Student in need of help?

Probably best to alert the mods that you are here to do a little research. Post in Ask The Staff to make sure they're okay with it.

As it is, I'd say that it has helped because it means we can reach out to each other. There is nobody in my town that I know of who is LGBT, but through EC I've been able to get to know people like me and learn much more about LGBT stuff through the Internet. Not being alone is very important. Those couple sentences are all I can come up with at the moment.

 

I'm quite sure your thread is welcome here. I wouldn't say that the internet has particularly helped - barely if at all. It has definitely helped gay people to accept themselves and seek support through being able to find likeminded people and people who are able to support them. However, no matter what medium they go through, it's up to governments and large organisations to publicise and legalise gay marriage, gay rights etc.

Social development alone (online and offline) moves at a snail's pace. Just look at how prehistoric some of the US' rights legislation is. I am aware that the US economy is under stress, and that Obama isn't handling it perfectly well, but what he is doing is putting it aside for a minute to bring the nation up to date and giving people their deserved human rights. He hasn't touched the internet in this process at all.

In a way, the internet does offer organisations an easy and cheap way to reach out to new audiences (such as minorities). This has been done many a time, but I can't pick any particular example. It has been rarely done to aid in the gay community, though. Most of all, it just gives them a place to speak freely and connect with each other.

 

The internet has given me a place of acceptance, where people who have gone through what I've gone and am going through. It eliminates regional barriers, so it doesn't matter that I live in a homophobic area, I can still find support.

I think internet is also a great platform for social activism, which takes baby steps towards real change.

The internet is also chock full of resources to aid in various elements of LBGT life. For instance, just yesterday I learned how a suit should fit and how to go about buying one.

The internet is an information dispenser and a network of people. That's how it helps.

 

In a way I feel it ha but in another I feel it has not at all. I still see hatred going on on Facebook on gay right pages. You get heterosexuals who are so full of hatred that they will not listen. (Proverbs 26:24-26
Whoever hates disguises himself with his lips
and harbors deceit in his heart; when he speaks graciously, believe him not, for there are seven abominations in his heart;though his hatred be covered with deception,
his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly.)
Their hatred blinds them from seeing the truth. The westboro baptists are the worst. That family is obscene and are bigots! They have been legally banned from entering Canada due to hate speech! I'm all for freedom of speech 100% but when you target a group that is hate speech there are limitations to freedom of speech! Slander, obscenity, libel, sedition are all of which freedom of speech are subject to.

To answer your question honestly, I feel it has not in the way that heterosexuals are still trying to hurt and stop the equality of homosexuals. There intention is to dehumanize us (not all heterosexuals) but the serious Christians will quote the bible at you and ask you where god commends sexual immorality. I quote back with where the bible says hatred fills there Heart. If god created us (god makes no mistakes) so if he created us we are not a mistake.

I went to talk to a preist when I was feeling HORIBLE about myself the other day and I talked with him and asked him how I could fight my temptation. How to not sin, I told him I was gay and he responded with "do you want to be homosexual and a sinner" I sad no I want to go to heaven I want to accept Jesus as my savior "he said that is good" and went on to explain how there is no such thing as a "gay Christian" how if a homosexual who wants to renounce homosexuality does not act upon their sinful nature and fights temptation and does not act on such an unforgivable sin he is praised by god and by society and god will have salvation on him/her for fighting their sin. I said would god consider that a lie if I did not feel a sexual connection with a woman? He said "no becuase god will see you are fighting sin that is not a lie. Homosexuality is a lie. Homosexuals are weak and fall in to temptation. Their souls can not be saved after lying with another man."

I felt terrible I was in a depressive state for days, I didnt go to work becuase of the things said. And then I realized god doesn't hate me he loves me and to lie to myself is still a lie. I had a fried say "what about other religions like Hindu and Sikh they dont believe in Christ how can there only be one god" she is atheist I do still believe in god but it made me think and think hard. I know god loves me. I have a pure heart, my heart is not hardened, I still love god and god knows that, he knows I'm not filled with hate.

So again no I feel the Internet has been bad also becuase it is hard to ban all the hate speech that is out there. You can have eyes every where and by the time it has been removed it has done damage to a persons soul. People like us who seek acceptance are then dehumanized by people, their words lead us to hate ourselves. We may have support but the things we remember most are the things that hurt us. When hate speech is posted the damage is done, like to myself the other day. I was contemplating suicide I felt that no one loved me not even god, if god couldn't love me who could love me? But I realize that this is my life, heaven may not even exist am I going to live a life of happiness or am I going to live in fear of the "what if's".

 

Yes, I think the internet has definitely helped! It provides a safe and anonymous place where you can meet other LGBTQ people that are going through the same things, something that I could never find in school or in the non-virtual world!
Also, messages can spread faster on the internet, and things like the red equal sign profile pic thing can prove that there is worldwide support.
Good luck with the project!

 

Yes that is true but the hate the hate speech it ruins us as people the dehumanizing slander. I'm so thankful for EC.

 

The internet has changed everything. I honestly don't think it's possible to overstate the impact it has had and is still having on both individuals and the movement.

There are a lot of young people on this forum, but as a millennial I remember very clearly what it was like before I had access to the internet. I got access when I was seventeen years old, right as it was becoming affordable.

I grew up in a small rural town, and since I lived out in the country I couldn't get cable. I only had access to broadcast TV channels. Aside from newspapers and books, that was more-or-less my connection to the outside world.

It probably isn't shocking to learn that I never knew someone who was openly gay growing up. I'm more than certain people in my community were gay, but everyone was in the closet. The general view of homosexuality I learned growing up as a Southern Baptist:

1. It's a disgusting sin, and those who are gay are going to burn in hell.
2. Gay people recruit children by molesting and raping them, or eventually become child molesters and rapists.
3. God punished gay people by sending down a plague that we call AIDS.
4. Those who support gay people are going against the will of God, and inviting his wrath upon the country.

There was no alternative point of view. That was the only point of view.

The first gay people I ever knew by name was Matthew Shepard and Ellen DeGeneres. I remember thinking that if anyone found out I was gay, I'd end up just like Matthew Shepard. Dead.

I was so isolated and alone, and so desperate to connect to someone like myself I remember turning down the TV so low that you could only hear it if you sat a few inches away from the screen. I had a TV in my room, and that's how I'd watch Ellen. I kept the TV so low because I was paranoid that someone might realize that I was watching Ellen, and as a result begin to suspect that I was gay. The only way I had to connect to someone like myself was through Ellen's character (and the real life woman who played her). I was desperate, isolated, and completely alone.

Not shockingly, I was suicidal and attempted suicide. However, thankfully I had also recently gotten access to the internet. This allowed me the ability to connect with another guy who had written some short gay romance stories and posted them online. He was the first person I ever came out to, and without a doubt he saved my life. Just having that little bit of human connection, even through a computer screen, knowing that I wasn't alone, and that there was at least one other person out there in the world who understood what I was going through... it was a game changer for me.

The internet for me opened up a world that I would have never had access to otherwise. I've been exposed to people, ideas, and knowledge that would have just not been possible to access when I was growing up. Having access even if it was only to a support forum like this when I was twelve or thirteen years old... it would have changed my life dramatically.

The internet has also revolutionized the movement as a whole. Not only has it made it possible to reach people who are struggling and give them support and advice (which is the purpose of this forum). It has made it possible to better coordinate ourselves politically, get information out to the community, raise awareness, and raise money.

There are lots of other ways that the internet has revolutionized things for gay people. However, what I've talked about are the most important.

 

In my opinion the internet has been especially helpful for the rarer sexualities - the ones not included in the LGTB acronym.

I know I probably would not have heard of asexuality if it weren't for the internet. I don't know if I'd have come to a realization of it separately or not, but either way I would have been confused much longer.

 

If it wasn't for the internet i would most likely still be in heavy denial and be the old bigoted me.

 

I think it's fair to say that the internet is really helpful on a personal level for gay people thanks to websites like this and through videos, articles, etc about self acceptance. For me, it was enormously helpful.

With regard to how it has effected the acceptance of gay people, I don't think it's had that big an impact. It's generally gay people who go to these kinds sites, they're very much off the radar for everybody else I would think.