Weekly comments too good to pass up: "butt-to-nut"Damn, we just can't pass this one up. A commenter over at the SF Weekly's blog posted a message agreeing with Benjamin Wachs that there are some fine folks in the Midwest contrary to what so many San Franciscans seem to believe. I won't speak for rest of the newsroom here, but I agree with Wachs, too. I grew up in Tulsa and resent any implication that Oklahomans are somehow dysfunctional because popular pundits have encouraged the country to divide each state into two colors and thus make broad assumptions about millions of people. But there's a problem. Read the comment closely:
Posted at: July 17, 2008 10:54 AMDan says:
When San Francisco got too expensive in the late 90s, the ex and I took our freelancing selves to a small town in the Midwest. The generalizations made by the coasters were always amusing to read; our small town of about six thousand was populated by other refugees from big towns, artists and radicals and iconoclasts made it something of a weekend destination and arts center. These people had real cultural connections and credentials but very little of the pretension you'd find at, say, the Lexington (which, more than likely, is jammed butt to nut with a bunch of people who are actually from the Midwest and would be mortified if you found out). I found that we did travel more than when we lived in California. But that was mostly because we were still making San Francisco wages but paying small town Midwestern rent.
Wait. Huh? Wha? Are you talking about the Lexington in the Mission? You've been there before, right? Are you sure your parenthetical description of it is, uh, accurate? You're right about one thing, however. The Lexington, like so many other places in town, contains a lot of refugees from elsewhere who may actually be proud of where they came from but couldn't stand being treated like second-class citizens there anymore.
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Comments (4)
G.W. Schulz, I get the joke is that Dan's description of the Lexington (if in fact, he does mean the same Lexington) doesn't seem to fit with it being a lesbian bar. (Although, lesbians do have male friends who patronize the establishment, too. Also, several transgendered FTM individuals like to hang out at the Lex).
That being, you seem to share in the misguided notion possessed by some San Franciscans that SF is the only place where LBGT people can avoid being treated as "second-class" citizens. There are many communities, across the country, and not just large cities such as New York, where LBGT people live happy and healthy lives and have the respect of the other members of their community. Also, while most people in SF embrace diversity and respect people who are different from them, there are still ignorant and intolerant individuals who reside in SF and the Bay Area. I can think of at least three incidents where I was assaulted in SF simply because I was a man walking down the sidewalk holding hands with another man. Certainly, these incidents are not representative of how LBGT people are generally treated in SF, but they are signs that hatred and intolerance do exist here, too.
Posted by Chris | July 19, 2008 01:44 PM
Jeez, Chris. So much for a sense of humor. Yes, men do hang out at the Lex including FTMs. But I think you get my drift. It seemed clear that Dan pulled the name of a Mission bar out of a hat without knowing much about it and just assumed it was a pretentious place. That's what most people do with bars in the Mission, and that's fine and funny, but you still have to display some knowledge of the area. As for the rest of your comment, of course there are other segments of the country where LGBT folks live happily. Tulsa is one of them. But it's still a historical fact that many people moved here because they believed it was far more tolerant than a lot of other cities. And they were right. Is that really something I have to clarify? As I stated, I'm from Tulsa. I'm not just making crap up about how LGBT people have been treated there in the past. Look at Sen. Tom Coburn's public statements about Oklahoma's school system. Or look at Anne Hull's stories in the Washington Post from a few years ago about a young gay teen growing up in Sand Springs (about 20 minutes from Tulsa).
Posted by G.W. Schulz | July 21, 2008 12:56 PM
hee!
Posted by Brock | July 21, 2008 04:39 PM
I appreciated Dan’s comments on my blog post, but G.W. Schulz’s observation about it is both funny and fair game.
Interestingly Lafayette, the Midwestern city I was writing about, was one of the first in Indiana (if not the first … my recollection’s hazy) to pass a gay rights ordinance back in the 90s. But this was a hard fought political victory in a conflict that turned absolutely vicious … and clearly demonstrated how progressive and selfless people in the Indiana could be - and why gay citizens might have wanted to live somewhere else at the time.
The Midwest is not homogeneous - it's a big place with a lot of local heritages and cultures. It also has a verrrrry mixed record on gay rights. I don't think it's looking down your nose at them (or putting on airs about SF) to be honest about things like that. We're none of us perfect.
Posted by Benjamin Wachs | July 21, 2008 07:39 PM