The Rainbow Connection [LGBTS Club]

For some people, labels are essential for explaining themselves to others. Personally, I prefer to not use labels. I see so many people get frustrated over labels and try desperately to fit in somewhere. I'd say, take it as it comes and don't force yourself to put a label on yourself. But to each their own, I guess.

BlahISuck said:

With all these initialisms, it seems that we're more concerned in spelling out our differences than talking about what brings us together.

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I don't mean it with any sense of hyperbole - in fact I mean it in the most reserved way I can. It's not like we literally shut each other out with every letter we add on. It's a symbolic interpretation of this whole initialism phenomenon. That some of us, it seems, don't fully endorse.

Honestly though, my objection to the whole thing comes from a mainly grammatical standpoint. We can talk about labels and their importance or lack thereof endlessly (and if you look at the last 171 pages, we have) but I'm more concerned with the laziness it entails. One minute we're saying "LGBT" instead of "sexuality and gender minorities" and the next minute it's "OMG" and "SMH".

One day, we're just going to talk in acronyms. Human speech will deteriorate into an endless string of letters. There will be no more words. There will be no need.

There are some who would say you could blame the military for all the acronyms. After all, they are the ones who pretty much normalized acronyms. There is a funny scene in the movie "Renaissance Man" that illustrates this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aeNmupIYQk

(sorry about the youtube link, the video will not load otherwise for some reason)

I wonder if it's best to have differences or not. Like, you wouldn't (probably) say we should always highlight the sameness of white people and black people. If we only think about how the same non-straight people are with heteronormative people then that can kind of start to erase the presence or culture of the LGBT&c. community. Of course, it's not a community that's existed in the same way as, say, Chinese culture or whatever, but some people do feel it's a culture with its own music, literature, and other things that cultures have and should be okay to highlight differences.

Shining Raichu said:

One day, we're just going to talk in acronyms. Human speech will deteriorate into an endless string of letters. There will be no more words. There will be no need.

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No, we'll give up letters entirely for animated gifs of cats.

I think I am in love.

I've never felt like this. I mean, just. Wow.

I met a woman online. She's beautiful, and an amazing person. We haven't even met yet, but we've been attached to each other's hips. I think I've burned all my minutes talking to her, and thank you world for unlimited texting.

How can I feel like this for someone I've never met?

For the above discussion on labels,
I think people can have labels, but it varies from person to person.
Personaly I call it LGBT, due to the worldly understanding of the acronym, and from there people can ethier know or not know of the other specifications of the whole rainbow one could say.
Labels are a good and bad thing. Use them in moderation and put thought into the situation you use then in.

Has anyone heard about the case where a couple - one of whom is transgender - who had their two children by in vitro fertilization taken away by the parents of the kids' mother? I'm trying to track down an article to make sure this is real news. I'd love it if it hadn't actually happened, but I'd hate to think it was made up because that'll cause backlash.

So far I've found this.

If this is real it's horrible.

Scarf said:

Has anyone heard about the case where a couple - one of whom is transgender - who had their two children by in vitro fertilization taken away by the parents of the kids' mother? I'm trying to track down an article to make sure this is real news. I'd love it if it hadn't actually happened, but I'd hate to think it was made up because that'll cause backlash.

So far I've found this.

If this is real it's horrible.

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Seriously? That is disgusting. If the children aren't being abused or neglected in any way, what the hell does it matter what gender their parents are?

Sadly, for some it matters a whole lot. There are some very archaic views on sexuality, and a belief that anyone not considered "normal" should not be around children.

BTW. Nice to meet another Canadian. It seems like we're everywhere. ;)

Karinmo said:

For the above discussion on labels,
I think people can have labels, but it varies from person to person.
Personaly I call it LGBT, due to the worldly understanding of the acronym, and from there people can ethier know or not know of the other specifications of the whole rainbow one could say.
Labels are a good and bad thing. Use them in moderation and put thought into the situation you use then in.

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I say LGBT because I enjoy calling people Leggbutts.

Did everyone see that news story about the gay waitress who claimed the customers didn't leave a tip, and instead left an anti-gay message?

Turn out she was a lying cow. They tipped 18bucks, and she printed a new receipt! That's seriously low.

In my country we don't even tip [apart from exceptional circumstances for instance], it's a stupid idea in itself and is a product of having a lower [none at all?] minimum wage in america.

Somniac said:

I say LGBT because I enjoy calling people Leggbutts.

Did everyone see that news story about the gay waitress who claimed the customers didn't leave a tip, and instead left an anti-gay message?

Turn out she was a lying cow. They tipped 18bucks, and she printed a new receipt! That's seriously low.

In my country we don't even tip [apart from exceptional circumstances for instance], it's a stupid idea in itself and is a product of having a lower [none at all?] minimum wage in america.

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I agree that the waitress in question did demonstrate questionable judgement, but I also regard it as equally questionable judgement when someone issues such derogatory insults as you did. I don't condone either actions. Both are not very civilized behaviours.

As for the issue of tipping, wait staff and servers generally make less per hour in wages due to the fact that they receive tips, while those who do not receive tips for their work (and are generally discouraged by management from accepting any type of reward or incentive from clients or customers) receive a higher wage to compensate. It is an attempt to balance things out so that both types of workers don't feel the other is getting preferential treatment. And this is true in Canada as well.

Also, while it may be true that the people where you live do not generally tip, no place is devoid of people from other regions, and those people may in fact (and probably do) tip. So in that case, unless all tips are pooled among the staff, because there is no difference in minimum wages, wait staff and servers have a clear advantage over workers who work as cooks, or dishwashers, or any other job where there is no direct contact with a customer or client.

Saw a news article that said that there's going to be a vote in Croatia about banning same-sex marriage. There's never been same-sex marriage there as far as I can tell, just acknowledgement of same-sex couples without any corresponding rights, but it's still a jerk thing to do. People are protesting this, but it doesn't look promising. Sad. I'd hoped that we were on the whole getting better around the world, that all the places full of prejudice had long since created their hateful laws and restrictions.

I would like to join.

I myself am just a straight guy, but I have been a staunch ally of the community for years, having a lesbian best friend can do that to you. Believe me, this support has gotten me into many a nasty argument with my rural values family, but hey, it's worth it. I often write about LGBTQ issues at my university's newspaper, so it's great to see a community here for it!

Hey, welcome! It's great to see that you're such a passionate supporter of the LGBT community. It would be great to see some of the things you've written.

Alessi_sys said:

Hey, welcome! It's great to see that you're such a passionate supporter of the LGBT community. It would be great to see some of the things you've written.

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Once I've made 15 posts, I'll be glad to share some.

Well, this just in, Croatians actually believed the lies of the Catholic Church and voted overwhelmingly to ban same sex couples from ever getting married. Gee, the number of Europeon countries that I'd actually want to visit is actually shrinking thanks to ignorance and bigotry like this. That these people voted this way also demonstrates the lack of education in that country. So sad. Can't wait to start receiving reports about gays being tortured and killed because of this (like what is happening in Russia) and Lesbians being subjected to "corrective" rape.

The prime Minister Zoran Milanović told HRT that he would vote against the proposal[1], as well as the president Ivo Josipović who called the referendum unnecessary, without any practical political consequences regardless of the outcome, and a waste of taxpayers money.[6]. The president furthermore commented that marriage has already been defined in Croatian law as a union of man and woman, but that the referendum question has a strong psychological effect with a strong underlying discriminatory message.[6]
If successful, this will only strengthen the message that we are not willing to accept diversity, that we want to stop throughout the democratic world a clear process of equalization of rights of all people, regardless of their different personal characteristics, in particular their sexual orientation

— Ivo Josipović

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Hmmm. The referendum was forced by petition.

Yes, do share!

How is everyone doing by the way? This place has been a bit quiet lately. :(

A bit quiet I bet because of the release of X & Y and lots of people being in school.

Anyway, as I already brought up some gay news stuff, I found another article today that talked about divorce in the US, and how gay couples who get married in a state that recognizes them have trouble getting divorces. One of the crazier things is that in some cases they're told they should move to a state that recognizes same-sex marriage (and consequently, divorce) and establish residency (meaning living there for a period of time) before they can file for divorce. Like that's an easy thing to do.