New Category: Age/Gender related discussions: Gender Varient

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I'd stopped reading after Alex's response as the OP was winding me up with her 'agree or be classed as prejudiced' responses so I've only just noticed this post. The organisations you mention are not support groups so to set up supports groups within them, is not unusual. WP is already a support group and focus should not be taken away from that. LGBT people already have support forums for issues concerning sexuality this being created so easily will just create more - We want an LGBT catagory with seperate forums for gay men, gay women, etc. Very soon there would be a gay section of WP with some members never leaving it to join with others and even non-spectrum people joining for the 'vibrant LGBT section'.

There exists on Wrongplanet more specialized subforums than a GLBT forum. Being GLBT us about what someone is, instead of who a person is, and coping with that can be difficult.

Because there is precedence for arguably more trivial forums, (which no one has argued about anyway,) a strong opposition to GLBT would seem to most people to based in prejudice, as there some 25 subforums ,not counting this one, and the stat forum).

I doubt that the last few forums were argued as greatly as GLBT forum. Which is more likely that the 26th is a theoretical hard limit of a person's tolerance for subforums, or is 26th is being argued, in length because it would be the acknowledgment that there ASD persons who are GLBT as well?

It was my hope that we all remember that we are ASD as well. Not liking conflict, I would not have endured the bickering I have in this thread, unless I felt it was very important.

For better or worse, last month I submitted a question, a request for a GLBT forum. The answer does appear in this thread, so I am hopeful that a GLBT subforum will be created here on Wrongplanet.

i am not sure if you are saying it would be a good thing or a bad idea. from your description, the idea of a subforum sounds positive, welcoming, and, well... vibrant.

WP has a subforum for math & science, one for sports, and one for forum games... those are pretty specific to particular interests. there's room for another subforum. most people congregate in general autism anyway - that isn't going anywhere.

It'd be a bad thing for a sub forum to grow seperately from the rest of site and become about LGBT problems rather than aspie problems.

L&D + Adult already handle the types of post that would arise in an LGBT forum. I don't see how comparing to math & science or sports would be a good analogy, you said yourself they are interests, being LGBT is not an interest, both types of people could have interest in these and many other interests. LGBT forum would soley serve LGBT people who are currently making posts in L&D and Adult and split those forums. I could understand the need if gay posts were met with hate and distain but they're not, they're treated like all the rest. Where's the evidence that LGBT people don't recieve adequate support here? Is it based purely on the fact that they've not been pidgeon-holed into a box and told to only post there?

Almost every forum I've been on has a forum games (or similar silliness) section.

so, you think it's okay to have endless subforums about special interests? perhaps a birdwatching forum, a trainspotting forum, etc. should be in order instead. i don't get why it's okay to divide the foum according to interests, but not according to GLBT issues.

L&D and adult do cover some of GLBT issues, but there are enough threads mixed into other areas (very difficult to search out, as one poster noted) that they merit their own forum. not all gay people want to date, and not all of them are 17 or older.

and we already have a subforum for Bipolar, Tourette's etc, so your argument that such a subforum could grow separately from the rest of the forum is unfounded... it hasn't done so. it hasn't caused any kind of separation or rift, but it has allowed diverse people to have a place to discuss other issues.

did you oppose that forum when it arose?

*****

to all of the people in opposition: are you pro or anti-gay rights and gay marriage? honestly? i am seriously wondering whether think this is less about a subforum and more about your own personal philosophies regarding gay and lesbian people.

i don't see your point.

The Aspergers group I attend was looking for an alternative meeting place, if it weren't for the distance we might have met at our local GLBT center. The discounted/non-profit rates are very attractive.

Friday I will be going to a transsexual meeting; there WILL be at least one other aspie/ASD person there, perhaps two. I would like to remind that person that they are not alone, and that there is better than tolerance, but support as well as acceptance for GLBT people in the ASD community. I would like to cite a particular forum where they can also go to for support.

There's a person at my Aspergers group, and I believe that the first relationship he has may not be with someone of the opposite sex. Should the topic surface in conversation, it would be nice that he have a resource as well.

Whether it is a topical conversation or a heated argument about the a subforum as an idea is one thing, but what some people are opposing a subforum that will help people.


On my computer, I have 252,470 file in 30,891 folders/directories. By the same method, it agrees with my aspie sensibility to place the GLBT related topics in a separate category as none of the other preexisting categories are well suited to GLBT topics.

People are not categories, and have a series of attributes, but generally topics and conversations can be be put in categories. Just because there may be a GLBT forum on Wrongplanet does not mean that everyone/you are GLBT. It only means that if you had issues both good or bad, or indifferent which are GLBT related you would have a good chance of reaching other apsie/ASD/Auttie people who are as well.

Questioning relevance of citing the existance of said subforum

the other poster i was responding to questioned the further segregation of WP that he thinks would happen if a GLBT was created. i was pointing out that there are many subforums already, and several of them have absolutely nothing to do with ASD. including the games subforum, which hasn't caused people to stop going to other subforums.

it doesn't matter what subforums are accomodated on ther forums - this is about the unique flavour of WP.

I'd hardly call nine off-topic forums endless, the other are varied autism support forums. The interest forums don't divide as allsorts of people post in them but none seem to be particularly busy, just taking the odd post from different people about said subject to stop them clogging random, for example. Are you saying that you'd rather not have LGBT people clogging our straight forums with their problems?



How is it more difficult to find posts? We all have the same google-search tool to find posts. Not everyone is 17 or over? Try another age related topic...



Er, no. Firstly, I don't remember it happening so couldn't. Secondly, I highly doubt that whoever requested it used demanding and slightly bullying posts to get it. Finally, it's for co-morbids, not a specific sexuality - I disagree that L&D and age specific forums don't cover the appropriate LGBT issues can anyone actually give an example?



Wow, you sound like the OP here. I don't really need to defend myself here, I'm far from homophobic and challenge anyone to find something I've posted which is. The only issues which are specific to the LGBT community is homophobia but is it that unlike racism? No, but nobody is requesting a forum based on that.

What I'm against here in reality is needless segregation. Gay pride events look for equality - being treated as everyone else, not seperating them based on their sexual preference which is exactally what the OP is engineering.

I'm also against the manor in which the OP has gone about this, if I can on requesting a Brit forum and gave the 2 options of Yes- I'm open minded and believe this should happen or No- I can't stand those limey idiots, this should not happen. I'd be told to sod off. The only way it's managed to go unchallenged is because many don't want to be considered homophobes.


To the OP, I've resisted responding directly as I find your posts very abrasive but I need to respond to your last post:

Surely it's be better to tell them about a fantastic, supportive place where all aspies and auties can go for help and advice REGARDLESS of your sexuality? That you can go and post about any issue you'd like and recieve generally supportive responses from people of all sexualities?

You really think it's better to tell them that there's this great site that has a friendly aspie/autie community and there's a special forum within it that a small percent use which you can go to with your problems?

i didn't call you homophobic - i asked you if you were opposed to gay rights and gay marriage, which i do notice you didn't answer.

i don't really see what it could hurt if we had a GLBT. your only argument is about segregation, and the Bipolar etc. forum did not lead to segregation, so there is no reason to expect that a GLBT subforum would lead to that problem. therefore your argument is not really valid based on WP's recent history.

Mark198423, this is an an example of a us/them mentality, a lack of empathy that illustrates the need for a GLBT subforum. You seem to have no compunction about wielding inconsideration as a tool, to better your cause:

Is that the kind of response you give to someone who needs understanding!?

A quick study of GLBT issues would reveal that being GLBT is not specifically age-related. You also seem to have reduced human beings here:


They are people with co-morbidities. That forum was also contested, contested because of what effect it might have on public perception, just like is happening here. Given that some people with ASD do have other issues beside their ASD ones, one would be prudent a group to help those people with issues, so that the whole can be stronger.

[I have an issue or two as well, and while it's not a co-morbid issue, I am secure enough in myself to know that while it's not related to my ASD, that I can visit that forum to discuss my PTSD, when time permits.]

I am sorry, but the world does not work like this:


I am sorry Mark, I don't trust you not to undermine the confidence of GLBT people, nor do I trust you to abstain when you cannot be objective, like you could well have done here. I have a viewpoint contrary to yours, and it would seem logical that I would seem abrasive to you, and I will be here for as long as I can, as if a person's life may hang in the balance, because it may. That is what experience has taught me. That is what we are all seeing in the news, teens taking their lives because they are GLBT, and it might seem all the sudden, but it's not, only that people are starting to notice, to care. And so, that is what I am asking wrongplanet to do, to care for their ASD/Aspie/Auttie people who are also GLBT. So, once again I ask wrongplanet for a GLBT subforum.

Last edited by BrendaEM on 08 Nov 2010, 4:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.

No, but you did insinuate it. I may not have answered your question directly, but I notice you haven't responded to anything from my last post either. To answer your question, no, I'm not opposed to gay rights at all. I probably know more LGBT people than most straights on here, more than some LGBT's from more remote areas, I would call many friends but I shy away from that label as there are very few I become really comfortable with, but I don't see them, or any other LGBT people, as inferior, therefore they deserve equal rights.

The comorbid forum isn't a valid point as I addressed previously, LGBT isn't a comorbid thing. It's about sexuality and identity, things that are addressed here already in existing forums. Many of the problems aspie LGBT people will come across will be issues shared by straight aspies and therefore can have advice contributed by straight aspies, most of whom wouldn't visit an LGBT forum. On the other hand, LGBT aspies can do the opposite but may be less inclined to visit L&D, etc and see them to comment.


To be honest, I initially took great offence to the manor this was requested. I hate it when people claim prejudice to try to achieve thier goals. These same people claim lack of equality but how is that to be achieved if they seperate themselves from the rest of society at times it's not necessary. The goal should be to achieve more intergration, not less.

Alex has already stated he will create a LGBT forum. Flaming between members on the issue and accusations of homophobia add nothing to the discussion so I'm locking it.