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When I say "North Georgia", I mean the mountains of Georgia. We are right up against the border of North Carolina. Sometimes I grocery shop in North Carolina.
Until fairly recently, it was very hard to travel into this area until the highway was extended here. One local man said when he was growing up, there was only one way out of here and it was a small road over the mountains. A trip to Gainesville was a big deal back then.
Living here has blown many of my assumptions out of the water. It was a severe culture shock to see how attitudes about so many things most Americans take for granted are decades behind.
If I didn't live here, I'd think that was an exaggeration, but it's not.
Asheville has played host to visitors since the 1800's, but having new people coming and going is relatively new here and it shows.
When it comes to knowledge of gay people, the difference between a local's experience and a city person's experience is like living on two different planets. People who grew up here see a gay pride parade on TV and think that is what everyday life is for a gay person. Whereas I've worked among gay people since I entered the workforce in 1980!
It's funny the things locals fixate on sometimes. They think Floridians are weird because they routinely drink wine and "you see grown men carrying around tiny dogs". Heck, they think it's bizarre that newcomers let their dogs live inside the house.
Locals don't realize they have grown up outside of mainstream America. Thus, they attribute everything that is "different" to being Floridian, when most of it is merely mainstream American behavior.
Of course, there are locals who know better. They are the ones who lived outside this area for some portion of their lives because of work or school and then came back. They have a wider view of the world.
When it comes to knowledge of gay people, the difference between a local's experience and a city person's experience is like living on two different planets.
It's funny the things locals fixate on sometimes. They think Floridians are weird because they routinely drink wine and "you see grown men carrying around tiny dogs". Heck, they think it's bizarre that newcomers let their dogs live inside the house.
I find it amusing that you are aghast at the stereotypes held by some near you, and then you go right on to stereotype "the locals" in the same breath! LOL... I guess it's only "certain stereotypes" that are wrong, eh?
(BTW I am gay, so I am not doubting any of your experiences with some people--but I've noticed that the more "polticially correct" a person is about those who stereotype against "some groups" (gays, racial minorities, women, religious minorities), the more that person is likely to stereotype "all rural people" or "all Southern people" as "a bunch of ignorant hicks". Delicious irony and hypocrisy, party of one!
Stereotyping "the locals" as all thinking in lockstep of 100% homophobia and racism is NO different than stereotyping all gay people as folks who spend every moment prancing on parade floats--that is when they aren't molesting children.
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. well, sounds like a nice mix though 
I guess it's only "certain stereotypes" that are wrong, eh?
