What part of the Midwest didn't you like the people? My experience has been that (outside of big cities) 6 out of 7 are nice, and the seventh is just having a bad day.
Or their daddy was hot s**t back in high school so they act all uppity
Chabry
On the gay issue- That is one of the most overblown characteristics of SF that people who have never been there mention. When I came back from my last visit, everyone kept asking me about it...annoying!
Yeah, it's funny about that because it has been theorized that the U.S. military had a lot to do with establishing San Francisco's "gay" reputation.
During World War II, the military needed as many personnel as possible for the war effort and they were more lenient about suspected gay and lesbian soldiers, sailors and marines. Once the war ended, thousands of gays were loaded on "queer ships" and given "undesirable" discharges and were dropped off at the nearest port. Now that they had been kicked out of the military and outed, many of them believed that they could not return to their hometowns. Many of them decided to stay where they were dropped off and made port cities like San Francisco and New York their homes.
But hey, they are cool cities anyway, who wouldn't want to stay?
Edited for spelling
On the gay issue- That is one of the most overblown characteristics of SF that people who have never been there mention. When I came back from my last visit, everyone kept asking me about it...annoying!
Yeah, it's funny about that because it has been theorized that the U.S. military had a lot to do with establishing San Fransisco's "gay" reputation.
During World War II, the military needed as many personnel as possible for the war effort and they were more lenient about suspected gay and lesbian soldiers, sailors and marines. Once the war ended, thousands of gays were loaded on "queer ships" and given "undesirable" discharges and were dropped off at the nearest port. Now that they had been kicked out of the military and outed, many of them believed that they could not return to their hometowns. Many of them decided to stay where they were dropped off and made port cities like San Fransisco and New York their homes.
But hey, they are cool cities anyway, who wouldn't want to stay?
That sounds really apocryphal. More likely, San Francisco was the locus of the hippy movement ("If you're going to San Francisco, wear some flowers in your hair"), which had a central belief in tolerance of everything under the sun. Naturally that attracted the gay element. the fact that SF has really nice weather etc probably didnt hurt either.
On the gay issue- That is one of the most overblown characteristics of SF that people who have never been there mention. When I came back from my last visit, everyone kept asking me about it...annoying!
Yeah, it's funny about that because it has been theorized that the U.S. military had a lot to do with establishing San Fransisco's "gay" reputation.
During World War II, the military needed as many personnel as possible for the war effort and they were more lenient about suspected gay and lesbian soldiers, sailors and marines. Once the war ended, thousands of gays were loaded on "queer ships" and given "undesirable" discharges and were dropped off at the nearest port. Now that they had been kicked out of the military and outed, many of them believed that they could not return to their hometowns. Many of them decided to stay where they were dropped off and made port cities like San Fransisco and New York their homes.
But hey, they are cool cities anyway, who wouldn't want to stay?
That sounds really apocryphal. More likely, San Francisco was the locus of the hippy movement ("If you're going to San Francisco, wear some flowers in your hair"), which had a central belief in tolerance of everything under the sun. Naturally that attracted the gay element. the fact that SF has really nice weather etc probably didnt hurt either.
I'm sure that the hippie movement and the weather helped but I do have a reference that I pulled this from. It's in a book called "Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America" by Lillian Faderman, page 126 and she refers to "Past Times: Unearthing the History of Gay G.I.s," Chicago Reader as her source.
Historian Allan Berube also wrote a book called "Coming Out Under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War Two" which I have not read but that looks interesting. He is quoted in the above reference (Past Times) as having said, "The government sponsored a migration of the gay community."
I agree that it does sound a bit apocryphal, but I thought it was a pretty interesting theory and besides the Faderman reference, I haven't found much to either prove or refute it.
the fact that SF has really nice weather etc probably didnt hurt either.
Uhh.... yeaaaaah.....