Now Let's Have The Other Side. (Houston, Dallas: to live, move, oil)

[TexasGirl@Heart]

Isn't she beautiful?

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by Texanwannabe

Isn't she beautiful?

Yes she is.

[vantexan]

[QUOTE

I hear how conservative and homophobic "Texas" is and wonder just where the heck it is I've been living all my life, because the place that's described doesn't fit any of the places in Texas that I've lived in the past almost six decades. That includes growing up in East Texas as a preacher's kid, by the way, so you'd think I'd have been exposed to it. Are there people here (as everywhere) with those prejudices? Sure, there are - but they're not any more common or highly regarded here than anywhere else.

But, then, since people tend to make their own reality (what you expect is what you see), I probably shouldn't be surprised. There are people who come to Texas with a preconceived idea of what it is, and who are blown away by how much it ISN'T what they thought or were told. Then there are people who come here with the same preconceived notions who will see that even if it's not the reality, or will seek out those who reinforce those ideas and not see the ones who don't. That goes a long way towards explaining the disparity between what I see (and what other newcomers who love it here see) and the things that are unrecognizable to me having lived here all my life.[/quote]

So when I was alone with 6 coworkers in Uvalde one evening and one said to me I could go over to Piedras Negras from Eagle Pass and get a little boy for $10, and it was all I could do to control myself from hurting him, that was just my perception of reality? I'm glad you run in circles where that kind of behavior is never observed. I wish I did. Those guys made constant racist and homophobic remarks. And as the mgr was a "real" Texan, I had to put up with it. And I'm betting many reading this are assuming they were a bunch of white rednecks and just maybe I deserved it because I'm Hispanic. Well they were all Hispanic, and I was the only white there other than the mgr. And he wasn't there half the time, thus the constant abuse. But they were no different than many whites I've worked with. And nowhere has it been worse for me personally than dealing with working class Texans. Not all of them, many are great people. But it's proportionally worse here than other places I've worked.

[tstone]

Originally Posted by vantexan

...And nowhere has it been worse for me personally than dealing with working class Texans. Not all of them, many are great people. But it's proportionally worse here than other places I've worked.

I think this is just part of being a Southern, blue-collar dip****. The Machismo attitude is not just limited to Texas.

[latetotheparty]

Originally Posted by lutarian

I agree with bella...I spent 2 years in Mcallen, TX and was in shocked at how many gays, both men and women that were around...and openly gay..like real open...

coming from a straight woman, native houstonian......

so??

being gay is not a "lifestyle choice" as so many want to believe......

it is the way that person IS .... I could no more "choose" to "go gay" than a gay person can choose to be straight......

and if you would think about it, you would realize that you have no more control over who you are attracted to than any of the rest of us......

sort of like being blonde or brunette or red head, or blue-eyed or brown eyed or green eyed......

and van ... it is truly a shame that people have nothing better to do but speculate in what is considered a negative way about you because you have not yet conformed to what they consider to be "normal" ie: marriied with a couple or few kids..... i am sorry for them and for you for having to put up with it.

[welltravelled]

wow...I was just stating a fact about the mcallen area...never said anything negative about about gays...as people have no control over being gay...I don't believe that at all...it specifically mentions homosexuallity in the Bible so there is no possible way it is moral...can gays be good people? yes they can...very good people...but homosexuality is still wrong...and they do have a choice...just like an alcoholic can make the choice to stop drinking...I would mention what the Bible says about the cause of Homosexuality but I would get flamed hard so I am not going to mention anything else at all about it...

[houstoner]

Originally Posted by lutarian

wow...I was just stating a fact about the mcallen area...never said anything negative about about gays...as people have no control over being gay...I don't believe that at all...it specifically mentions homosexuallity in the Bible so there is no possible way it is moral...can gays be good people? yes they can...very good people...but homosexuality is still wrong...and they do have a choice...just like an alcoholic can make the choice to stop drinking...I would mention what the Bible says about the cause of Homosexuality but I would get flamed hard so I am not going to mention anything else at all about it...

I do not follow your logic. If cookies were mentioned in the Bible would that make them immoral, too?

[tstone]

Originally Posted by lutarian

wow...I was just stating a fact about the mcallen area...never said anything negative about about gays...as people have no control over being gay...I don't believe that at all...it specifically mentions homosexuallity in the Bible so there is no possible way it is moral...can gays be good people? yes they can...very good people...but homosexuality is still wrong...and they do have a choice...just like an alcoholic can make the choice to stop drinking...I would mention what the Bible says about the cause of Homosexuality but I would get flamed hard so I am not going to mention anything else at all about it...

There was a pretty good South Park episode regarding this. Sending kids to 'straight camp' where they quote bible verses verbatim, go crazy, plot suicides and hang themselves.

I don't know about you, but I didn't just choose to be straight one day. Things just started, uh, "moving" around the 6th grade. But it's amazing (and somewhat frightening) that in this day & age, some people still believe this.... that being gay is a disease like alcoholism. Apparently scientific research and knowledge means nothing here. Remember that next time you need some medicine.

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by vantexan

So when I was alone with 6 coworkers in Uvalde one evening and one said to me I could go over to Piedras Negras from Eagle Pass and get a little boy for $10, and it was all I could do to control myself from hurting him, that was just my perception of reality? I'm glad you run in circles where that kind of behavior is never observed. I wish I did. Those guys made constant racist and homophobic remarks. And as the mgr was a "real" Texan, I had to put up with it. And I'm betting many reading this are assuming they were a bunch of white rednecks and just maybe I deserved it because I'm Hispanic. Well they were all Hispanic, and I was the only white there other than the mgr. And he wasn't there half the time, thus the constant abuse. But they were no different than many whites I've worked with. And nowhere has it been worse for me personally than dealing with working class Texans. Not all of them, many are great people. But it's proportionally worse here than other places I've worked.

vantexan, you're painting an entire state and all of its people based on one small group.

I've run into jerks of various stripes, both conservative and liberal, in my time. Sometimes they even run in packs. However, that doesn't mean that the entire population of Texas (or any other state), or even a significant portion of it, corresponds to the way the jerks are. That would, in fact, be impossible, given the varying kinds of jerks there are out there everywhere.

These particular jerks just lived up to your particular stereotype of Texas and thus reinforced it, I suspect.

[momof2dfw]

Sooo, is this ANOTHER one of those "let's all jump on the bandwagon and bash Texas" threads????

You know, if you HATE the place THAT much - MOVE and NEVER come back. Do not come visit, do not come live here, do NOT buy ANYTHING produced in Texas. Hey, California and Florida - do NOT buy gas. Yeah, we have those oil platforms off of our coast. Something you pansies don't want but you sure want OUR oil. If you don't like our state and our people then why on earth do you like OUR OIL?!?!?!?! I hate for people to be in a place they so vehmently hate so much. Life is WAY TOO SHORT to go around w/ a chip (or two) on your shoulders all worked up over the way some people live that your opposed to in some way or fashion. Find a place that makes YOU happy and stay there. Hopefully it will be YOUR utopia and everyone there will be perfect and happy w/ your living amoungst them. Which is something else we have brought up before - all of these people that put down Texans and the things WE belive are flying in the face of their own beliefs of "tolerance". We are supposed to be "tolerant" of them but NO WAY are they going to be "tolerant" of us if our beliefs are in ANY WAY different than theirs. As we have said before on here numerous times - funny how those that yell the loudest for "tolerance" and how "backwards" we are can be the MOST intolerant bunch around. Hmmmm.

Anyway, y'all have fun bashing the place. Meanwhile I'll be VERY HAPPY living here in a place we call HOME and have made the best of our place in life and enjoying EVERY SECOND of it. Guess you just have to find peace within yourself to find peace in the place you live in w/in this great big world.