Reply #6: As Mitch noted, it's not just small towns, but surely gay flight doesn't help. [View All]

[imdjh]

I'm not saying that gay people should stay in small towns where hate and lack of opportunity make their lives miserable, just noting that a lot of the perception of the gay bashers that we "aren't from here" or that we somehow landed fully grown from outer space, comes from gay flight.

On the bright side, things are changing in leaps and bounds, but it's probably regional and it's going to take a long time to make it to the nooks and crannies. Gay people are staying in home towns, or moving to home towns. Gay people aren't all aspiring to live their entire lives in the better known gay enclaves. Many make their pilgrimage, others live for a time in gay meccas, but with the internet available for social networking (and other networking) many gay people see no need to make a big move.

It would also be very cool if there was some kind of Big Brothers and Big Sisters kind of program, where young gay people could go visit with established gay people in major cities or resorts for a couple of weeks in the summer. Fraught with logistical and PR problems for sure, but not insurmountable obstacles.