Queer, Hybrid Participatory Design: Relational Practices and Norms for Coalition Building with Rural, LGBTQ+ Communities

This paper examines the first year of collaboration between the Bear River Region LGBTQ+ Community Coalition and queer residents in rural northern Utah, United States, using a hybrid participatory design (PD) approach. Using Yep's queer relationality theory, we examine how hybrid spaces were designed and iteratively adapted to support inclusion, care, and collective agency among LGBTQ+ community members. Drawing on Community Coalition Action Theory and queer PD, we analyze four cases from May 2024 to June 2025 including workshops and regular meetings to explore how relational practices evolved across different formats and phases of coalition development. In this paper, we articulate how norms, facilitation, and planning were co-created by coalition members, shifting away from productivity-centered hybrid models toward participatory practices. We contribute to PD by advancing queer relationality as both a theoretical and practical framework for designing hybrid interactions that resist normative constraints and center the lived experiences of rural LGBTQ+ communities.