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It's the difference between democratic voting and progressive. Those are democratic strongholds, but I don't see them as being as progressive as the places I mentioned. Though to be fair, those are larger cities while the places I mentioned other than Austin are small-ish.
Those places certainly have elements of progressive ideology in place as well; they are far from simply being democratic strongholds. Otherwise I would have named pretty much every sizable city in the South and not those three specifically. I tend to think of LGBT-friendliness as being something of a proxy for progressive ideology and all three of those places are at the top of the pack in the South, along with the others you mentioned. Plus it seems they do a better job of embracing racial/ethnic diversity than the three you listed aside from the Triangle.
Miami is liberal. The problem is, many of the events the city did to signify it as liberal (LGBT, environment, etc) took place decades ago, so people today don't often think of the city, in light of recent hot-button issues.
Houston is too dichotomous and polarized. It has no ERO (as of now), and has heavy sprawl/pollution, yet actually cares heavily for its environment/air quality, holds strong potential in Green initiatives, and elected an open LGBT mayor multiple times in the first place.
Last edited by GhostInTheMatrix; 08-29-2016 at 04:02 PM..
This whole "only white people are liberal/progressive, black people and Latinos aren't" thing is getting tiresome to say the least
There are socially conservative white Democrats (think Union members) and very socially liberal blacks and Latinos of course. But you can't ignore the large voting blocks of AAs that are active in socially conservative churches.
You can't always say progressive equals Dem. I consider Chattanooga to be very progressive on many issues but the money and impetuous for the programs comes from rich republicans (friends of Bob Corker). Now the work may be carried out by Ds but the money behind it is R.
You'll always find small enclaves in any large or medium sized city. But really, there isn't some bastion of liberalness or decency in the south. It's really easy to cultivate a great progressive community of friends and acquaintances, but you're still likely to return home with neighbors on either side of you flying confederate flags, or go to work where a coworker moans about equality for LGBT people, or drive by dozens of church signs with some of the most atrocious things imaginable written on them. Speaking of church, it infects just about every aspect of life. I can't get through a meeting at a governmental organization without some yahoo breaking out into prayer and encouraging everyone else to similarly talk to their various sky fairies.
You just have to determine whether or not the benefits of living in the South outweigh the negatives of being a decent progressive in the bible belt.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Simpsonvilllian
i've never witnessed gay, autstic, atheists, being ridiculed or scorned in the south in 35 years. i don't think atheists / non church 'break the mold', you just have a stereotype that most people in south are religious.
a few nerdy / non athletic where picked on when i was young but that happens everywhere.
where have you lived in the south? I see you talking about it a lot. you make a lot of assertions about people in the south but it does not seem possible that you know most of them.
You've obviously never been gay or atheist in the south. I am, I've lived in the south a good portion of my life. Currently live in the largest city in the south. I get scorned and bashed all the time. Sometimes it's just simple microaggressions. Often it's people spewing bigotry about people like me without realizing I'm the exact person they are speaking about. Occasionally it's outright ridicule, harassment and even violence.
This doesn't even touch upon the long tradition of things like a long tradition anti-LGBT legislation or governments doing things to subtly force theism or other supernatural mumbo jumbo into public life.
You've obviously never been gay or atheist in the south. I am, I've lived in the south a good portion of my life. Currently live in the largest city in the south. I get scorned and bashed all the time. Sometimes it's just simple microaggressions. Often it's people spewing bigotry about people like me without realizing I'm the exact person they are speaking about. Occasionally it's outright ridicule, harassment and even violence.
This doesn't even touch upon the long tradition of things like a long tradition anti-LGBT legislation or governments doing things to subtly force theism or other supernatural mumbo jumbo into public life.
I have plenty of Gay, Atheist and Muslim friends, we've never ran into or had to deal with any drama. Not saying your experiences aren't true, but for the most part it depends on the person.
I used to lived in NYC around West Indians who would have no problem calling gay men "Batty Boys," which is a derogatory term towards homosexuals. Even though a few individuals thought that way, I didn't generalize those people, or what they were about.
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