Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

In fact, according to the 2000 United State Census, the city of Birmingham was home to a higher per capita concentration of same-sex couples than cities of comparable or larger sizes like Memphis, Charlotte and even more liberal northern cities like Columbus, Ohio.

But for many Americans, the notion of Birmingham evokes intolerance, still viewed through the lens of the 1960s civil rights movement, home to streets where police dogs and fire hoses met foot soldiers in the fight for civil rights. It was Birmingham that helped change the course of history for African American citizens. Today's Birmingham, however, touts itself as a place of reconciliation, diversity and inclusion. But as any Southern native living in a northern city learns, the image of Birmingham is often still that of backwoods, white, racist and homophobic.

This simplistic view of the South by outsiders still raises the ire of local residents in Birmingham.

"People in Alabama don't have a monopoly on prejudice and racism," said Danny Upton, an attorney and Executive Director of Equality Alabama, the state's leading GLBT civil rights organization. "We certainly have struggled with it, and we have a tortured history because of it, but when people speak of Alabama with disdain, they are oftentimes speaking out of their own ignorance since many have never been here. And there are some pretty educated homophobes located outside the South."

Still, Birmingham is located in the heart of the socially conservative Bible Belt. In recent years here, shrill local politicians like former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore and former Governor Fob James earned headlines by spewing anti-gay rhetoric, earning votes from Alabama's well-organized conservative voting blocks. But rather than flee to more liberal turf like New York or California, a number of GLBT members have stepped up and are helping pave the way, slowly but surely, to a more inclusive and officially accepting society in the heart of the deep South.

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