{"id":5596,"date":"2012-12-11T11:53:01","date_gmt":"2012-12-11T17:53:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlwpen.com\/?p=5596"},"modified":"2014-01-28T13:12:43","modified_gmt":"2014-01-28T19:12:43","slug":"nice-work-gender-society-asksanswers-midwest-or-lesbian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/2012\/12\/11\/nice-work-gender-society-asksanswers-midwest-or-lesbian\/","title":{"rendered":"Gender &amp; Society asks\/answers: Midwest or Lesbian?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/si0.twimg.com\/profile_images\/1540187619\/G_S_logo.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"173\" height=\"173\" \/>My colleague <a href=\"www.stephaniecoontz.com\">Stephanie Coontz<\/a> at <a href=\"www.contemporaryfamilies.org\">Council on Contemporary Families<\/a> and I put together <a href=\"http:\/\/www.socwomen.org\/web\/media\/press-releases\/3683-kazyakgenderasoc-.html\">this item<\/a> about a great new study: <em><\/em> At a time of dramatic change in attitudes towards gays and lesbians in America, a new study released this month in <a href=\"http:\/\/gas.sagepub.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Gender &amp; Society<\/em><\/a> highlights the diversity of gay and lesbian experiences in America. <a href=\"http:\/\/gas.sagepub.com\/content\/26\/6\/825\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cMidwest or Lesbian? Gender, Rurality, and Sexuality,\u201d<\/a> by University of Nebraska sociologist <a href=\"http:\/\/soc.unl.edu\/dr-emily-kazyak\" target=\"_blank\">Emily Kazyak<\/a>, puts the lives of rural gays and lesbians under the microscope. Almost 10 percent of gays and more than 15 percent of lesbians in the United States live in rural areas. While 25 percent of same-sex couples are raising children, same-sex couples in rural areas are even more likely than their urban counterparts to have children.<\/p>\n<p>As University of Massachusetts sociologist <a href=\"http:\/\/people.umass.edu\/misra\/Joya_Misra\/Index.html\" target=\"_blank\">Joya Misra<\/a>, editor of <em>Gender &amp; Society<\/em>, puts it, \u201cthe rapidity of changes in attitudes toward gays and lesbians has been stunning. Kazyak\u2019s article helps bring into focus how greater acceptance of gays and lesbians is not simply a phenomenon of big cities \u2013 but reflects changes and opportunities in rural communities as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>How much change? Researchers at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.socwomen.org\/web\/\" target=\"_blank\">Sociologists for Women in Society<\/a> and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.contemporaryfamilies.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Council on Contemporary Families<\/a> recently surveyed how much and how rapidly gays and lesbians have been integrated into mainstream life. Consider these changes in the past year alone:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>In November<\/strong>,      for the first time, three U.S. states approved same-sex marriage by      popular vote. Just three years ago, Maine voters defeated same-sex      marriage by a margin of 53 to 47 percent. This year they reversed      themselves, approving it by 53 to 47 percent. Maine joins a growing list      of rural states including Iowa and Vermont that recognize same-sex      marriage. Meanwhile, Minnesota defeated the same kind of anti same-sex      marriage measure that had passed everywhere it was introduced in the      previous 15 years.<\/li>\n<li><strong>While California<\/strong> defeated same-sex marriage in 2008, a February 29, 2012, Field poll shows      that if the measure were submitted again, it would win. Today a record 59      percent of registered voters in California approve same-sex marriage.<\/li>\n<li><strong>In numerous public opinion<\/strong> surveys, including <a href=\"http:\/\/www.people-press.org\/2012\/11\/09\/behind-gay-marriage-momentum-regional-gaps-persist\/\" target=\"_blank\">one from November 2012<\/a>, the past decade\u2019s rise in approval for same-sex      marriage in <em>all<\/em> regions of the country is evident: even the Midwest      and the South, where gay and lesbian rights are less popular, have seen a      14 percent increase in approval for same-sex marriage.<\/li>\n<li><strong>In 2009 Hispanics<\/strong> opposed same-sex marriage by a large margin. In <a href=\"http:\/\/www.people-press.org\/2012\/11\/09\/behind-gay-marriage-momentum-regional-gaps-persist\/\" target=\"_blank\">2012 exit polls<\/a>, 59 percent of Hispanics supported it. In just the      four months between July and October 2012, the number of African Americans      opposing same-sex marriage fell from 51 percent to just 39 percent.<\/li>\n<li><strong>White evangelical<\/strong> Christians are seeing a <a href=\"http:\/\/publicreligion.org\/2012\/01\/beyond-secular-vs-religious-religious-divides-in-support-for-same-sex-marriave\/\" target=\"_blank\">dramatic generational shift<\/a>, with 40 percent of those under 30 supporting same-sex      marriage, compared to only 18 percent of those over 30.<\/li>\n<li><strong>And on December 6<\/strong>,      a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/politics\/2012\/12\/05\/poll-from-gay-marriage-to-adoption-attitudes-changing-fast\/1748873\/\" target=\"_blank\">new poll by USA Today<\/a> found that almost three-quarters of Americans 18 to 29      years old now support same-sex marriage, while more than a third of      Americans say their views about same-sex marriage have changed      significantly over the last several years, with approval rising in every      age group.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Are these changes significant for gays and lesbians living in rural areas? Dr. Kazyak\u2019s <em>Gender &amp; Society<\/em> study, published by Sage Publications, offers answers, based on her examination of the experiences of gays and lesbians who live in rural areas (with populations as small as 2500 people). The University of Nebraska-based researcher focused on rural areas in the Midwest. She finds that rural gays and lesbians enjoy more acceptance than stereotypes about rural life would suggest. In fact, Dr. Kazyak reports that lesbians in rural areas can pick and choose from a wider range of gender behaviors than their urban counterparts. Largely because of the tradition of shared labor in farm families, behaviors and activities that would be considered unfeminine or \u201cbutch\u201d among urban women are more widespread and meet greater approval in rural areas.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Kazyak describes how rural lesbians reported the gender flexibility available to them. One lesbian described the kind of upbringing that is common in rural areas: \u201cI helped my dad a lot on the farm, raising\u2026livestock\u2026I really enjoyed driving the farm machinery! It just empowered me, driving a tractor or truck.\u201d Another woman stated, \u201cTomboyishness was somewhat more acceptable than it might be somewhere else.\u201d A third pointed out that \u201cfarm girls might dress up for the prom, but they also could slaughter a hog.\u201d This flexibility allows lesbians who are drawn to masculine activities or who dress in masculine ways to find more acceptance than they might in an urban or suburban setting.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, Dr. Kazyak discovered that gay men felt required to appear more macho than their urban counterparts. One man she interviewed commented on how few rural gay men display the mannerisms that are sometimes associated with gay life in metropolitan areas. He noted how surprised he initially was by \u201cgetting flirted with what I thought were straight men\u2026.[T]hey weren&#8217;t straight men, they were gay men, but they looked very straight, they acted very masculine\u2026. It was, like, this wasn&#8217;t what I thought of as a gay man. So being in this town really changed how I thought of myself and the gay community.\u201d Both rural gays and lesbians thought their lives and identities were much different than their urban counterparts.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Kazyak noted, \u201cMy research on rural gays and lesbians shows us that the lives, behaviors, and self-presentations of gays and lesbians are more varied and complex than portrayed on TV, even in shows such as \u2018Modern Family,\u2019 where one of the gay characters grew up on a farm. The rural Midwest is not a place we typically associate with gay and lesbian life, but my research shows us how gays and lesbians are increasingly out and accepted in small towns across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Kazyak adds, \u201cTimes have changed for gays and lesbians throughout the United States; but there are still many challenges, from the fact that employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation remains legal at the federal level and in many states, to the alarmingly high rate of homelessness among gay and lesbian youth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Article<\/strong>: Kazyak, Emily. 2012. <a href=\"http:\/\/gas.sagepub.com\/content\/26\/6\/825\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cMidwest or Lesbian? Gender, Rurality, and Sexuality.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Gender &amp; Society <\/em>26 (6): 825-848. (.pdf available upon request.)<\/p>\n<p>Link <a href=\"http:\/\/www.socwomen.org\/web\/media\/press-releases\/3683-kazyakgenderasoc-.html\">here to full press release<\/a> and references to additional experts and resources on diversity among gays and lesbians.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/girlwpen.com\/?page_id=31\">-Virginia Rutter<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My colleague Stephanie Coontz at Council on Contemporary Families and I put together this item about a great new study: At a time of dramatic change in attitudes towards gays and lesbians in America, a new study released this month in Gender &amp; Society highlights the diversity of gay and lesbian experiences in America. \u201cMidwest [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1903,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21108,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nice-work","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1903"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5596"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7043,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5596\/revisions\/7043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}