You’re taking offense very easily. Right from the article: Support has risen from 22 percent in 2003 to 48 percent in 2013. It’s not stereotyping or assuming a cultural monolith to recognize that three-quarters opposed to marriage equality meant a lot of prejudice in the region. And one might well be pleasantly surprised to find that dropped as much as 26% in a single decade, particularly given the recent history of bans described in the article.
If you prefer, though, I can instead be surprised and disappointed that half the people in this diverse cultural region are still so backwards as to oppose equality.
So, that high “tolerance” for gays in Atlanta is supposed to be typical of the South? Cuz, as I’m sure you know, it definitely isn’t.
Why do white heterosexual Southerners have such a hard time admitting that their region generally is more bigoted than the North? Truth hurts, I guess.
The statement may have implied that the South was prejudiced - but that is historically, actually, absolutely true, so a sudden shift is definitely surprising. So, sorry, you’re not allowed to take offense at that. It’s not Rob’s fault that the reality is offensive. That “the South” isn’t monolithic in its views is completely irrelevant (and stupidly obvious, frankly), as the reference was to the region as a whole and a change of views.
Actually, I’m allowed to take offense as I choose. I am just sick and tired of the default picture of a “Southerner” as an inbred redneck, wearing overalls and bare feet, when they’re not wearing KKK robes.
So do actively you work to change the image of what I gather is your region? Perhaps by campaigning for more liberal politicians? Or by challenging currently existing racist laws and practices? That image does indeed entail some objectionable prejudice, but it doesn’t come out of nowhere.
I doubt that all that many people outside of the South think of the default “Southerner” as an inbred redneck these days, because we understand more than we used to that racism lurks in all class-based levels of society. But, yeah, it still does so at higher, more salient levels in the South than in the North.
So far the picture that was described was a region that is culturally conservative, where there were a number of same-sex marriage bans, and where ten years ago the greater majority were against it. And all of this is unfortunately true, unlike the clothing stereotypes - which so far you are the only one to have mentioned.
That’s quite a screed you’ve got there. First off, @Shuck beat me to it re: Clinton. Also, your question poses a false dichotomy. Would you be okay with Thatcher drilling into your teeth (and is this a bad time for a joke about dental care in England)?. Another thing re: Clinton–that man had charisma out the wazoo, and if he were a dentist, he’d probably talk you into drilling your own teeth.
As for your last question, no. But even we are allowed the statistical outlier here and there.
Personally, as a southerner, I’m also tired of being painted with the redneck brush (most of the ultra-conservative people I know are, oddly enough, not from the south, but they moved here because of jobs and “conservative values”), but I think the real take-away from the article should be this:
THE SOUTH IS GROWING MORE PROGRESSIVE.
The fact that, in 10 years, support for gay marriage has almost DOUBLED is pretty phenomenal, and is indicative of a “normalizing” trend. The city of Houston has an openly lesbian mayor (for now - this is her last term) who is married to her partner. Wendy Davis has incredibly strong support across the state, not only from female constituents who are tired of being treated like chattel (many of whom are Republicans, BTW), but also from progressive males.
And the trend towards acceptance is growing, even among the older generation. My dad (a conservative republican) is a prime example of this, mostly because he found out 15 years ago that 1) his barber is gay; and 2) my sister’s best friend in college is gay (and is now married to his partner). The portrayal of gays in the media had a lot to do with my dad’s previous perception - gay men in San Francisco wearing ass-less chaps and no jeans, for instance - was turned on its head by the realization that my sister’s soft-spoken, preppy friend was gay, and that his street-bike riding barber, who lived with and supported his dad financially, was gay.
Progress is being made, and we should rejoice in that, rather than continue the divisive bashing that has helped to create our current political climate. But that’s just my opinion.
I’m assuming you’re talking about out gay people specifically? Because unless there’s something in the water, that distinction probably goes to the US city with the third highest population, Chicago…
The South is not inherently prejudiced. The only things inherent about the Southern US are facts of physical geography. Everything else is cultural and subject to change.
It has however in recent decades been observably more prejudiced against gay people than other regions, and other posters have already pointed out valid examples of such observations.
Another poster upthread suggested it might have more than doubled in the decade. And it’s not like a doubling from 0.5% to 1% either - it can only double once more, after which there would be very little room for growth in support before the 100% ceiling is reached.
My observation from Canada is that once same sex marriage is a legal fact - which may take spilling an ocean of ink in anguished op-eds - everyone realizes that all their fears were completely unfounded, and the whole thing is thought of as a non-event in retrospect.
As a Southerner myself I’m also tired of Southerner-bashing, but I didn’t see it in the linked article. It called growing acceptance of same-sex marriage in the South “surprising”, but I didn’t read that as a pejorative. The fact that acceptance is growing across the country is surprising, but the South still remains pretty reactionary. Consider the fact that North Carolina voters approved a state constitutional amendment banning not only same-sex marriage but civil unions and domestic partnerships in May 2012, when several states were already moving the other way.
Granted the vote was held during a Republican primary, but even in a general election it would have been likely to pass according to poll data.
Yes, the South is changing, and, yes, there are those who still unfairly paint all Southerners, but that wasn’t what this article was doing, and we still have a long way to go.
I should have been more clear: I wasn’t referring to Southerner-bashing in the article, but the tendency of some users (and certain sections of the media) to paint all Southerners as racist homophobic hicks.
Also, please note that I was not attempting to complain about the Southerner-bashing, but attempting, rather, to emphasize what the article WAS about: the sea-change in Southerners’ views of gay marriage and homosexuals, in general. You might note that my comment was 75% about the positives noted in the article, and also about attempting to downplay the tendency for both “Damn Yankees” and Southerners to bash each other instead of addressing the real problems and how to fix them.
I doubt anybody intentionally portrays every single person that way. But there is no denying that that is an accurate description of the dominant culture. And I can’t help but feel that anybody who actually believes otherwise has either never visited the Confederacy, or has never traveled outside of the Confederacy.
We should be discussing and encouraging progress, why it’s occurring, and what we can do to encourage it further, rather than bashing and causing defensiveness on both sides.
And that’s the end of my commentary on this topic.
Sorry, what I actually meant was, you’re not allowed to take offense without looking like an asshole, because you’re getting into the “NO, you’re racist for point out racism” style nonsense. Albeit dressed up with a straw-man, because of course the only person remotely alluding to the notion of Southerners as inbred rednecks is you. If you think the bare facts of the matter portray Southerners as inbred rednecks, then, well…
I’m sorry I misunderstood, and I also should have thanked you for bringing up Mayor Annise Parker. You’re right, we should be discussing and encouraging progress. And while I think it’s possible to criticize without bashing I admit I regularly need to be reminded of your other point: taking broad swipes at groups is unfair and doesn’t help anyone.
