The folks at Queeried revealed some interesting data today:
“…Queeried has discovered that whilst states like Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Nevada all LOVE to tell us how much they disapprove of the idea of gay marriage, and the harm that us evil gay people can do, it seems within their own homes they think quite differently.
How do we know this? Because we’ve been doing a little bit of digging, and checking out just who has been watching all that gay porn that’s floating about on the internet, and thanks to Google Trends we’ve discovered it’s not the progressive states that embrace the LGBT community who are using up the gay porn sites bandwidths, it is in fact made up mostly of states who like nothing better than to tell us just how awful our lifestyle is.”
While it would be easy to make a couple of snap, snarky judgments about these states being a bunch of hypocritical perverts – judgments that would be well deserved – I think it’s more instructive to look at this data as call to arms.
Of the Top 10 states on the list, seven are southern states (Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Kentucky, Alabama, South Carolina and Florida). Two are out west (Nevada and Oklahoma). And only one is an East Coast state: Vermont.
(There’s some solace here, though. Vermont is not only the state with the most gay-friendly laws, it’s also the state downloading the most gay porn. Way to go, Vermont!)
The other nine are textbook examples of gay-unfriendly states (all stats via Human Rights Campaign):
- All nine have constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage.
- Seven of the nine have wording in those amendments that does, or may, affect other recognitions, like civil unions or domestic partnerships.
- In only one state (Nevada) have same-sex couples successfully petitioned for joint adoption in some jurisdictions.
- Only three states (Louisiana, Alabama and Nevada) have seen same-sex couples successfully petition for a second-parent adoption in some jurisdictions.
- Two states (Florida and Mississippi) forbid same-sex couples from adopting.
- Florida forbids unmarried LGBT people from adopting.
- Three states fail to address sexual orientation or gender identity in their hate or bias-based crimes laws.
Another interesting tidbit: only one of the gay-unfriendly nine had a majority of voters voting Democratic in the 2008 Presidential election.
These regions of the country – places where open and public expression of your gayness are the most oppressed by politics – are the places where LGBT people (and, presumably, those still deep in the closet because of religion or other forces) are seeking whatever expressions of gayness that are most readily and privately available. Those images are, of course, on the Internet, and our community has built a powerful online world that allows even the most closeted in our community to connect to other LGBT people.
And these states’ political message to LGBT people is powerfully clear: you are really no more than your sexual preference. Your relationships are not worth recognition, you are not suited to create a family and we are only interested in defining your place in our community by who you have sex with.
And that leaves LGBT people in a tricky place. Because these online connections are almost universally sexualized (and let’s not be coy here, No one seriously uses Manhunt or Grindr to “just chat”), LGBT people in these politically oppressed communities have a predominately sexualized experienced of their gayness.
In the south, that hypersexualization has a steep price. The rates of HIV transmission in the south are rising – the CDC’s 2007 statistics show that 54.9 percent of HIV cases are from southern states (an area encompassing eight of the nine gay-unfriendly states from Queeried’s list). And the cases of full-blown AIDS in the southern region is almost double the next closest region, the Northeast. And in certain rural areas of the deep south, like the rural areas of south Louisiana which are near my hometown, HIV caseworkers are seeing patients exhibiting the kinds of AIDS-related illnesses not seen since the early 90s – a product of unsafe sexual practices, an unwillingness to seek treatment for fear of social stigma and lack of access to top notch medical care.
This data shouldn’t provide a chuckle. It should be a wake-up call. There’s more at stake in these communities than a lack of civil rights. And the future of our community as a whole hinges on what happens to the least of us.
And at the intersection of politics and porn, we’re seeing that the least of us need our help.
{ 2 comments }
I believe this to be true because the gays are oppressed in those states, and the easiest way to find what they like is through the Internet.
Cody, this is a great analysis of the content and I really do hope you don't think that Queeried only highlighted it to generate some laughs because I can assure you this was definitely not our intention. I totally agree with you that it does indicate that there is a real issue of repression in these states, and that is something that can never have a positive outcome. The issue is working out what can be done to create the change that needs to occur in states that won't recognise us as a community worth paying attention to.
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