# 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:** 4
**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, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/61 "2004-03-18T16:35:31Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > No, but it does seem to manifest itself there more often than the law of averages would dictate. How does that differ from the arguments by bigots who claim that blacks seem more prone to destroy their own neighborhoods than whites? Things aren’t always what they seem. One of the largest white supremacist organizations in the country is headquartered in Philadelphia. Meanwhile, Charlotte was the first school system in the nation to implement forced bussing to achieve integration. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/62 "2004-03-18T16:48:25Z")
> [@Rysler](#): > > 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. I live in a fabulous gay mecca? Sweet! Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/63 "2004-03-18T17:16:37Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > Well, **vanilla** , this Christian thinks it’s a pretty awful idea. Perhaps you could try and _not_ paint us with such a broad brush? > > Which Doper is it that has the sig by George Carlin, something like “All generalities are wrong…including this one.” That would be me. 🙂 Count me as another Christian who thinks these people are going _waaaaaaaaay_ overboard. I guess that whole “love your neighbor as you love yourself” thing doesn’t matter as much as Leviticus 18:22. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![mrklutz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@mrklutz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrklutz)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/64 "2004-03-18T18:20:10Z")
You know, when I was a small child, I was constantly picking up rocks and bringing them home with me. Little bitty rocks. Big honking rocks. All kinds of rocks. I could never explain why – it just seemed like the thing to do. Now I know why. I was preparing to chuck rocks at folks like the fine residents of Rhea County. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/65 "2004-03-18T18:41:32Z")
I have to agree with those who are criticizing the broad caricaturing of the South. The current issue of the _Columbia Journalism Review_ has an interesting article that examines press coverage of the South. The author makes the point, and i think makes it very well, that the South is often used as a whipping boy for problems that really are often national in scope. Looking at bigotry like this and simply dismissing it as a Southern thing does a disservice not only to Southerners, but to people who encounter similar prejudices and discrimination elsewhere in the country. Just my 2c. ---
**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, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/66 "2004-03-18T19:48:05Z")
Seems our dear friends were a mite [confused](http://www.365gay.com/newscon04/03/031804tennFolo.htm) as to what they were votin’ for at that there meetin’. A majority of them now claim they thought they were just asking the state to ban same-sex marriage. How exactly that squares with the reported language of the resolution calling for the arrest of gay people and the banishment of queers from the county is unclear from the story. Now there’s gonna be a special meetin’ to rescind the resolution. I guess being made a national laughingstock can motivate nitwits to action. ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/67 "2004-03-18T20:24:35Z")
Well shoot, they didn’ want to get rid of the queers, they just wanted to keep ‘em in their place. Hell, nobody cuts yer hair like a queer. They c’n stay around jus’ so’s they don’t think they c’n get married or be equal to us normal foke. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/68 "2004-03-18T20:34:19Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > Seems our dear friends were a mite [confused](http://www.365gay.com/newscon04/03/031804tennFolo.htm) as to what they were votin’ for at that there meetin’. A majority of them now claim they thought they were just asking the state to ban same-sex marriage. I wonder how many of these folk moved there from Dade County, Florida after the 2000 Presidential Election. ---
**Author:** ![JerseyDiamond](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8491ac/32.png) [@JerseyDiamond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerseyDiamond)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/69 "2004-03-18T20:44:33Z")
is this county/town near Jasper, TN? Just curious. ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/70 "2004-03-18T20:52:22Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > Seems our dear friends were a mite [confused](http://www.365gay.com/newscon04/03/031804tennFolo.htm) as to what they were votin’ for at that there meetin’. A majority of them now claim they thought they were just asking the state to ban same-sex marriage. > > How exactly that squares with the reported language of the resolution calling for the arrest of gay people and the banishment of queers from the county is unclear from the story. Aha, don’t you get it? They’re not bigoted, they just can’t _read._ Exit the homophobic backwoods hick stereotype, enter the illiterate backwoods hick stereotype. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![vibrotronica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/71 "2004-03-18T21:02:59Z")
Dayton is two counties over from where I grew up. I moved out as soon as I could. As do most smart people. Every now and then my mother asks when I’ll be moving back. When hell freezes over, Mom. As a Tennessean and a Doper, I promise to redouble my ignorance-fighting efforts. It’s taking longer than I thought. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/72 "2004-03-18T21:07:21Z")
Maybe I am dense as a post, but there is a facet to this ongoing controversy that I utterly fail to grasp: why do these antigay types believe that they have the right to interfere with other people’s lives? I’m gay and I’d like legal recognition of my relationship with my partner, but that does not impact the lives of the Rhea commissioners–nobody is making them have gay marriages. So what gives them the right to tell gay Rhea countians to get out? Conversely, I detest Christian fundamentalism, absolutely loathe it. But I support the right of Christian fundamentalists to attend their churches and their Bible studies to their hearts’ content. I support them in their right to live their lives the way they choose, so why don’t they return the favor? They can despise homosexuality as much as they please, and I’ll sneer at their religion, and we can live together in harmonious animosity. ---
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/73 "2004-03-18T21:07:27Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > Seems our dear friends were a mite [confused](http://www.365gay.com/newscon04/03/031804tennFolo.htm) as to what they were votin’ for at that there meetin’. From that article: > [@](#): > > The local school district still teaches creationism in its curriculum as an equal theory to evolution. Well I’ll be a monkey’s uncle! So it’s not just the gay population of Rhea County in dire straits, but also the kids. You gotta wonder what kind of education they are getting when mythology is taught as though it were science… ---
**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, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/74 "2004-03-18T21:31:54Z")
Yeah, I was going to comment on the creationism bit but didn’t get the chance to dig up the [case](http://www.txscience.org/files/court-cases/edwards-v-aguillard.htm) where SCOTUS ruled teaching creationism is illegal. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/75 "2004-03-18T22:15:56Z")
> [@gobear](#): > > Maybe I am dense as a post, but there is a facet to this ongoing controversy that I utterly fail to grasp: why do these antigay types believe that they have the right to interfere with other people’s lives? I’m gay and I’d like legal recognition of my relationship with my partner, but that does not impact the lives of the Rhea commissioners–nobody is making them have gay marriages. So what gives them the right to tell gay Rhea countians to get out? I think they’re trying to save your soul, seeing as how homosexual sex is a sin and all. ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/76 "2004-03-18T22:24:43Z")
> [@Lord Ashtar](#): > > I think they’re trying to save your soul, seeing as how homosexual sex is a sin and all. And since they see it as a sin, they want to keep “unrepentant sinners” out of their town/county. Otherwise they might “tempt others to follow their lead and convert to homosexuality.” These are not people who are particularly interested in any reality other than the one they’ve created in their own minds. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/77 "2004-03-18T23:44:15Z")
I note the county commissioner who drafted and submitted the motion that was passed is named “Fugate.” I desperately hope the pronunciation, based on the precedent of “agate,” is something like “fuggit.” That way, when people hear another one of his crackpot ideas, they can say, “Oh, Fugate.” 🙂 ---
**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, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/78 "2004-03-18T23:53:11Z")
> [@JerseyDiamond](#): > > is this county/town near Jasper, TN? > > Just curious. [Hour away](http://www.mapquest.com/directions/main.adp?go=1&do=nw&1tabval=address&2tabval=address&1sbx=0&cl=EN&un=m&2sbx=0&ct=NA&1y=US&1a=&1c=Jasper&1s=TN&1z=&1ah=&2y=US&2a=&2c=Dayton&2s=TN&2z=&2ah=&formtype1=address&formtype2=address&idx=0&id=405a3586-00067-01628-cdbcf390&aid=405a3586-00068-01628-cdbcf390), give or take. Re: pronunciation of Fugate, I was under the impression (though I could easily be wrong) that the U was hard. ---
**Author:** ![Priam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/77aa72/32.png) [@Priam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Priam)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/79 "2004-03-19T00:40:55Z")
> [@iampunha](#): > > Re: pronunciation of Fugate, I was under the impression (though I could easily be wrong) that the U was hard. I’ve heard it pronounced Fyoo-gate. An ironic side-note: same last name as the Blue Fugates of southern Kentucky who inbred themselves to the point where a recessive causing their skin to turn (in some cases) bright blue became rather predominant until the early to mid 1900s. [From the Master himself on the issue](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a980724.html). I know this because one team I was on during a retreat in High School decided to name themselves the Blue Fugates. We were an odd bunch. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935/80 "2004-03-19T01:33:24Z")
Ah, democracy; ah, Internet. Governor Bredesen [Phil.Bredesen@state.tn.us](mailto:Phil.Bredesen@state.tn.us) Rhea County Chamber of Commerce [chamber@volstate.net](mailto:chamber@volstate.net) Rhea County Council for Tourism and Economic Development [bill@rheacountyetc.com](mailto:bill@rheacountyetc.com) Local newspaper, the \*Herald \* [Herald@xtn.net](mailto:Herald@xtn.net) You know what to do… 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-of-living-while-gay/234935.md?page=5)