Caution: This article contains language that may be considered harmful.
When asked to describe Auburn’s atmosphere, most people would call it homey, friendly, open and happy. While these are all true, even places like Auburn have some skeletons in the closet. Though many don’t think about it, Auburn isn’t the friendliest place for the LGBTQ+ community. Because of recent events in North Carolina, where an Alabama native has been the target of a “hateful” act, I gained insight in a roundtable discussion with members of LGBTQ+ community as to how Auburn, a Deep South college town, reacts toward this demographic in average everyday settings.
Married couple Tim and Chad Peacock have lived in Auburn multiple years and have plenty of experience with being judged while out in public, or even at work. Though some believe that it’s normal to say that being gay in the South just requires you to have thicker skin, some forms of discrimination aren’t just emotional. Discrimination can leak into their work lives just through people making assumptions.
“The most frequent [discrimination] would happen to me would be if I was at work serving tables. There’s been situations where [customers] would come in and sit down and say, ‘Oh, that faggot needs to get away from our table’ or ‘I need a different server; I don’t want to be served by him because he’s gay,’” Tim said.
Tim talked about how some customers would rather leave him a note explaining to him how wrong he was for his sexuality than a tip for his service. By now it should be common knowledge that tips aren’t just extra rewards for outstanding service —tips are a significant source of income. Moreover, Tim and Chad mentioned that if they went to a manager about the discriminatory actions of the customers, they were told to brush it off.
Aside from work experiences, couples also face obvious discrimination when going out. Chad generally refuses to go out, and Tim does his best to let comments from passersby slide. Some things seem small, like strangers calling names, but as another friend, Robby Foster, experienced, some things can feel life threatening.
“I’ve been walking to my apartment, and I’ve been chased down by a truck with people yelling and calling me a faggot and calling me a homo. You don’t know me, yet you feel the urge to yell out the window and chase me down with your truck,” Foster said.
Many of these discriminatory acts come from complete strangers that feel they have the right to confront or make fun of someone for being different from themselves. Although a common thread in the discussion was having drinks thrown in their faces and worrying about physical altercations, the worst part is not being able to act like a couple in public.
“Any type of PDA is scary in public. I feel fear instead of the love that I should be feeling toward my partner,” Ann Mitchell, long-time Auburn resident, said.
Mitchell and her partner are unable to act as a couple out in public because of fear of repercussions. They’ve had drinks thrown at them, people get in their faces, and have been sexually objectified for being lesbians. As Mitchell put it, lesbians are a “fantasy” for some, and they’ve been asked to make out for money, and on the opposite side of that, some men threaten that “they just haven’t had the right man yet.” The group pointed out that gay men have a larger problem with physical confrontations, but lesbians are more sexually objectified and harassed, and rarely is there someone willing to defend them.
Discriminatory acts are not new to the LGBQT+ community, but they are better acknowledged thanks to the power of social media. Public policy makers and public health advocates have yet to fully address this issue in terms of promoting acceptance or enacting laws to ban anti-inclusion. According to the Center for American Progress, although national or state policy would be inexpensive, “only 34 percent of workers live in a jurisdiction where they are covered by a nondiscrimination policy based on gender identity.” In fact, in North Carolina, the H.B. 2 bill is regressing the states attempt to be inclusive.
In a heteronormative society, such policy may seem insignificant, but it is clear to the LGBTQ+ community that without policy, not only is the everyday human experience being ruined, but their incomes are suffering, which is something that every U.S. citizen supposedly has the equal opportunity to obtain.
Although these issues are present, the group agreed that Auburn has come a long way, and they have a positive outlook for progress.
“Auburn has come such a long way. I moved here in 2003, and I came out in 2005. At that time, it had to be a secret if you were gay and only your friends knew. But fast forward to today, and it’s a completely different place. There are places for us to go and hangout and be around other people like us and do things without feeling threatened. It’s cool to see how Auburn has progressed,” Foster said.
Some names have been changed to protect the identities of those involved.