studies and is researching depictions of media through a critical and queer theory lens. After writing a paper on Desantis’ decision criminalizing the trans population’s access to public restrooms, which published with the National Communication Association, Quinn-Miller made the jump to Carbondale. Despite leaving her family and friends behind, she said SIU was the only school interested in her research.  

“It was fear. Fear is what made me move,” Quinn-Miller said. “I don’t see my family every day anymore because I was afraid. Maybe I was a little hasty, maybe not, we’ll see.”

Quinn-Miller, a trans woman, said she left Florida because she was afraid of losing her rights to gender affirming care. She no longer feels safe traveling outside of Illinois. Due to spending her adolescence in Florida and some time in Georgia, she’s no stranger to the challenges of being queer in the South; she was familiar with being cautious. 

In Florida, trans and queer rights are under a near constant attack. The “don’t say gay” bill bans instruction of gender identity and sexual orientation from Pre-K through grade 8. Medicaid cannot cover gender-affirming care for both minors and adults and the state can temporarily take custody of a minor who’s receiving gender-affirming care. Doctors in Florida can deny medical care to patients on the basis of their religious beliefs or personal values. 

Now living in Carbondale since April and a part of SIU’s Communication Graduate Assistant Program, she said she’s never existed in a more accepting environment. But Quinn-Miller still has her guard up, as the federal government continues to remove gender-inclusive policies. 

“Today it seems very clear that they see transness as a contagious disease,” Quinn-Miller said. “Something that the only way to stop it, is to eradicate all of us and then hope that it doesn’t come back up. We have made it clear who we are and that makes it easier for people to target us. That’s terrifying.” 

After U.S President Donald Trump took office this year, he signed a flurry of executive orders, among which was the removal of “gender ideology” from federal agencies and documents. Members of the military who are trans were no longer permitted to serve in the military. Despite a previous executive order by former President Joe Biden, which allowed transgender members to serve, that is no longer the case. According to Trump’s executive order, trans servicemembers are not fit to serve as expressing a “false gender identity” does not satisfy the military’s standards. 

In a press release from Sen. Tammy Duckworth, the veteran stated every service member is qualified to serve in the military based on the training and their qualifications. 

The Fit to Serve Act was introduced in the Senate on June 6 by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and co-sponsored by Duckworth. It has not yet been passed to the House. This act would establish that military members may not be discriminated against based on their gender identity. 

“I’m proud to join Senator Warren and my Democratic colleagues in working to reverse the Trump Administration’s offensive transgender military ban, which is disruptive to our military, hurts readiness and not only does nothing to strengthen our national security—it actively makes things worse,” Duckworth said in the release. 

After the executive order by Trump was declared, the Pentagon stated they would remove approximately 1,000 trans service members in a “voluntary separation process.” 

“The President and Vice President have demonized trans and queer people

and refused to acknowledge their existence while kicking them out of the military, off

health plans, and to the best of their ability, out of public life,” a spokesperson from Rainbow Refuge wrote in an email to the Daily Egyptian. 

Rainbow Refuge is an organization in Carbondale that provides resources to trans or queer people seeking solace in the protections Illinois offers like medicaid which covers gender affirming medical care and its gender inclusive policies which protect transgender and nonbinary residents from discrimination. 

The support organization assists around 70 people every year with 30 of those choosing to relocate to Carbondale, according to the spokesperson. The group provides numerous resources including travel, moving trucks, information on affordable housing, health care, employment and connection to social groups like Rainbow Café and Downstate Illinois Trans Organization. The spokesperson wrote that these groups maintain the thriving LBGTQ community Carbondale holds today. 

“Many of the trans individuals we speak to are actively losing healthcare access. This is

the most universal complaint that drives people to relocate,” the Rainbow Refuge spokesperson wrote. “We also see a noticeable trend of family rejection, abuse, or volatile home dynamics. Employment is unstable for many people relocating, with some citing discrimination, harassment, or endangerment.” 

In another executive order, Trump established the federal government would recognize only the biological sex of male and female, discrediting the existence of trans, nonbinary and intersex people. The order states it protects women in domestic-abuse shelters from men who self-identify as women to gain access. 

Now, Trump is only making it increasingly difficult to access hormone replacement therapy. Through another executive order, TRICARE, which insures 9.5 million federal employees and around 2 million dependents under the age of 18, will no longer cover gender-affirming care for children for those dependents. 27 states have limited or entirely banned minor’s access to gender-affirming care.

The order cites common themes of regret after receiving care. However, in a longitudinal study from the TransYouth Project by JAMA Pediatrics, a peer-reviewed medical journal followed and studied 220 adolescents from 2013 to 2017. JAMA Pediatrics submitted a follow-up survey in 2023 and found only nine adolescents were regretful of taking puberty blockers. Hormone blockers halt or delay the effects of puberty like facial hair growth. Before receiving blockers, minors are typically referred to a mental health professional. 

Hormone replacement therapy is a life-saving form of care that can involve taking estrogen or testosterone to physically match one’s gender identity. The American Medical Association deemed HRT medically necessary for both physical and mental health. HRT can increase self-esteem levels, reduce substance use levels, decrease depression, anxiety and rates of suicidality. 

Many adults who are not transgender, utilize gender-affirming care too. HRT is important throughout the process of menopause helping to ease symptoms of night-sweats and hot flashes. Taking testosterone for andropause can increase mood and energy levels. HRT can target symptoms of endometriosis or PCOS. 

“Essentially the misinformation about 12-year-olds going into the doctor’s office and coming out with gender reassignment, when that’s just not true, but the misinformation and the lies that have perpetuated that and made it, made them a target,” said Paulette Curkin, a longtime resident of Carbondale and LGBTQ activist. 

Carbondale has a longstanding history of its welcoming environment for LBGTQ folks. Curkin said when she arrived in Carbondale in the ‘70s, she was worried she would have difficulty finding community, although she was already out as a lesbian. 

“I really found community there,” Curkin said. “It was kind of surprising because I had come from Connecticut and I thought, moving to a rural area, I was going to be, you know, at a loss for community, but Carbondale had an amazing queer community already.”

In 1971, two years after Stonewall, students at SIU formed the Gay Liberation Organization, now known as the Saluki Rainbow Network. At the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village, New York City, police raided the bar causing arrests and following days of protests. Stonewall is credited with sparking a nationwide gay rights movement. The GLO is one of the oldest LBGTQ student groups in the country. 

After graduating from SIU, Curkin purchased a bar where Buckwater currently resides. Mainstreet East was born in 1982 and was open until ‘87. Curkin joined SIU faculty after her bar closed and became the first coordinator for the Pride Resource Center, which is now named after her. She was also an advisor to the GLO for around 20 years. 

“We were not just a gay bar, we were a community center and, you know, supported a lot of efforts of the gay student organization on campus and we provided some of the first AIDS information in the region in the early ‘80s,” Curkin said. 

Mainstreet East weathered through adversarial conditions. Curkin said the police often drove through the parking lot and took down people’s license plate numbers, causing fear of being outed to the community, which could result in job loss at the time. 

“And then occasionally we would be picketed with Christian groups that would come outside the building,” Curkin said. “What I would do to counter that was I would send the drag queens out to talk to them and they were so scared of the drag queens that they’d leave.” 

Other historic hangouts like the Underground, the Pit and Gay Bay at Crab Orchard Lake offered a safe haven to LGBTQ residents of southern Illinois. The Underground was a bar under ABC Liquor, sometimes open to LGBTQ customers. 

“Gay people would congregate there and occasionally the owner would let gay people dance together,” Curkin said. “But on a whim he didn’t want gay people in there and he’d kick us all out and we’d leave and then maybe next week we’d come back and it was kind of an unofficial gay gathering place.”

The Pit was purchased by Billy Rogers and Hal Deibolt in the ‘90s. Rogers, who is also an LGBTQ activist, said they put up a set of rules and had campers every summer at their property. According to Curkin, the Pit was an old strip mine which became a summer swimming hole. 

“We had folks from all over the United States, Canada. We’ve had people from Europe, Australia,” Rogers said. “I’d say a minimum of 20 years of a great space; safe space for the LGBT community in southern Illinois.”

Gay Bay at Crab Orchard was a popular hangout spot for gay men. However, in 1988, southern Illinois experienced an LBGTQ hate crime, which Rogers said never gained nationwide attention. 

“We had a horrific hate crime here in southern Illinois with the murder of Michael Miley, so there were a lot of firsts here in southern Illinois as well,” Rogers said. “We were terrified, a lot of people didn’t even want to testify.” 

Miley was murdered and dismembered at the Crab Orchard Lake. Despite the crime shaking the community, Carbondale continued its legacy of LGBTQ activism and people continue to seek refuge in its welcoming and unique environment. 

Carbondale City Council member Clare Killman first came to Carbondale 13 years ago. Killman is the first trans person elected to City Council office in the state. After fleeing from Poplar Bluff, Missouri, where her parents subjected her to conversion therapy. Killman said Carbondale was the closest and safest place for her, so she moved here with just the belongings in her truck. She described Carbondale like “a funky little lighthouse.” 

“It’s just horrifying knowing like both of my parents really would have just rather you be dead,” Killman said. “That was made very clear, that I would be much more convenient dead than trans.” 

She grew up in a Southern Baptist church. Her father was a deacon, and her mother still holds the position of chief financial officer for the entire denomination. Killman said she never met their expectations and never fit into their box. 

“Their entire social world was wrapped up in that cult, and I was collateral damage. I didn’t fit into their box; the box they needed: the husband and wife, very stereotypically attractive people with two bright attractive children,” Killman said. 

After being outed to her parents, she was forced into conversion therapy for several months, in what she described as “legitimized child torture.” She was stripped of everything her identity consisted of. Her parents threw out all of her clothes and forced her to wear a plain T-shirt and jeans. She wasn’t allowed to be around her family, even on holidays and eventually, they stopped celebrating her birthday. 

“It was like brainwashing, a lot of bullying, a lot of manipulation, a lot of gaslighting,” Killman said. “I wasn’t allowed to socialize with friends that were not in the church. I was fundamentally isolated. I was not allowed to express myself. I had my head shaved. No means of expression, hence the white T-shirt and two pairs of jeans. It was the only clothes I owned. They forced me to watch very graphic videos like dangers of the LGBT lifestyle, like diseased bodies, AIDS patients.” 

In Illinois, licensed mental health professionals are not permitted to practice conversion therapy, but there are loopholes. Pure Heart Ministries out of St. Louis is marketed as leading people into a liberating relationship with Jesus. These are not licensed mental health professionals, but religious individuals. 

As a City Council member, Killman said she’s constantly amazed by her own shortcomings, but whatever she has to give, she gives her best to residents. She felt it was important to enact legislation where “the second your feet touch this dirt, you have human rights.” 

“I was able to pass like a human rights title, unanimously in Carbondale’s Code; all of my colleagues wound up supporting it, including a bodily autonomy ordinance that guarantees people have the right to access health care here,” Killman said. “That was pretty cool.”

Killman considers this her “first win” on City Council. In a rural area, Carbondale protects the right to access gender-affirming care. The City of Carbondale cannot collaborate with outside entities seeking information, even if that person is traveling from a state where that same care is illegal. 

“I was coming up at a time when there was no access to hormones,” Killman said. “I was fighting like hell to get on the medication that I planned to get.”

Killman struggled to find the hormones she needed. She was referred to an endocrinologist, but even they wouldn’t prescribe them. Despite doctors denying her medical care, Killman refused to give up finding the care she needed. 

“And God, it was like every 3 months I was having to go up to St. Louis. It was crazy, and it was hard, and I don’t know how I made it. I was very young, very broke and somehow still making it work, getting access to medication,” Killman said. “I’m really glad that younger me paid it forward to future me, more or less. And there’s still work to be done. Transitioning is never finished.”

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