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I had no idea that there was discrimination....

Discussion in 'Chit Chat' started by Sully, May 8, 2013.

  1. Sully

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    I live in a part of the world that (I guess) is pretty liberal and non-discriminatory. However, until really accepting I was gay, I had no idea that there was as much discrimination as there is! Probably because being 'straight' for so long I never had to face it! Reading stuff here though and looking at the changes in LGBT rights recently I've only just started to understand how much discrimination there has been towards the LGBT community!
     
  2. photoguy93

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    Where do you live? I think there's discrimination if you look...anywhere! Even in the most liberal of locations, it's always there. Heck, I live in a place where there's still a good amount of discrimination against blacks.
     
  3. greatwhale

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    Truly a case of "I would not have seen it if I didn't believe it!"

    As soon as I self-identified as gay, I realized how excluded I felt...take advertising: all geared toward hetero-world relationships...I really had not noticed this before, that one is just assumed to be heterosexual and would be turned on by all that display of "sex sells".

    Before coming out to myself, there was a world of discrimination I could not relate to, but there it is, as plain as can be seen, with the right set of eyes...

    Suddenly there is a desire, a wish, to see LGBT perspectives in film, art, you name it; and to a certain extent, there are victories there, but it never seems to be enough...
     
  4. Pret Allez

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    Welcome to the fact that there's a gender war being waged against us. Even know, there are people who want to make homosexuality a crime for which you can get the death penalty in the United States.
     
  5. Ticklish Fish

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    I think you meant sexual orientation war? unless you mean hetero male and female are warring.

    maybe i am too gay to notice the hetero internal war lol
     
  6. Pret Allez

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    No, I meant a gender war. You have to remember that in the homophobic imagination, male homosexuality is emasculating. To the degree you like other men, you're less of a man. Because homophobia is inextricably linked to misogyny and sexism, homophobia can be reduced to a gender question, and our oppression as gay and bisexual men is a small part of the war against women generally.

    That's why I call it a gender war, and I think it's important to call it a war so that maybe we start fighting it.
     
  7. Sully

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    ^^^^^^^^ THIS!

    Before I never really care about equal rights! But now! It's so important to me and all of us! I'm stuck with this thought 'how am I a second class citizen? And why don't I have the same rights?'. I'm an educated, intelligent and thoughtful member of society!

    Australia. Where I'm from I guess I was just never exposed to it.
     
  8. AlamoCity

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    I think those who are able to "pass" as straight have it harder when it comes to the self-realization that being gay is not without it's social consequences. I am guilty of this because I sometimes feel happy when a girl flirts with me. It makes me almost think I can fool society and benefit from the appearance of being straight and from living your real life as a gay person. But sometimes, it's the little things that make you realize how excluded you are. When I go to the rodeo every year (I live in a big Blue city in a Red state) I realize that if I were to ever have a boyfriend/partner/spouse, we would never be able to have PDAs without feeling as if our safety might be compromised or at least be snickered at. And yet, in my home state, I have it easy compared to my brethren who came before me. Not ten years ago did the Supreme Court throw out our state's anti-sodomy laws. If and when you get rid of de jure discrimination does not mean you will get rid of de facto discrimination. We just have to keep on going and doing our best to inform people that we are their brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, friends, neighbors, shopkeepers, construction workers, teachers et al. The best long term solution to end discrimination (or at least lessen it) is to come out.
     
  9. Music Madness

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    As a fellow Aussie, can I just say that I think Australia is certainly a very discriminatory country... and this is coming from a born and bred white person, not an Aboriginal or migrant, etc.
    We are just really good at either hiding it or being oblivious to it! On the surface we are all "We accept you and encourage you to be yourself, and we will not judge you because this is a free country", but underneath the majority of the population (or I should say, those who I've met) seem to be prudes, judgemental, and unwilling to challenge their frame of mind, to see if what they are thinking is wrong or misplaced... and I live in Sydney, so we have a really "accepting" and "free thinking" culture here!

    The truth is, that only those who are willing to have a TRULY open mind (and by that I mean to at least consider the possibility that they could be wrong, and to see things from the other person's point of view - not the point of view you think they have), have the ability to free-thinking and unbiased! - Everyone else just assumes or presumes that you think like them deep down, and if you don't then they think you're a freak, loser, try-hard rebel, or just plain wrong!
     
  10. Sully

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    Haha! I COMPLETELY AGREE! Australia is full of racism, homophobia and bigotry of all flavours. What I'm saying is that growing up 'straight' has kept me so far from that world, that now, accepting my sexuality, is actually very important and very real.
     
  11. Just Jess

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    I think the worst part of it is, when you are straight for a long time, they call it "internalizing", but you start to hear a lot of those ugly discriminatory things coming from yourself. You just never noticed them before because they weren't a problem before.