Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Homophobia is most visble in the midwest and south where 99% of people are radically right.
I grew up in Iowa for my first 22 years, and never had any issues being gay.
How on earth are Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio radically right!?!?
10 of the 12 senetors from those states are Democrats.
All 6 of them voted for Obama, most by pretty large margins.
Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin have always been known for being quite progressive.
There are some more conservative states in the Great Plains and with Indiana - but you can hardly say homophobia is any more visible in the Midwest than a lot of other areas of the country. It's certainly not radical right.
A lot just depends on where you are. There are cities, towns and rural areas in every region in the country where you're likely to meet close minded people. Then again there are plenty of areas where the opposite is true - including the Midwest.
Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
10,749 posts, read 23,813,296 times
Reputation: 14660
Most every major city from Seattle to Fort Lauderdale have a large gay presence. Hell even Boise and Salt Lake City have visible gay communities. I've travelled all over the States and I don't feel any more or less prone to homophobia in Cheyenne, WY than I do in San Francisco. I have been harrased in Seattle (which has a huge gay community), but that can happen anywhere.
People who say the South is dangerous outside the big cities are only feeding into fear and ignorrance. Gays should not have to be confined to big cities which by and large would be defined as ghettos by safety in numbers. We should be able to live where ever we damn well please! And I'm sure there are gays and lesbians that are living in rural Alabama that are doing just fine and that is the way it should be. They don't have to live in a supossed liberal rural utopia like Vermont, because one could certainly encounter homophobia there as well. Perhaps they would want to be near their families, so they shouldn't have to be driven out of town and forced to live Inside the Perimeter of Atlanta. Gays come from all walks of life and they are everywhere, rural and urban. Numbers and stats don't mean a thing to me, it is whereever I feel at home and the town does not have to have a gay bar or have the majority to vote democrat to meet the criteria.
Shepherdstown district, West Viriginia apparently has a fairly high percent of homosexual couples and Kyle, Texas looks to be in the top-40 for lesbian couples.
Im still having difficulty believing that the guy who jumped off the GW Bridge was actually bullied because he's gay.
I mean, its really sad and unacceptable that his roommate and friends should be allowed to taunt him and all that, but I dont think his roommate would have reacted any differently had he been having sex with a girl. Im sure he still would have tweeted all his friends and showed them the vid.
So while I agree that the suicide was a travesty and needs to be addressed so that no one else does that-Im not so convinced that it was homophobic and its annoying how some jumped all over it and call it a hate crime, which I dont think it was.
It was the worst form of hazing possible. It violated the sacred privacy of ones home and he was humiliated to the point where he felt like there was no other recourse so he chose to take his own life. But a hate crime? Im not convinced.
As far as places and homophobia, there are evil homophobes everywhere and there are Angels of kindness everywhere also. I have learned that first hand.
So a person shouldnt deny him or herself the opportunity of stepping out of their comfort zone due to fear. On the contrary, go out there and see the amazing places that God created for all his children.
Im still having difficulty believing that the guy who jumped off the GW Bridge was actually bullied because he's gay.
I mean, its really sad and unacceptable that his roommate and friends should be allowed to taunt him and all that, but I dont think his roommate would have reacted any differently had he been having sex with a girl. Im sure he still would have tweeted all his friends and showed them the vid.
So while I agree that the suicide was a travesty and needs to be addressed so that no one else does that-Im not so convinced that it was homophobic and its annoying how some jumped all over it and call it a hate crime, which I dont think it was.
It was the worst form of hazing possible. It violated the sacred privacy of ones home and he was humiliated to the point where he felt like there was no other recourse so he chose to take his own life. But a hate crime? Im not convinced.
I was bothered by it more as an invasion of privacy and I was a bit surprised, in a way, that that wasn't more the issue. Or at least as much the issue. I think the sense you get in the media is that "The Internet Generation" has no concept of privacy, but I'm skeptical of that. Maybe some of them don't, but I imagine many/most of them do. At the very least this young man did and in a curious way I felt for him from a "conservative" perspective as he was maintaining the old-school discretion of gay college students while the hetero around him was being reckless and vulgar.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
