Quote:
Originally posted by notcasesensitive
Ill-informed? I just lived through 7 years in Texas. Those were some informative years. Sort of like crossing that line you crossed, only in reverse. I'm sure it was worse in the past, but when repeatedly in social settings I was subjected to gay jokes, or even worse non-jokes, just stereotypical hateful comments, I don't think that the problem is as rectified as you seem to think it is. I think I have a pretty good understanding of what "polite society's" views on homosexuality are down there. And the Baptist church certainly is not progressing them. I did my best to steer clear of polite society.
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As I was reading this, I was reminded of an episode in my childhood. I grew up in the midwest and our next-door neighbors were from Texas and Arkansas (dad from AK, mom from TX -- they had relocated to midwest nirvana -- next door to us). Anyway, when we were kids, we would play this game called "Smear the Queer" (we were really PC back in those days), which involved a bunch of us running around trying to tackle the kid with the ball (the one with the ball was "the queer"). The person with the ball would run around trying to escape everyone, and could toss the ball to someone else whenever if he didn't want to be "smeared". (At least, I think those were the rules -- it's a bit hazy.)
Of course, none of us knew what "queer" even meant, other than it was in the name of this really high-tech game we played.
Well one day, one of the kids from the TX/AR family told us that his dad suggested, nay, insisted! we call the game something else, because it really wasn't very nice to call the game "Smear the Queer". I think that may have been my first introduction to what "queer" meant.
I think their relative enlightenment must have been because they were Methodists, not Baptists.
