All Things LGBTQ+ (5 Viewers)

[Farb]

Didn't really see a place for this so I thought I would start a thread about all things LGBTQ since this is a pretty hot topic in our culture right now

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/17/sup...y-that-refuses-to-work-with-lgbt-couples.html

• The Supreme Court on Thursday delivered a unanimous defeat to LGBT couples in a high-profile case over whether Philadelphia could refuse to contract with a Roman Catholic adoption agency that says its religious beliefs prevent it from working with same-sex foster parents.
• Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in an opinion for a majority of the court that Philadelphia violated the First Amendment by refusing to contract with Catholic Social Services once it learned that the organization would not certify same-sex couples for adoption.

I will admit, I was hopeful for this decision by the SCOTUS but I was surprised by the unanimous decision.

While I don't think there is anything wrong, per se, with same sex couples adopting and raising children (I actually think it is a good thing as it not an abortion) but I also did not want to see the state force a religious institution to bend to a societal norm.

 

[samiam5211]

fair enough. So it isn't a litmus test on bigotry. It is just a failed attempt at a boycott.

Yea, I don’t think anyone pushing the boycott was going to be buying it anyway.

The boycott attempted increased sales no doubt.

 

[BullSheetBuddha]

I would say the wanting to provide women with their own safe place where they can undress without men present would dictate a sense of morality. What do you think?

I think I wouldn't worry about the extremely rare case involving a trans using a women's locker room. Let them work it out and in the meantime you can go about your daily business unconcerned.

 

[BullSheetBuddha]

Do you think that women deserve a place where they can undress/shower/use the restroom without men present?

I think women have a plethora of such places.

 

[RobF]

Yea, I don’t think anyone pushing the boycott was going to be buying it anyway.

The boycott attempted increased sales no doubt.

Just an observation, but I used to be a fairly active gamer and still follow things and there are definitely people boycotting it who would have bought it.

It'd be quite hard to quantify, but I'd think the people boycotting the game outnumber people buying it solely because of the boycott. Even then, given the size of the game (in terms of budget and the HP franchise) it would have to have been a spectacular flop not to sell well.

But people boycotting things like this are generally doing so based on their own personal values, to act in line with those, and at most raise some awareness and maybe some some pressure, not out of an expectation that their doing so will simply cause the target of their boycott to cease to exist. See, e.g. boycotts of things like Amazon.

 

[coldseat]

Although I never got into HP and never have seen an entire movie or read a sentence of a book, I could see the appeal because I do generally like that kind of sci-fi/historical fiction type genre. Now that you said it, it really has come full circle.

I've never read the books, but I've seen all the movies, including the Fantastic Beast ones. Trans beliefs aside, the world building JK Rowling did with HP did was very vivid.

 

[BullSheetBuddha]

Why proposed laws targeting drag shows are proliferating in America

A new front has opened up in the country’s culture wars

www.economist.com

Last month “RuPaul’s Drag Race”, a reality show, began its 15th season on television. In it, contestants compete in costume to become the next “drag superstar” and win $200,000. Meanwhile, lawmakers across the country are engaged in a different sort of race: to restrict drag performances in the name of protecting children. At least 36 bills in 15 states are proposing rules that would make it harder for people to perform in drag.

The drag drama may sound like a sideshow. But it offers a lens onto lawmakers’ political calculus, the next phase of the culture wars and the way the media (including social media) fuel outrage.

.........................................................


In a recent cameo on “RuPaul’s Drag Race”, Ariana Grande, a popular singer, described drag as “the most infectious and joyous art form that there is”. Conservative politicians disagree, instead finding joy in railing against it. They say drag is inherently sexual and inappropriate for minors. Critics also use drag as a sloppy shorthand for transgender people (whose gender identity does not conform to how they were born), even though many drag queens are gay men who dress in drag for the purpose of entertainment and are not trans.

Proposals to regulate drag have taken various forms. Some states, including Texas, are seeking to classify any venue hosting a drag show as a “sexually oriented business”, which brings costs and restrictions on where it can be located. The goal is to reduce the number of places willing to host drag shows, says Mark Jones, a political scientist at Rice University in Houston. Arkansas is among states also trying to prevent public funds from going to drag shows. This is a reaction to news that some cities have used taxpayer money to sponsor drag-queen story hour. New York City reportedly spent around $200,000 on it from 2018 to 2022.

 

[Optimus Prime]

could have gone in a few threads
==========================
Many people thought once Donald Trump was out of the White House that Trumpism—the belief that white evangelical Americans are exclusively responsible for what makes America great, and that their greatness is being disregarded as the country’s demographics shift and ancient norms are challenged—would exit the stage in disgrace with him.

But such foolishly optimistic people grossly underestimated the disdain white evangelical Americans harbor for “the other.”

Democrats wanted to believe that white evangelicals were better than they are. They hoped that historic change—through the election of the nation’s first Black president and the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision that nationalized marriage equality—was somehow going to erase this nation’s intertwined history of white domestic terrorism, from slavery to Jim Crow to the criminalization of LGBTQ Americans.

Instead, the dehumanization, criminalization, and erasure of Black people, Black culture, and Black history have made up the blueprint for every “other” group’s cultural expurgation from the mainstreams of society. Lies, stereotypes, hatred, and violence continue to push marginalized communities to the margins of society or, in the case of the LGBTQ+ community, back into the depths of the closet.

The civil rights movement and the LGBTQ+ liberation movements both began in earnest in the 1950s—following pushes for school integration, and an early gay rights group, the Mattachine Society, fighting against the U.S. Postal Services’ ban on a gay magazine. However, the 1960s is the decade that these human rights movements culminated in intensity.

That’s because another wave of change was underfoot in this country—liberation from the constraints of white evangelical society’s norms, from free love to the anti-war movement to Black and queer liberation. America was at an inflection point, and those that had been wrestling under the boot of oppression had had enough.

But then, as now, there was backlash.

You see, there always comes a time in our “becoming” as a nation where the mainstream culture believes that we as a society are becoming a little too free. Where the tectonic shifts that are occurring in rapid succession are just too much for those whose power can only be maintained in the status quo. When Americans, young and old, begin to question what they have been socialized into believing is “the way”—and want to forge a new path.

In no other community has this happened with such speed in modern times than within the LGBTQ+ community—a community which intersects with every other group under the sun.

But white evangelicals, masquerading as adults who are merely concerned about the welfare of children, rain rage and fury onto the LGBTQ+ community by slandering queer teachers as pedophiles or groomers. These false accusations are as old as time, but were used in the mid-20th century to pass legislation outlawing queer people from adopting, teaching, and connecting with youth. All of this was orchestrated under the guise of “protecting the children.”

LQBTQ+ individuals around the country started broadly winning more basic civil rights by the late 1980s—such as legal protections against housing and employment discrimination. But after three decades of progress, this country is backsliding into bigotry. And, once again, it’s predicated on fear and lies.

Legislation is now making its way across red states—banning queer history, forcing gay teachers to deny their own identities, and targeting transgender youth. At least nine GOP-led states have authored legislation to criminalize parents, bars, and other establishments that allow drag shows to have children in attendance.............

Guns and Bigotry Are the Real Threats to America’s Kids. Drag Shows Are Not.

 

[Farb]

I think women have a plethora of such places.

But you don't necessarily think that a specific locker room and bathroom should be on that list?
In your opinion, when age should a female be mature enough to be exposed to a naked male in a bathroom at school, for example?

 

[BullSheetBuddha]

................................................................................
In your opinion, when age should a female be mature enough to be exposed to a naked male in a bathroom at school, for example?

Oh I don't know. What age would bother you the most?

 

[samiam5211]

But you don't necessarily think that a specific locker room and bathroom should be on that list?
In your opinion, when age should a female be mature enough to be exposed to a naked male in a bathroom at school, for example?

Where did you go to school?

I never saw anyone naked in the bathroom at school.

 

[MT15]

Especially in a woman’s bathroom. If you are naked in a woman’s bathroom, there are some real problems that don’t have anything to do with being trans.

And every single story of a trans athlete that I have read, at least through high school, a private area was provided for the trans athlete to change.

This is just made-up performative BS. Manufactured outrage that people are using to target a vulnerable population. It’s barbaric.

 

[SystemShock]

Where did you go to school?

I never saw anyone naked in the bathroom at school.

Especially in a woman’s bathroom.

I believe @Farb wanted to say locker room, not bathroom, or the bathroom he refers to is the bathroom in a locker room.

 

[MT15]

I believe @Farb wanted to say locker room, not bathroom, or the bathroom he refers to is the bathroom in a locker room.

In a woman’s locker room the bathroom isn’t any more open than any woman’s bathroom anywhere. Also, in schools that I have read about, trans athletes are given a private area to change.

People are generally handling these things in a reasonable manner. America isn’t full of crazy people, with the exception of the people who believe these “outrage porn” stories on the internet.

 

[BullSheetBuddha]

https://www.foxnews.com/media/lia-t...er-room-after-meet-riley-gaines-dropped-pants

"In an interview on "America Reports" Wednesday, the 12-time All-American and five-time SEC champion urged the National Collegiate Athletic Association to make separate locker rooms for transgender athletes, recounting her own discomfort when she was exposed to Thomas' "male genitalia" in a women's locker room after a meet.

"We were not forewarned beforehand that we would be sharing a locker room with Lia. We did not give our consent, they did not ask for our consent, but in that locker room we turned around, and there’s a 6’4" biological man dropping his pants and watching us undress, and we were exposed to male genitalia," Gaines said.

Thomas had reportedly started the process of hormone replacement therapy at the time but hadn't undergone surgery."

And who is this Ms. Gaines?

Ex-swimmer demands transgender locker rooms after Lia Thomas allegedly exposed ‘male genitalia’

“Not even probably a year, two years ago, this would have been considered some form of sexual assault, voyeurism,” Riley Gaines said.

nypost.com

Gaines is the spokeswoman for the Independent Women’s Forum, a conservative nonprofit focused on advancing women’s rights. The decorated former college athlete, who accused President Biden’s White House of promoting “gender ideology propaganda,” attended Tuesday’s State of the Union address as a guest of Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.).

Gaines, a swimmer-turned-activist, joined former President Donald Trump at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas last August.

 

[samiam5211]

I believe @Farb wanted to say locker room, not bathroom, or the bathroom he refers to is the bathroom in a locker room.

I don't recall ever seeing anyone naked even in the locker room at school.

No one was showering after PE. I can't imagine there being enough time for schools to have students taking showers during the day.

We never showered in the locker room after basketball games or practice. Maybe football teams do it more often, but i can't imagine the trans issue coming up with a high school football team.

No one should be walking around naked anywhere on a school campus, even locker rooms.

 

[SystemShock]

I don't recall ever seeing anyone naked even in the locker room at school.

No one was showering after PE. I can't imagine there being enough time for schools to have students taking showers during the day.

We never showered in the locker room after basketball games or practice. Maybe football teams do it more often, but i can't imagine the trans issue coming up with a high school football team.

No one should be walking around naked anywhere on a school campus, even locker rooms.

So hygiene wasn't a thing in your school?

 

[samiam5211]

So hygiene wasn't a thing in your school?

Apparently not.

They certainly didn't give us time to shower after PE class.

Do most schools give students time to shower after PE? how was their time to change, have PE, shower and change again in an hour? There wouldn't be enough time to even get sweaty enough to warrant a shower.

 

[MT15]

So hygiene wasn't a thing in your school?

Nobody showered after PE when I went. Girls didn’t want to have to redo their hair and makeup. I didn’t say that earlier because I realize my high school days were back in the dark ages.

When my kids went to high school, almost everyone took a PE class in the summer. They came dressed for PE and after they went home sweaty and showered there.