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North Carolina is home to thousands of residents who belong to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and/or Queer (LGBTQ) community. However, the state itself is home to a handful of legislation that excludes LGBTQ people. As a result, there are significant civil rights that straight, cisgender residents receive that their LGBTQ neighbors lack. Over the course of several months, I plan to embark on an ambitious project where I research and report on multiple aspects of state legislation into four separate longform articles, each totaling between 1,200-3,000 words each. I have decided to report on bathroom accessibility, hate crime legislation and the practice of conversion therapy within the state, among other issues. Through covering North Carolina’s LGBTQ community, I will be confronting what it means to be a queer person existing in the South. Therefore, queer rurality will be at the forefront of every story I write, allowing me to answer some of the bigger questions that arise with these stories.