This looks nice!
Rural communities being forced to deal with itâs homophobia (NY Times reprint)
https://www.yahoo.com/news/far-big-city-economic-life-155533480.html
And an influx of new residents is likely to bring other changes to a rural community that is considerably whiter and more conservative than urban America. More than 80% of Putnam Countyâs population is white and not Hispanic. Donald Trump won 71% of the county vote in the presidential election of 2020. Jackson County skews even more in this direction.
Skyler Beason, Pete Kesslerâs right-hand man in the kitchen of the Stolen Coin, and his girlfriend, Hailey Allen, a photographer, welcome the changes they see. They are young: 25 and 27. Both grew up in the region. They live in Cookeville, and neither wants to leave.
âItâs gotten very progressive,â Beason said.
Brie Flora, 30, a jeweler and metalsmith who came from Boston, is the face of such progressivity. She and her partner moved to a farm in nearby Overton County in 2016 and bought a home in Cookeville two years later. A few months ago, she and a friend opened an art gallery, The Silver Fern.
âThis is definitely home,â she said.
Still, the âred-state feelâ unnerves her. And she roots for a new nonprofit group that aims to help LGBTQ youth in the area.
Not everybody will embrace the change the out-of-towners may bring. Local residents âdonât want people to come with the intent to change the community,â Porter said.
The question, perhaps, is whether that is the price of prosperity.
This will be interpreted on the right as âcontagionâ or âindoctrination,â rather than these folks have always been here, they just were forced into the closet. Now they are more free to be themselves. Of course, to the GQP, this is just as bad.
Sad but true.
Yes.
But the story we need to promote is that you ignore a voting block that large at your peril. 7% of the vote and a much larger segment going forward.
And good luck trying to target suppressing that vote like you are others without suppressing your own. Canât target by census data etc.
This is also why intersectional organizing will win the day. If we get past the next five years with democracy intact.
And according to the articleâŚ10% of millennials identify as LGBTQ+ and 21% of Gen Z
Beau clearly wants me to be happy today!
Good news with the unfortunate qualifier, âif the Democratic Party gives them something to vote forâ. I hope the Dems can offer something.
Not much to the article, but has a funny headlineâŚ
