A number of readers wrote in response to Paul Jimerson’s ugly stereotyping in his e-mail criticizing my post Tolerance and Hospitality, San Francisco-Style.

Mr. Jimerson predicted bloodshed if gay groups visited “small-town America”:

If such a thing should ever take place in small town America what kind of reaction do you think they might receive from the town if/when they came back the next year to do the same thing? How about the third year? There would be blood shed and it wouldn’t take long either. You know it and I know it and it’s typical of Christian tolerance or others and good will towards man.

Most of the e-mail pointed out that Paul’s assumptions were not only bigoted, they were flat-out wrong. Here’s a sample.

Forrest writes:

I guess the tolerant Paul Jimerson didn’t hear about Shout, the new Gay and Lesbian film festival here in Birmingham - starting tonight actually. I’m getting so tired of hearing Birmingham being used as an example of Nazi America. Birmingham has a large, thriving gay community. This town has come a long way in the past 40 years.

I’m a straight, white, Southern male - and *gasp* I hang out with my gay neighbor all the time. No beatings, no name calling, not so much as a harsh word.

Jeremy Brown adds:

Your recent post “Inside the Mind of a Tolerant One” was particularly interesting because I just read an article in World Magazine about the homosexual group, Soulforce, visiting and holding demonstrations at Evangelical Christian college campuses. This actually fits well with the hypothetical scenario Mr. Jimerson presented, although the welcome they received is significantly different from the one he suggested would occur.

It must be quite satisfying to imagine yourself superior to the rest of the country, so this information could be profoundly disturbing to Mr. Jimerson. Out of respect to him, I will not pass it along.

If ignorance is bliss, I’d hate to ruin his good time.