The Rainbow Connection [LGBTS Club]

[Charizard★]

What got you into supporting gay rights? Who/What was your inspiration to do so?

My cousin and my friend. They both told me how they were bi and that they were scared of coming out of the closet due to family and peers. I decided that whenever they do decide to come out, I'll be there supporting them and protecting them from any negative things that people had to say to them. I mean, everyone deserves to love who they want, and marry who they want, they shouldn't be judges just because they're bisexual girls.

 

[Timbjerr]

I love that video, Tommy. I've always been one to stand up for people. I'm actually a very shy person and won't stand up for myself, but I can't stand seeing other people get picked on and I have a mean temper. So yeah, I've stood up for a lot of people, no matter what the cause. I don't think it would have been any different in this situation either, for me anyway. I would have said something, even in my little conservative area of Alabama. Which, with that in mind, like I said in my first post, I sought out to prove not all Christians hate gays. I don't mean to get all religious here, but I've grown up in church all my life, and if there's one thing I can say I've learned and stuck with is that I shouldn't judge people, and neither should anyone else. My dad taught me that everyone is different in many different ways, and that's okay. Doesn't make them a bad person.

I am pretty shocked that no one did anything in New York though! But then again...southern hospitality? XD; idk. I wish this would happen in Alabama!

Surprisingly, I've lived in Texas all my life and I can probably recall one, maybe two times where openly gay friends of mine were bullied or harassed because of it. Granted, I do live in a large metropolitan area that is considerably more liberal than the rural areas like where that hidden camera scenario took place.

Like you, I also like to set out to prove that religious people aren't entirely bigoted. The actions of the more infamous branch of Conservative Christians directly contradict Jesus' teachings after all.

 

[Taemin]

It's cool that some of you went against the grain of what so many others believed, as far as religion and homophobia is concerned. I can't relate to that.. because my grandpa and myself went to church when I was very small, but other than that, I wasn't around friends or family that were very against homosexuality. So when I figured out that I fell into the LBGT community myself (in two different ways, apparently! orz), I really didn't have any one around me to give me a super hard time about it.

Except that I did lose two friends, both of whom I was real close with, and both were highly Christian. For both of them, it wasn't so much their own choice to break out friendship as it was their entire family telling them that they had to break contact with me. They were scared, because we were teenagers at the time, and of course they didn't want their family disowning them at that age, etc. I can't blame them. xD; It just bites that their religion controlled that choice for them.

Because there are people here who don't let religion influence their beliefs on the LGBT community, and it's a shame the rest of the world can't think the same way, religious or not.

 

[Sydian]

It's cool that some of you went against the grain of what so many others believed, as far as religion and homophobia is concerned. I can't relate to that.. because my grandpa and myself went to church when I was very small, but other than that, I wasn't around friends or family that were very against homosexuality. So when I figured out that I fell into the LBGT community myself (in two different ways, apparently! orz), I really didn't have any one around me to give me a super hard time about it.

Except that I did lose two friends, both of whom I was real close with, and both were highly Christian. For both of them, it wasn't so much their own choice to break out friendship as it was their entire family telling them that they had to break contact with me. They were scared, because we were teenagers at the time, and of course they didn't want their family disowning them at that age, etc. I can't blame them. xD; It just bites that their religion controlled that choice for them.

Because there are people here who don't let religion influence their beliefs on the LGBT community, and it's a shame the rest of the world can't think the same way, religious or not.

It really is. :[ I remember when my group at church would talk about it sometimes (we got off topic a lot!) and it was just so awkward being the only one there that was in disagreement with nearly everything that was said. I just felt so uncomfortable. And not like I'm perfect or anything, but I mean, at least I didn't act like it at church. People there would be completely different people outside church and I'm just like ._.; the whole time. Sooo when my mom invites me to go on Sundays, I'm just like "no thanks those people are crazy :)" That's like so unrelated it's not even funny.

One thing that always bothered me in those discussions was when people would say it's a choice to be gay. Who in their right mind CHOOSES to go through that kind of stuff though? The bullying, confusion, and teasing and such...no one would just say "k guys i'm gay now" and WANT to put up with it. My friend tried to experiment with that "choice" thing our junior year (the Bible person yes lol) and she was like "K I'LL BE BI NOW" and I'm thinking "...you can't just...ugh...WOMAN! v_v" but the point was proven. Just cause she said she was gonna be bi at that point didn't mean she actually liked boys and girls. She couldn't do it, lol. She settled down with her gay bashing after that luckily. I don't associate with her anymore though, so I don't know where she stands on it now.

I'm sorry if I'm stepping on any toes here. ;-; I can get really ranty and say things without thinking sometimes, so I apologize in advance if that ever happens. 8D; Or if that happened just now...lol

 

[Oryx]

I think I'll join. I'm not gay myself, but I have plenty of friends who are, as well as being part of the GSA at school...which is interesting because Notre Dame won't accept it as an actual student organization even though it's applied 15 years in a row.


What got you into supporting gay rights? Who/What was your inspiration to do so?

I never really thought about gay rights when I was younger, not until I transferred into Catholic school in 10th grade. In fact, I kind of have to say that the only people I had met that even mentioned it were the kind of people that I knew only did it for shock value, so all my experience was with people that were gay/bi as a joke pretty much, not taking it seriously and only doing it because it was cool among our group of friends. When I transferred though, I met one of my friends from middle school that came out while we hadn't been talking as being bi, and I had a huge crush on a boy that came out that year as being gay. Both of these people were in the top 10% of our class. They were honors students with big goals and big dreams, and just happened to be bi/gay (although the girl admitted later that she's actually gay as well, she just hates the word lesbian haha). From them I met a lot of people in my school who were either bi or gay, including a very popular lesbian couple.

Despite the fact that it was a Catholic school and everyone automatically thinks "oh, it's Catholic, that means everyone hates gays, right?", it mostly wasn't that way, even among the few nuns that still taught there. The principal was in love with my gay guy friend, and he would visit her for long talks about why same-sex couples can't buy couples tickets to proms, and any problems he might have with other guys messing with him. I had to visit her once with him myself because of an issue with a few guys that I happened to know, and she embodied the true Catholic spirit towards these kinds of things: she didn't think of him as an evil gay, but just as a person who's having trouble with bullying.

So after meeting more gay people in Catholic high school then I had met in my entire life (lol), I graduated and now I go to Notre Dame, where the students are...interesting. I had one friend who expressed interest in me, and one of the main reasons I would never date him is because he thinks being gay is "wrong". Meanwhile, there's a strong GSA who has applied for club status every year for 15 years straight and has been denied, and a school who refuses to add sexual orientation to their non-discrimination clause. So that's about where I am with LGBT issues right now, lol.

Sorry for the tl;dr. >_>

 

[Hybrid Trainer]

One thing that always bothered me in those discussions was when people would say it's a choice to be gay. Who in their right mind CHOOSES to go through that kind of stuff though? The bullying, confusion, and teasing and such...

Not that being gay is a bad thing though x]

The amount of people I've had to try and convince that being gay isn't a choice has gone way past being funny. I'm even having constant arguments with one of my best friends who refuses to believe that being gay isn't a choice simply because he said he tried to be gay at one point. Which makes no sense at all ¬.¬

Is it just me who has no idea what these GSA clubs are all about? I find it funny that even though my college does an adult course that specialises in 'Sexual Minority Therapy Counselling' (which deals with coming out, oppression and the general life style) we still lack to have one x]

 

[Taemin]

15 years of denying a GSA club? Ugh, that's so wrong. Can't say that I'm surprised, though.

Also, yeah, I've never understood the people who think being gay is a choice. Like Syd said, what sane person would choose to just wake up one morning, decide to be gay, and go through all the suffering just for the heck of it? xD; Some people. -shakes head-

Likewise, I feel bad for the people who go through 'cleansing' or whatever, to try to get rid of their homosexuality. Like "Do these steps, repeat these actions daily, etc etc - and you will no longer be gay! The demons will be out of your body!", and then some of the people actually go with it, and say they aren't gay anymore, just to get people to leave them alone. Makes me feel bad for them. :/

 

[FreakyLocz14]

Well, this makes me even more glad that I never became a member of the Human Rights Campaign. They are more concerned about their liberal politics than LGBT rights.

https://www.goproud.org/hrc-officia...isanship”-with-pre-emptive-obama-endorsement/

 

[donavannj]

Totally joining.

Welcome to Drew, Charizard, solarowl, and Ctrl.Alt.Geek!

Here is a nice news story where Franken (Minnesota senator) speaks out against the proposed anti-gay marriage amendment

This marriage amendment is an embarrassment to the state of Minnesota. Many people voted the Republicans in for their financial policies (which I think are stupidly uncompromising in and of themselves, but I'll keep that out of here) and because they were sick of nothing getting done, not their social policies. Although we certainly do have our fair share of social conservatives here now, especially with the considerable number of transplants moving to the Twin Cities suburbs.

@Freaky: As it stands right now, Democrats are more likely to be friendlier to general human rights than their GOP counterparts.

What got you into supporting gay rights? Who/What was your inspiration to do so?
My personal views of what basic human rights consist of and exactly how far those should extend, as well as highly liberal teachers in elementary school teaching about accepting people for who they are.

 

[Sydian]

@Drew: WHAAAAAAT. That's so weird. :( Reminds me of a member (don't think they're here anymore) that said he was gay, but was gonna marry a woman and have kids. I don't remember his reasons, but I felt so bad and concerned. He shouldn't have to hide who he is to make...whoever he was trying to make happy.

 

[FreakyLocz14]

@Freaky: As it stands right now, Democrats are more likely to be friendlier to general human rights than their GOP counterparts.

I think it's unfair to endorse Obama until we know who the GOP candidate will be. I say that especially since we have two moderately pro-LGBT candidates running and an openly homosexual man running, as well.

I don't want to turn this thread into a debate, though. I'm just saying that this endorsement is pretty premature.

 

[Impo]

I'll join this.

I think I am asexual, but I can't be sure (after all, I'm only young).
But despite my age I support in gay rights and believe if two people love each other their gender shouldn't matter.

 

[Shining Raichu]

I think I'll join. I'm not gaymyself, but I have plenty of friends who are, as well as being part of the GSA at school...which is interesting because Notre Dame won't accept it as an actual student organization even though it's applied 15 years in a row.

Hey Toujours, welcome! Have they given an actual reason for not accepting the group? It may not be appropriate given it's a Catholic school (gay-friendly as the school may be, it's not exactly in the official Catholic party line and may be hard to explain to higher-ups?)

Totally joining.

Welcome, donnavannj!

I'll join this.

I think I am asexual, but I can't be sure (after all, I'm only young).
But despite my age I support in gay rights and believe if two people love each other their gender shouldn't matter.

Welcome Impo! Well, I think as an asexual you're represented by one of the A's at the end anyway, so you fit :D


OK. Now the official business is over, I can actually get discussing stuff :P

On the "who chooses to be gay" line, I've actually come across a lot of parents who perpetuate this with their denial. Like, "oh he's just doing this to be rebellious" etc, simply because they can't get their head around the fact that the life they had envisioned for their child will not be the life their child gets. I think the worst thing a parent can do for a child is to want things for them. Let people want for themselves.

 

[Impo]

On the "who chooses to be gay" line, I've actually come across a lot of parents who perpetuate this with their denial. Like, "oh he's just doing this to be rebellious" etc, simply because they can't get their head around the fact that the life they had envisioned for their child will not be the life their child gets. I think the worst thing a parent can do for a child is to want things for them. Let people want for themselves.

I don't like how some parents won't accept their child's sexual orientation. My mother is always telling me that I can be whoever I want and she'll always love me, which I think is great (I'm pretty sure she thinks I'm gay though, but it's nice to know if I was she wouldn't try to change me).

I'm a closeted asexual, particularly because during my age (school mostly) people will consider you rather... disorientated.

 

[Shining Raichu]

Ah, parents. This has actually given me inspiration for a new topic to introduce.

Have you come out of the closet? If so, and if you feel comfortable enough here in this safe space, share your coming out story with us. How did your parents/friends take it? Describe the scenario.

Or, if you aren't of a minority sexuality and are posting here as an ally, tell us what it's like on the other side. Has anyone ever come out to you? Were they scared of how you'd react? How did they do it?

 

[Hybrid Trainer]

On the "who chooses to be gay" line, I've actually come across a lot of parents who perpetuate this with their denial. Like, "oh he's just doing this to be rebellious" etc, simply because they can't get their head around the fact that the life they had envisioned for their child will not be the life their child gets. I think the worst thing a parent can do for a child is to want things for them. Let people want for themselves.

Well that's really one of the biggest fears of anyone really, gay straight or whatever is for your parents not to accept who you are or who you've become. Yea it'll be harder for gay kids because being gay is still a fairly rare thing compared to being straight and there are so many different opinions its near impossible to know exactly how your parents will react to such news.

Have you come out of the closet? If so, and if you feel comfortable enough here in this safe space, share your coming out story with us. How did your parents/friends take it? Describe the scenario.

Well i'm not offically 'out' so to speak as there are still a large quantity of people that don't know yet but i did come out to my friends last summer. I only came out to one of my friends first because i thought that we'd got to know each other so well that i felt like I wanted to tell him about me. I was having a conversation with him over facebook through comments on some status, about half way through this conversation I got this urge to tell him. I can't really explain it but it was a bit like an epiphany moment x] So we moved the conversation over to MSN. Here i did this weird build up of making him promise he wouldn't tell anyone until i said he could, so after he swore he wouldn't i finally told him. It kinda killed the whole moment that he didn't read over the message properly and i had to tell him to go and read it again ¬.¬ But after that he went quite and we didn't talk much until we went offline. So unfortunately he wasn't really cool with knowing it and lets just say we don't talk any more.
But in-between all of the drama with the last guy i told i also told another one of my close friends. This time i wanted to see if it was any easier to tell someone in person rather than have that horrible part of silence over IM when the other person is typing. To do this when i met up with him i said i had something to tell him, because he was the really annoying noisy friend i knew he wouldn't let it drop until i told him. So we went the whole day and we met up with one of his friends and by the end he was starting to loose it because i'd still yet to tell him lol. After walking his friend home i thought i'd say it, this was actually a billion times harder than doing it over IM xD i was so nervous when the words came out of my mouth my entire body went tense. My hands went into fists so tight that my finger nails drew blood from my palms. But after that we decided to take the long way back to my bus stop so he could ask questions and such. He actually took it quite well which was a relief. He still finds it funny to take the mick out of me because of it though ¬.¬
And then after that i thought i'd try getting someone else to tell them, so i got the friend who i told in person to tell two of my other friends that i was gay. To be quite honest i found it amusing as usually they don't stop arguing and never shut but after he told them they went completely mute. There ok with it too, so everything worked out fine there.
And then finally i thought i'd tell the rest of my friends via facebook. I posted a status that someone on PC helped me write because my english skills suck xD At first people thought it was a joke and someone facebook raped me but once it finally sunk in i got a few messages saying that they were cool with it, and even better not a single message saying something negative :D about half my friend list did un-friend me over the next few weeks but still, at least they did it discreetly :D

 

[Alternative]

As an ally of this place, I have known people who are gay, but no one has really come out to me. I'm not exactly the person who is everyone's best friend. I've known people who are gay and stuff, but I haven't had anyone come up to me and tell me that they are gay.

Anyway, this has brought me to thinking. Last year for a project, someone I knew who was in one of my certificate courses made a video for a totally not-related subject. Anyway, he made a mini-movie based on what like would be like if the whole gay/straight thing was reversed. So it was normal to be gay, and considered "weird" to our society today to be straight. I can say it sure was interesting.

 

[Impo]

Anyway, this has brought me to thinking. Last year for a project, someone I knew who was in one of my certificate courses made a video for a totally not-related subject. Anyway, he made a mini-movie based on what like would be like if the whole gay/straight thing was reversed. So it was normal to be gay, and considered "weird" to our society today to be straight. I can say it sure was interesting.

...That sounds like a blockbuster-movie idea. It does sound interesting, sometimes I wonder why people think it's wrong to be gay. Considering I don't see anything wrong with it and I'm not gay, I don't see any reasons for others to see it as wrong.

 

[Ctrl.Alt.Geak]

Have you come out of the closet? If so, and if you feel comfortable enough here in this safe space, share your coming out story with us. How did your parents/friends take it? Describe the scenario.

I tried to tell my mother about 6 years ago, she literally said "No you're not" and I agreed with her and made like it was a joke or something (so I basically re-closeted myself), a few years later she asks "If you were gay you'd tell me right?" to which I said "Of course! But I'm not so don't worry". When I first hit high school she sent me to an in-school program, that was run by the church which basically shoved gender stereotypes in our face and told us to act and look a certain way.
I did tell a friend of mine a few months ago, he didn't take it well, he has nothing against gay people but he wasnt exactly happy about it, we dont talk to each other anymore.
I met an FtM recently who just assumed that I had no interest in the opposite sex however I dont really plan to tell anyone else for a while now.

 

[Bloo]

Hi, I've been lurking this thread lately, but I'd like to join. I support the LGBTQ community 100% :). Anyway, I'll answer some of the new topics here so that I can keep the conversation going.

No, I haven't come out of the closet, but I've told two of my friends. I knew one of them wouldn't accept me, so I had to explain to her that homosexuality wasn't a choice, and that it is the way people are. I remember she said something about an "It Gets Better" video that she was looking at, and she had kind of set me off. She didn't know how hard it was for some people, and she asked me why I knew about all this, and I said it was because I'm gay, because I wanted to be honest. I told her that she was the first person I had told, and it was fine, but it was kind of a shock for her. It had caused a little anger with me from her, but we made up again. Then I told my other friend. She doesn't like inappropriate jokes, and is mostly set off from the other kids, so I told her, and she was completely fine with it. So far, these are the only people I've told.