Growing Up Homasexual

[Cletus]

I really doubt that everyone with birth anomalies or acquired disabilities would appreciate being called aberrations and misfits.

Whether they would appreciate it isn't really the issue.

Now you are wandering into the realm of political correctness.

[Cletus]

It's always an insult to call someone a "poopy head". It's a subjective term, based on a subjective assessment.

You are trying real hard to avoid the point. Let us assume that "poopy head" has a clearly defined meaning. If it did and a person fit that definition and was indeed a "poopy head". would it be an insult to call him a "poopy head"?

[Dr. Who]

Whether they would appreciate it isn't really the issue.

Now you are wandering into the realm of political correctness.

There is a difference between political correctness and being considerate of people's feelings. You don't walk up to people with dwarfism and mock their appearance, nor call overweight people 'fatso' or tell people who are less attractive that they are ugly. People who do these hurtful things are called a$$holes for a reason. People who are not mainstream are very much aware that they are different, they don't need unsolicited reminders. It's hard enough for them to develop a sense of self-confidence without dealing with mean-spirited remarks. What makes you a human being is not your appearance or whether you can hear or see or whether you are gay, straight or in between, but the content of your heart.

[Tahuyaman]

Using that comparison a Vet who lost his leg in combat is a homosexual, or someone that was blinded in combat is the same as a homosexuual

See, that’s beyond absurd. There’s no explanation for that gem.

[Dr. Who]

You are trying real hard to avoid the point. Let us assume that "poopy head" has a clearly defined meaning. If it did and a person fit that definition and was indeed a "poopy head". would it be an insult to call him a "poopy head"?

Let me make this easier, if someone just finished spewing hateful remarks about any number of ethnicities, it would not be an insult to call them a bigot. However, calling someone an aberration and a misfit is rather subjective. Someone's sex/romantic life (assuming it is consensual) really has no impact on anyone other than that person and whomever they choose as an intimate partner. It's little different than having a different religion or being vegan.

[Tahuyaman]

Unbelievable.

[valley ranch]

So if someone falls out of a tree ~ has brain damage and becomes a deviate ~ hangs around toilets at drive in theaters ~ smiling at children ~ and shoves bananas in his nose ~ how did this get thread get around to blind, no legged veterans ~ some people have progressed in the crazy direction ~ they were heading ~ to the point of ~ yeh ~ unbelievable is good ```

[Safety]

Wut?

[Safety]

Unbelievable.

It’s above your pay grade, have a ranking officer explain it to you.

[IMPress Polly]

Tahuyaman wrote:
People make inexplicable choices all the time.

Let me put it this way: back when I was still playing with dolls, She-Ra (please somebody remember She-Ra!) and Princess Jasmine were totally an item, at least in my play world. I didn't even know what sex was at that age, but there were already signs is my point. It wasn't something that I chose. It was a reality.

We can choose what we act out...or perform...in real life. We don't choose our feelings though.

Abby wrote:
Polly.....you are, what you are, be proud of it.

I, personally, don't agree with the gay lifestyle, but, that's MY opinion and, I don't agree with being mean/rude/violent, towards gay people, I see no reason for it.

But, I could do with a little less, 'in your face,' gay rights rhetoric, they have all the rights as the rest of us.

I sometimes feel like I could do with a little less bombardment with heterosexual culture too, but I don't get a choice in that. I go to the grocery store and every song they're playing is about a heterosexual relationship (successful or otherwise). I visit the card department and notice that all of the romance and anniversary cards depict, or appear to be directed at, opposite-sex couples. I turn on one of my game systems and remember that there are exactly two video games in my library of more than 1,600 that center lesbian characters. I go to the movies and 95% of them include heterosexual romance arcs and maybe, maybe 1% (a fairly obscure 1%) any other kind, and even that's mostly gay male relationships. Sometimes it makes me feel a little left out, you know? The main way in which lesbians are represented in the culture is through pornography, which isn't exactly always flattering. I find that situation pretty pathetic.

Just hoping to put life back in a little more perspective.

Standing Wolf wrote:
One question that suggests itself here, I believe, is how heavily one's sexual or romantic history factors (or should) in an individual's self-evaluation of her or his sexual orientation. Does having fantasized about, kissed or even had sex with a same-sex partner automatically "make" someone bisexual or gay? If a large percentage of women think of themselves as being "straight", despite (or in a few cases, perhaps, as a result of) having experienced one or more same-sex encounters, who are the societal bean counters to tell them otherwise?

Well, as I sought to explain in that other thread, it's often said anymore that orientation is a spectrum, and I believe that's the best way of thinking of it. The famous Kinsey scale may be a good way of looking at it:

Kinsey-Scale.jpg

Personally, I suspect that most people (almost certainly most females) are probably born physically oriented somewhere in the 2 to 4 range on this scale and move from there based on what their lived experience turns out like. If I'm completely honest with myself and everyone here, I would say that I have moved from maybe being a 4 on this scale to a 5 over the course of my life in terms of toward which sex I experience physical attraction.

Does that make sense?

The Xl wrote:
People are still arguing whether or not homosexuality is a choice? Lol Jesus.

Gay conversion therapy is still somehow legal in most U.S. states (not mine though) if that puts the situation back in perspective.

I mean things are definitely better now that they were back in like my grade school days for sure. There's definitely more acceptance now. In Vermont, I would say that the turning point came when our then-Governor Howard Dean started running for president back in 2003. That seemed to usher in a change in the public's mindset toward lesbian, gay, and bisexual people that hasn't been reversed since. Before that, there had been a backlash against the gay community going on in Vermont because we had become the first U.S. state to legalize civil unions for same-sex couples back in 2000, which was really controversial at the time.

I would also say that prominent TV talk show host Ellen DeGeneres coming out in 1997 was a smaller moment of cultural change nationwide as well. That was also very controversial at the time. There were protests, boycotts (including advertiser boycotts), death threats, all that sort of thing. But the show actually survived and went on and that set a precedent. Before that it was really the dark ages.

But there have also been some negative changes over the years as well. Companies actually seem more wary of marketing to lesbians today, both online and off, than they were 15 and 20 years ago, for example and much of what has traditionally been lesbian culture has disappeared over the course of the new millennium, in no small part owing to the ascent of the transgender movement increasingly de-legitimizing the existence of butch women in the eyes of the $#@! community. Nowadays, I'm sometimes asked on Facebook when I'll be transitioning because I'm not that traditionally feminine. But hey, there is an online community to have that exchange with now, where of course back in the days when most people didn't have internet access (my family didn't until 1999, when I turned 15), it was ultimately lonelier. But still, the crisis among butch women is real. It has been observed by many that there are fewer butch women (who still identify as female, that is) than there were in the 1950s-80s and that's remarkable considering what the conditions were back then. I feel like the transgender movement is preying on the fact that many women feel insecure about our femininity.

So it's been a mixture of positive and negative changes really. Mostly positive though on balance. But my point is that we're still a long ways from what I'd regard as where we should be.

DGUtley wrote:
I don't think that someone should attack someone else b/c of who they are.
I also don't think, however, someone should post personal information on here that invites attacks and then be surprised when they are attacked.

Of course I'm not surprised. Many people always respond disproportionately to what I actually say. In point of fact, the thread has worked out better than I thought it would so far. I'm pleasantly surprised by the amount of support and sincere interest it's generated. I'm actually considering it basically a success in that sense.

Common wrote:
Polly most men believing that the feminist movement is gay based is why most men disregard it and view it with disdain. If they believed it were all straight women they would pay more attention to it. Its not a gay hating thing its a Men know homosexuals have their own agenda and much of what they do is for that agenda.

If ya hate men whats the best way to get at them ? join a movement that screws them when it can, blame them for everything that ever happened to a female, accuse them of being Mysoginists and Pigs and dogs and try to get them put in prison for 20-30-40 yr ago allegations and at the minimum ruin their reputation and get them fired.

Ive said this before and I will say it again, I emphatically believe that women lie every bit as much as men and just as often. They are not the prime perfect species and men merely being the species that have all the flaws.

Jesus, sorry I responded to you! You sounded like you were for real back on page 1. Should've known better.