The Rainbow Connection [LGBTS Club]

I am never watching House again. Due to a rude and outright distastful episode this season.

For those who haven't watched the episode. Wilson has an asexual couple as patients, and House makes a bet with him that she's not asexual, that it doesn't exist and something can explain it. So he scans the guy and finds he has a brain tumor that is affecting his sex drive and giving him ED. Then his wife says she's not asexual, she just humored him. Basically they said it didn't exist. And they put this on national television.

Link to a story. I just saw this episode and I had no idea so I was seriously shocked when I watched it.

Your link is broken :(

I think it's very important though, when watching fiction, not to take it too seriously. It was the opinion of Dr. House that asexualism does not exist; and I don't watch the show but from my understanding his character is fairly cantankerous and closed-minded anyway. I don't think this was meant to be some statement to the world that it doesn't exist, just that it wasn't the case for the couple in this story. In any case, it is all fiction... it's just meant for entertainment and I think it goes with the tone of the show.

The writer of the episode had this to say in response to the concerns she received:

"I did a lot of research on asexuality for the episode. My original intent was to introduce it and legitimize it, because I was struck by the response most of you experience, which is similar to the prejudice the homosexual community has received. People hear you're asexual and they immediately think, 'What's wrong with you, how do I fix you?' I wanted to write against that. Unfortunately, we are a medical mystery show. Time & again, my notes came back that House needed to solve a mystery and not be wrong. So in THIS CASE, with THESE patients, it was a tumor near the pituitary. But I hoped I could (now it seems unsuccessfully) introduce asexuality to the general public and get them asking questions. All they need to do is one google search and they can see for themselves it's a real community of great people. Originally, part of my dialog included thoughts about whether as a species we've grown past sex. Any time we tackle a subject, we risk the possibility of not doing it justice. I apologize that you feel I did you a disservice. It was not my intent. Asexuality is a new topic for me and definitely one I find fascinating. It is a subject I would like to continue to explore here or on future shows I write for. I think it speaks to where humans are now and where we are going. I will do my best in the future to do it justice."

— House writer Kath Lingenfelter on writing the eighth episode of season nine ("Better Half"), in a Twitter response to AVEN user cleuchtturm.

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I still haven't seen the episode in question, but I have followed this since the promo of the episode aired. And while House isn't realistic, it still hurts the asexual community that both "asexual" characters of that episode had that label erased by either medical reasons or just plain lying. Especially in a popular show like House. Now more people know that asexuality exists, but in the show it was explained away and not treated like an actual orientation. This was probably the first introduction to asexuality for hundreds of people. While some educate themselves and learn that it's an actual orientation, other people will just think that anyone who is asexual has either something medically wrong with them or is lying.

Since I'm tired, this isn't making much sense. But this is the article PhantomX0990 linked to, which explains it better. I should mention, though, that the comments are full of fail.

Well, this is new. I'm not even quite sure I know what to say for this article, it's... there are no words, it's so horrifying. I'll give you a two-word spoiler: "Jailed. Pantsless."

Pudz said:

As with the above, I think you're making a big deal out of nothing at all. As well as it being entirely in-character for House to have that opinion, many people are situationally asexual to begin with. I'm not arguing that there aren't people out there who know from the earliest age that they lack a sex-drive, but for every one of them, there's likely three or four people who were led that way by circumstance. Three examples?

One of my ex-girlfriends settled into a contented state of asexuality when it became clear that she'd never be able to live as the person she so badly desired to be.

Another, my most recent, was asexual before transitioning because any association with her masculine body traits made her feel anxious. Thing is, now that she's a girl? She's significantly more sexual.

And then, there's me; I was the kind of boy who would go out four nights a week to hook up with girls (or boys) for one-night encounters, and I /enjoyed/ it. Now that I've started to transition, my sexual desires have all-but stopped, and I would almost describe myself as asexual as a result. It's not that I don't want sex anymore, it's just that it seems boring to me.

In all three of these cases - and in the case of the House episode - the asexuality is a conscious choice and/or entirely situational. I think that's all the writers were seeking to demonstrate; that while most homosexuals are born with a predisposition, many asexuals are the way they are due to situational circumstances; perhaps even those beyond their control.

Of course, it could all be a bit of observation in the ridiculousness of self-labeling, but it's probably not.

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Yeah and the fact that everyone knows House is a complete and utter jerk haha.. it's kind of in his role to be that way.


Why is this thread becoming like.. pinpointing every other person who's saying homosexuality or some form of sexuality other than heterosexual is wrong?
Isn't it better to ignore them completely than give them attention?
Either that or I keep popping back here at the wrong times haha.

Because when you type "gay" into Google News search that's all that comes up for us to talk about. If you have alternate topics for us, by all means fire away!

Shining Raichu said:

Well, this is new. I'm not even quite sure I know what to say for this article, it's... there are no words, it's so horrifying. I'll give you a two-word spoiler: "Jailed. Pantsless."

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A friend of mine from that area said there was a gay bashing there just the other night, too, where the victim ended up in the ER. It's very disheartening to hear.

Shining Raichu said:

Because when you type "gay" into Google News search that's all that comes up for us to talk about. If you have alternate topics for us, by all means fire away!

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So you're saying it's ok to bash people who bash you first? : |
Well no wonder no one can get along.. if we're going by google, it feels like people in general are just looking for others to hate because they need some sort of excitement in their lives so they start fights. I don't think that's right; yeah we can get offended, but we can't give them the time of day or they'll ultimately win in their hate-battle.

I say that we should call more attention to actually supporting gays rather than giving negative attention to people who don't support gays.

You really can't think of another topic? There are endless possibilities.
Ok..
What do you realistically think the worldview on homosexuality might be like in 20 years time and why? What would you do now to help change the worldview so that it's one that you would like to see in the future?

As for me.. raise awareness most definitely! Go to the pride parades every year and if I have a child who's gay or a friend who is gay I would be accepting and I would want to be someone they could go to for help or just to talk. I guess try to help in any way that I could, really and when the opportunity arises. Perhaps voting against government figures who oppose homosexuality would be a start, too.

The awareness is speeding quickly. Celbertys and political figures are speaking up against it, and it feels as if the world is becoming more open (The USA in name). There are still a lot of old biggoted people such as the guys on Fox News, Rick Santorum, and the govener of Tennesee. These powers are influencing others to be anti-gay. As well as religion, but thats not going down anytime soon.
There have been so much discrimination in the history, but in the end the tables turn, and they are treated equally. The gay rights moment has a large voice, and it will soon be heard throughout the country.

Shining Raichu said:

OK here we have a garden variety bigot talking about why gay people shouldn't be allowed to marry. Nothing special, certainly nothing we haven't seen before. It's become so common it doesn't even really anger me anymore lol - but the reason I'm pasting this is because the argument he is using is one that they all seem to use as if by some filthy bigot hive-mind. He's using the argument that essentially gay people shouldn't be allowed to marry because it doesn't benefit society. For some reason, this time it got me thinking.

Pretend for a moment that he is right - that gay marriage doesn't benefit society in any way. He's not, of course, but just use your imaginations. Why on earth, even if correct, is this argument relevant? Why does everything have to further some sort of human agenda in order for it to be legal? Why does everything we do have to have a point?

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Presumably, everyone who isn't gay is straight (asexuals get forgotten completely) so, presumably, they're all going to want to get married and have children and, again, presumably, having children is how you contribute. Doesn't matter that not everyone who can have kids "the old fashioned way" actually do, they still get a pass because, ya know, maybe they'll change their minds.

Er, yeah. Best I could do to get into the minds of people totally unlike me. I mean, I understand that you would ideally want all people to be contributing to the world. That's what I'd like, but I don't see people contributing through their orientations. I see it in stuff like people teaching, charities, and all that good stuff.

PhantomX0990 said:

I am never watching House again. Due to a rude and outright distastful episode this season.

For those who haven't watched the episode. Wilson has an asexual couple as patients, and House makes a bet with him that she's not asexual, that it doesn't exist and something can explain it. So he scans the guy and finds he has a brain tumor that is affecting his sex drive and giving him ED. Then his wife says she's not asexual, she just humored him. Basically they said it didn't exist. And they put this on national television.

Link to a story. I just saw this episode and I had no idea so I was seriously shocked when I watched it.

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It's not easy to have good portrayals outside of gay people in mass media outside of niche areas. Everything is kind of hit and miss. People who are asexual, bi, trans, and so on don't exactly have the wide support we need.

Kura said:

What do you realistically think the worldview on homosexuality might be like in 20 years time and why? What would you do now to help change the worldview so that it's one that you would like to see in the future

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I see things steadily improving overall. I expect that in 20 years there is an even greater push world-wide to have it be respected even in parts of the world where you can be arrested for being gay. I'm optimistic that 20 years from now we'll have seen the last instance of someone being executed by a government for being queer and that the number of gay bashings will be next to zero. I'd expect that all the developed countries, the USA included, will allow marriage to everyone, though places like China to still be behind in official recognition.

I think 20 years is enough of a generation gap to put people who are young now into positions of power and for old fashioned people to step down, die off, or what have you, to the extent that they aren't representing the people of the world in politics and business and so on.

What do I do? Nothing specific at the moment. I try to stop bad comments when I hear them and all that. I used to go to a group that helped young people in trouble, but I've let that slide. I dunno, does being out count?

Toujours said:

Give him a break, geez. He wasn't bashing anyone, just pointing out news stories relating to the LGBT community. Unfortunately, most happen to be negative because most stories are of something wrong that's happened to someone in the community. This:



Is also quite rude (I'm just letting you know since you seem to never know when you are being rude), Andy has been here from the beginning and coming up with topics quite often, it's understandable that he's not going to be able to come up with a topic that you approve of on demand. If he popped in once every couple weeks maybe he would be more inclined to have amazing new ideas when he came back.

I also have to say that I vehemently disagree with this:



If you ignore an issue, the issue gets larger. The people who are bigots remain bigots and will not be influenced by the greater fabric of LGBT acceptance. The people that are on the fence on LGBT rights (I've met some who I personally convinced) will only have the loud voices of homophobes to guide them in their decision. If you just shut up and put up and don't try to change anything, then nothing will change. I feel a club like this is a great way to bring awareness to issues that can then be spread by other means. I've taken articles from here and posted them to Facebook and to my school's LGBT club, spreading the amount of people that know about the injustice and that may do something about it.

Take for example Andy's latest link. Do you really think if people just 'ignored' what those police officers did, it would get better? They're not doing it to look for attention, they're doing it because they're homophobes and want to abuse them whenever they can. If that's ignored, then people in that area will still be subject to homophobic police officers because we decided it's too sad to think about what's wrong in the world and would rather come up with hypothetical topics about what may happen sometime in the future than deal with the sadness and try to make a difference.

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Dude, if you really know me then you'd I wasn't trying to be rude at all. It's just like.. really? Is there nothing else you want to talk about other than to point out what some close-minded person said? Come on, guys, I know you're better than that. Haters shouldn't be that pressing- at least that's what I think.

You're taking everything I said and blowing it out of proportion; no, police officers shouldn't avoid doing their jobs, and no, people should get off the hook for causing harm to others.. but if we're just gonna draw attention to people who want to be stuck in oldworld views then.. what's the point? How's that furthering us?

I mean come on, I thought we were better than that. To go back and point at everyone who does something anti-gay and say "Oh my god they are terrible people" and basically call attention to it (there's not really any other type of discussion to it because everyone in here is already pro-homo.) I really don't see that as benefitting to trying to get more supporters. If anything it segregates people even more.

So if you don't want to ignore it, then fine.. go ahead and do that. All the power to you, you know? But I choose not to waste my thoughts on the people who want to hurt other people, and I choose to spend my time helping in ways that I can. I don't think spreading news about closeminded people is actually helping much.. those people are going to keep being stupid. :/

I would appreciate it if you didn't call me out here for being rude, though. I mean, how about giving me a break for once and not assuming I meant something malicious? VM me about it if you think that's the case, but I think you're obviously getting the wrong impression of me.. and if Andy thinks I'm being rude, then let him know I encourage him to PM me too. I know I've PMed him for things and we've ironed things out before. I don't think he should be discouraged from doing it again. I knew Andy was here from the beginning.. he freaking started this thread lol! He challenged me to start a new topic because he couldn't think of a pressing one atm.. so I did. Does that actually call for being rude? I don't get it.

In other news, a friend from college was talking to me yesterday and he mentioned he's in a relationship now (a homosexual relationship.) And he never came out beforehand so when he did.. I just had to give him a huge congrats and tell him that I'm glad that he's doing well and seems really happy with him. It was really nice that he was really open about it and didn't feel like he couldn't tell me or his other friends. A huge step in the right direction!

Ok then let's just agree to disagree. I still don't think it's right to call so much negative attention to it.. sorry; I just can't see how that's good. Yes make people aware of it spread news when you see that.. but don't keep harping and bashing and just.. ugh.. I just don't like to see that either. I see it as fighting fire with fire.. :C let's fight fire with love. I just find more pleasure in hearing success stories than bad news, and I just think that's a better way to spread awareness.

Toujours said:

That's why I told you that you were being rude. Often people tell you and you say it wasn't intentional, but you never seem to make an attempt to not sound rude. Maybe work on that some?
I've 'given you a break' plenty of times before when you said "I didn't mean that as rude!" and I just accepted it, but that was under the assumption that you would actually work on your attitude so you didn't come off so terribly everywhere, lol.

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And I see this as being really rude towards me. Like I said earlier.. you could've PMed or VMed me about it. :/ It's being a bit mean IMO. You probably didn't mean it to be rude either.. but I kind of find it to be. You're basically telling me I need an attitude adjustment. Well ouch! Really not cool.
Anyways, if Shining Raichu had an issue, it would've been better if he brought it up with me anyways.. so he could've explained if and how I might've offended him so I'd be able to give him a sincere apology. Not saying that what you're saying is invalid, but it would be more genuine and personal if you did it through PM since.. if that were actually the case of me being rude, I WOULD actually be able to work on it because we'd discuss it one on one rather than you calling me out and accusing me on here unrelated, when I feel you just really read a bit too much into it. ;o;

I agree with the person who said we need to give these guys attention. Its like saying "Don't give a bill like SOPA attention, and it will just go away". No, thats not how things work if you want progress. You need a loud noise, a strong one. One that is able to crush through bigots. While their opinions and views are horrid, they need to be exploited. People who are in some form of power need to know why its a big deal for the gay community.
I imagine that if the Civil Rights movement in the 60s (or was it the 70s) never happened, or the female rights activist movement never happened there would still be a lot stronger discrimination towards them. There still is, but now whenever someone goes up against an africian american or a women, society is there to be enraged. This is starting to happen with the LGBTS movement, and it is a positive thing.

Now, quit calling each other rude/acting rude! It doesn't set a good example if the people who are fighting for love are fighting with one another <3

TwiDragon said:

I agree with the person who said we need to give these guys attention. Its like saying "Don't give a bill like SOPA attention, and it will just go away". No, thats not how things work if you want progress. You need a loud noise, a strong one. One that is able to crush through bigots. While their opinions and views are horrid, they need to be exploited. People who are in some form of power need to know why its a big deal for the gay community.
I imagine that if the Civil Rights movement in the 60s (or was it the 70s) never happened, or the female rights activist movement never happened there would still be a lot stronger discrimination towards them. There still is, but now whenever someone goes up against an africian american or a women, society is there to be enraged. This is starting to happen with the LGBTS movement, and it is a positive thing.

Now, quit calling each other rude/acting rude! It doesn't set a good example if the people who are fighting for love are fighting with one another <3

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My bad, you're right. :c Sorry Touj! Didn't mean to draw this out.

I agree with spreading the news.. but I guess I was misunderstood in that.. I just hate the whole "I hate you because you hate us" thing. Or "You're disgusting you don't support it." Just.. blegh.. the whole thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It just feels like.. people SHOULD stand up for themselves. Gay people should say "Who the heck cares if I was born this way or if it is my choice, it's in the bible to love your neighbour!!" instead of spewing hatred back to people who don't support it. Just.. stop calling attention to the hate. Spread the news, yes. Stop spreading the hate. Stop pinpointing all the bad things everyone says.. let's start celebrating more accomplishments! I feel like everyone is lifting up all the bad things in the spotlight and forgetting about the little things. This is a support club.. not a "let's see who can find the most haters" club. I dunno.. that's just how I feel. I can be wrong but hey.. I'm just sharing my thoughts here- this is what I feel and I wanted to see if anyone shared those sentiments.

^Well if you want progress your going to need to see the bad in order to get to the good. I feel that negative news is going to raise more awareness than positive news. For the people that watch news and look at certain things, they can be a bit more educated on the matter. However, there are some people out there like Glen Beck or Rick Santorum who won't educate themselves, and are too egotistical to change their views because they feel that they would be "wrong"

I mean with every good story, or gate we pass in the gay community always will come with the bad. Example : More parents are becoming more accepting of transgendered children, as a result schools and organizations won't allow them to be the way they want too as they find it "taboo"

Also, spreading awareness in places like California or Miami isn't going to do much good as they are really open about the community. However, places like Mississippi and Idaho are places where the word needs to be spread. Places that tend to be a lot more conservative, tend to have the worst cases of discrimination. Which is why its a grand thing for any kind of good thing to happen their with all the bad news there. Like for example, the Constance McMillin Case in Missispii (I may of spelled the name wrong) . She was able to take a bad situation that was against her, and turned it into something that probley has helped that area in the LGBTS community. Now, I dont know that for a fact as I don't live there. The point is, is that if you have bad news, there is always good that can come out of it. :3

Stay optimistic <3

Pudz said:

So... um... on another topic; I think I'm doing my video for the itgetsbetter project, this week. Likeliness is that it'll never be seen, but if one person sees it and it make them think, I guess its worthwhile.

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Every single time I watch a video from the organization, I start tearing up so badly. I look like a big bawling baby. My favorite was the video from Pixar. Could.not.stop.crying.

So good luck with yours! I hope you enjoy making it, and i hope we can see it here in the club. c:
(And it's always worthwhile)