And all 8 of the arrested are married.

velvet_fog: These men could have used a better father figure growing up.

Yeah, like one that told them "son, if you're gay that's fine, be proud of it, don't hide it and get married and then sneak into the park at night and get busted for soliciting sex from an undercover cop."

kd1s: And how many of the men on that list were married and considerably older! It's because in their prime it was still illegal in general to be LGBT. I'm glad that's finally changing.

This. If they'd tried to come out in their prime, they'd have been disowned, shunned, and run out of town (or possibly just beaten to death for being a "fag"). They were raised with the idea that they had to do the "normal" thing and marry a woman, have kids, and be miserable. Hence my comment condemning the old school "father figure," who was really just a dictator and a sadist. I honestly pity most men with a father from that era, because even the ones that legitimately thought they had it good, the stories they tell... well, tell a different story.

velvet_fog: These men could have used a better father figure growing up.

So your saying they needed a daddy O_o
NTTATWWT
/So sorry.

batcookie: kd1s: And how many of the men on that list were married and considerably older! It's because in their prime it was still illegal in general to be LGBT. I'm glad that's finally changing.

This. If they'd tried to come out in their prime, they'd have been disowned, shunned, and run out of town (or possibly just beaten to death for being a "fag"). They were raised with the idea that they had to do the "normal" thing and marry a woman, have kids, and be miserable. Hence my comment condemning the old school "father figure," who was really just a dictator and a sadist. I honestly pity most men with a father from that era, because even the ones that legitimately thought they had it good, the stories they tell... well, tell a different story.

The one I don't get though is the guy born in 1972. The old guys I understand, but for a guy born in '72 the gay rights movement was well under way by the time he was in college.

TuteTibiImperes: Cyrusv10: Do any mature Farkers out here think that there is something wrong with listing the names, addresses and marital status of those arrested in this article? Had they been straight, it would have just been a two paragraph summary along the lines of "Eight people were arrested today in Florida for soliciting...in other news..."

/No, this article went the extra mile and outed a bunch of men
//shock value

It's Polk County. The Sheriff there has it out for anything relating to sex or sexuality, be it hetero or homosexual.

But if you're a former Klu Klux Klan Grand Dragon and run for city council in Lake Wales, it's all good, people are willing to overlook that and elect you.

rynthetyn: But if you're a former Klu Klux Klan Grand Dragon and run for city council in Lake Wales, it's all good, people are willing to overlook celebrate that and elect you.

Fixed for Fla attitudes.

batcookie: rynthetyn: But if you're a former Klu Klux Klan Grand Dragon and run for city council in Lake Wales, it's all good, people are willing to overlook celebrate that and elect you.

Fixed for Fla attitudes.

Considering that this is Polk County, that's probably an accurate correction. Lake Wales KKK dude is my uncle's barber, posting the story about that to facebook resulted in me being informed by my aunt that I hate all white people, Americans, and Christians. But especially white people.

TFA is most definitely not going to facebook because I don't even want to imagine the comments it would generate.

TuteTibiImperes: rynthetyn:

But if you're a former Klu Klux Klan Grand Dragon and run for city council in Lake Wales, it's all good, people are willing to overlook that and elect you.

Florida's Gulf Coast is an unfortunate mix of midwestern retirees who have grown up without exposure to diversity and southern rednecks who actively hate diversity.

On the bright side, there are enough Mexican, Cuban and other Latino immigrants to support some pretty good latin restaurants.

I grew up in an area with a weird mix of rednecks, retirees, European tourists, Hispanic immigrants, and really rich people, where celebrities vacation when they don't want to get photographed. End result is that it was quite possible to be exposed to vast diversity or else insulate yourself with crazy bigots, depending on which circles you chose to run in.

My parents were more inclined to expose us to diversity, certain of my relatives seem to have isolated themselves more and more over the years (and then they moved inland to a Lake Wales retirement community and got even more isolated). The thing that makes no sense though, is that my crazy aunt's son is married to a Colombian immigrant and he and his wife send the kids down to stay with her relatives in Colombia every summer, and yet my aunt has somehow managed to separate that in her brain from all of the crazy Fox News anti-immigrant, everybody should carry papers, English-only stuff.

/Could be worse, most of my Pennsylvania relatives are stuck in the '50s--the 1850s

TuteTibiImperes: rynthetyn:
I grew up in an area with a weird mix of rednecks, retirees, European tourists, Hispanic immigrants, and really rich people, where celebrities vacation when they don't want to get photographed. End result is that it was quite possible to be exposed to vast diversity or else insulate yourself with crazy bigots, depending on which circles you chose to run in.

My parents were more inclined to expose us to diversity, certain of my relatives seem to have isolated themselves more and more over the years (and then they moved inland to a Lake Wales retirement community and got even more isolated). The thing that makes no sense though, is that my crazy aunt's son is married to a Colombian immigrant and he and his wife send the kids down to stay with her relatives in Colombia every summer, and yet my aunt has somehow managed to separate that in her brain from all of the crazy Fox News anti-immigrant, everybody should carry papers, English-only stuff.

/Could be worse, most of my Pennsylvania relatives are stuck in the '50s--the 1850s

Sounds like you grew up in an area very similar to where I am now. Selective blindness/deafness, hypocrisy, and self imposed isolationism are de rigueur around here, although I suppose that could apply to many people anywhere.

/Several counties south of Polk, thankfully

Maybe we're talking about the same place, I grew up several counties south of Polk too.