Planet SOMA : About Yer Host : Gay South
Urbanization and
Social Change in the Gay
South:
The Experience in
North and South Carolina, 1971 - 1991
Abstract:
The existence of a visible gay culture has long been
assumed to be an urban phenomenon. As the South has become
more urbanized and has come to resemble other regions of the
United States more closely, it seems logical to assume that
gay social and political life in the South should have
undergone significant changes in the last twenty years. This
paper examines social change related to gay men and lesbians
in the South, with particular emphasis on North and South
Carolina since the early 1970s. Areas examined include the
crimes against nature laws, the growth of the gay bar as a
cultural institution, homophobia and violent behavior, gay
residential patterns and counter-urbanization, and the
increased scope of gay political activity in the South.
While discrimination, invisibility, and even prosecution
remain a part of gay life in the South, responses and
openness within the community have changed dramatically, and
the cultural gap between the South and the rest of the
nation appears to be closing.
Key Words:
discrimination, homophobia, homosexuality, political
activism, urbanization
Outline:
Introduction
Background: The Formation of
an Urban Gay Subculture Prior to 1969
Crimes Against Nature
The Gay Bar as Cultural Institution
Homophobia and Violence
Political Action: From Gay Lib
to Queer Nation
Post-Urbanism: The Gay Migration
to the Suburbs
Conclusions and Summary
References
Sociologists and others have often assumed that an open gay
culture is primarily a modern, urban phenomenon. Despite
discoveries by various researchers that significant numbers,
if not a majority, of gay people are found in small towns
and rural areas, the development of a"visible" gay culture
seems by and large a product of the urban environment. With
recent increases in the urbanization level of the South, it
would logically tend to follow, therefore, that significant
changes should be seen in gay social and political life
within the region, particularly since the beginning of the
modern gay movement in the late 1960s. As the South becomes
more urban and begins to resemble more closely the rest of
the country, one might expect to find a more visible,
cohesive, and demanding Southern gay community as has been
the case in other regions. Support for this idea may be seen
through examination of several facets of Southern gay
life:
(1) the crimes against nature laws,
(2) the growth of the gay bar as a cultural institution,
(3) the presence of and responses to homophobia and
violence,
(4) gay residential patterns, and
(5) the increased scope of gay political activism in the
South.
Background: The Formation of an Urban Gay Subculture Prior to 1969
Traditional urban social theory suggests that the city,
with its increased levels of privacy, heterogeneity, and
"critical mass" is an ideal environment for the development
of gay culture. Simmel (1905) suggested that only in the
city could true freedom be exercised, through selectivity of
association and the necessity of self-reliance. Simply
stated, the city contains enough different people to allow
choice as to one's associates, and the individual becomes
responsible for his own actions rather than being motivated
through the control of a primitive family-based society.
Anselm Strauss (quoted in Humphreys, 1975: viii) discussed
urban migrants who "wish(ed) privileged privacy:
prostitutes, homosexuals, touts, criminals, as well as
artists, ... anybody and everybody who is eager to keep the
small town qualities of the metropolis at long arm's
length." Harry (1974) mentioned the increased opportunities
for anonymity and the larger numbers of gay institutions
found in larger cities; there are simply more people in a
city to support these institutions, and lower odds of
encountering acquaintances from outside the "circle". Such
anonymity is more easily found in the new urban South than
was the case in earlier times. Young gay people often move
to such urban centers as Atlanta or Nashville, or visit
often for "support: news, media, books, music" (Sears, 1991:
42-43).
D'Emilio (1983) discussed the gradual development of an
urban gay network as the result of industrialization, of the
decreased importance of the family as a labor unit, and
perhaps most importantly, of the major demographic shifts
brought on by World War II. The war was particularly
important in the development of the modern South, causing
large-scale in-migration which continued for a number of
years. As World War II distributed increasing numbers of
more or less openly gay people throughout the US, the
Carolinas were not immune: Myrtle Beach (S.C.) Air Force
Base holds the distinction of being the site -- albeit
illicitly -- of the founding of one of the first documented
national gay publications, The Myrtle Beach Bitch (Berube,
1984).
As news of the significance of the 1969 Stonewall riots in
New York City -- recognized by gay leaders as the "official"
beginning of the gay movement -- diffused to the South, the
pattern of gay life in the region was changing
dramatically
The notion of a gay culture must begin with sexual
attraction and activity directed toward members of the same
sex; by definition, this is the single characteristic all
gay persons share. The "abominable and detestable crime
against nature" -- generally defined as any sexual activity
except marital coitus in the "missionary" position --
remains a felony in North and South Carolina, despite a
number of challenges, even as early as 1964 (Duberman,
1986). While this statute is not often enforced in the case
of heterosexuals or homosexuals who conduct their sexual
activities in private, such legal stigmatization remains a
useful method of discriminating against gay men and lesbians
in employment, housing, and other areas (Boddie, 1986).
Despite the fact that private offenses are rarely prosecuted
today, the crimes against nature law has at times been
enforced with vehemence in North Carolina. This has often
occurred in relation to what Humphreys (1975) termed the
"tearoom trade": public sex in washrooms, rest areas and the
like. Humphreys argued that such activity was part of the
urban fabric, but was not largely associated with
self-identified gay individuals. Arrest and prosecution,
therefore, could easily ruin lives by ending the anonymity
of participants thought -- often even by themselves -- to be
exclusively heterosexual. One such "roundup" occurred in
Greensboro in the late 1950s/early 1960s, following the
strong anti-gay sentiment of the McCarthy years. This action
on a popular gay meeting area downtown and an adjacent bus
station restroom resulted in a 30-year prison term for one
of those convicted, and the arrests of several prominent
citizens. A Greensboro police officer recalled in 1971 that
"it was the biggest mess we ever got into", and stated that
police attitudes had since "liberalized" (Greensboro Record,
1971: A-7).
Such "liberalized" attitudes were strongly questioned by the
gay community during a fresh series of Reagan-era "sting"
operations at a rest area near Greensboro in 1983, within a
Raleigh mall in 1985, and at a park in Charlotte in 1987.
Several successful court challenges were mounted, resulting
in the denouncement of the Raleigh police in Wake County
District Court , and a successful entrapment defense covered
at length by the Associated Press (The Front Page, 1985a,
1988d). It is significant to note that the defendant in the
second case was quite open with reporters about his
homosexuality -- a significant advancement compared with the
secrecy and swift departure from town following the
Greensboro arrests in the preceding decades. In addition,
Charlotte police officers gave interviews to the local gay
publication following the Freedom Park operation,
acknowledging the need for increased sensitivity while
denying charges of entrapment (Q-Notes, 1987a, 1987b).
The North Carolina Human Rights Fund has continued to argue
for repeal of the centuries-old crimes against nature law,
using much the same arguments as a Charlotte judge in 1964:
that the law is vague and selectively enforced, and that
consensual sex is of no concern to the government (Duberman,
1986; Boddie, 1986). Whether such urban-bred efforts to
convince the heterosexual majority that the law technically
also applies to them, or increased dialogue with police
officers and community leaders will be effective remains to
be seen. While sodomy laws have been repealed in 25 states,
none of these states among the former Confederate states
(National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, 1990). The idea that
"sex is not a topic that's open to discussion in the South"
(Sears, 1991: 105) may stifle debate in the General
Assembly. Traditional Southern tolerance for eccentricity
and the desire to keep personal and family problems quiet
may preclude some potential court challenges. The 1986
Bowers v. Hardwick decision that sexual behavior is not
Constitutionally protected suggests that the federal
government is unlikely to mandate such change in the near
future.
The Gay Bar as Cultural Institution
The importance of the bar scene to gay culture has been
debated, but bars remain the primary institution through
which most gay men receive their first introduction to gay
life (Sears, 1991). In addition, the bars serve as media
distribution points, sites for fund-raising activities, and
some of the only open social outlets for some gay persons.
As such, the gay bar often has performed a function somewhat
analogous to the church in African-American society.
Harry's 1974 study of urbanization and gay males focused
almost entirely on the gay bar scene, the hypothesis being
that the number as well as the heterogeneity of gay bars
increases with city size. The resulting prospects for a
wider variety of both sexual and social choice are given as
the primary factors behind the migration of gay men to
larger urban centers. Harry's analysis fits nicely into the
geographical framework of Central Place Theory (Christaller,
1933), with its higher order centers (New York, San
Francisco, etc.) featuring large and diverse collections of
bars. Lower order centers, below the threshold of 50,000
population, are unlikely to have any gay establishments,
with the exception of suburban areas and resort centers. A
separate study of suburban gay activity in California
continues this hierarchical approach. Outlying bars serve a
function analogous to neighborhood shopping centers; they
serve everyday needs for social interaction, while
occasional visits to larger centers are reserved for special
occasions and purposes such as a "road trip" or social and
sexual change of pace (Lynch, 1987). The Southern bar scene
more or less tends to fit this pattern, and it is in this
respect that distinct urban-related patterns emerge.
Urban North and South Carolina have developed a regional
hierarchy peripheral to Atlanta and having a mid-sized
center located in Charlotte. Smaller centers large enough to
support gay clubs in 1991 all were above the 50,000
population threshold proposed by Harry, with the exceptions
of Jacksonville, a major military center surrounded by
coastal resorts, and Myrtle Beach, the largest coastal
resort in the region. In addition, gay clubs are found in
the smaller cities of Rock Hill and Hickory, both of which
are closely associated with the Charlotte metropolitan
area.
Atlanta, as the largest urban agglomeration in the South
Atlantic region with a metropolitan population of well over
two million, experienced the development of a visible gay
culture considerably earlier than the Carolinas. Bond (1982)
stated that the midtown region of Atlanta, which prior to
the 1970s was "a desolate area of abandoned warehouses and
sleazy theatres. Nobody wanted to live there, except for the
gays" (17). Gay people in a sense "adopted" the area, and
estimates of gay ownership or operation in the area in the
early 1980s ranged as high as 60%; the area is now viewed as
the arts and entertainment center of the city. A significant
development for the South was that gay establishments
founded in the 1970s and 1980s were open to the street for
all to see. One club, since closed, even included a large
marquee announcing gay events (Bond, 1982). Atlanta serves
in many ways as the model of urbanization for much of the
South, and particularly for the Carolinas.
Large scale urbanization came more slowly and later to
Charlotte (population 400,000). No identifiable "gay
district" exists within the city, and two of the most
popular of Charlotte's five existing bars -- Scorpio and
Oleen's -- were also the only two bars in the city twenty
years ago, having opened in 1972 and 1970 respectively
(King, 1989). It is these bars which former Charlotte
journalist Johnny Greene describes in his depiction of
Southern gay life, "The Male Southern Belle":
I couldn't see myself in one of Charlotte's three
abysmal gay-ghetto bars tepid
with lisping hair-burners and leisure-suited motel clerks
who snapped their
fingers while they danced...My head jangled with music and
visual images
from hot New York bars and chic discotheques ...Living in
Memphis and
driving to Birmingham, the male Southern belle found the
same bar he had
left the night before (1985: 138).
Tremendous urban growth and migration have brought some
changes and sophistication to the Charlotte bar scene, the
most noteworthy being the success of several clubs appealing
to a very mixed (gay/straight) clientele. Such a development
would have been unthinkable in the early 1970s atmosphere in
which Scorpio was built. with its parking lot entirely
hidden from view to protect patrons from being seen entering
a gay establishment (King, 1989). While gay bars in
Charlotte still do not loudly proclaim their presence, they
are fairly well known: one predominantly heterosexual
establishment located across the street from Oleen's
recently billed itself as "a nice straight place to
relax".
As suggested by Harry (1974), smaller points within the
urban hierarchy tend to have a dominant well-known "one size
fits all" gay club. Greensboro, N.C. (population 185,000)
has generally fit this pattern for a number of years. The
first documented establishment in town with a predominantly
gay clientele was the General Greene Bar and Grill, a cafe
which offered "gay nights" and apparently predated the
Stonewall riots. In the early 1970s, the Renaissance club
was known statewide (Greensboro Record, 1971). Neither of
these establishments has remained as long as their Charlotte
counterparts. By the early 1980s, Encore was the bar of
choice, according to a Greensboro Daily News feature on gay
clubs (Boughton, 1983). This particular feature drew
criticism from members of the gay community, names withheld,
who were unhappy with the concentration on bar life and "the
depiction of the behavior of some of the members as the
lifestyle of the total group" (Greensboro Daily News, 1983:
A-7). Perhaps due to its relatively stagnant position within
the urban hierarchy since the 1970s, little has changed with
regard to the number and diversity of gay bars in
Greensboro. However, the clubs are more open in their
operations now; one Greensboro bar in the late 1980s, XTC,
operated for over three years in a very visble location on
one of Greensboro's busiest thoroughfares -- with a smaller
version of an Atlanta-style marquee announcing upcoming
entertainers!
In 1971, a Guilford County solicitor stated that attacks
on gay men were often not successfully prosecuted regardless
of evidence because "the jury seems to put the facts out of
its mind when a homosexual is the victim" (Greensboro
Record, 1971: A-7). In 1988, North Carolina led the nation
the number of reported violent incidents against gay people,
according to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (The
Front Page, 1988e). In 1990, North Carolina's senior
senator, Jesse Helms, led an unsuccessful fight to block
passage of the federal Hate Crimes Statistics Act
specifically because it included crimes against lesbians and
gay men (O'Neill, 1990). As these examples illustrate,
homophobia remains a problem in the modern South.
Britton (1990) found that homophobia is closely related to
support for traditional sex role behavior and sex-segregated
institutions, as well as to religion. The South has
traditionally supported all of the above to a larger extent
than the rest of the nation. Sex roles and patriarchy in the
South tend to be institutionalized and have been the subject
of much research (see Martin et al, 1991). "Traditional"
Southern males might naturally feel threatened when
confronted with a notion as foreign to their upbringing as
male homosexuality, and Southern males who feel threatened
have historically been known to become violent. It has been
suggested that the very visibility which gay leaders have
sought has left the community open to violence and
harrassment (Herek, 1991). A familiar sentiment to many
Southerners is the statement "I don't mind gay people
(queers...fags...) as long as they keep it to
themselves".
Herek further suggests that gay-related hate crimes have
increased due to the "culture of heterosexism fostered
during the past decade" (1991: 106) by conservative
politicians and fundamentalists. The vehemently anti-gay
Christian Right, manifested in the 1970s by Anita Bryant's
Florida crusades and in the 1980s by the Rev. Jerry Falwell
and the Moral Majority, is based in and draws much support
from the South. Status politics, or the fear of losing
social (as opposed to economic) status has been proposed as
a factor in such religious movements, as well as in racism
and sexism. Moen (1988) argues, however, that status
politics analysis leads to an oversimplification of the
Christian Right, and that a variety of other factors are
involved, including the economic interests of members and
even the desire for a "unifying" issue to increase
television receipts. The issue of gay rights is seen by Moen
as one of these "unifying" issues.
Whether based in religion or cultural sex role
identification, homophobia remains the last "tolerated"
prejudice in the South. In the early 1980s, Houston police
were accused of the unwarranted shooting of a gay man in the
city's heavily gay Montrose district. No charges were filed
despite significant evidence against the officers, as well
as the officers' own admission that they had been drinking
prior to the alleged incident (White, 1983: Culbirth, 1991).
As recently as 1989, a Texas judge admitted to giving a
lighter sentence to a murderer because his victims were gay.
District Judge Jack Hampton stated that the victims were not
"blameless" and "wouldn't have been killed if they hadn't
been...queers cruising the streets picking up teenage boys"
(Q-Notes, 1989: 7). The judge expressed surprise at the
negative reaction and his subsequent censure. In recent
months, Houston has been the scene of renewed interest in
anti-gay crime. Following a series of bashings and a murder
in the Montrose community, the Houston police were an
uncharacteristically responsive to gay concerns: undercover
officers were sent into the streets posing as gay men in an
effort to apprehend assailants. Three of these officers were
severely attacked themselves, and at least 25 individuals
have been arrested so far. Houston's gay leaders cite this
example of police cooperation as evidence of their new
political clout. (Cutbirth, 1991). So far, no such
operations have been conducted in the Carolinas, despite a
marked increase in anti-gay violence as well as increased
dialogue between urban gay communities and the police (The
Front Page, 1986a, 1986c, 1988a).
Political Action: From Gay Lib to Queer Nation
Efforts to mobilize the gay community toward political
goals have been almost entirely urban in nature, and in the
South, these political movements are a particularly recent
phenomoenon. Political activity, by far, may be seen as the
area of greatest social change for gay people in the South,
as evidenced by the increased numbers, scope, and demands of
these organizations since the early 1970s.
Gay leaders in general have agreed that the "invisibility"
of gay people is the primary obstacle to the end of
discrimination and bias. This sort of invisibility is
remarkably similar to that of blacks in Greensboro who paid
NAACP dues in cash to avoid detection and save their jobs
during the 1950s and 1960s (Chafe, 1981). Many gay men and
lesbians in the South (and elsewhere) hide their sexual
orientation, listen to anti-gay comments and jokes, and even
marry in order to preserve their employment. "Coming out" --
whether voluntarily through such activities as National
Coming Out Day or involuntarily as in the recent "outing"
controversies" -- has been stressed as absolutely essential
to the movenment. It could be argued that even "coming out"
in the South is a dramatic political move. If Southern gay
men and lesbians are unable to be open about their
sexuality, organizing becomes exceedingly difficult.
Beyond this phase, however, strategies differ. As with other
minority movements, the question of assimilation has been of
historical importance. The battle between "assimilationists"
and "separatists" has intensified in recent years through
such groups as the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP)
and Queer Nation, both of which now have chapters in the
Carolinas. Fitzgerald (1991) suggested a compromise based on
Tajfel's model of social change: the best features of the
dominant group are adopted, the group adopts a new and
positive self-image, and the power strusture is challenged
through "social competition" or "resistive strategies".
Fitzgerald further asserted that "a separate identity can
exist without a separate culture, just as identity itself
need not correspond with sexual orientation" (207).
Gay political activity in the South can be traced at least
as far back as 1971. The Caralogue, an alternative directory
published in Durham mentioned several newly formed groups in
the Triangle area (The Front Page, 1991b). A 1972 Charlotte
Observer article spotlighted a local chapter of the Gay
Liberation Front, which in effect served primarily as a
support/discussion group, but had plans to offer draft
counselling, community activities, and a bail fund for
crimes against nature arrests (Paddock, 1972). While this
agenda was significantly less ambitious than that of the
national Gay Liberation Front, it was a first for
conservative Charlotte.
Gay citizens in Greensboro asked for more during a city-wide
convention at the Renaissance Club in 1974. Respect,
education, and an end to discrimination were the major
issues, and plans were set for a coffee house and hotline to
serve the city. However, the "assimilationist" tendencies of
the mid-1970s gay South -- much akin to those of the
mid-1950s black South -- were apparent in the concern that
these ideas "would be acceptible to 'straight
people'"(Harris, 1974: 21). The notion that the heterosexual
majority would be supportive may also have been premature;
when the Triangle Gay Alliance sent a questionnaire to state
political candidates, only 23 of 140 were returned (Harper,
1972). Recent attempts have met with a similar lack of
success.
While early organizations stressed changing the attitudes of
the majority, more direct action-oriented political groups
have dominated in recent years. In contrast to the anonymity
and "first names only" of the early 1970s organizations, the
1980s and 1990s have brought a new openness to the movement,
with such leaders as Chapel Hill city council member Joe
Herzenberg and Charlotte's outspoken Don King. The emphasis
has shifted from the promotion of tolerance and
understanding to the pursuit of anti-discrimination measures
and repeal of the crimes against nature law.
Often, gay political groups in the Carolinas have formed as
a direct reaction to some specific event or group.
Charlotte's First Tuesday was established as the direct
result of the actions of Concerned Charlotteans, a local
fundamentalist group led by the vocally anti-gay Rev. Joe
Chambers. Chambers' group had led a series of pickets at the
1982 Miss Gay America Pageant for female impersonators,
assisted with the passage of a strict anti-pornography law
in 1985-86, and attacked the motives of Charlotte's
county-funded Metrolina AIDS Project in 1988 (Flander and
Douglas, 1982; The Front Page, 1986c, 1988b). First Tuesday
has provided resistance by protesting Concerned Charlotteans
support for Senator Jesse Helms and by organizing a
letter-writing campaign to show support for the Charlotte
hotel hosting the 1991 Parents and Friends of Lesbians and
Gays (P-FLAG) convention. Chambers and his followers had
threatened the hotel with a boycott for housing "the Radical
Homosexuals (who) have chosen your hotel" (Stout, 1991:
1).
First Tuesday has also been active in the boycott of a
Southern restaurant chain which came under fire in the
summer of 1991. In February, a policy statement from Cracker
Barrel Old Country Stores stated that the company would not
"continue to employ individuals in our operating units whose
sexual preferences fail to demonstrate normal heterosexual
values" (The Front Page, 1991a: 3). While the outcry in the
gay press was predictable, coverage in the mainstream media
was surprising. Although Southern columnists such as Lewis
Grizzard routinely joke about gays and lesbians, Greensboro
News and Record columnist Bill Morris commented that while
Cracker Barrel was free to hire and fire at will, he also
was "free to say, 'Hold the chicken and dumplings...I prefer
to spend my money at businesses that are equal opportunity
employers'" (Morris, 1991: B-1). Coverage in The Charlotte
Observer, the state's largest paper, was extensive, and the
first demonstration at the Greensboro location in November
of 1991 was the lead story on at least one area station's
evening newscast. Amid protests and sit-ins, the company
apologized for -- but refused to rescind completely -- its
policy, and no employees terminated under the policy have
been rehired.
Again as a response to a specific situation, chapters of the
direct action group Queer Nation were established in
Columbia and Charleston during the Cracker Barrel boycott,
following the development of a strong chapter in Atlanta.
Some activists have considered establishing a chapter in
Greensboro, following the first Cracker Barrel demonstration
there. The national goal of Queer Nation includes a
dedication to "confronting society's bigotry,
discrimination, violence, misinformation and negative
imagery with aggressive rationalization, education, and
action (by) advocating and enabling our community's
visibility with strength and humor" (Queer Nation San
Francisco, 1991). With its "in your face" brand of
confrontational activism and such slogans as "We're here,
we're queer...Get used to it" and "No apologies, no
assimilation", Queer Nation is a decidedly urban movement, a
descendent of ACT UP, and a definite challenge to
conventional American and Southern notions of gay activism
(Trebay, 1990).
Queer Nation and ACT UP have also been at the forefront of
the "outing" controversy, in which the sexuality of
allegedly "closeted" individuals is disclosed publicly in an
effort to promote visibility and to expose what Queer Nation
sees as the "hypocrisy" of secretly gay politicians (e.g.
Roy Cohn) who support legislation which hurts the gay
community. Gay author Randy Shilts (And the Band Played On)
has compared this trend to McCarthyism and decries the
hypocrisy of leaders who stress that the issue of gay rights
is related to privacy while denying that same privacy to
those with whom they disagree (1991: 5). Many gay leaders,
inside and outside the South, share this view.
Incidentally, ACT UP made its first Carolinas appearance in
the more conservative territory of South Carolina as well,
with a Columbia civil disobediance and demonstration against
various AIDS legislation in 1989. Local politicians were not
amused: one state senator, in words reminiscent of
Mississippi Governor John Patterson during the Civil Rights
movement, stated that the protesters were "not South
Carolinians. They've got no business coming here causing
these problems for us. I'd like them to go back where they
came from...I don't see any of my constituents down there"
(Bryant and Bolton, 1989: 1-A). In fact, most of the
demonstrators were from the Atlanta and New York chapters of
ACT UP; the Atlanta chapter had formed during the Democratic
National Convention in 1988. However, ACT UP was invited by
various South Carolina gay leaders, and some Carolinas
residents were among the protesters. Even some gay leaders
expressed reservations about the arrival of ACT UP. The
director of Charlotte's Metrolina AIDS Project questioned
their understanding of the local political climate, and the
director of South Carolina's AIDS service organization
suggested that ACT UP's tactics "will invite a lot of
critcism". Currently, the only ACT UP chapter active in the
Carolinas is based in the Triangle area.
City government has been a recent target for gay activists.
In North Carolina, the cities of Raleigh, Carrboro, and
Chapel Hill have enacted various forms of
anti-discrimination legislation. The Greensboro City Council
in 1989 passed -- and one month later rescinded -- an order
barring discrimination in city hiring practices, with
Councilman Bill Burkley arguing that the order could also
apply to "someone who's a pedophile" (Gant, 1989: B-1). This
action both enraged and mobilized the Greensboro gay
community; protests were staged and mention was made of the
council's history of ignoring input from citizens' groups
and of the fact that the motion to rescind was considered
with no prior notification to the community (The Front Page,
1990). Such a perceived lack of concern for citizen input
became a major factor in Burkley's unsuccessful 1991 bid for
re-election.
Other city governmental issues have had more positive impact
on the gay community. In Atlanta, the city coucil approved a
resolution condemning the discriminatory hiring practices of
Cracker Barrel (Wildmoon, 1991). Durham Mayor Wilbur (Wib)
Gulley easily survived a 1986 recall effort initiated due to
his support for gay issues and to a proclamation of an
Anti-Discrimination Week during Gay/Lesbian Pride Week (The
Front Page, 1986b). Openly gay write-in candidates have run
for mayor in Greensboro and Charlotte and both major
candidates for mayor in Charlotte's 1991 municipal election
have actively sought support from the gay community, a
significant step following outgoing Mayor Sue Myrick's
fundamentalist comments and support for Joe Chambers and
Concerned Charlotteans (The Front Page, 1988c).
Despite significant increases in activity, the gay community
in the Carolinas has not yet attained its two main goals:
the repeal of the crimes against nature law and
comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation. Social change
is a slow process
Post-Urbanism: The Gay Migration to the Suburbs
Volumes have been written about the post-war
suburbanization of America. Gay people as well have
participated in this migration. A 1985 Advocate feature on
New York desribed the "gay exodus to the suburbs" from
Manhattan (Saslow, 1985: 22). While the Southern migration
is most likely not as cost-related as New York's, many of
the motivations are similar: a desire for space and the
"maturing" of the community have made the excitement of
urban life less of a draw for some gay people. Southerners,
gay or straight, also tend to share a sense of tradition
which makes small town life seem attractive.
Harry (1990) found large numbers of gay people living in
small towns. In addition, these individuals were more likely
to be involved in stable long-term relationships. It has
been suggested that these relationships are the product of
individuals who have never left the small towns rather than
of individuals marrying and moving outward (Harry, 1974,
1990). However, other findings have disputed this notion to
some extent. Lynch (1987) found suburban gay men to be bored
with the pace of city life, interested in home ownership,
and career-motivated. The study group appeared quite
satisfied with the slower pace, and to have accepted the
diminished visibility of gay culture in the suburbs.
Occasional trips to large cities provided excitement, but
few members of the group expressed a desire to return to the
city.
Small towns are particularly important in the South, where
they were a dominant force for decades. As is the case with
many city dwellers in the region, large numbers of urban gay
men and lesbians are less than one generation removed from
the small town or the farm. Sears (1991) describes both the
excitement and the apprehension with which some Southerners
view the city. White (1983) discusses the rural-urban
interaction of Texas, where actual cowboys and former ranch
hands mingle with young professionals in the gay clubs of
Houston. White cites one instance of lovers remaining in
their small town after being "caught" , and who participated
so actively in civic affairs that they eventually became
respected community leaders.
A certain "earned" respectability in Southern small towns is
also evident in Bunceton, Missouri, a small town (population
418) with an openly gay mayor. Gene Ulrich and his lover
Larry fit the profile of a fairly conservative married
couple, and do not miss the urban life:
"A lot of people would say its boring here," he
admitted. "But I like it. I like
the peace and quiet. I have no desire to live in a bigger
city. Now Larry likes
big cities. He likes Springfield (population
133,000)"...Urban life, he
suspected, "may have a lot to do with relationships breaking
up. You have
more opportunities for people to go astray. Maybe that is
another thing that
has helped our relationship, because we are pretty much to
ourselves here."
(Miller 1989:29)
For these men, as well as for many gay men in the South, the
small town way of life is not a response to urbanization. It
is a homecoming.
In many ways, gay life in the urban South is no different
than was gay life in the rural South of the 1940s and 1950s.
Gay people often fear violence, discrimination, or
alienation from their families, partcualrly in the less
urban areas. Anti-gay politicians such as Jim Gardner, Jesse
Helms, Sue Myrick, and Bill Burkley continue to be
re-elected. South Carolina law still forbids the mention of
homosexuality in public schools. Hate crimes continue to
increase in number and severity.
However, a gay movement has developed in the urban centers
of the South, and gay people have become far more visible
throughout the region. North and South Carolina are now home
to a number of openly gay social institutions, political
organizations, and even a relatively strong gay press.
The gay-baiting political campaigns of Senator Jesse Helms,
the AIDS epidemic, the continuing influence of religious
fundamentalism, and the women's movement have also had
immeasurable impact on gay life in the Carolinas, the South,
and the nation as a whole. While these issues are outside
the scope of this paper, further research will prove
interesting and will be a great asset.
In summary, gay life in the South has become somewhat more
like gay life in the rest of the nation since 1971. Southern
notions have even begun to diffuse northward; the Cracker
Barrel boycott has now spread to new locations in Detroit
and Minnesota. With increased Southern connections to the
national community and with the increased political clout of
the South, it seems inevitable that further change --
whatever its nature -- will occur in the coming decades.
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