You stay classy, Amarillo.
Mar. 5th, 2010 09:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trenchkamenRemember my hometown/area? Texas Panhandle? The belt buckle of the Bible Belt?
Doesn't surprise me one bit.
I know this shit happens even in Seattle and San Francisco and Vancouver, but I'm not surprised this is going on in Amarillo. Not at all. Also not surprised the only counter-action is some finger-wagging (and kudos to the guy running that counter-website), but, again, it's Amarillo. I really like to poke fun, and even by Amarillo standards this is extreme (that's like Pat Robertson thinking Fred Phelps is 'extreme', I know), but the worst thing in the world you can be there is accused of sexual or religious immorality. And people are losing their jobs because these people are calling their bosses if the get caught doing something that displeases them. Texas is a Right to Work state with no sexual-whatever discrimination protection laws.
It's time for Amarillo to band together and, for the first time, say this harassment isn't acceptable. But I'm not holding my breath. I know a good percentage of the citizenry think the victims had it coming for pissing off God. But there are relative social moderates and liberals there, believe it or not. I empathize because, again, I lived it, and I know what it's like to be trapped there and not belong.
It's a huge issue in provincial areas like this, moreso than in big cities, because everybody knows everybody, gossip flies, and people *judge*. People are ostracized, even by those who find out but aren't doing the actual picketing and harassing and exposing. People get fired, as illustrated. People lose friends, fall out with family, essentially have their lives ruined.
Trust me. The judgmental attitude of an American Southern Baptist provincial small town cannot be overexerted. I've lived it. And this was the area where I came into my own as a rebellious gender-queer bisexual radical-social-liberal iconoclast-intellectual feminist/humanist.
The sad thing is, if I still lived there, I'd probably be bored enough to go rankle their chains on purpose. But my mom has a professional reputation to uphold, and I can't ruin that.
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First night I've had in two weeks to do nothing. Turned in my first draft of my senior thesis and my poster today. Maybe I'll finally finish Gyakuten Kenji. Oh Edgeworth. I wish there had been a Phoenix-has-been-kidnapped case. Fuck you I like my ship goggles.
And, yes, I know there is a character named Lauren with brown hair and bangs who has a crush on Edgeworth. But I just ran into her and she's wearing a maid's dress, so I'm a little disappointed.
Doesn't surprise me one bit.
I know this shit happens even in Seattle and San Francisco and Vancouver, but I'm not surprised this is going on in Amarillo. Not at all. Also not surprised the only counter-action is some finger-wagging (and kudos to the guy running that counter-website), but, again, it's Amarillo. I really like to poke fun, and even by Amarillo standards this is extreme (that's like Pat Robertson thinking Fred Phelps is 'extreme', I know), but the worst thing in the world you can be there is accused of sexual or religious immorality. And people are losing their jobs because these people are calling their bosses if the get caught doing something that displeases them. Texas is a Right to Work state with no sexual-whatever discrimination protection laws.
It's time for Amarillo to band together and, for the first time, say this harassment isn't acceptable. But I'm not holding my breath. I know a good percentage of the citizenry think the victims had it coming for pissing off God. But there are relative social moderates and liberals there, believe it or not. I empathize because, again, I lived it, and I know what it's like to be trapped there and not belong.
It's a huge issue in provincial areas like this, moreso than in big cities, because everybody knows everybody, gossip flies, and people *judge*. People are ostracized, even by those who find out but aren't doing the actual picketing and harassing and exposing. People get fired, as illustrated. People lose friends, fall out with family, essentially have their lives ruined.
Trust me. The judgmental attitude of an American Southern Baptist provincial small town cannot be overexerted. I've lived it. And this was the area where I came into my own as a rebellious gender-queer bisexual radical-social-liberal iconoclast-intellectual feminist/humanist.
The sad thing is, if I still lived there, I'd probably be bored enough to go rankle their chains on purpose. But my mom has a professional reputation to uphold, and I can't ruin that.
--------------
First night I've had in two weeks to do nothing. Turned in my first draft of my senior thesis and my poster today. Maybe I'll finally finish Gyakuten Kenji. Oh Edgeworth. I wish there had been a Phoenix-has-been-kidnapped case. Fuck you I like my ship goggles.
And, yes, I know there is a character named Lauren with brown hair and bangs who has a crush on Edgeworth. But I just ran into her and she's wearing a maid's dress, so I'm a little disappointed.
