Being gay in the bible belt
University lecturer speaks on struggles of Bible Belt gays
Lesbian author Bernadette Barton recently spoke at Murray State about the effect of being gay in the Bible Belt. She asserts repressing homosexuality – because of religion – has a directly negative impact on a person’s life.
Barton presented “The Toxic Closet: Christianity and Homosexuality in the Bible Belt”, her multimedia lecture, on Nov. 1 in the Mason Hall auditorium.
Her presentation, a summation of her novel, “Pray the Gay Away: The Extraordinary Lives of Bible Belt Gays”, was sponsored by Alliance, the Campus Activities Board, the Gender and Diversity Studies Program, LGBT Programming, Ministry Open to All and Student Affairs.
Over people attended the event including Student Government Association President Jeremiah Johnson and vice president of Student Affairs Don Robertson.
Barton, a professor of Sociology and Women’s Studies at Morehead, spoke on a variety of issues relevant to the Bible Belt gay community. Most prominent of these issues was that of institutionalized homophobia: homophobia indoctrinat
As my first year of graduate school rolled to a shut, I decided to celebrate with a couple of friends. We opted for a quiet evening at home, a nice dinner, and a bottle of wine, so my friend Debbie and I headed off to the grocery store. I didn’t verb as we pulled into the parking lot that it would be a shopping trip that would stick with me for years to come.
After five years at Baylor University, a satisfied Southern Baptist school, I knew that the key to survival was conformity, a difficult task for a young man struggling with his sexual identity. I had altered my wardrobe shortly after arriving to match the unofficial school uniform of friendly tan khakis and a button-down shirt. I frequently held my tongue, keeping catty comments that might be deemed as less than Christian to myself. I dated women – not often, but enough to be classified as “straight but shy”. On this occasion, walking through the store, I felt safe… one basket, one man and one woman. Who could question that?
What I failed to take into account was my shirt, a white silk shirt with some gold trim. Very trendy and
I&#;ve been in church since I can remember. I was baptized as a baby in the first Pentecostal church that was ever built in America—Keelville Pentecostal Church—in a tiny community in southeastern Kansas. When I was a kid in the preliminary to mid-eighties, our congregation ran somewhere between 60 and 80 people, two-thirds of which were my relatives: grandparents, aunts, uncles. and cousins.
The church was two miles away from our residence in another little village town in southeastern Kansas.
Growing up, my older cousins used to tease one of our other cousins, telling him he was gay because he&#;d rather play Barbies and dress up with our female cousin than go four-wheeling or fishing with all the boys. My cousin and I just traded out places—I&#;d go fishing and four-wheeling, while he stayed home and played dolls.
Honestly, I&#;d rather have been bored than to have to play with Barbies and fake make-up.
It&#;s a strange thing to grow up and remember childhood. When you&#;re a kid going through it, it seems so much unlike than when you&#;re an senior looking back. My cousins were
Pray the Gay Away: The Unusual Lives of Bible Belt Gays
Bernadette Barton
New York University Press,
pages
By Jami Jones
When it was suspected that Bill was gay, deacons in his Baptist church called a particular meeting to decide his church fate. After much discussion they concluded that since they had “no hard proof that Bill was homosexual, they would tolerate him as long as they never had any future reasons to suspect he might be gay.” The pastor spoke with Bill and warned him to avoid associating with “known homosexuals.”
Bernadette Barton, the author of “Pray the Gay Away: The Exceptional Lives of Bible Belt Gays,” provides an enlightening glimpse into the lives of 59 lesbians and gay men living in fundamentalist Christian communities. Church billboards display a “Gay is not okay” message in America’s Bible Belt region that stretches from Virginia to Florida and through Texas to Oklahoma.
Although homophobia is widespread, it is most concentrated in the Bible Belt that is deeply influenced by a conservative Christian doctrine about homosexuality and the lac