Gay Kansas (Lenexa: to live, gay friendly, locations)

[tijlover]

Originally Posted by Bigg Mann

Men doing same just seems weird. To each his own and not dissing anyone.

To Anglo-Saxon white males, yes, it may seem weird.

I have traveled a good portion of the world and I've seen the cultural differences, and to them visiting this country, it would seem weird, not to see it.

First time I saw it in China, it rather puzzled me, to see three young Chinese men with their arms around each other walking around at a Zoo.

Or walking the streets of Athens, and seeing three muscular sailors with their arms around each other.

Or in Italy, where I'd see two men holding hands and talking to one another.
No, not Gay.

And I've seen it in Latin America and the Middle East.

Why are we so weird here? American men.

[Cymballine]

Well put, tij. And just speaking as an Anglo, I certainly find nothing weird about it.

[seastorm]

not topeka, i would say certainly lawrence and probably kc

[Cymballine]

not topeka, i would say certainly lawrence and probably kc
*

Interestingly enough, a good 40-50% of my gay friends (mostly male, but a few female) at KU were Topeka natives. Not to suggest that Topeka is particularly gay-friendly, mind you.

[jtur88]

I'm not gay, but I had some friends in Kansas who were, both in the city and in small towns, and nobody ever conplained about having any problems. Kansas City is, as far as I know, pretty relaxed about gay life.

[nchambe]

I live in Lawrence as well. I love it there and have had no problem with acceptance.

[TinaMcG]

Originally Posted by livin in the 'bury

Hey everyone..

I'm gay and I was just wondering if anyone knew any accepting towns/cities in Kansas.

It's so funny you mentioned this just now, because while I was out shopping yesterday (in Johnson County, KS), I was thinking how accepting people in this area are of gays and lesbians. It just doesn't seem to be a big deal. I was thinking I see more gays in Kansas than I did when we lived in Chicago. Anyway, it delights me to be able to say that since I've had gay friends since the early 1970s and could never stand them being discriminated against.

[GrandviewGloria]

[quote=tijlover;9784063]To Anglo-Saxon white males, yes, it may seem weird.

I have traveled a good portion of the world and I've seen the cultural differences, and to them visiting this country, it would seem weird, not to see it.

First time I saw it in China, it rather puzzled me, to see three young Chinese men with their arms around each other walking around at a Zoo.

Or walking the streets of Athens, and seeing three muscular sailors with their arms around each other.

Or in Italy, where I'd see two men holding hands and talking to one another.
No, not Gay.

And I've seen it in Latin America and the Middle East.

I'm not sure those men you saw were Gay. Their being physically affectionate with each other does not mean they were having sex with men, or that their primary physical attraction was to men. What you saw may have been considered by them to be 'Normal Male Bonding'.

Please don't accept the demonization of 'Anglo Saxon' American males. The people who have been pushing the Anti-WASP disinformation, since at least the 1920s, have, and have had, agendas. At least two competing 'Great World Religions' (both traditionally homophobic in the extreme, and themselves vectors for homophobia, worldwide) have been intent upon breaking 'The Anglo Saxon Hegemony'. Demonization was their first step toward dispossession, and they would seem to have actually achieved their goal.

A rising tide lifts all boats. The high tide created by White Anglo Saxon Males (it was called America) lifted the Gay Boat. And it lifted my little Native American Canoe, too. I bought into the prevailing Victimization Industry's distortions, blaming White Anglo Saxon Protestants for virtually everything under the sun, too. And then I wised-up, and realized who built the universities I'd attended, and who had funded the scholarships that got me out of the mud hole of a village in which I'd grown up, and who had created the whole cultural framework of fairness and equity which we all assume is as natural as the air we breathe, but which is actually the creation of White Males.

I have only to compare my wonderful life as an Indigenous Person in America to the wretched lives of Indigenous People South of the Border, to realize that The WASP Hegemony was maybe a very good thing.

And my Gay associates have said basically the same thing. They fear for their future, now that 'Anglo Saxons' seem to no longer be in control.

I saw a Gay travel guide once, and was astonished how dangerous it is for Gay people in most of the world. That was maybe ten years back, but many whole countries had no Gay scenes at all, and homosexuality (merely as a state of being, rather than an act) in many of those places carried a risk of severe legal consequences. I remember laughing that the one place for Gay cruising in one entire (rich, quasi-Latin, non-Protestant) little country was in some bushes by the stairs below the Parking Lot by the Tennis Courts...or somesuch. How different from America, where even the tiny podunk Mississippi town up the road from our mudhole of a village had its own Gay Bar.

We moved ourselves and our operations from Mississippi, in part, because (relative to most of America), the social/legal climate was hostile to Gays. I kept losing my most valuable employees, because they were miserable in Mississippi. It is a state with a huge percentage of Non-'Anglo-Saxons', who vote for the anti-Gay politicians, and the anti-Gay laws.

Contrast that with the much whiter population of Kansas, and the fact that there seem to be several good places there, to be Gay, where Mississippi has NONE.

'Anglo Saxons' are not the problem.

Apologies for our hijacking of your thread, but I just had ta say....

[SEW724]

Originally Posted by mary cooley

Some places it depends on if you're male or female.I live in Great Bend,Ks.We have more lesbians I think,than gay men,but it seems that lesbians are a little more accepted .

Is Great Bend still or more accepting of lesbians? My work is transferring me there and it is the thing my wife and I are most worried about.

[j_k_k]

Originally Posted by livin in the 'bury

Hey everyone..

I'm gay and I was just wondering if anyone knew any accepting towns/cities in Kansas.

Lawrence and KC, as many recommend, are good calls.

One thing you might encounter in Kansas is the terminal self-hater. I have a cousin in Wichita who exemplifies this. He's a raging alcoholic with a drug history, is openly gay, and has militant pro-gay views...but does his best to fit in with the political majority in Kansas, to the point of treating family members abusively. That political majority, of course, does its all to marginalize him and everyone else who is gay. He wants so badly to be in the club, he has even managed to disgust his stepfather (my blood cousin), who leans that way politically as well but never takes it to an alienating or abusive extreme, and can get along with anyone just fine. The poor guy hates who and what he is, takes it out on everyone, and never sees his internal contradictions. There might be more than one of my crazy cousin in Kansas.