What's with the gay threads lately?

[00slash00]

this isnt a strictly gaming site. bob talks about movies, comics, and cartoons. the LRR people have that new show where they talk about random current events. i see it as a website for gamers, and even the most hardcore gamer cares about more than just video games (well maybe not the most hardcore, but that person wouldnt be very interesting to talk to). if your noticing this lately in particular? the gay rights movement has been making a lot of progress *cough*newyork*cough*

 

[Corporal Yakob]

Its almost as if a major event with possitive rammifications for the gay community happened recently.....

I don't know about recently? did something get overturned in africa that i was unaware of (given i don't really care about africa, and they have massive discrimination against homosexuals down there)

Well there was the legalisation of gay marriage in New Yoik not too long ago, there was a massive thread devoted to that-but I don't think Africa has become such an enlightened utopia yet sadly.

 

[Woodsey]

because this community has a lot of overtly proud gays who feel the need to talk about it all the time.

*braces for flames*

Its the... STUPIDEST COMMENT OF THE WEEEEEEEEEK!

(I need my own fucking jingle.)

They're mostly made by non-gays.

OT: Well you've just added to it, so there you go. Also: off-topic discussion is for exactly what it says on the tin.

 

[Reaganomics]

Gaming websites would actually strike me as perfect, as gamers (without wishing to make a too sweeping generalisation) tend to be young and socially liberal, and therefore much more comfortable having discussions about these topics.

Not even bringing up the problems with generalizations, I'm going to have to disagree with the socially liberal part. At least, not on this forum. I've seen plenty of threads that were rife with homophobia and/or misogyny. And many posters seem to expect strict heteronormative gender roles, and are hostile when these roles are challenged.

We get a lot of the "I don't care about gays as long as they aren't faggy" kind of tolerance, which is a shame.

Hang on you dont like people who are hostile about gender roles being broken, but you also dont like when people dislike carbon copy pastiches?

I only bring this up because theres a large amount of one dimensional homosexuals, a persons lifestyle shouldn't be defined by what they choose to screw. And it appears to be more prevalant amongst homosexual men. (now there are meathead men, and barbie girls aswell, but they arent the majority which is what i take issue with).

Feel free to yell at me for generalizations. But i cannot stand people who follow the cultural norm so completely that you don't even need to ask them anything to know who they are.

I definitely agree with you bahumat42. I think that most people just don't want it thrown in their face whenever they talk to someone, whether they are straight, gay or whatever. That is likely where the "I don't care about gays as long as they aren't faggy" comes from. Though saying it like that seems to me to be an oversimplification of the general opinion of people.

OT There always seems to be a fairly constant amount of these threads. Most likely these threads are common because gay rights are slowly becoming accepted among English speaking countries and this is an English language forum therefore there is likely to be a fair amount of people from English speaking countries.

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

Why is it such a hot topic, that gets discussed more than actual gaming threads, on a GAMING site?

With a NON GAMING FORUM.

 

[Corporal Yakob]

Its almost as if a major event with possitive rammifications for the gay community happened recently.....

I don't know about recently? did something get overturned in africa that i was unaware of (given i don't really care about africa, and they have massive discrimination against homosexuals down there)

Well there was the legalisation of gay marriage in New Yoik not too long ago, there was a massive thread devoted to that-but I don't think Africa has become such an enlightened utopia yet sadly.

yup theres a reason that didn't pop up on my care radar. I genuinely thought civil partnerships were good enough (being that marriage is a religous thing, so let the religous robed folk worry about all that nicknack). As long as the legal term carried the same weight was all that mattered in my eyes.

I'm not gay so I'm not really fussed though good for the ones who want to get married-what you get upto in your bedroom with your man/woman/sheep/blowup dolphin is none of mine nor the government's concern (within reason mind-if someone's acting with tremendous creative indencey in view of the public then by all means stomp on their face until they stop).

 

[Woodsey]

Its almost as if a major event with possitive rammifications for the gay community happened recently.....

I don't know about recently? did something get overturned in africa that i was unaware of (given i don't really care about africa, and they have massive discrimination against homosexuals down there)

Well there was the legalisation of gay marriage in New Yoik not too long ago, there was a massive thread devoted to that-but I don't think Africa has become such an enlightened utopia yet sadly.

yup theres a reason that didn't pop up on my care radar. I genuinely thought civil partnerships were good enough (being that marriage is a religous thing, so let the religous robed folk worry about all that nicknack). As long as the legal term carried the same weight was all that mattered in my eyes.

It isn't. This is thrown about all the time, but marriage is not a religious thing. Its a big part within a lot of religions, they do not "own" the concept.

I found several different sources for this a while back on a different thread, same topic. Its not true, or at least, they've existed independently for so long (we're talking thousands of years) that whether it did start within religion or not is totally irrelevant nowadays.

 

[PatSilverFox]

It is Pride month after all.

Oh really?!!
Yeah the op is just...
idk clueless about the forum topic (non-gaming related) and... maybe is a bit homophobic?
nvm i don't judge.

 

[Grey_Focks]

I certainly prefer them to the MLP threads. That, and who cares? If you don't like the looks of a thread, stay out of it. I assume it being pride month has something to do with it, and the recent decision in new york is another big reason.

 

[Dags90]

Its semantics, its effectively the same thing without religous overtones, to the extent that i would be willing to have one myself (maybe in a church, but a non religous ceremony performed by legal representatives rather than church ones) being that im somewhere between athiest and agnostic.

One of the best things about not being religous is that i don't have to deal with their nonsense. I'm not marrying under god, im swearing loyalty upon my human traits, im so romantic xD

But i suppose out of the many things that people argue about, love is probably one of the more worthwhile things.

It actually isn't just semantics. New Jersey has civil unions, and sometimes people are denied or delayed benefits of marriage on the basis that private companies go "We're not sure if this counts". There was one account involving health insurance and another involving a man in a car crash. The hospital ultimately called the man's sister up from Delaware (hundreds of miles) to handle medical decisions instead of his civil union partner. The UK doesn't run into this problem so much because the law is national.[footnote]http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/13/nyregion/13civil.html[/footnote]

 

[ADDLibrarian]

Well, in US at least, the Gay Pride Parade just took place, as well as the passing of law that legalized gay marriage in New York, making it the sixth state to do so.
Either people are genuinely interested in discussing the topic
or
when you put the word "gay" or "homosexual" in a thread topic, it gets a lot of hits, and the person is just posting it for shock value.

I'd like to think the people on this site are intellectually mature enough for it to be the former.

 

[Yoshemo]

This forum has a "religion and politics" section. Homosexuality is a hot topic in both catagories.

 

[crystalsnow]

Say gaming out loud. Now say gay out loud. It should be obvious, really.

OT: It's sort of a hot topic around the world right now, so that could be a factor.

 

[Guestyman]

I reject the premise of your question. As of writing, on the front page of Off Topic discussion there is an avatar thread, a poll on TV series finales, 2 threads related to the 'raise money for Allison-fromExtra-Credits' Shoulder surgery drive (Which you should totally donate to, btw) a Lulzsec thread etc. etc. There is only 1 'gay' thread on the front page. Namely "What's with all the gay threads lately?". In fact your thread is the only one related to homosexuality on the first three pages of Off Topic discussion.

Okay fair enough, but what about the Religion and politics section? Well again there is only one thread about homosexuality on the front page, and it's by someone decrying that Liberals somehow don't "Allow" him to hate gays. On the second page there are three. All of which are related to current events and headline news items, namely NYC's gay marriage bill and Chicago Pride. Searching backwards we find one on page three and one on page 4.

Hardly overexposure.

It really peeves me when people automatically have this kneejerk reaction to homosexuality as 'innapropriate'. It's one of the more insidious forms of homophobia. A light peck will get a "Oh, I fully support your right to love whomever you wish, but could you not kiss your partner where my children could see? It's innapropriate" meanwhile the straight couple full on snogging up against a lamp post hardly get a mention. "Oh, could you not mention this extremely historic and ground breaking news item quite so much in my gaming forum? It's innapropriate" Never mind that on the first page of the Religion and Politics forum there's a poll asking when it's okay to hit a woman with one of the possible answers being "When she burns your dinner", and a thread about forced female circumcision.

It really gets my goat, is all. You want innapropriate for this forum? How about trying to impose your idea of what topics should be discussed in a free, public forum specifically designated as a place where people can talk about whatever they bloody well want?

 

[zeldagirl]

Because gay people exist, and we as a society have every right to discuss issues concerning them.

Because gay people play games and are members of this gaming community, and they have every right to discuss issues that directly affect them.

Because discussing LGBT issues is crucial to redefining gaming's own development as a medium.

Any one of those, really, plus the others already mentioned.


(PROTIP: when you begin a sentence saying "I'm not a homophobe," it usually signifies that in some way you are, in fact, homophobic. The fact that you honestly think that threads about homosexuality dominate the discussion - a quick perusal through ALL of the forums will show that is simply not the case - is laughable, and makes me think you particularly notice it because it makes you uncomfortable.)

 

[sushkis2]

I'm kinda shocked really. I fully expected the first post to be: "No homo."

If I would openly express my homophobia, I'd get warned or banned or whatever...

 

[The Geek Lord]

I've noticed that over here in the States, there seems to be a trend lately where it's rebellious and cool to not be straight, for some reason. That could be part of it.

... I'm sorry, what? I haven't seen any trends of being gay, and I haven't seen being gay being "cool" or "rebellious."

Here, let me tell you why it's becoming more evident:
It's because with the rise of tolerance of homosexuality and the lowering of the "WE SHUD STABZ DEM 'CUZ THOUSANDZ-YEER-OLD BOOK SEZ 2" mentality, gays aren't as scared about being rejected by their family or persecuted by our favorite little shitheads, otherwise known as right wing nutjobs. There. You have your explanation. Good day sir.

 

[Mathak]

Its LGBT or My Little Pony. Make your choice!...Lets do both!

Spoiler

LGBT ponies are the best ponies.

On-topic: The Escapist? Mostly socially liberal? Yeah, in the 'booth babes are totally female-empowering, don't you have a sense of humour?' faux-liberal sense.