http://www.economist.com/node/18929210?story_id=18929210&fsrc=rssA BATTLE is brewing in Batesville, Arkansas. The daily newspaper there recently omitted the name of the partner of a deceased gay man in its free obituary notice. The Batesville Daily Guard’s owner-manager told a grieving Terence James, that its policy is not to include anyone—gay or straight—as a survivor unless they are legally married. His only option? To buy a paid notice and list himself. But when a national gay-rights group tried to place an obit on his behalf, its money was rejected. The Centre for Artistic Revolution, an Arkansas equal-rights group, has been holding vigils in front of the newspaper’s offices, and is starting a campaign aimed at the newspaper’s advertisers.
The fight for gay equality in the South lags behind that in the rest of the nation. True Annise Parker, the mayor of Houston, Texas, is openly gay; but the local Fox affiliate there created a furore in April when it aired a segment asking viewers if television, including programmes like “Glee”, was “too gay”. The New York-based Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation demanded an apology, which never came.
On June 28th Arkansas’s Democratic governor Mike Beebe made history and angered the state’s gay community simultaneously. He became the state’s first sitting governor to address a gay-rights group. But when asked during a question-and-answer session about gay marriage, Mr Beebe said he did not think the state would ever pass a law like New York’s allowing gay marriage. He added that he believed marriage was between a man and a woman and stated that he opposes civil unions.
The South’s conservative religious heritage, which often preaches against homosexuality, contributes to the region’s sexual repression. In Pineville, Louisiana, a gay-rights group recently held a candlelight vigil outside Louisiana College, a private Baptist college, to draw attention to a student policy that condemns students who engage or advocate engagement in “immoral” acts such as homosexuality or sex outside of marriage. The student handbook says that students will face disciplinary action if caught.
The Bible belt’s views even resonate within the gay world. Last September, Mike Halterman launched the Deep South’s first regional lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered magazine, Out on the Town. He says that “even within the LGBT community there are disagreements as to what topics and pictorials our magazine covers—or doesn’t cover.” Mr Halterman reckons the magazine’s decisions wouldn’t be an issue at all in San Francisco or Greenwich Village.
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