Drawing on observation, autoethnography, and audio-taped interviews, this article explores the religious backgrounds and experiences of Bible Belt gays. In the Bible Belt, Christianity is not confined to Sunday worship. Christian crosses, messages, paraphernalia, music, news, and attitudes permeate everyday settings. Consequently, Christian fundamentalist dogma about homosexuality-that homosexuals are bad, diseased, perverse, sinful, other, and inferior-is cumulatively bolstered within a variety of other social institutions and environments in the Bible Belt. Of the 46 lesbians and gay men interviewed for this study (age 18-74 years), most describe living through spirit-crushing experiences of isolation, abuse, and self-loathing. This article argues that the geographic region of the Bible Belt intersects with religious-based homophobia. Informants explained that negative social attitudes about homosexuality caused a range of harmful consequences in their lives including the fear of going to hell, depression, low self-esteem, and feelings of worthlessness.
This article explores ethical issues of co-mingled data, demarcating the field and informed consent in a study researching the consequences of Christian fundamentalist ideology on the lives of "Bible Belt gays". When what constitutes informed consent is ambiguous, how does the qualitative researcher justify her decision either to include or exclude meaningful data? To illustrate these ethical issues, I analyze four instances of comingled data, two featuring Christian fundamentalists and two Bible Belt gays, in which I gain theoretical insights under conditions of blurry consent, and weigh potential harm to subjects against the liberatory goals of the project.
When lacking explicit knowledge of someone's sexual orientation, gay people commonly assess the likelihood that another is gay using their "gaydar." The term gaydar is a playful mix of the word gay with radar, suggesting that one can sense, intuit, or perceive some set of characteristics in another that signal a shared minority status. While commonly mentioned, the exact criteria a gay person uses when employing their gaydar are little discussed. Drawing methodologically on a series of five focus groups of self-identified lesbians and gay men, this study explores the physical, visual, energetic, and conversational cues gay people consider when they employ the trope of gaydar. Specifically, interview subjects most often described their gaydar as triggered by the following elements: physical presentation, including mannerisms, dress, and voice; interactions, especially eye contact; a presence or absence of certain conversational social norms; and, intangibly, as a kind of energetic exchange.
While some areas of the United States have made progress in securing rights for gay people, Bible Belt states lag behind. Not only do these states lack domestic-partner benefits, but also lesbians and gay men can still be fired from places of employment in many regions of the Bible Belt for being a homosexual. The article argues that regional social mores for small-town life, rules that govern southern manners, and expectations of submission to Christian institutions function as a "Bible Belt panopticon" to perpetuate both passive and active homophobia. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and excerpts from in-depth audiotaped interviews with lesbians and gay men from the region, the article explores the intersections among religiosity, region, and sexual identity to theorize how the Bible Belt panopticon operates to create an environment of compulsory Christianity.
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