Gay Rights

Kurtni:

^Is sex the only way to be intimate physically?

Well, I suppose I assumed that's what she was getting at, because it was stemming from a conversation about "homosexual acts". I just took it to mean sexual acts, I suppose.

(I swear I don't have a one track mind. )

The opposite of gay rights can easily deteriorate into this:
http://allout.org/en/actions/stpetersburg-dont-go
Who can possibly want that?

Shtrudel:

The opposite of gay rights can easily deteriorate into this:
http://allout.org/en/actions/stpetersburg-dont-go
Who can possibly want that?

I think gay and lesbian people face far worse discrimination (not that stripping them of freedom of speech is a small issue by any means) all over the world; it's already in a deteriorated state.

Shtrudel:

The opposite of gay rights can easily deteriorate into this:
http://allout.org/en/actions/stpetersburg-dont-go
Who can possibly want that?

I think the worst thing about that is that they seem to think that if you just don't acknowledge homosexuality, it will somehow 'go away'. It's ridiculous.

Anyone else fed up with people saying teens/children can't know they're any sexual orientation besides straight? I'm getting pretty sick of the 'you're too young' and 'you're too inexperienced'. If a child says they're straight, no one scoffs skeptically and insists they have to wait to have experience to know.

We can't question our children that way; it destroys them.

^ I've never had that much of a sexual interest in girls in the first place, but I have in boys. I don't see how it could be said that I "can't possibly have known because I was too young", or even in the present tense. Sure, people go through phases during puberty/teenage years, but I wouldn't call it a phase if I've liked boys since I've been sexually aware (for want of a better phrase), and not girls.

I also get irritated by the parents who get bent out of shape when their kid makes a comment that could be perceived as gay. If a boy tells another boy he's pretty, it doesn't make him gay. If a little boy kisses another boy, it doesn't make him gay. Little kids are just affectionate and don't see all the gender prejudice adults are used to. You can't scare the gay out of a kid and reprimanding kids for things like that just breeds homophobia.

I agree that there's a problem with heteronormativity in media aimed at children, but I don't like the idea of calling anybody anything unless they themselves identify as such first - or the the idea that sexuality has to be some kind of stable, in-born, simple and obvious truth - yeah, for some people it is, but for some it's not and that doesn't make their experiences less real or valid. It's never your place to comment on how real or false another person's sexuality / identity is - if somebody wants to identify as straight or gay or anything else they deserve their identity to be respected - regardless of their age and regardless of how well meaning you are when you're challenging it for no reason. And this applies both to people who say that young people can't know they're not straight and to people who say young people can't be 'truly' straight if they do or don't do this or that.

Jewel Nicole:

I also think it should be at the top of the list. Anyone who wants to get married should have the right too. Regardless if it's to a woman or a man. Gender should not be an issue. It should be allowed in every single state. And I agree with 'William Beckett' "the rights of the people should be more important than the economy". (:

If we're talking of merrage, it is a contract, on the one hand, a way of stating love, on the other.
Combined, and that's what matter.
It's about Mutual Concent, not about genders.
Why divide people into groups, making a "We VS Them" issue out of it.
Leagalising marage in same sex/gender, but, it's still up to you, to find someone performing the merrage act, this doesn't mean you force a priest to stand there with you, since this is still a matter of concent.
So long as both parties are concenting, then what's the problem, who are we to deny, or grant them?
If the law is worded, in such a way, that none is singled out, unfairly, based on bias, or predegies, then we're done.

If you wanted some more good news - and because LGBT Pride month isn't up yet - two weeks ago, the European Court for Human Rights ruled that the Rep of Moldova government went against the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms when they didn't allow a Pride parade to take place in Chisinau back in 2005. This decision creates an important precedent because in many European countries governments have tried to ban Pride parades / events - for example, just at the start of this month the Moscow city council adopted a 100 years ban on Pride Parades in Moscow (read more about it here).

Today, "gay panic" is still a legal defense for murder in Queensland that can result in lesser charges.

I just got a petition in my inbox about trying to overturn this. And get this... a priest is trying to help overturn it.

^ I'd never heard of the gay panic defence before I saw your post, so I just looked it up, and I'm struggling to comprehend how it can even be taken seriously by anyone in a civilised society. It reminds me of that kind of insecure homophobia that happens in school changing rooms and such, where these overtly masculine types will freak out due to believing that any gay guys in the room will come on to them, as if they have some delusion of grandeur where they think they're irresistible to everyone, or as if homosexuality means being attracted to all members of the same sex. It's pathetic.

hear dru's song.:

Today, "gay panic" is still a legal defense for murder in Queensland that can result in lesser charges.

I just got a petition in my inbox about trying to overturn this. And get this... a priest is trying to help overturn it.

Wait, get this... the priest is a Catholic Church priest and the Australian Catholic Church is very vocal about how much they're against legislation which allows same-sex marriage being passed - because, apparently, allowing gay people to be married will lead to the extinction of humanity. Not only that, but LGBT+ and human rights groups have been militating for the 'gay panic' defence to be removed for years. So when the defence does get removed (from what I'm reading online, there were talks of it being removed a few months ago) because of all the good work that those people risked their lives to do, the credit will go to the Catholic Church and it will make their 'gays shouldn't be allowed to get married because they're really disgusting and unnatural and they'll bring about the apocalypse BUT OH NO WE LOVE AND RESPECT GAYS SO MUCH' rhetoric about ten times stronger and more believable.

It sort of annoys me to find people saying that the government has "more important" things to do than focus of gay rights. I'm straight (not that that really even has anything to do with it). Not allowing equal rights to some citizens based on their sexual orientation (or any irrelevant reasoning like that) is disgusting and a pretty darn important issue to tend to.

Kurtni:

I also get irritated by the parents who get bent out of shape when their kid makes a comment that could be perceived as gay. If a boy tells another boy he's pretty, it doesn't make him gay. If a little boy kisses another boy, it doesn't make him gay. Little kids are just affectionate and don't see all the gender prejudice adults are used to. You can't scare the gay out of a kid and reprimanding kids for things like that just breeds homophobia.

I totally agree with this. If you're gay, you are born that way and you should be loved regardless. Nothing that anyone does will ever change the way that you were born. My five-year old cousin is a boy's boy. He's obsessed with sports and gets frustrated with me when I babysit for him because I "throw like a girl" but he also adores his big sister. Once when my aunt was out getting her nails done, my cousin came with her and actually asked to get his done too. My aunt let him and afterwards he said "look mom, I got green like Rondo!" (Rondo is a player on the Celtics). It's the best of both worlds. So many other moms gave my aunt crap for letting him get his nails done because she's going to "encourage" him to "become" gay. That's not possible. And if he is gay? SO WHAT!? I don't understand how people can throw so much hate into something when all it is really about is who others choose to LOVE. It's about love.

I dunno, I still hesitate to conclude that people are born gay. I know it's not a choice, but I don't really agree with the dichotomy that it's either in you from the moment you're born or you choose it. I'm still more inclined to think that it's something that develops within you as you grow up.

@ Alex; periphery.
I disagree just because I've always been pan and didn't even know it existed until I was in my 20s. I didn't know non-straight existed until I was 12. I just don't know how society could have influenced me into something it refused to acknowledge.

@ hear dru's song.
I don't mean environmentally, or nurture as opposed to nature; I just mean that it would seem to me that sexuality manifests itself within the brain/hormones/whatever at a later stage than fertilisation or birth.

@ Alex; periphery.
That would still mean it is predetermined though, wouldn't it?

@ part of dru's world.
Well I reckon that it "decides itself" (for want of a better phrase) later than birth. So it's predetermined in that we can't choose it or control it. But I don't think that the sexuality of a person exists when they're a baby.