Great news for GLBT teens...in Texas? Yep.

[elehhhhna]

Anecdotal, sure, but worth noting --

My 15 y/o is a gifted actress. She's getting deeply involved with her HS's theatre department, and just landed a big part in her schools fall play. This, btw, is in a very reddish, sorta highbrow suburb of Houston -- indeed, it's Tom Delay's hometown. Here's the great thing --

Seems that most/many of the gay teens in her HS are out, proud, and for the most part not picked on or afraid to simply be who they are. This is a massive change from my generation...and I grew up in the very liberal suburbs of Chicago.

I think the kids coming up (and out) today have it much easier than the tortured and conflicted teens I did theatre with in HS. Thank God for progress.

[Cetacea]

1. Sometimes Texas gets it right.

They also nade it a crime to give people under the age of sixteen shock treatment. Yet in a liberal state like New York, a man had to go to court to fight "forced shock".

[T Wolf]

2. The reality today is that more (most?) young people do not see race or sexual orientation as

anything to be concerned about.

The entire "acceptance mindset" has shifted far from where things were when I was a teenager (those "free" 60s).

Sure, there are still many bigots out there, primarily driven by the hatred and ignorance of their parents. But, more and more of "our future" are not concerned with hating people because they are different.

Thank goodness they are not waiting for their parents (us) to fix things.

[elehhhhna]

4. Let's give the parents a little credit --

most of my gay friends parents in the late 70's were mortified and embarrassed. We weren't in Baptist country, either. Lots of immigrant parents and grandparents bavck then, though, and devout about whatever religion they were. Also more lowermiddleclass than this area which is firmly middle to upper-middle. Perhaps better-eductaed parents are less judgemental, more rational, maybe more "sciency", lol...

I can't quite figure it out but it's a great convergence. The school has an active anti-bullying propaganda campaign and students actually call bulllies out for rude talk and behavior. Quite a few girls wear the hijab and they aren't hassled, either. It's no big deal.

This cynic is really impressed!

[glowing]

3. I think it depends on the area and the school and its enforcement of no bullying.

When I was growing up in rural VT, we had a family move in with two moms. It wasn't like we didn't know what lesbian and gay was; we just weren't exposed to it in a day to day manner in our little school. Our teachers made sure to give us all lessons of families being different and that it was ok to be different. There was zero tolerance for any bullying.

We were taught that it was normal to have differences and that it wasn't something bad. One weekend there was a big to do at their home.. The adult gossip was that they had a marriage ceremony that weekend. That's when my little self said, "what, they're not married? They are living in sin." I was forced into Sunday school, though my parents never went to church. They taught us living with another person you weren't married to was a sin. They didn't dabble into homosexual relationships that I could ever recall. My mom had to explain to me that it was different, and legally they weren't recognized as married by the state like her and my dad were.

Honestly, it doesn't make sense to most people, unless you're just a bigot, to deny same sex marriage. It doesn't make sense in a nation that touts freedom to the core, that there are so many things that free people CANNOT do.

[Fumesucker]

5. I suspect that it's not so great in Nacogdoches..

Or Odessa or Midland.. :(

[elehhhhna]

8. or Santa Fe (neaR gALVESTON)

[msongs]

6. oh I thought u were gonna say all the baptists were raptured over night and gone nt

[marshall]

7. Rural Texas is also very gay friendly

I have friends in a very rural part of Texas, and they say they are treated mcuh better in their new home than they were in Los Angeles.

[Arugula Latte]

9. Really?

Wow, I never would have thought that.

Interesting.

[redqueen]

10. I had a friend from school say the exact same thing.

Liberal dem gay couple, said they got involved in local politics, working for Obama. Said that people out there were all very friendly, that they felt more comfortable there than when they lived downtown. I was floored.

[lies and propaganda]

11. thats just EVERWHERE now

kids are wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy more open minded than adults. They may still get screwed with by some assholes, but kids overall... dont give a shit. Thats why we will be so much better when my generation starts running things ;p

[elehhhhna]

12. ain't good news swell? 3 cheers for generation "Why"