For whatever reason, several of us at work are vaguely fascinated with the Amish rite of passage called Rumspringa. It seems to come up in conversation almost once a month — especially between Matt and myself (usually referencing the documentary Devil’s Playground, which I still haven’t seen and which is probablty not exactly a representative depiction) — so when Brandon saw this over the weekend he obviously had to pass it along:
Amish woman looking for true love. – 22
Hi! I am a girl from a small town in Iowa, where I was raised Amish. I am currently on rumspringa, which is the time in every young person’s life where he or she goes out into the English world to experience everything that is out there. The hope is that at the end of rumspringa, we will return to our communities and join the Amish church, but I’m still not sure if I’m ready for that! I really like living in a world with cars and electricity and computers!
I’m 22 years old and I like to go hiking and I love animals. I like listening to music because that’s something else I could never do before, so it’s very exciting! I’m looking for a guy who is honest and kind and good looking of course! I have blonde hair and I guess I’m cute and stuff, and I wear English clothes rather than Amish and I don’t wear a bonnet or anything, I mean, I do sometimes but probably wouldn’t if we went out!
This is just fascinating to me on so many levels…
At a very base and juvenile level, I think I just like how “rumspringa” (and the occasional wilding that goes along with it) reminds me of “Rump Shaker”.
I feel dirty as hell for wanting to know how that date would turn out. Hmmm… she almost certainly has that natural “girl next door” appeal, no communicable diseases, and few, if any, members to compare to yours for size. I’ve already said too much.
It might depend on how long she’s been among the “English”…
But yes, you’ve said too much.
Im really intrigued by the amish way of life. Im eighteen years old and i live in missouri. I would like to talk to you
andrew
Why don’t you talk to an Amish person, then?
You guys don’t get out much do you? I’ve grown up around the amish my whole life and never really learned until about 6 years ago. It would blow your mind let me tell you.
She may not have communicable diseases, but she’s more likely to give you a child with six fingers.
All the better for knuckle rocker options!
Here goes:
CHURN BUTR
MILKN COWS
LORDZ WORK
ANTI PHONE
ANTI CHEVY
BUGGY PMPN
BEARD POWR
And for the Amish into The Red Hot Chili Peppers (probably just the kids on Rumspringa):
MTHRS MILK
Anyone know anything about homosexuality among the Amish? Any Amish boys/young men ever inquire or explore homosexual feelings? Would be very curious or even interested in talking with anyone (particularly someone Amish) about that.
Can’t say I know anything about that, David. Good luck with it, though.
Just saw someone’s question about homosexuality among the Amish. I was raised Amish and am Gay. I left the Amish 30 years ago because of this. Lots of people including some Amish believe there aren’t any homosexual Amish, but that is because Gay Amish either leave or keep it hidden and live miserable lives. I know of an Amish man that I had relations with and he hung himself in the barn rather than deal with it. I left home shortly after that and unfortunately, I have never told any of my family I am Gay. There is no way I could ever see them again…
do you guys know anything more about being gay and amish? i googled it and found almost nothing. there must be a credible number of gays among the amish, even if they’re pretty invisible. i can’t even find much that is written on the topic…jeez, it must be at the very BACK of the closet, compared to other groups…
perhaps, too, in more recent times things may have changed a bit and people might ‘go into town more’…as with factory jobs…
Homosexuals, male and female, occur naturally in the Amish population. They are at lower levels than some other populations.
They are being detected by “gaydar” by gay Zionist activists and are told that the world hates gays. Some are actively participating in harassment of those whom the activists tell them do not like gays.
This is the end stage in the homosexual Zionist takeover of the entire culture.
if anyone is gay/male amish from the holmes county ohio area i would really like to talk with them. please let me know…..
I am very curious about what would happen if a young gay man came out to his family. What would be the result of this action?
depending on the order of amish, and how close the boy is with his family, they would most likely shunn him from the community. that’s why we’re all scared to death to tell anyone
I too am really interested in this as well. I read recently a book that was written on the tragedy in Pennsylvania and how the Amish transcended that with forgiveness. Having been raised around Amish and Mennonites I was familiar with shunning. However, when I was reading the book and it talked about shunning within the community it made me wonder about gay amish guys/girls and how they either continue to live in the community or how they make it once they decide to leave? I also wonder if they have to wait until Rumspringa in order to leave b/c they are gay or do they just run away? I too have Googled it and have not found much. Anyway, just curious.
well the amish are at such a slower pace than we are…. they get to experience during rumschpringa, so i think they make a decision after that… it just depends on the kind of order of amish… new order, old order, swartzentruber, beachy amish… etc. everyone is different…. so every individual gay amish would deal with it differently i would think.
I have been around many of the community for most of my life. I have been to animal auctions in Ohio where I have been flirted with y Amish men before. I have also had a local guy flirt at another auction house. The Amish and menanite community keep these things under hat, but it does happen in all cultures. I had a struggle w/ family to find the truth and now they are better than ever. I wish that all cultures could embrace people for their true self identities. I even saw several Amish Little People recently in Ohio.This took me by surprise, but people are just people>>>>
7
I believe I was cruised by an Amish man today (I’m a male)and was titillated and surprised. Bisexual attraction certainly isn’t anything bizarre, it’s cultures and belief systems which make it so. I hope that Amish bi dudes get it on with each other once in a while, in secret.
I’m a regular Latin gay guy and I think having sex with an Amish guy would be hot! It’s one of my sexual fantasies. I hope one day I could live out that fantasy.
well i am amish….. close to holmes co. ohio
I too am just a regular English gay guy. It has also always been a fantasy of mine to be with an Amish guy. I just think it would be a “pure” experience not filled with all the drama of the English lifestyles. And it would be way hot time with the beard and stuff. I live in florida and we have a couple Amish communitys here. There was one gay Amish guy I knew but he went back to the church before we could hook-up. “frown” he was hot!
well if they have a beard they’re married so good luck with that one…… usually they just do it in rumschpringa. and amish gay guys dont like the flamming eyebrow waxed gay guys….. most like strong, country guys….
Well Mr. Hershberger:
If you ever want to go out on a date let me know. rocket329us [at] yahoo [dot] com I’d love to show you around.
(Note: Slightly obfuscated the email addy. – Jake)
i tried e-mailing you. hopefully it went through
? is that the same zook as the elam zook from up above
Hard to say, but he’s using different email addresses.
are you amish jake?
Nope. It’s just my site. If you read the original post, it’s pretty obvious that this thread has really taken a turn.
i know! it is insane. I really wish that more amish could use the internet. I am stuck out here in the country… with nothing to do. i mean i love the country, but it’s horrible at the same time. so how is jake? where r u from? lol
Oh, Jake’s just fine.
The about page should fill you in on me.
there has to be gay amish that find this site…… right??? :/
Hello again. just wanted to check out the number of people on here that know more than the rest. I wish that I had offered to help the one guy that I met in Ohio. He was beaten up just before I wnet to Mt. Hope a few years ago. He held the door for another guy and myself and stared at us the whole time we were there. I hope he is alright and found a way to be ok. Being from Central New York you can be about anybody you want. Still country but near the city. I have thought of opening my home to someone in need of a place to rest and find themselves. I understand the culture but not that in the menonite community they allow gay people to be part of the church. I guess it is hard for most people kept in small societies and never educated on biology or world history to live in the absense of these things. Just like America was founded on seperation of church and state, but has many religious zellous people running things… funny…
I hope none of you were involved with this story. Yikes!
Jake,
Do you think it would be possible to create a secret code for gay Amish persons to use to communicate and to find help. Maybe something as wearing the hat tilted a certain way or the women could wear the ties on the bonnet longer on one side..ie…
I think that if there was an underground railroad of sorts it would be great to help those that can not be free of the persicution. If you knew me, you would understand my caring for all persons, but find those that are pushed away the most needey. Suicide is the highest amungst gay teens and the barn hanging thin shows it in the Amish community. and your comment about being involved, well it could be seen in many ways…I know that your culture has been around for many a generation. as I am Dutch and French as well as Native American, I have background in many cultures and friends from all cultures. I am eclectic and have learned to understand all persons as a whole, but still long for all to be understood by the majority. This meaning that all people can be whom ever they are. Don’t forget that 10% of the population is intersexual w/ both sexes, or that we are all female the first 7 weeks of pregnancy, or that thousands of dna studies have proved we all derrived from Africa…. Yes thousands on the midochondrail dna of the mothers of all races have shown we came from 2 tribes in eastren Africa… Or that they found Neanderthal genes in humans and that there are thousands of skelletal remains of primative humans… Or the fact that we have bothe male and female hormones in men, but women only female…Funny if you think about things deeper than your day to day or in the terms of thousands or even hundreds of years…. right….Man shall not lay w/ Man meant 2 humans were not to procreate educated children???
well challange your mind and find the truth somewhere out or in there…
Erm… Don’t think there’s much I can do to help there.
I didn’t know anything about Amish people, but now I think that they are nice, even though they suffer a lot because of the institutionalized homophobia of their cult(I am talking about the gay boys). I live close to Cleveland, in Painesville. Is it any Amish gay place (gay bar or something) where I can meet Amish boys?
andy hershberger, if you are still there, please respond to my post. I would really like to get in contact with you. I am very interested what is happening with gay Mennonites and Amish. I grew up in the Apostolic Christian church, which is an insular group culture similar to Mennonite and Amish cultures. While the Apostolics didn’t technically come from the Anabaptist tradition, they have much in common as far as basic beliefs. In Eastern Europe they call themselves Nazerenes. (I say “they” because I no longer consider myself one of them.)
I never joined the church growing up. Similar to the Amish, the choice is left to each individual. Several years ago, I came out to my family and miraculously was not disowned. I’m living a relatively happy existence though I sometimes feel lost without the intense bond of the group culture I grew up in, where people trust each other with their very lives. Now, I live at quite a distance, literally and figuratively, but I have recently found out that news of my homosexuality is getting around my parents’ community. It seems that my family, at least to some degree, is being shunned.
Sure, okay, shun me. But my family!? I mean come on!! My heart goes out to my parents, who have already decided to continue loving me even though I am something their church and religion abhors. The internal struggle they must be going through has got to be enormous.
Anyway, I’m looking to put together a book similar to “My Child Is Gay” (Ed. Bryce McDougall), a collection of letters from parents in rural Australia about how they dealt with issues arising from having out gay children. Some sort of resource like that is DRASTICALLY needed by parents such as my own. And it is of vital importance that it come from inside the community. They will not take seriously anything written by other types of Christians, so it needs to be specific to Apostolic Christians (and perhaps Mennonite and Amish as well, if this issue is also starting to happen in those communities). It definitely will not have the words “gay” or “homosexual” in the title. As you must well know, such words are unspeakable and have much fear attached to them.
andy – I’m thinking you might know people or at least be able to put me in contact with people in your community who *might* be interested in sharing their experiences by writing about it. ??? I do not plan to edit even one letter of the letters.
For religion to succeed it must rely on ignorance and intimidation. With more education and outreach from enlightened people, those kept under control by coercive sects can be encouraged to get free of the inhumane conditions imposed on them.
I am having a lot of trouble finding info on gay Amish anyone know where else I could look?
thanks
michael
For all those asking questions about gay Amish, you won’t find much just roaming the internet. If you can, go to a college or university library and search their academic literature databases, search in the anthropology and sociology journals in particular. You’ll find plenty of articles. If I had the space I’d share some of the citations with you, I’m writing a doctoral diss. in anthropology on the subject.
Anyhow. Just check the lit. databases for articles.
Andy how old are you? By the way i am named andrew as well. andy you need to try and find people to talk to outside your community. Trying to find answers within the community i don’t think is the answer. I feel this will only send you in a circle and further into denial. Think about this for a minute dude, one of the greatest gifts i learned in life was to live a program which demands rigourous honesty, which included me getting honest with myself and others. you have nothing to be ashamed of if you are gay, and nothing to hide. The damaging part is to hide it and live a lie, i know this from my own life. I was married twice and had children while being gay, just because i thought i had to hide it. 20 years of my life was miserable and i hurt others by doing that rather than being honest with myself, god and others. God made you who you are, and loves you. It is only a stigma and a form of control to try and get people to change a part of themselves which makes them who they are. I now have a lover who is 25 years old, and he was struggling with the same issues with his family and about to destroy his life when i met him. He saw the live i had lived lying to myself and others for years, and through that was able to make the right choices that has saved him many years to come of torture and pain. If you know your gay, please make the choice to find your way to a life where you can be who you are, i don’t want to read about you one day, or know you have been unhappy all your life. Bless you andy, andrew
in fact all this talking about gay amish reminds me that you can hide things and lie to you and the rest of the world but not to God. so even if you choose not to be gay after rumshpringa and get married to someone, you will be only taunting yourself for never fully love as you should this person. so what is the point of all this lying? the fact amish are not able to accept that someone could be born gay and then choose to live his life peacefully as an amish amongs them indicate to me only one thing: “if you love those who love you what credit is that to you? for even sinners love those who love them”
ok wow. you guys are all living IN the world…. we “amish” will accept gay people, as long as they are willing to make a change in their lifestyle, because in the bible, it says it is wrong. clear as day. no ifs no buts. its wrong, and if you live a gay lifestyle you will go to hell. the devil has so much control on this earth and people are just unaware of it, its really sad to see the society that you guys live in…. yes, amish aren’t perfect either, but at least we have our conservative morals that keep us from such evil, or at least help. there has been a form of deliverance from the homosexual daemon after being HONEST to family and friends… and everyone was very accepting and loving. no one wanted to change me, I wanted to change me. Stop all this nonsense, and just pray… for the end is coming. Be holy, like our Father- because he was First holy…. I will pray for everyone on this page. this will be my last comment. final. blessings to you all, and good luck in your endeavors… tsanhe deech schpador.
Awesome. Time to close up the gay Amish thread, I think.