I had the misfortune to endure living in Kansas during my adolescence. The abortion fight was really strong in the anti-choice regard. The state appears to be gently moving toward less religious bullshittery, but my adult niece lost friends in high school when she came out as an atheist.
TLDR: don’t be a free-thinking teenager in Kansas.
I wouldn’t say she lost any “friends” in high school.
I think the TLDR is a little misleading as well. Encourage EVERYONE to think for their selves, no matter the location.
I wouldn’t say she lost any “friends” in high school.
People you spent your teenage years doing kid-stuff with who suddenly get really weird around you, as though you’re some kind of alien, because you’ve been outed as a heretic… its jarring. For you and for them (typically this shit comes from their parents first and involves a lot of screaming and crying).
I watched my younger sister’s friend group crack in half their junior year, because it just kinda clicked in someone’s head that “Oh shit, I’ve been hanging out with Muslims this whole time and that’s why they won’t come to church with me”. Half the group tried to “save” the other half, tensions got really heated, and they fell apart.
TLDR: don’t be a free-thinking teenager in Kansas.
Grew up in a Texas suburb where not being staunchly Christian was a huge problem. But as the neighborhood filled out with East Asian immigrants, it grew more liberal by degrees simply because everyone wasn’t going to the same three fucking churches.
The high school I went to that had big student-led church services in the cafeteria in the mid-90s just kinda… stopped doing that by the time I graduated because it was weird and none of the new kids were into it.
Then 9/11 happened and there was a huge backswing. But it was less “be religious” and more “be into country music and hating Muslims”. And then a bunch of pasty white ROTC kids went off to Afghanistan/Iraq to get their shit kicked in for years, while more East Asian Muslims moved into the neighborhood.
Now the city council is halfway to a Rainbow Coalition (of Republican-aligned real estate agents) and you’d never even know it was Tom DeLay’s home base 30 years ago.
