A question about small town America

[David Evil Overlord]

when you live in a small town, your business is not your own. Everyone is under a microscope and since there seems to be less to do , people tend to feed on gossip.

So I think that if there is someone "different" than the others in a small town that they will feel the judgement much stronger. It is much easier to be a nameless faceless city dweller than being in a town where everyone knows who you are. My opinion anyways.

That's more the kind of thing I was going for, guys. Not stereotyping either people or some section of American society.

In fact, there were only two reasons why I made the gay character American in the first place. One, so she could help readers translate Australian English into American English (you would not believe some of the misunderstanding that can happen over different meanings applied to the same word). Two, because I once promised an American friend of mine I would write something where two girls, one Australian and one American, would talk, and would use the different spelling/words eg, the Australian girl would talk about her "Mum", and the American girl would talk about her "Mom". I'm having way too much fun with this to stop now.

That raises the problem of getting the American girl to Australia. Fortunately, there is a "something else" lurking in her past that just might do it. But she's probably not ready to talk about that yet.

She wouldn't have talked about her sexuality, except the MC guessed and just asked her straight (no pun intended) out. Her non-answer spoke louder than words to the reader (I hope).

 

[Esfires]

I probably came off a little harsh in my post too, so my apologies if anyone took offense.

As for getting to Australia, there has to be something other than "my folks didn't approve of me," but it doesn't actually have to be some big giant plot device. It could simply be that once she decided to leave her small town she found that she needed a bigger change than she had anticipated. Sometimes when you start running from something it's hard to stop.

 

[Beef]

I agree that it would have to be something a little more severe to provoke a move to Australia.
Perhaps some episode in which the american legal/political system disgusts the character in some way. I'm thinking of Tennessee's appauling 'Don't say Gay' sort of thing.
Perhaps the character gets put through a 'pray away the gay' program or something.
Perhaps the character has a gay friend (or lover) who falls victim to a hate-crime, after which the justice system does nothing to help. In that event, the character might begins to seriously resent the country and feel the need to move away.
Perhaps we never find out what provoked the move but assume it must be something pretty hardcore, because it's a long long way away.

 

[MstrTal]

Did your character perhaps decide to go on a Walkabout, maybe as part of a tour, and just decide to stay? You know the whole saw the place, fell in love and possibly even justified wanting to stay because it was so much more shall we say inviting than her previous experiences back home? As an idea.

I know my wife wants to move to Australia just because. Personally I would love to try one of those Walkabout tours to work up to the real thing.

 

[Reivax26]

I am from a very small town in the middle of the "bible belt". I have a cousin who is gay and he had to move away to a much larger town. His mother is very understanding actually but the rest of his family really isnt. The older brother will barely speak to him.

I also had an uncle on that side of the family who was gay and he had to move away after he was threatened by some of the people in town. It is a sad but true fact that there are small minded ignorant people. Then again, they can be found anywhere.

For what it's worth, I have no problem with homosexuals at all.

 

[Parson]

So I think that if there is someone "different" than the others in a small town that they will feel the judgement much stronger. It is much easier to be a nameless faceless city dweller than being in a town where everyone knows who you are. My opinion anyways.

I would agree with this Ratsy. That is THE difference between a big city and a small town. Try being a pastor in a small town. We talk about living in a fish bowl because everyone is looking at you and your family whether you are walking downtown to get the mail, at the local basketball game, or having a romantic supper with your wife.

I always say "Your greatest strength is also your greatest weakness." The greatest strength of a small town is that everyone knows everyone else, therefore you can leave your home's doors unlocked, your car running on the street, nod to the convenience store clerk, and tell her you'll be back to pay for your gas presently without paying any of the logical consequences. It also means that everyone knows if you declared bankruptcy, are fighting with your wife, spend too much time away from work, etc. In the case of the gay character it would be perfectly believable that she would feel claustrophobic and in some small town situations, threatened by the fact that everyone knows, and some people wouldn't be afraid to let her know that they did not approve.

 

[Glisterspeck]

...So I think that if there is someone "different" than the others in a small town that they will feel the judgement much stronger. It is much easier to be a nameless faceless city dweller than being in a town where everyone knows who you are. My opinion anyways.

I think that gay people move to gay centers, which are mostly located in cities, for want of community just as much as they do for any kind of fear of persecution. They move from small towns to the cities for the same reason I did: to be part of a community of likeminded people. A community were you can be yourself and feel accepted. You don't have to be persecuted to feel completely alone in a small town, where even the other people who are supposedly "like you" are not at all like you.

For instance, I had many gay friends where I went to college (in rural America, twenty miles or so from where I grew up) who were perfectly suited to that town, known to be gay, and accepted as they were by their piers. The thing is, they were rural minded people and had found their community in rural life. Others couldn't wait to get to the city. But neither could I. They just had one more reason to go.

I think class plays a larger role in small town life. That is to say, if you're gay and born on the right side of the tracks, well that's still better than being straight and born on the wrong side. As long as you don't come out in high school, when everything is fermackled anyway, you'll probably not face much persecution. But you may be lonely.

This comes from a childhood spent in the far south of Southern Illinois. There was a recent report that listed that areas metropolitan group as the most devoutly Christian in terms of church attendance and bible reading outside of the south proper. Southeastern Missouri and Indiana were close behind. (That whole area has much much more in common with the South than the north.)

If you want a 100% this gay kid would have fled from persecution, have her come from the deep south (Alabama, Mississippi or Florida panhandle). Then you could add another layer to your language play as it'd be momma not mom or mum. Or, you could subvert the trope by setting up the scenario and have her run away from, say, South Boston, a conservative, ethnic conclave known for their intolerance. You'd still get some wicked fun wordplay that way, too.

You'll still need another way to get her to Australia though.

 

[David Evil Overlord]

Thanks, guys. Lots of good ideas churning around in the old grey matter.

 

[hopewrites]

Having lived in many sizes of communities, I find that the persecutions vary with populace. More people, like more money, amplifies the intensity of the violence while defusing it off to small know pockets that one can simply avoid. I heard of a group of homophobic young men who went out got drunk then raped all the gays they could find. They were city dwellers. The persecutions of a small town are more psychological in that there is a feeling of omnipotent vigilance. The phrase "they say" is much more powerful in a small community than in a large on. As Parson says, there is a feeling of living in a fish bowl. Even if everyone comes to you and says "I don't care what the others say about it. I think you're a wonderful person and I hope that never changes" there is still that implied social judgment hanging over your head and the knowledge that you're popular gossip fodder.

I would have coped out and made her the child of someone in the military who got stationed overseas and ether let her stay because she fit in with that community best and was now old enough to be on her own, or her parents are still there. Our news implies that our military is less than open minded all the time, don't ask don't tell having been retracted in recent years I can imagine a lingering low tolerance rate for it in military families.

 

[Galacticdefender]

I could see it. I live in Northwest Arkansas, which is somewhat more liberal than the surrounding area, but there are a lot of folks around here who look down on homosexuality, and I'd imagine that in stupider parts of the state it is much worse.