Adam Rippon interview on NPR Weekend Edition

[Mrs. P]

The audio and story isn't up yet, but there's a link for later reference: https://www.npr.org/2018/09/16/648001377/adam-rippon-on-his-post-olympic-life

I totally stumbled upon it while listening to NPR this morning. It was good interview. He talked about the struggles of being gay in a small town and a lot about representing LGBTQ in sports.

 

[el henry]

I will look forward to this, and I realize you may be loosely translating @Mrs. P, but I am still

if Adam is saying he grew up in a "small town" in Pennsylvania.

Clarks Summit is a suburb of Scranton, Pa, population 75,000. Scranton/Wilkes Barre MRSA has a population of half a million (WB is about 20 miles from Scranton). So yes, Clarks Summit itself has a pop of about 5,000. But he actually grew up in the Scranton metropolitan area. Saying he grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania is like saying I went to high school in a small town in Pennsylvania, because Ridley Park has a population of 6,000. Who cares if it's eight miles from Philadelphia?

Could growing up in a Scranton suburb as LBGT child have been a picnic? I doubt it, but only Adam can say. But I will never, never, never accept this "small town" hoohah.

Yours for geeking out on Pennsylvania geography.....topic:

 

[Mrs. P]

One thing he mentioned during the interview was that a religious university in the area kicked someone out for being gay and then another university reached out to him to enroll at there.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news...mit-university-refuses-let-gay-student-return


Having grown up in the Philadelphia area myself, I kinda agree with you --but sometimes i felt REALLY far away from Philadelphia in my suburb 45 minutes away (I guess at that point it's more of an exurb), especially since there weren't a lot of people of color in my school.

And I interned in the NE Pa. (Wilkes-Barre) one summer and some of the small towns in the area did feel isolated even if they were close to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

Not to mention I feel like that Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area has a WAY different vibe than Philadelphia and its immediate (i.e.Mainline, you know what I'm talking about el henry, though I know you grew up in the other direction) suburbs.

 

[el henry]

One thing he mentioned during the interview was that a religious university in the area kicked someone out for being gay and then another university reached out to him to enroll at there.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news...mit-university-refuses-let-gay-student-return


Having grown up in the Philadelphia area myself, I kinda agree with you --but sometimes i felt REALLY far away from Philadelphia in my suburb 45 minutes away (I guess at that point it's more of an exurb), especially since there weren't a lot of people of color in my school.

And I interned in the NE Pa. (Wilkes-Barre) one summer and some of the small towns in the area did feel isolated even if they were close to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

Not to mention I feel like that Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area has a WAY different vibe than Philadelphia and its immediate (i.e.Mainline, you know what I'm talking about el henry, though I know you grew up in the other direction) suburbs.

I do agree, and the burbs in NE Pa are a different vibe. They are small cities, so a burb is going to be way different. (when I was young, Lansdale and Bucks Co might as well have been Scranton, to me ) And I just love hearing Adam acknowledge his Pennsylvania roots anyway:agree:

Maybe I'm just sore because the Eagles are so bad right now they're making Ryan what's his name look like a world beater:ddevil:

could I get any more topic:

 

[temadd]

I will look forward to this, and I realize you may be loosely translating @Mrs. P, but I am still

if Adam is saying he grew up in a "small town" in Pennsylvania.

Clarks Summit is a suburb of Scranton, Pa, population 75,000. Scranton/Wilkes Barre MRSA has a population of half a million (WB is about 20 miles from Scranton). So yes, Clarks Summit itself has a pop of about 5,000. But he actually grew up in the Scranton metropolitan area. Saying he grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania is like saying I went to high school in a small town in Pennsylvania, because Ridley Park has a population of 6,000. Who cares if it's eight miles from Philadelphia?

Could growing up in a Scranton suburb as LBGT child have been a picnic? I doubt it, but only Adam can say. But I will never, never, never accept this "small town" hoohah.

Yours for geeking out on Pennsylvania geography.....topic:

I grew up in a small town 15 minutes from New York city. It was still a small town with it's own sense of community, schools with everyone from the same small town, small mom and pop stores who knew everyone's business . . . Definitely very different from living in NYC

 

[el henry]

Still haven’t heard Adam’s interview, but... I feel I need to explain myself a little more about “small town Pennsylvania”.

I have traveled to, because of work and because of volunteer activities, actual real live small towns in Pennsylvania. DuBois, for example. Population same as Clark’s Summit, Adam’s hometown.

DuBois is the largest town for miles. Miiiiilllles. It is two and a half hours from the great metropoli of Scranton and Erie. Two hours from Pittsburgh, farther from Philadelphia and Harrisburg. It is just south of the gorgeous Allegheny State Forest. I’ve spent a fair amount of time there, as well as the smaller nearby towns of Hastings and Clearfield.

DuBois, to me, is a small town in Pennsylvania, Yes, everyone may know your name in Clarks Summit, but trust me, it is Paris, France in sophistication and attitude compared to DuBois. And I am not putting down DuBois, I love it and I loved the people I met there. So my problem is I have actually been to *small* towns in Pennsylvania. I can’t get rid of that reference.

And one of these days I’ll actually listen to poor Adam’s interview and stop with the travelogues

 

[Mrs. P]

The audio and story is up now, so you should give it a read.

 

[el henry]

So I did listen and as always, kudos to Adam. Such an engaging public speaker and telling his story so well.

Even if we will never agree on the definition of small towns.

 

[Mathman]

Johnny Weir grew up in Quarryville, Pa. (pop. 2000), just 13 miles down highway 896 from my all-time favorite, Bird-in-Hand.

About the college student who was expelled for being gay, I am afraid that he has no legal recourse. Appeal to the U.S. Department of Education (Betsy DeVos) or the Justice Department (Jeff Sessions) on some sort of Title IX case is, shall we say, not promising. This is a private Bible College whose purpose is to train young people for careers as Baptist ministers. They have majors like "Camping Ministries," "Educational Ministries," and "Intercultural Youth Ministries," in addition to Bible Studies and some programs in education and business. I assume that many of the credits earned would be hard to transfer to another college. I doubt that the college can be shamed into reversing its decision, either by public outcry or by appealing to the their better angels. The student will have to cut his losses and start over.

 

[RobinA]

I will look forward to this, and I realize you may be loosely translating @Mrs. P, but I am still

if Adam is saying he grew up in a "small town" in Pennsylvania.

Clarks Summit is a suburb of Scranton, Pa, population 75,000. Scranton/Wilkes Barre MRSA has a population of half a million (WB is about 20 miles from Scranton). So yes, Clarks Summit itself has a pop of about 5,000. But he actually grew up in the Scranton metropolitan area. Saying he grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania is like saying I went to high school in a small town in Pennsylvania, because Ridley Park has a population of 6,000. Who cares if it's eight miles from Philadelphia?

Could growing up in a Scranton suburb as LBGT child have been a picnic? I doubt it, but only Adam can say. But I will never, never, never accept this "small town" hoohah.

Yours for geeking out on Pennsylvania geography.....topic:

You don't think there's a massive difference between Ridley Park, a Philadelphia suburb and Clarks Summit, a Scranton suburb? It doesn't get any redder than that part of PA. I'm not even sure you can call CS a suburb of Scranton in the same sense that Ridley Park is a suburb of Philadelphia.

 

[el henry]

You don't think there's a massive difference between Ridley Park, a Philadelphia suburb and Clarks Summit, a Scranton suburb? It doesn't get any redder than that part of PA. I'm not even sure you can call CS a suburb of Scranton in the same sense that Ridley Park is a suburb of Philadelphia.

I do know people in CS who aren't red, and weren't red 20 years ago either Last I saw, in fact, it was a majority "blue" town, as was Lackawanna County, and indeed the entire Wyoming Valley. And Ridley Park was hardly a bastion of blue, at least when I there

But no, my comparison is to DuBois, and Hastings, and Clearfield, as I said in my second (third?) post. *That's* small town PA. CS is not, compared to them.

The important point is what Adam has to say about everything else, where geography is not important, and where I have, and always will, applaud him.

 

[Ducky]

You don't think there's a massive difference between Ridley Park, a Philadelphia suburb and Clarks Summit, a Scranton suburb? It doesn't get any redder than that part of PA. I'm not even sure you can call CS a suburb of Scranton in the same sense that Ridley Park is a suburb of Philadelphia.

I think el henry is trying to get at how there is a world of difference between growing up in a small suburban town and a small rural town of comparable size. In both there's pressure to conform to a norm but the physical isolation of rural America, where the nearest mall may be over an hour away, means that you're really stuck with your community. As a kid you may have some cross pollination with other kids from other towns but that's mostly during sporting events and they're your competitors. But you're stuck with what your town offers in terms of activities, friends, and mentors. You can get lucky -- I sure did -- and have a school that offers a strings as well as a band program or parents who will drive you 50 miles one way for skating lessons twice a week or you can end up in a town where the school only offers one music program and even though you really want to learn to ice skate the drive is way too far.

In a suburban small town there are other options. Your kid really wants to play cello and the local high school only offers band? You can probably find a string teacher located close by. Your kid is really talented in basketball? There's probably a private basketball league that will push them harder then the school will AND they'll meet other kids. Community theater. There's a lot more opportunity to meet people not from your town/school and to become friends with them and to realize that just because you're the only person in your school who is <<whatever>> doesn't mean that there aren't other people like that out in the world.

 

[el henry]

whole post

Thank you for saying more eloquently what I was trying to say. And I am not saying that growing up outside of Scranton (IME, folks in Bethlehem and Scranton and similar sized cities say "outside of" rather than "Burbs") is the same as growing up in a Philadelphia suburb.

But it is not a small town in the middle of nowhere, PA, either.

 

[skylark]

I'm so-o-o-o late to this thread, but at least September isn't over yet! Hey.

I think when Adam says he's from a "really small town," he's being polite and diplomatic. (I realize he wasn't always, but in the past few years he's made leaps and bounds.)

What he might have said instead, is that a dominant part of the community mindset tended to be closed, and/or perhaps judgmental.

I lived in two small towns in Michigan which were the same distance from a metropolitan area. Not the same metro area. They couldn't have been more different in mindset, although they were of an identical size (1,000 within village limits, but serving a larger area). Anyway, one community felt like an inclusive, more generous (ahem, liberal) place to be. It didn't feel like a small town. The other felt restrictive and more like "oh, we're so glad we live here, and not in those big bad cities" etc. etc. Both places could be very nurturing. But belonging, when you have any sense of being different from others ... and that could include just being shy or bookish ... was a different story. It was a matter of finding your "tribe" .... and I think that must have been even more difficult in Adam's case.

The great thing is that he draws the circle bigger in this interview, calling attention to the kind of people who make a point to include, rather than exclude. Just My Two Cents!

there's a university — it's a very small, religious university — and this school expelled a student for being gay. I mean, that's a five-minute walk from my house.

I will say that there was another local university that stepped up and offered to help him finish his degree, which speaks to the kind of people that I know are in my area.

https://www.npr.org/2018/09/16/648001377/adam-rippon-on-his-post-olympic-life​