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Liberal Unfriendly Place: Greenville, SC
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Try Greenville, S.C. on for size. Prior to the Olympics, County Council passed a "pro-family" resolution that essentially condemned any lifestyle other than that of the religious/reactionary right. For county employees, just saying anything that does not fit in with that way of thinking can bring informal reprimands...nothing official, but it will show up in your evaluation. This is the buckle on the bible belt...home to Bob Jones University, a bastion of proponents who want to return to the dark ages. Positive signs...the city council wouldn't touch the resolution with a ten foot pole, more out of town industry and money is moving in, with broader world views, and you can closet yourself as a liberal...just never say anything unless you know the person is of a like mind...sorry gays and people who live "differently"...its not healthy here.

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You could not be more right on your opinion of Greenville, S.C. I had the unpleasant experience of living there for 4 years and it was the most racist, sexist, small minded and backwards place I have ever seen in my life!

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Greenville is the most conservative city in arguably the most conservative state in the union. Greenville, with a population approaching 100,000 is home to Bob Jones University. Calling this "educational" institution the most conservative, knee-jerk backwater christian-coalition-financed university in the US is hardly doing justice to this monstrosity. This paragon of higher learning forbids inter-racial dating (indeed forbids ANY dating among its students, unless chaperoned), routinly produces productions of Shakespeare plays with the "bad parts" cut out (one recent production of "The Tempest" cut out the masque at the wedding of Ferdinand and Miranda which features the goddesses Ceres and Juno and replaced it with a Christian prayer), boycotts theatre productions like "Jesus Christ Superstar", "Six Degrees of Separation" and "Les Miserables" and has several of their graduates in positions of local and state government.

Greenville County (for which Greenville is the county seat) has not voted for a Democratic President since 1944. Heck, Senator Fritz Hollings is considered to be too liberal for them.

But the crowning glory of this otherwise pretty city, was the anti-gay resolution which was passed by the Greenville County Council last year. This resolution was taken almost word-for-word from the Cobb County resolution and intended as a game of chicken with the Atlanta Olympic Torch Committee. Immediately, the Greenville CITY Council decried the resolution and tried vainly to make the county council change their mind (the city council is made up of a few more minorities and business people who were worried about the negative impact this might have on people moving to this area) It was no go and the Olympic Torch ran covered through Greenville County until it hit the city limits of Greenville, after which it was promptly covered again once it left the city. The religious conservatives in this area were obviously pleased with the spectacle and have continued to insult and demonize people in this area who do not share their political affiliation, religion, sexuality and cultural views.

Truly, one of the WORST places to live if you are a liberal.

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I grew up in this surrealistically reactionary town. My favorite story is , honest to god, one day I was debating some kids from my high school and we were overheard by the mother of this one guy. I started talking about various translations of the bible and how the "message" of various verses has been altered throughout history to suit different political agendas.

This guy's mother informed me that translating the bible was itself a sin. I asked what translation she used and she replied that she read the bible as God had intended us to, in English!!

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Greenville passed a resolution almost exactly like Cobb County's that said the gay lifestyle is icompatible with the Greenville community's "traditional family" values. Many of the council members were re-elected simply because of their support of this resolution.

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