Comments on: Of Kith and Kin in Pomeroy, Ohio

By: G.I. Joe

G.I. Joe — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 00:37:54 +0000

You’re absolutely right.

And this is why the black Civil Rights Movement has had a hard time achieving what it set out to do – because they have to fight from the outside to get in.

Gay people have the advantage of being born INSIDE. The obvious disadvantage of course is that until you’re old enough to move out or until the country changes enough, it means you’re ALONE inside, in enemy territory.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 19:06:38 +0000

They may not be 100% comfortable with the gayness, and they would probably prefer that they were different, but… “s/he may be a “queer”, but they’re *our* queer…” You pick a fight with one, you pick a fight with all.

(And, over time, folks come to terms with the gayness thing, provided they can understand it. They may never be happy with gayness as expressed, say, in the Castro or NYC, but that’s got more to do with the cultural differences between Appalachia and the Castro or NYC, and it’s just exacerbated through the prism of difference).

By: Rod Roddy lookalke

Rod Roddy lookalke — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 20:22:15 +0000

Hunter also mentioned what I experienced , in a small town in Southern IL, in the late 80s. Because my parents were living there, after retiring and moving back to the area where they grew up, as well as some relatives who always lived there, and still do. People were accepting of me, even the men in town, when they realized I was just another guy to them. One person at my parents’ church asked them why I didn’t attend with them, and was told “our son doesn’t believe the way we do, and attends church in (a nearby large town with a college). ‘Nuff said, I guess, as it was never brought up again, and I was never harrassed, by anyone, while I lived there. I believe many people know someone gay nowadays, so it’s more a factor of being someone people know, these days, and even more now than when I lived in Southern Illinois, back in the late 80s/early 90s.

By: Jay

Jay — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 14:37:14 +0000

This is an inspiring story. But I wonder how this village of fewer than 2,000 people can support a mayor and an administrator and a police chief and police force and a town council, etc. Seems like a lot of overhead for such a small place.

By: Gene in L.A.

Gene in L.A. — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 22:45:20 +0000

I wouldn’t say the rest “was” mopping up; there’s still a lot of water on the floor, and we’ll be mopping for quite some time yet. But part of the floor is dry now, and that’s definitely an accomplishment.

By: Jim Hlavac

Jim Hlavac — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 19:11:28 +0000

It is stories like this that remind me that not only did gays pretty much achieve what we did without any laws for us — but often while laws against us were still on the books — and why the entire No-gays movement (anti-gay they are sometimes called, but, when they call for you not be gay, they are “No gay” indeed,) is simply doomed to failure. In other reports some 98% of gay folks are out to immediate family, and 68% out to extended family — and no matter how hard the politicos try, they’re not going to make our families hate us — those days are gone.

Meanwhile, growing up in NYC, family protections mattered just as much, but, probably weren’t as newsworthy, though, when I started to do business across the rural Gulf South in the mid-1980s I was astonished to find cops protecting every gay bar I found from Alexandria LA to Florence South Carolina, and all those in between – and this at a time when 10 years at hard labor was a common term for “crimes against nature.” The cops simply would not enforce the law — and gave us protection — against ladies like this mayor, and her younger hetero male creepies. It was then, I think, that I realized that we won, and the rest was merely mopping up.

By: Hunter

Hunter — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 11:34:18 +0000

I think you’ve got a very good point here — as someone with family in Appalachia myself (western NC), I know that if you attack family, you’ll have the whole clan on your case (no matter how much they’ve been fighting among themselves).

There’s also connection to the community — if you’re related to someone people know, even if you’re from out of town or another state, you’re in.

As for this story, the mayor sounds like a real piece of work — her behavior was much worse than name-calling. I can’t help but think that the backlash has been significant, though, to force her resignation. Good.

By: Hue-Man

Hue-Man — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 01:51:29 +0000

What you’re describing goes a long way to explain why LGBT rights have progressed at nearly the speed of light – in ways that even the most radical of gay rights advocates would never have imagined, twenty or even ten years ago.

People have come to realize that they have a “confirmed bachelor” uncle, they have a cousin that says she could never find the right man, they realize that their children could be gay or have a friend who is a part-time police officer who has a live-in boyfriend. (Gay actors playing iconic roles like Dr. Kildare, Perry Mason, and Doogie Howser as well as Rock Hudson may have had a part to play.)