# Guilty of living while gay **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 17, 2004, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935 "2004-03-17T23:18:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/41 "2004-03-18T04:36:29Z")
I guess they’ll just have to split you in half, iampunha. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/42 "2004-03-18T05:03:39Z")
> [@Vlad/Igor](#): > > I could see a whole passel of gay men and women quietly moving in, daring Rhea county to find them and escort them to the county line. “Sometimes I go back to some of the places where I’ve had a _particularly_ good time and see if they’ve put my picture up in the post office with the other criminals. They never do, of course, but I wish they would because it would be a great way to get dates.” - Ron Romanovsky ---
**Author:** ![Billdo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/billdo/32/315_2.png) [@Billdo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billdo)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/43 "2004-03-18T05:07:37Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > Didn’t the Supreme Court already rule on these kinds of laws? What kind of fucked up people are these? You can’t live in the county if you’re gay? How do they decide who’s gay? > > Jesus, this is the stupidest fucking thing I’ve ever seen in my life. Yep, the Supremes did in [Lawrence v. Texas](http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=000&invol=02-102) decided just last June, which struck down a Texas law criminalizing homosexual sodomy and in [Romer v. Evans](http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?navby=case&court=US&vol=517&invol=620), which struck down a Colorado Constitutional provision that would eliminate local laws prohibiting discrimination based homosexual, lesbian or bisexual orientation, conduct, practices or relationships. ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/44 "2004-03-18T05:58:35Z")
> [@vanilla](#): > > I guess they’ll just have to split you in half, iampunha. Sounds like a combination of “to the death” and " to the pain"😃 ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/45 "2004-03-18T07:38:43Z")
I saw one of the yokels in question on the news defending this action, saying, “their rights end where mine begin”. So, I guess, their right to live peacefully in their own homes is no match for his right to live in a county without any homosexuals. Sheesh. Dr. J ---
**Author:** ![AveDementia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@AveDementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AveDementia)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/46 "2004-03-18T08:41:54Z")
> [@DoctorJ](#): > > If they want the gay folk out, they should just send them a message by, say, burning crosses in their front yards. Crosses? That’s just not appropriate at all. Giant burning phalluses, however… “Son, why is there a big flaming dick in our front yard? Are you planning to move out of the county or something?” ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/47 "2004-03-18T09:22:24Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > How do they decide who’s gay? [joke from previous days in theater] That’s easy. At random times, their Gay Patrol will say “clang clang clang.” If anybody responds with “goes the trolley,” you lock 'em up. 😉 [/joke] ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/48 "2004-03-18T12:19:51Z")
Bigotry is [not limited to the South](http://www.suntimes.com/output/brown/cst-nws-brown111.html). And frankly, citing caricatures of idiot white southerners as stereotypical is itself bigotry. ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/49 "2004-03-18T12:23:22Z")
Holy farcking shit! It’s a thought crime! What was the last law to discriminate people based on something they are or thought, rather than did. This just seems… impossible. When I put it like that, there’s more thought crimes than you’d think ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/50 "2004-03-18T12:33:54Z")
Relax. These dipshits do this _every_ election year. Makes 'em feel like somnething less than _total_ losers. They try, the bill gets killed in committee, the newspapers go “Harumph”, life in Bug Tussle goes on. Spring comes. Then, the richness of Summer. Fall harvest fills us with cheer, & we retire to the fire for Winter. Godot does not return. ---
**Author:** ![Vlad\_Igor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Vlad\_Igor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vlad_Igor)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/51 "2004-03-18T13:52:22Z")
> [@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor](#): > > Relax. > > These dipshits do this _every_ election year. What is it, exactly, about Rhea County and perhaps the surrounding area that leads to this? Is it a demographically conservative area, or is there a history, not unlike central Indiana and the Klan? My parents live in south central Nashville, so I’m starting to get caught up on Middle Tennessee politics, but this intrigues me. Vlad/Igor ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/52 "2004-03-18T14:00:10Z")
> [@Vlad/Igor](#): > > What is it, exactly, about Rhea County and perhaps the surrounding area that leads to this? Is it a demographically conservative area, or is there a history, not unlike central Indiana and the Klan? > > My parents live in south central Nashville, so I’m starting to get caught up on Middle Tennessee politics, but this intrigues me. > > Vlad/Igor Inbreeding. The area is a swaddling nightmare of a gene pool. ---
**Author:** ![LibrarySpy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f9ae1b/32.png) [@LibrarySpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LibrarySpy)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/53 "2004-03-18T14:25:40Z")
As a _happy_ gay Southerner, I ask that you not associate idjit behavior with “Southerners.” These people are clearly crackheads. And all you gay folks’re welcome to come over to North Carolina, as we have built a fabulous gay mecca in [Asheville, NC](http://www.romanticasheville.com/gayandlesbian.html), a mountain town near the Tennessee border, so your straight relatives could come visit you. Some of the coolest gay and bisexual people are from North Carolina, including David Sedaris, Patricia Cornwell, and Alan Gurganus. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to get married, but it might be an okay price to pay in exchange for not getting burned at the stake in these transitional times. On a more serious note, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, but won’t someone please think of the children? It’s hard enough being a gay kid without…all this. ---
**Author:** ![Grant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a5b964/32.png) [@Grant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grant)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/54 "2004-03-18T14:32:34Z")
Could be inbreeding **Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor**. LOL Seriously though it is one of the most economically depressed areas in the country. Can’t find a link right now but the Chattanooga area had something like 18% unemployment last year. That combined with the influence of bible thumpers. It’s right at the buckle of the Bible belt. A very bad combination. Another thought is that they seem to be proud of this whole “Monkey Trial” tradition. I wonder if this celebration has passed on this tradition of ignorance. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/55 "2004-03-18T14:33:27Z")
> [@Libertarian](#): > > Bigotry is [not limited to the South](http://www.suntimes.com/output/brown/cst-nws-brown111.html). No, but it does seem to manifest itself there more often than the law of averages would dictate. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/56 "2004-03-18T14:50:39Z")
Wow. I wish I lived there. Truly, I do. Because then I could move. And as I’m on my way out, I could use the phrase “ignorant hillbilly backwater incestuous inbred fucknut assbombs.” Then again, with my luck I might find myself moving to West Memphis, AK. Some improvement. ---
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/57 "2004-03-18T14:54:19Z")
Where are the fundies saying This is wrong? telling. ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/58 "2004-03-18T14:58:23Z")
I’ll be watching the local biggish newspaper waiting for the letters to the editor praising this town for following God’s law. I’m hoping I’ll come up with a big 0 for the month. But just in the past four or so days of quickly looking through Letters to the Editor (I don’t expect to see this latest development in the newspaper for at least a week or so), about half are letters for or against gay rights (more for than against for the past few days, but sometimes they go through stretches where it’s one anti-gay day after aanother), and you can bank on the fact that every single one of the anti-gay letters cites religion, natural law, the homosexual lifestyle, something like that. **Tuckerfan** , maybe we should elope… ---
**Author:** ![hybrid\_dogfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a587f6/32.png) [@hybrid\_dogfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hybrid_dogfish)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/59 "2004-03-18T15:19:28Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Apparently, they’re still trying to prove they were right about evolution, using themselves as their prime example. Indeed, it seems they missed out on everything after the “primitive slime\*” part. I know, it’s “primordial ooze”, but “primitive slime” just seemed to describe these…‘people’ so much better ---
**Author:** ![Doomtrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/60 "2004-03-18T16:14:01Z")
> [@Rysler](#): > > As a _happy_ gay Southerner, I ask that you not associate idjit behavior with “Southerners.” But this is what people see. This is why, when I turn up in Northern/Western states, they expect me to be driving a pickup truck with a Confederate flag flying from the back, carrying a Bible in one hand and a shotgun in the other. And I’m sick of prehistoric cavemen assholes like these dominating coverage of a fine region of the country with a rich history and culture because their little fucking book tells them to be assholes. Yes, I am a bigot. I’m a bigot against fucking morons. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935.md?page=4)