How is living in your country as Gay/Bi/Pan/Trans?

It is okay-ish. Brazil is probably a bit more homophobic than Italy, although gay marriage is legal here, but far less than Eastern Europe for example. Things are definitely getting better and people, especially among the younger generation, are more accepting. The mainstream media also has been raising more awareness to LGBT issues.

I'm not sure which European nation is more lgbt-friendly. Maybe the UK or Germany, I guess.
Out of it? Probably Canada.

 

The law is accepting. According to my friend, a lot of students at our school are not. That's why the teachers went what I consider overboard on gay acceptance posters [3-4 in every classroom]. There's no trans ones though. In terms of religion here, some Christian Churches are accepting of it, some are not. I have no idea about other religions, sorry.

I guess maybe if I ''came out'' I might be able to give you a bit more. But in terms of sexuality I don't see the point [I'll talk about who I like, but sexuality label doesn't matter unless they like me], and even though I've found my parents to accept transgender, I'm not sure how they'll take non-binary gender and/or when it affects them.

 

It's really not that bad in Quebec.

We get conferences that talk about how being gay is okay in high school. We also see gay couples being included here and there in posters. Some of our celebrities are gay, like Alex Perron. You can get married if you are gay and you possess the same rights as straight people.

As for being bi, well, there is more prejudice against it, but that's in the population, not the laws. It is talked about in school as well.

Lastly, being trans. Well, I think we were pretty much invisible before the last few years. There were no clear laws as for how we could change our names. Quebec is very strict on name changes and there was no mention of trans people in the reasons given (hard to pronounce name, name associated with infamy or ridicule, psychological pain). In the end, it seems we could change our names? Anyway, my name change is done. Though, we managed to change the law!

Before 2015, we needed surgeries to change our gender markers. Now, it's not necessary. The only thing needed is an oath that we are sure this is what we want and we need another person to make that oath as well (the person must know us for more than a year, be 18 or older and not be in our immediate family). The name change can be done at the same time, now.

All in all, we have it way better than many places, even if the general population is not always too comprehensive.

 

Pretty awesome. It isn't that bad in the Netherlands, really. Sure, it isn't perfect, but there are a lot of gay places/parties in Amsterdam for example and we even have our own pretty popular street with gay clubs to go out in. There's even a gay association for gay students here and there is also a transgender party in the future. When I read stories about the hardships of LGBT people elsewhere I really feel bad for them. I hope it will be like this everywhere (and even better) in the world one day!

 

I sometimes think that The Netherlands is the most LGBT-friendly nation in the world but I honestly have no idea. We were the first country in the world to legalize gay marriage though and well, gay people are accepted here mostly (although it differs from place to place and from person to person) and there is a lot of LGBT stuff to do here.
Can anyone shed a light on this?

 

The United States is a vast country. There are parts that are as tolerant as any place on Earth, and parts that are a stone's throw away from the Middle East. I currently live somewhere in the middle, provided I don't get too far out of town.


I've not been in one spot in Europe for more than one month at a time, so it's hard to judge directly. The ones I hear most often, and based on stats, are the UK and the Netherlands. For just a city itself, Berlin, but not Germany overall.

 

Haha yeah I love it! Especially Amsterdam. Awesome city. I hope Italy will recognize same sex civil unions!!

 

...its amazing, so many LGBT accepting countries here.

SG is very homophobic. As in very, very homophobic. If I'm not wrong, at one point in time-even now, maybe- there's a law stating that LGBTs are illegal here. It's terribly unaccepting and close-minded. The gov is totally against gay rights, and so are most of the religions, especially Christians/Catholics and Malays.

Every year there's actually a pro-LGBT protest, the Pink Dot. Recently, some Malay temples have come up with a White Dot- against the Pink Dot. Obviously, nothing much has come from it. I've gone once, and the couples are adorable.

Schools are not much better- I'm from a Catholic school, and though LGBT is attempted to be kept to a minimum (if you're suspected to be bi/les/trans, you have to meet the discipline mistress- a friend was sent) but it's overly thriving. I say overly because most are just acting LGBT cuz it's 'cool'. My school (students) are generally more accepting since it's an all girls school. On the other hand, I've found that in other schools it's still a pretty homophobic place. I'm not sure if you'd get bullied, but in the institute I was in, it was mostly just brushed under the carpet.

Bottom line: SG sucks sometimes.

 

I live in India . India currently is redebating de-criminalisation of "unnatural sex" by which homosexual sex is deemed illegal. But largely sex, sexuality, sexual orientation , gender variation are taboo and never discussed. I studied in a so to say elite school in one of the metropolitan westernized city and our sex education was bare minimum. So most of the society is ignorant or rather in life long denial of sexuality. There is strong theological opposition against homosexuality. Islam and Christianity are in strong opposition. Inspired by whom some Hindu 'leaders' are ignorantly opposing homosexuality without any theological basis. So in a nut shell the society culturally is refusing to move ahead and openly discuss sexuality . However the new generations are forward thinking thankfully. Currently a police man can use law to threaten and harass you if you are gay and it happens too!

 

Haha nice! Maybe I'll bump into you then! If you want some more information about the place, don't hesitate to message me, I'm there pretty much every week.

 

I know that England has already been mentioned. ^ But I'd like to do a post on it anyway if that's ok.

Personally, I've never seen gay acceptance posters in a classroom. The only time I saw a gay acceptance poster was when I happened to be in a fabric shop the other day. Not sure why there was one in a fabric shop, but hey. I agree, the law is accepting. We have LGBT protections, and same-sex marriage has been legal since 2014. They passed the law in 2013 saying that the legislation would be put in place early 2014. They've had civil unions in place for a while here.

I know school was fairly homophobic, especially the teachers. I know when they first introduced same-sex marriage there were a lot of jokes about it by the students. Just stuff like: Kid 1: Oh I'm going to a wedding tomorrow, my uncle is getting married.
Kid 2: Yeah, probably to another man you f:***:g. Hahaha
Kid 1: F:***:ck off mate
*rest of the class laughs except me who asks why it's funny*

Quite a few of my teachers were homophobic too. Especially my science teachers. There was one who would always joke about people seeming to be "the type" who went to gay bars. If there were rumours about a student's sexuality they'd often make jokes at their expense to the rest of the class.

There was this kid in particular who was presumed to be closeted. He was quite heavily flamboyant, sometimes wore make up, often walked around with "limp wrists", and hung around with groups made out entirely of all girls. And as such you can imagine the assumptions he got from others. He said he was straight, but people would just laugh when he said that. My other science teacher referred to him as "just so adorable" and that it was funny because he was "just so gay". When he asked to go to the toilet, he would often get teachers making comments like "remember you can't go into the girls'" even though he'd never done so in his life, I guess they just liked to take the mic out of the fact he was so "girly" as it were. A lot of the students said nasty comments about him, I really feel bad for the s:***:it he had to go through.

I think the worst was when we had sex-ed, and because we couldn't get an actual sex-ed instructor to come in, we had one of our homophobic science teachers take the lesson. One of the students in our class rustled up the courage to ask about safe-sex in same-sex relationships. Our teacher just laughed and said "why are you gay?" and laughed. The student hung his head (not the kid from before f.y.i, other kid) and looked at the ground a little as the rest of the class broke into laughter. "No! I just...wondered you know? That's all, you know for the other kids it might be useful to know, but um not for me" he said, almost defensively. The teacher continued with the lesson and at the end he finally addressed the question by saying "Just don't have gay sex, that's the safest way. I mean, it's just pointless and unnecessary really, so if you can help yourself, don't have gay sex". Well gee, thanks. :rolle: I like how he claims that gay sex is pointless because no children can be produced, yet spent the whole lesson talking about contraception.

Guess it depends on the area I guess.

Are things getting better?

-definitely, people talk more about the LGBT community and we now have same-sex marriage which we've had for a few years. :eusa_danc It used to be that I only became aware that the LGBT community existed when I actively went out searching for information about labels. Back then I only knew of "gay" "lesbian" and "straight", but I ended up finding a whole community filled with a ton of different terms and labels, I couldn't believe that I was able to go unaware of such a diverse community for so long. These days it tends to be talked about and mentioned more, especially the other labels that used to be ignored generally.

I know college has been a lot more accepting for me.

The most LGBT place in Europe? Maybe Sweden or Denmark? I'm not sure. The UK is fairly accepting now all things considered.

Gay people?

-I'd say that I know a lot of people who are accepting of gay men and lesbians. There is quite a bit of representation for gay men in the media certainly, especially singers and presenters. There are a few well-known lesbians in the media, but usually less so then with gay men. Or at least, it seems that way. I'd say gay men have a harder time though, I've heard plenty of gay jokes towards gay men, most of them about AIDS because people don't seem to realise that straight people can get it too. I've known some straight women find lesbians "disgusting" and only be accepting of gay guys. I've also known the whole "lesbians only exist in porn, all women are bisexual" mindset be thrown around a lot. :eusa_doh:

In general though, I'd say gay people have overall acceptance here.

Bisexual people?

I think Bisexuals have it harder than us. I know I had this teacher who'd say stuff like "I can tolerate gays, but not bisexuality. People need to pick a side." and stuff like that. And from what I know, that's not how it works at all. I mean you can't just pick who you're attracted to.

Pansexual people?

Most people I know don't take the label pansexual seriously. It isn't really talked about. Many people claim that "they're just trying to be a "special snowflake" at this point". It isn't used very often, but I do know one girl who identifies as pansexual. I'd say they face similar issues as people who identify as bisexual.

Trans people?

I'd say by far the most common slur I hear in my area is "tranny". I don't know about what laws there are for trans people. They are by far the most mocked and belittled part of the community in the circles of people I know. I am often encouraged by others to take part in using transphobic language. It is an often misunderstood part of the community and the subject isn't talked about much except when someone wants to make fun of the community. Most of the media representation is often presented in a comical and laughable manner, and many people confuse drag queens with actual trans people. There is still a lot of work to be done. Especially with people identifying as stupid things like some woman identifying as a cat and that crazy white woman who "identified" as black. It's idiots like this that give the community a bad name and spread misconceptions about the community.

 

It's so-so. Everything's legal, pretty much everyone in the younger generation is an ally, and there's not a huge amount of discrimination where work and being served in shops is concerned.
A lot of older people are really homophobic/racist/sexist/whatever, but no-one really pays a lot of attention to them.

There's a lot of stereotyping and 'special snowflake' accusations, but it's not usually intended to be offensive.

There are some truly hideous things that happen when you're younger, and a lot of older people can be really horrendous, but at my current age and position, I'm okay.

Trans people are accepted, but there's a lot of controversy and 'accidental transphobia' because people find it hard to understand.

If there's a stereotype about your sexuality, the people here probably believe it with all their hearts. I've had to actually explain to people that I'm not into bestiality, nor am I a paedophile.

Everyone tries to be supportive, but once again, 'accidental homophobia'. It's easy to ignore people who are outright homophobic because everyone thinks they're stupid, but it's often those closest to you who say the most harmful things, and it's not intended to be offensive, it's just that they don't realise why what they've said is wrong.

Non-binary people are accepted, but begrudgingly. They're normally dismissed with an eyeroll when they correct someone for using the wrong pronouns, and people call them by the incorrect pronouns/say that their gender doesn't exist behind their backs.

 

In Religious Studies lesson (2014) there was statistics to say that someone who was/thought to be ''in the closet'' got bullied more than someone who was out.

 

That makes sense I guess, as people are likely to read it as something that they are insecure about and can use as a way of attacking or blackmailing a person. Whereas if someone's out and you call them gay, they're more likely to go "well duh" and shrug it off. That is if you're in an accepting country and you don't get imprisoned or possibly executed for it. I know I got more slack for it when I was closeted then when I did when I was outed since most people already assumed I was gay.

---------- Post added 20th Feb 2016 at 06:03 PM ----------

Yeah, that's a common misconception here to.

 

I think I shouldn't really complain if I compare Slovenia to some other countries. Gay marriage's still not allowed, but we're working on it and people aren't really openly homophobic anymore, especially the younger generation. At least majority.
It's still far from perfect tho, off course, but since I can be out of the closet, safe, happy and accepted by majority of society I'm staying thankful.