Is there a homophobia in Cedar Rapids (Iowa City: neighborhood, elementary school)

[kyle242]

I googled "homophobia cedar rapids". There is one article that picked up on pink locker room at University of Iowa that is used by guys to shame other guys. Although UI is in Iowa City, not Cedar rapids which is 20 minutes away which is supposed to be more liberal.

There also comes up some private blog from a guy whose story is not very clear and comprehensible but from the story it seems he met a friend from Cedar Rapids who turned on him when he came out. Is it really bad there?

[smpliving]

From my gay friends/coworkers, it doesn't seem to be much of an issue. When I moved to Cedar Rapids 20 years ago, our neighborhood was comprised of mostly young families ... a mix of evangelical Christians, southern Baptists, atheists, and mainstream religions. We had a gay couple living in the neighborhood. No one seemed to care. I never heard anything negative and there were a lot of neighborhood get togethers. One of my kids had a gay teacher in elementary school. Didn't seem to be an issue either that I know of. However, there will always be some idiots no matter where you go. As far as the UI locker rooms, I don't know much about the story behind it, but did hear some wanted to get rid of them at one point when the stadium got a makeover a few years ago.

[Stavemaster]

The explanation I was given when I first learned about the pink locker room was that pink is supposedly a calming color, the idea being that after spending some time in there the visiting teams will play less aggressively. No idea if that's true or not, but I never heard anything about homophobia or shaming until fairly recently. That argument always seemed to me like a product of too much idle time, as though there aren't any issues out there that have actual measurable impact on gay people's lives.

As for CR, I haven't been there in many years, but a lot of my family is from the area. It always struck me as a live and let live kind of place, like most any town of decent size in Iowa. Like rigizug said, there will always be some idiots wherever you go.

[duster1979]

I'm pretty sure you'll find homophobia in San Francisco if you look hard enough.

[Dport7674]

Link to article that says the pink locker room is 'used to shame other guys'?

The pink visiting locker rooms at Kinnick are very well known throughout college football, and the poster above is correct, pink is thought to have a calming effect.

[atler8]

Stavemaster is absolutely spot on about the pink locker room which is the color of the walls in the visitor's locker room at Kinnick Stadium @ the Uof I. Former head football coach Hayden Fry had the locker room painted pink for the reasons Stavemaster mentioned as in a clever use of psychology on the visiting football team.
The pink locker room is actually a well-known factoid about Big Ten football & it's traditions & is part of the legend & lore of that conference.

[capitalcityguy]

They are walls. They are painted pink.

Nothing to see hear folks. Move along.

[fezzador]

Originally Posted by atler8

Stavemaster is absolutely spot on about the pink locker room which is the color of the walls in the visitor's locker room at Kinnick Stadium @ the Uof I. Former head football coach Hayden Fry had the locker room painted pink for the reasons Stavemaster mentioned as in a clever use of psychology on the visiting football team.
The pink locker room is actually a well-known factoid about Big Ten football & it's traditions & is part of the legend & lore of that conference.

It worked for a while, but I don't think Kinnick has that same intimidation factor anymore. Maybe it's the way they renovated the stadium (including moving the student section... when something works, you don't really want to mess with it), and part of it probably has to do with the fact that the quality of the teams being fielded these days aren't as good as they were a decade ago.

[chienduciel]

Unfortunately, homophobia is everywhere. Even more open-minded areas like Iowa.

[Chicago60614]

The walls were pink because it was a calming color, as everyone else said. It had nothing to do with gays or shaming or anything like that. Jeez.