Hetero, White, Male, 21
I live in a suburb of Augusta the second largest city in Georgia. I think it is less homophobic than most cities in Ga. There is a gay club downtown that actually shows up on google earth. I’m sure in certain areas of the city where there is a lot less acceptance though.
One thing we’ve noticed here in Spain and I’d like to hear what you guys from other places think about it…
In big cities, you get “gay neighborhoods”. Maybe not ones where yours could be the only straight couple in the block, but for example gay bars happen to be in a certain part of town.
Smaller places simply aren’t big enough for that kind of stuff. So, instead of knowing that “the bars in that street are all gay bars”, you may walk into any bar at random and see several het couples, a bunch of people just talking/yelling at each other in circles, and one or two homo couples.
My SIL, who is from a place big enough to have a “gay area”, was quite surprised at the amount of gays she ran into during her internship. When she was doing her rotation in Ob-Gyn, for example, there were several cases of lesbian couples getting their checkups scheduled together. Once she noticed this, she started noticing couples in bars… friends holding hands is relatively common in Spain (used to be more common) but there’s holding hands and then there’s holding hands, if you know what I mean. A friend with his/her arm around my waist is just a friend with his/her arm around my waist: if the hand at the end of that arm goes into my jeans’ back pocket, that’s a different animal. She’s been “on the lookout” in her hometown and says she’s a lot less likely to see gay couples in bars there. We’re assuming they either all go to the “gay places” or, they go to other places too but don’t display their relationship openly in these mainstream locations.
Anybody else seen this kind of thing?
God where’s a good cite when you need one? I’ve read an article somewhere, where the premise is Homophobia is based in arousal! I’d love to sow that to severe homophobes 
36, straight, white, male, married, no kids.
Central Illinois is, on the whole, pretty conservative. Lots of businesses are closed on Sundays. When our city council adopted a measure to allow Sunday Morning liquor sales, some in the local populace screamed that the Apocalypse was upon us. In the 2004 election, my county was 63% Bush to 30% Kerry.
Against that backdrop, I have to say that, on a homophobic scale of 1 to 10 (on being “not at all” homophobic and 10 being “burn the queers at the stakes” homophobic, my city (Springfield) is around a 4 or a 5.
There are a couple of gay bars here and there, but nothing approaching a “gay district.” Really, this city is too small to have any kind of a “district.” There are one or two houses where the gay pride flag flies. I don’t very often see gay couples walking down the street holding hands; but then again, I’m a homebody and don’t spend much time walking down the street at all.
There is the odd crime against a gay person reported in the local media- this happens maybe twice per year, and more often than not it’s local teenagers going to our local gay park looking to cause mischief. And there are frequently anti-gay letters to the editor in our local paper. And let’s not forget that a grass-roots organization attempting to introduce a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage is based in central Illinois.
44, white male, single, and I loves me some titties.
This city is a real mixed bag. Gay marriage is legal in this state, but the city has a few neighborhoods where even thinking Teh Gey (or bi-racial) will get you killed. These tend to be very traditional Irish and/or Italian neighborhoods. And every now and then someone will say something totally homophobic to me. On the other hand, most of the city is pretty tolerant. The neighborhood where I used to live (which had a large Hispanic population) was downright fabulous.
Very interesting thread!
41 year old gay male here. Partnered with Jayjay.
We live in a fairly moderate community surrounded by a conservative community. I would have to give it a 2 or 3 out of 10.
There is no “gay district” here, but there are plenty of gay business owners and friendly bars and restaurants. Most folks simply go by “live and let live” in a one on one situation. In groups though, that is an entirely different situation. Most politicians here are of the traditional “gay agenda” types. But most of them are in the county area.
Several locals have organized loosely based groups for social outings and such. Most of those involve dinners and walking tours of the arts area. Usually we socialize with other friends outside of this area. We are lucky that way to have a choice of several major metropolitan areas for that too. There are gay campgrounds, gay b&bs, and gay bars in more rural areas in the state.
As for PDAs? Jayjay and I are openly affectionate when appropriate. We do keep an eye out for adverse reactions, but most folks are either too stunned or simply accepting. Our neighbors are pretty much the same. We do have a few neighbors who seem a bit homophobic, but not openly so. In other words, we get a few stares, but nothing more than that.
I cursed myself with this post. A Letter to the Editor was printed in my local paper yesterday. I have taken a picture (no online text version was made) here. I have written a rebuttal that I haven’t submitted for various reasons, but man, this just makes me so friggin’ angry!
24yo genderqueer gay white man in Montreal. These are my impressions.
Politically, this city is quite open - only three of the city’s 28 MPs voted against same-sex marriage (all Liberals); there is one out gay MP; the leader of the Bloc Québécois is the MP for the gay village; and the MNA for an east end district is the continent’s first out gay leader of a major political party. Scarcely any Quebec MPs or MNAs feel comfortable making anti-gay statements openly. (A recent wrong number involving the president of the Action démocratique party was quickly responded to by that party’s leader.)
The province was the first of any regional or national government in the world to ban sexual orientation discrimination; it also became the first province to recognize civil unions, which were passed unanimously in the legislature. The city government is quite supportive of a variety of gay community initiatives, typically those it believes can bring tourism or business to the city, such as the Outgames, the pride festival, gay tourism promotion, circuit parties, etc., all of which are widely advertised in both gay and non-gay media.
We do have a tendency to get a bit smug, while those members of the LGBT community who have intersectionality issues with other forms of oppression can suffer a great deal of exclusion and marginalization. Some years ago the Quebec government cancelled funding for the gay and lesbian anti-violence project. There is no gay and lesbian liaison in the police department, and a certain amount of mistrust following raids in the early 90s; there are numerous accounts of problems with homophobia/heterosexism in the police force. The only sexual assault centre that deals with queer people is at McGill University. There are many roadblocks for transgendered people who want to transition; however, the government has a committee addressing this issue in concertation with the trans community, a step forward of which trans people are quite proud. Attempts to open a new gay and lesbian community centre are perpetually held up. Before it closed, L’Androgyne Bookstore had the same problems that other LGBT bookstores in Canada had with getting materials stopped by Canada Customs. In the end, Montreal is fabulous if you are a well-off gay man, preferably white; in other circumstances, you might run into some difficulty.
Socially, Montreal is also quite open. It is well known as a gay tourism destination. Incidents of overt homophobia are reasonably rare and there is less of an ethos of “discreetness” that gay people feel obliged to observe with regard to their relationships (there’s less of an attitude of “don’t kiss me goodbye! we’re in public!”) Most people are familiar with at least lesbians and gays. The city is very secular and there is not a major tendency towards religious homophobia, in the main. I’ve experienced a number of incidents of homophobia but most have been minor - verbal street harassment, etc., often related to my genderqueer presentation. The problems we have are similar to other cities. Many LGBT people from cultural communities feel trapped between problems they may be having within their cultural community and an LGBT community that is not set up to deal with their needs and may be racist/ethnocentric towards them. Most of the schools in which I’ve done demystification workshops have reported that they have a problem with homophobia.
I would say that Montreal is quite well placed when it comes to being a gay-friendly city. Our main problems are: 1) a measure of the same social homophobia and heterosexism that can be found most places, especially with regard to intersectionality; 2) complacency, especially with regard to the situation outside Montreal.
Things are changing. I cannot recall the last execution for homosexuality. (Certainly in the last ten years, but few or none recently.) My gay friends are discreet, but then so are my hetro friends.
This place is fairly sucky without regard to you orientation.
Ditto the first part
As for the second part, I’m working on an oil rig in Azerbaijan, and the question doesn’t really comes up.
White, 37yo, hetero female, married, one child, in Sacramento.
I think Sacramento is not homophobic at all. I mean, I’m sure there are some homophobic people, and some who aren’t phobic, but just don’t like the idea. For the most part, though, I think it’s mostly live and let live. At least Dowtown and in my neighborhood of Natomas.
I lived in Sac for awhile, in South Natomas. It was known to be a fairly gay area. I’d agree that overall, Sac is fairly gay-friendly.
