Quote from: tekla on November 18, 2011, 03:10:56 PM
Where one 'is' right 'now' it's the only place one is ever going to be....
That's kind of dismal hope for Hope. Of all places in the USA, and ya'll know we got a bunch of them, that are hard to be T, I can't imagine anyplace that would really be worse. In Mississippi it's pretty hard to be any sort of different really, much less trans.
Largely true, though I've not traveled - but not as bad as one might imagine. there's no possibility of "equal rights" and probably not more than a long shot of being employed but there's not as much hostility as you would think. some are real good to me and the rest just grudgingly put up with me because they see the downside in being obvious ->-bleeped-<-s.
I've only had one or two step into THAT role.
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It's like about the most conservative Protestant place on earth - and I'm here to tell you (and even Hope will back me up, making it the first time she's ever agreed with me)
Nonsense!! I've agreed with you before! (not, ya know, a LOT but...)
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that 10am on Sunday morning in Mississippi the stillness is almost palatable because no one is out, no one is about, everyone is in church.
Not entirely....the church pastors actually whine about the number of folks who are not. it probably runs about 60-65%. Which is massive compared to California or even Ohio or some such, not not EVERY one.
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It's goes without saying one of the most conservative and most religious states would be one of the most Republican, nah. And even the Democrats down there (and that's a long story) are far/hard right wing.
VERY true. At least on social politics.
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And - as if that was not enough - its one of the poorest states, one of the worst performing economies of all the states,
Actually, the economy lately has done real well (think last 20years or so) but it was so very very very bad before that that the climb up even to the bottom rungs has been tough.
it's also worth noting that the climb co-indices with the rise of Republicans in the state. 20 years ago was the first GOP governor (a constitutionally weak office BTW) and it's been...no more than 8 since they took over the Senate, and the incoming House next year will be the first Republican controlled House since Reconstruction.
So it wasn't Republican policies that got us here. (and Economically, the Democrats are Democrats - it's only on social issues they turn into psedo-Republicans)
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leads in things like teen pregnancy and is last in things like, well, how about income, last in the nation, also at the bottom of education (last in science and math), social services and physical fitness.
Not to sound racist (which I'm NOT!!!) but most of those "worst in the nation" stats are heavily skewed by the Delta which is just miserably far behind. if you were only measuring non-delta counties we'd be pretty middle of the road in most measures (Arkansas has a touch of this problem too).
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Mississippi has pretty much been - if not actually qualifying as dire poverty - at a basic subsistence level since the end of the Civil War, that's like 1860s.
Little known trivia - BEFORE the War the state with the second highest per-capita rate of millionaires in America was MS
The state was victimized by it's own racism. The hard cord determination to keep the blacks down created massive poverty in the Delta which put the whole state permanently behind. Even when safety net programs were created, that just made the problem worse because of the cost to the state. it became a negative feedback loop.
I indicated earlier that the rise of Republicans led to economic progress, but another HUGE factor is that it took until after desegregation - when those of us who grew up going to school with blacks became the voting base - before that racist instinct became a minority view and that, I believe, has helped make some progress.
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Though the state is very pretty - breathtaking in parts - and though the people there are about the nicest people you'd ever want to meet, you still would be looking to live somewhere - anywhere - else. Really, for all practical purposes, a huge part of the Industrial Revolution never happened in Mississippi, it's pretty much as rural as it was before the CW.
No no. This isn't really true at all. YES it's pretty rural but it is also plenty industrialized. in fact, they just opened a new Toyota plant not 25 miles from me that starts with 2,000 employees and several suppliers nearby have that many more. There's a big Nissan plant near Jackson, a huge shipyard on the coast, tons of furniture factories and quite a bit more.
I'd compare MS to any other southern state or any of the plains states at a minimum, along with the non-coastal northwest.
But the attitudes of many folks (other than on race) are right out of the 50s
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So there really are no jobs. No huge factories like the NW and West Coasts, no real IT industry, horrible education industry, about the only good jobs in Mississippi are government jobs (and oddly enough Mississippi is one of those places that politically hates government jobs) and there are damn few of them and despite some veneer of 'merit civil service' most of them go to people who are connected. Not just 'the old boys network' it's the strongest and most pervasive 'good-old boys' power structure as you can find in the US.
Yeah, any rational T person would be at least considering moving. And besides, wherever you go, there you are. Hope is trying to find a place to be Hope, she's not running away I think she's trying to get 'to'. And in this 'wherever you go' world we live in it sometimes helps to get some knowledge of the next place to go because you do have to pick one of those 360 degrees to wherever off on.
We have these 'gay mecca' places in the US. West Hollywood, San Francisco, Key West, and huge gayborhoods in places like NYC, Chicago, Houston - but oddly enough, or not - most of the people there are not from there, they moved there. And lots and lots of them moved from towns in rural areas that were, like Hope's area, culturally oppressive as well as being economically depressed. What's not to leave?
if it wasn't for family obligations I feel honor bound to, I'd have been gone long long ago
