Having been raised north of the Mason-Dixon line, I held similar views of the South. Then I actually began visiting there, and I became quite ashamed of my Northern views.Originally posted by jonb@May 19 2004, 08:00 PM
Actually, I'm surprised that a Southern state allows openly gay men to breathe with their diaphragms.
My first eye-opener came about 10 years ago, when I was offered a job in Georgia. While considering the offer, I researched the local laws on homosexuality. According to law still on the books in the county where I would work, the police could hold a man for an indefinite period of time if he was suspected of being homosexual. There was no need to have any evidence of a homosexual act. While this might seem to violate constitution rights, in the eyes of the local law it did not, because constitutional rights only applied to humans, not fags. Needless to say, this discovery was in pefect agreement with my bigoted stereotype of what the Old South was about.
But, while I was down there for the interview, I decided to check out the night life (and hoped I didn't get arrested.) I was expecting that the bar would be some unmarked, nondescript building, and that a secret knock would be required for entry, and you would be admitted only after the doorman examined you through a little peephole, like at a speakeasy. Imagine my astonishment as I rounded a bend in the road, and saw a huge, electric sign on top of a 30 foot high pole, which more or less advertised:
GAY BAR! C'mon IN! Parking for 300 cars in back!
So I went in. I met what were probably some of the most open and least closeted people anywhere. I learned that regardless of what the law might say, it did not reflect the way that the community felt about their homosexual members. (By the way, I declined the job for unrelated reasons, having more to do with humidity.)
As I have spent more time in the South, I have learned that the old stereotypes are largely wrong, and that many places in the South are actually more open-minded than the supposedly cosmopolitan places.