Pride in a Small Town: A Musing on Visibility

[Bit]

Hey, Random, for what it's worth I've seen for myself that the more matter-of-fact a person can be about being gay, the better the people around her will accept it. It's much easier for me to be out and I get much less reaction here in the Small City Bible Belt than I did in metropolitan Phoenix. Partly that's a function of time--Ellen, Rosie, Melissa, and shows like Will And Grace have all changed attitudes all over the US--and partly that's because in Phoenix I felt like I had something to hide and people picked up on it.

My experience has been that if you have nothing to hide, if you're just who you are right out in the open, people might not like you, but they're pretty much likely to leave you alone and let you live your life.

I'm sorry for the reasons you're moving back--sounds like your family's going through a truly difficult time right now--but I sure do hope that you're pleasantly surprised and that everyone around you just takes it for granted that you have every right to be yourself.

[Quintease]

I came out in a small town. When I say small town, I mean small city with a small town mentality. I remember leaving the one gay bar to walk to the one gay club, worrying about being gay-bashed all the way.

I ran away from there as early as I could, which was quite late as I was scared and didn't want to leave my family.

The bf and I are now talking about going back, but it still scares me. What if it's still the same? What if the apparent growing acceptance of LGBTQ is just a sham. Do we really want to be stuck in a small town, far Far away from the big city we both really love? I miss my family though, I feel like I've been away for far too long.