Cesspool of Sin!

No, seriously. Asheville has been called the Cesspool of Sin by a North Carolina state senator. Seriously.

Here’s what I said about it earlier somewhere else when we first heard about it:

Peter Sagal with NPR (the wonderful Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me guy) did a promo for one of the local NPR stations. Apparently, a state senator referred to Asheville as a “Cesspool of Sin”. I can’t find exactly why he said it although he did clarify later saying there are a lot of liberals and homosexuals in the Asheville area. (see my other NPR post with interactive map for proof). Forrester is also the primary sponsor of the NC ban on gay marriage constitutional amendment thing (which as worded now would mean trouble for anyone married outside a church).

Anyway, the promo is a hoot. We’re loving it here. Lorna donated just so she can get a tshirt. We would have donated twice but they didn’t come in el jumbo size.

http://www.mountainx.com/article/36171/ … ool-of-sin – audio recording of promo

http://www.wcqs.org/home-page/support/donate-now – donation page with shirt

The reference to the interactive map post is something I meant to bring up here but I got distracted (oooh, shiny…).

A new analysis of 2010 census data by the Williams Institute shows how same-sex couples are distributed across the nation. Liberal enclaves are well-represented, of course. But so are some surprising pockets of the heartland and the South. Scroll over the map to see the number of same-sex couples per 1,000 households in each county.

The map, and the quote above, are found on the NPR site. It’s a cool, interactive map that has some interesting results!

My home county, Buncombe, is the highest in North Carolina with 11.9 per 1,000 people. Meaning, for every thousand households, 11.9 of them are gay/lesbian couples. I looked over some of the other areas and Buncombe scored fairly high in the nation, too. Northern California has two counties higher (12 and 12.1). Atlanta’s county, DeKalb, has 15.1. Two counties in Massachusetts scored 14.5 and 19.6. Like I said in my other post (but re-reading it just now, I didn’t say it very well), statistics can be easily misinterpreted. For example, if in Massachusetts they did a big “LGBTs, admit who you are!” campaign, the reported households would be higher than an area that did not. Here in Buncombe, I don’t remember there being anything like that.

We did the math wrong earlier over at LFF because I just realized it is per 1,000 households vs citizens. Wikipedia says a 2000 census reports Buncombe had 85,776 households. So multiply 86 (to round up to 86 thousand) by 11.9, that’s roughly 1023 households are LGBT. With an average household size of 2.26, that’s roughly 2313 queers. Cooool. We really need to get together sometime! A pot luck meeting or something?

So perhaps Forrester had seen this map. Perhaps he was appalled that we scored so high. Go us!

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Today I see Mountain Express has another article about it. Edgy Mama is great and I enjoy reading her stuff (when I remember to read it).

Edgy Mama: celebrating the Cesspool of Sin on All Hallow’s Eve

In past years, I’ve written about child obesity and dental decay, costume drama and expense, and the dangers of letting one’s kids take candy from strangers. But this year, I’ve decided to let go and embrace the decadence of Halloween, especially since I live in the Cesspool of Sin.

(…)

My kids have noticed the Cesspool of Sin T-shirts adorning the bodies of many Ashvilleans [did she really misspell it???] recently and asked what they mean. I explained that N.C. Sen. Jim Forrester called Asheville that because of the town’s thriving LGBT community. My kids were appropriately shocked, because, thank the witches, it’s never occurred to them that some people consider homosexuality a sin.

(…)

There are many reasons I love living here. One being that so many folks here understand satire (and those that don’t often make me laugh as well). Two being that people here know how to celebrate Halloween (Zombie walks, parties, costumed crusaders for weeks leading up to the big night). A third reason for loving Asheville is because many of us embrace being sinners.

The difficult part of my conversation with my kids concerned the relativity of sin. Yes, there are black and white rules — don’t kill other people is one of them. But wait, doesn’t the U.S. government kill other people? Why yes, it does — both in wars and in execution chambers. OK, kids, so that’s a rule that holds true for most people, but not all, because … sheesh, Sen. Forrester, thanks for putting me in this position.

Lorna ordered her t-shirt and we will be framing it and hanging it on the wall here in the Rose Room/office. It is an appropriate place to put it since the septic tank is right outside the window.

Comments

  1. Loved the map link! Just looking around, I’d say that Asheville is the San Francisco of the south. Or, rather, Santa Fe.

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