Please read the entire article. And, my wife and I have close personal friends who are a lesbian couple. They met in Rochester in the early 90s. They tell us that by then, Rochester was already known as exceptionally queer friendly.
Rochester people are more oriented to Finger Lakes and Adirondacks. Buffalo people more to Chautauqua. But both cities have indicia of having been relatively more important 125 years ago - Frank Lloyd Wright houses, Olmstead parks.
Bills do training camp in Roch. It’s a giant deal. The ice cream place down the road has various ice cream specials named after Bills players. Roch is all in on the Bills and Sabres and that creates community with Buffalo
But Buff and Roch have close cultural ties. My mom -a Roch native - went to Buffalo State, class of 58. My closest Roch friend’s dad married a Buff woman. My mom’s oldest Roch friend married a Buff guy. We did High School field trips to Knox Albright. We regularly got Ted’s Hot Dogs.
Rochester native, moved to NYC in 89 lived in metro area since then. Lived in Michigan/Ohio from 82-89. “Upstate” IMHO means “not NYC area.” Roughly everything north and west of Interstate 88. Buffalo was more heavy industry, Roch was more tech before that was a thing.
Passover Seders have been around for maybe 2,300 years: the text of the Haggadah, the book used for Seders, is 1,300 or so years old. Anyone who’s attended a Seder or read a Haggadah in the past couple of millennia has learned that slavery is evil.
Cake makers have a 1st Amendment right to refuse to sell a cake decorated in celebration of a gay wedding. Do religious market owners have a 1st amendment right to give discounts to SNAP recipients. What if the market owner is committed to feeding the “least of these?”
Remarkable piece. Sobering. Horrifying. I so appreciate how you contrast those who list for destruction with those who bravely try to build. You painted a portrait worthy of Bosch.
Annexing Greenland. Making Canada the 51st state. Attacking counties on two different continents. Firing multiple Generals. All by a guy who lied to dodge the draft, called avoiding venereal disease his personal Vietnam, and mocked John McCain’s service.
