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Why do you keep saying this? Is it a reference to something?
At first I assumed you were responding to nep saying "The gays are scattered all over the place, even in the country", and being sarcastic as of course there are gay people everywhere. But the LGBT community is less accepted in the country, outside of some areas like New England and the Upper Midwest, so I think their point was valid. In some parts of the country LGBT people are more pressured to move to cities than others.
But then you said it a third time, 2 days later, and now I am really confused. Explain, please?
All I meant was that within New England, gays are pretty much accepted anywhere, whether it's an urban or rural area. And the gays live in both urban and rural areas, although many more are in the urban areas of course.
I grew up in a small town in New England (about 10,000 people) and when I was in High School every year they had something called Diversity Day. Different students of different minority backgrounds, including gays would make speeches in order to encourage openness and acceptance/tolerance, etc. When I was in high school, this one guy even had long curly hair, woman's glasses, wore a dress and high heels (transsexual) and no one cared. I mean, kids may have made fun of him on occasion, but never to the point of physical or verbal abuse.
But I feel like in the more conservative states, the gays intentionally move to the nearest large metro in droves. I don't know....maybe I'm just speculating here.
Why do you keep saying this? Is it a reference to something?
At first I assumed you were responding to nep saying "The gays are scattered all over the place, even in the country", and being sarcastic as of course there are gay people everywhere. But the LGBT community is less accepted in the country, outside of some areas like New England and the Upper Midwest, so I think their point was valid. In some parts of the country LGBT people are more pressured to move to cities than others.
But then you said it a third time, 2 days later, and now I am really confused. Explain, please?
Quote:
Originally Posted by nep321
Yeah, I mean that's true about New England. The gays are scattered all over the place, even in the country, because it's liberal almost everywhere -- urban or rural, which is great!
You couldn't figure out that it was in response to the post right above the first time I mentioned it? The one right here?
I live in the Upper Midwest, and there are gays all over the northwoods and Driftless here in Wisconsin. This has been my experience throughout my life. It's very commonplace. The businesses in the town just south of mine when I grew up were primarily gay-owned, and this was in the 80s. In the off-season/winter when some of the businesses were closed to the public, they'd have drag shows and dance parties for their friends. This is almost 3 hours away from any city over 100,000. Just seems excessively silly to me to pretend that gays living outside cities (WOW! Are you kidding me?!? Not just in big urban areas???) is somehow exclusive to New England. Pretty simple, no?
Location: NYC based - Used to Live in Philly - Transplant from Miami
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kyle19125
As a gay male who also travels and has lived in some of the cities mentioned I disagree with your list which seems based more on the "hey, look at us we're gay" criteria. Cities like NYC, LA, DC, Boston and Philly feature less of that because the LGBT community is largely integrated with the general population and lacking in the "gayborhoods" that exist in some cities (or historically in these particular cities), which doesn't give the visual impression at first glance of a large LGBT presence/influence. In other words I think you're using 1980s-1990s criteria in 2014, which isn't accurate for where we are now in terms of evolution.
you take the words off my mouth. I agree with you.
You couldn't figure out that it was in response to the post right above the first time I mentioned it? The one right here?
Like I said, that is what I assumed until you posted it again 2 days later, after a post that said nothing about urban/rural divide for LGBT people. I also don't know your sense of humor, so I wasn't certain if you were being sarcastic or were genuinely surprised there were gay people in "the country". (I did assume sarcasm, but you don't always know online.) Not trying to get in an argument here, I was just confused why you kept saying it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CowsAndBeer
I live in the Upper Midwest, and there are gays all over the northwoods and Driftless here in Wisconsin. This has been my experience throughout my life. It's very commonplace. The businesses in the town just south of mine when I grew up were primarily gay-owned, and this was in the 80s. In the off-season/winter when some of the businesses were closed to the public, they'd have drag shows and dance parties for their friends. This is almost 3 hours away from any city over 100,000. Just seems excessively silly to me to pretend that gays living outside cities (WOW! Are you kidding me?!? Not just in big urban areas???) is somehow exclusive to New England. Pretty simple, no?
I don't think it's exclusive to New England, but I do think being gay is more acceptable in rural areas in certain parts of the country. New England, The Upper Midwest, much of the West. Obviously there are plenty of gay people living in rural areas all over, but in parts of the country the culture is less accepting for LGBT people, and there is more of an incentive to move to cities.
According to this map, it's not clear-cut, but New England does have a higher-than-average rural same-sex couple* population. As does the west coast, and Northern Wisconsin.
*couldn't find one for gay people, so I realize it's not perfect.
Last edited by Woodchucker; 06-18-2014 at 02:16 PM..
Reason: further clarification
Interesting chart. Like I'd said, it's very, very common up north in Wisconsin and not uncommon in the Driftless, both quite rural (with no real cities anywhere in the region). Is this less common elsewhere than I'd thought? The chart says "maybe," but "same sex couples" (a self-reported deal, no?) isn't # of gays, as you noted, but probably gives a good idea.
OK, I'm gonna stay off this thread, as I'm helping to derail it and I'm straight but found this discussion interesting. Just thought that quote was extraordinarily silly, given my experiences in my own (non-NE) state.
Interesting chart. Like I'd said, it's very, very common up north in Wisconsin and not uncommon in the Driftless, both quite rural (with no real cities anywhere in the region). Is this less common elsewhere than I'd thought? The chart says "maybe," but "same sex couples" (a self-reported deal, no?) isn't # of gays, as you noted, but probably gives a good idea.
OK, I'm gonna stay off this thread, as I'm helping to derail it and I'm straight but found this discussion interesting. Just thought that quote was extraordinarily silly, given my experiences in my own (non-NE) state.
I never meant to say that this phenomenon is exclusive to rural New England. Okay, so the upper Midwest has the same thing going on. I learned something new. Thanks.
But yes, even in the South or wherever, there are simply gays EVERYWHERE in the whole country, urban or rural. Urban areas, however, tend to have a higher amount of gays, because (a) those areas are more populated to begin with, and (b) those areas tend to attract gays from rural areas.
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