From The Campaign For Southern Equality

(Tipped by JMG reader Raj)

CNN On Gay Parenting In The South

More Gays Raise Kids In The South

According to a study of data released by the U.S. Census, there are more gay couples raising children in the southern states than in urban states more traditionally considered to be gay hot spots.

Child rearing among same-sex couples is more common in the South than in any other region of the country, according to Gary Gates, a demographer at the University of California, Los Angeles. Gay couples in Southern states like Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas are more likely to be raising children than their counterparts on the West Coast, in New York and in New England. The pattern, identified by Mr. Gates, is also notable because the families in this region defy the stereotype of a mainstream gay America that is white, affluent, urban and living in the Northeast or on the West Coast.

One theory for the result is that southern blacks and Latinos may be more likely to have been in a heterosexual marriage with children prior to coming out.

"Confederate Southern Americans" Want Official U.S. Census Recognition

You can't make it up. Proud Southern descendants of the fight to preserve slavery (among other things) want their own "Confederate nationality" recognized on the census.

Are you tired of Anti-Southern discrimination and bigotry directed at Southern people? Are you tired of being called a racist simply because you are proud of the Confederate Battle flag - the symbol of your ancestry and heritage? The Southern Legal Resource Center (SLRC) is asking Southerners to stand up and be counted as "Confederate Southern Americans" on the 2010 US Census. Question #9 on the Census form asks for information on "Race,." The SLRC suggests you check "Other Race" and in the space below write "Confed Southern Am." This will tell the Census that your families National Origin was the Confederate States of America, for four years a nation independent of the United States. Your spouse, may also so declare even if born outside the South. Those sympathetic to the Confederate Southern American Community may also so declare.

Their website has Dixie on auto-play. 'Nuff said.

"He's Other"

A few gems on Obama's racial identity from Southerners interviewed by the New York Times:

- “He’s neither-nor,” said Ricky Thompson, a pipe fitter who works at a factory north of Mobile, while standing in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart store just north of here. “He’s other. It’s in the Bible. Come as one. Don’t create other breeds.”

-“I would think of him as I would of another of mixed race,” said Glenn Reynolds, 74, a retired textile worker in Martinsdale, Va., and a former supervisor at a Goodyear plant. “God taught the children of Israel not to intermarry. You should be proud of what you are, and not intermarry.”

-“He’s going to tear up the rose bushes and plant a watermelon patch,” said James Halsey, chuckling, while standing in the Wal-Mart parking lot with fellow workers in the environmental cleanup business. “I just don’t think we’ll ever have a black president.”

The irony, of course, is that the South probably has more mixed race people than any part of the country. Very few "old family" Southerners would survive the old "one-drop" rule were their family trees to be fully excavated.

UPDATE: For balance, here's some Midwestern racists.