Small town Texas diner: What happens when a waitress insults a gay family?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhl9MLno424

Ya never know......

The video makers were surprised that New Yorkers didn't stand up for the gay couples like the Texans. That didn't surprise me at all. I know how that would have gone down in Louisiana.

That said, I think those kind of 'candid camera' set ups are manipulative. I also would have guessed the participants were actors.

I could almost expect someone to help me but elsewhere in the country you won't be as lucky (note: I help people whenever I can and when I feel it's safe from a driving point of view, I've been called out by cops for pulling over to help someone with a flat tire before because the traffic was crazy).

and yes, the reaction of a lot of folks in that vid was heartening.

Civil Rights Act should deny that.

:kick:

You have to accept it anecdotally though, if you have ever lived there, it's actually quite hilarious how "different" their politics are from their ethics.

Let me give you a basic example. A southerner will let you, for example, borrow his tools, without ever worrying about them whatsoever, but a more liberal "westerner" or "northerner" (can we classify the left that way?) will not only refuse to let you borrow their tools but will in effect snub you for the suggestion. Again, this is anecdotally! These are my experiences. Likewise the same southerner will bash "welfare recipients" and "socialism" while the liberal will praise social services and "socialism."

It's really been interesting to me having lived for many years in the south how this works out.

I've found Vermonters to be, contrary to the stereotype, some of the most helpful friendly people I've ever met. When I first moved here, nearly 30 years ago, I went off the road that first winter, a half dozen times. People always stopped and helped- including farmers who pulled me out with their tractors. And it took me a couple of years to get used to people I didn't know always waving from their cars as I took a walk. And generosity? This winter a local organic farmer's barn burned down. This was the reaction from one end of the state to another:

http://www.wcax.com/story/13879096/community-works-to-help-petes-greens-recover-from-fire?redirected=true

You may have to consider the possibility that in some rare cases other people's experiences might differ from yours.

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One anecdote, even as horrific as a lynching, doesn't damn an entire region, nor a state, county, nor a neighborhood. Do you honestly believe that the only racists in the USA live in the Southern states? That obscene violence is limited to white perpetrators against blacks?

DU shouldn't be used to bash half the US population that lives in the South. You've just unforgivably insulted many wonderful Southern DUers, whose compassion, goodness and dedication have been evident in their writings that I've read since 2004, when I joined.



Funny how to use a video showing hatred vs. love and acceptance of one group to express your vehement hatred towards a geographical region equivalent in size to Western Europe.

and the guy who wrote the note... What a great guy.

The dude who wrote the note is the shit!! :applause:

It's a suburb of Dallas. Not a fringe suburb like Sachse or Prosper, but smack dab in the middle of the metroplex.

It's misleading to imply Farmers Branch is some small rural town out in the middle of nowhere.

That being said, I'm not all that surprised. Dallas has a very gay community. Dallas County (which includes Farmers Branch) elected an openly gay sheriff 3-4 years ago.

Next time I will make sure it is in the hinterlands.

I still think it is a good piece.

in NY and said that hardly anyone reacted at all. so sad. that one guy in texas had it right... remembering the silence of the friends. uggh.

When we see something like this, speak up!! I'm 62, and when I was young if someone was abusing their child in public, many would "mind their own business." Now it's against the law (at least in my world). I think whenever anyone is abusing another person, someone should shame them and stop the abuse, period.

rec'd

*From the daughter of a lesbian couple. If anyone ever treated my mother (or my uncle, also gay) like that, and I'd be in jail.
Edited to clarify. I didn't watch all the way through when I commented.

24 out of 53 bystanders intervened in some way, whereas the bystanders in NYC, for the most part, did nothing. :wow:

dg

A survey of a few people in one diner in one town in one state at a specific period of time IS NOT SCIENCE! This is evidence of nothing other than at that specific time in that specific place, some people were kind to gays. That's all. It means nothing about "the south" or "the north" or anything else.

:hi:

"I don't like the gay thing much, but rude is rude, and my momma didn't raise me to be rude."

This would be a better country if more conservatives thought that way.

See, so long as you're not hanging out in the most extreme rural parts of Texas, the state isn't all a homogeneous group. Even though we do like to stick our noses into stuff in public (which I admit we do as a population more than some other states), it's not always a bad thing.

We've had one incident with a rude person in Texas (a glaring customer in an urban mall) and my partner was refused service in NYC establishments three times in two years for being transgendered. We're a little more cautious when we're in seriously rural areas (45 minutes from a major highway or city), but I don't think we'd do much better in rural areas anywhere else in the nation.

Some might even stop and ask you questions, using improper terms. Most don't mean anything by it and are truly curious.

Would you be refused service? Probably not. Would you be rushed out? Probably not. Especially in a family dining establishment, where everyone would wonder. It's not a bad thing-it's just people who never seen anything different outside of what they see on cable.

Chances are, most rural people would be kind.

that guy that repeated MLKs words, about it's not your enemies words that you remember but your friends silence....

give ya a bit of hope for humanity after all. :hug:

Not everybody in Texas is a bigoted yahoo.