Pride Month coming up....

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Having taken part in Pride since the 90s I know the vibe isn't just "Care about LGBTQ+".

It's "Care about all human beings".

There's an emphasis on all human diversity whether it's race, class, age, ability, gender, or orientation.

The message is to be proud of who you are.

I've always been dumbfounded about how anyone could find it offensive.

Those idiots would show up at monster truck rallies if they thought they could hurt LGBTQ people.

What do you base what you stated about the Shepard murder on?
Yes, he had been robbed, but the two killers had coaxed him out of a bar where they had met him by posing as gay after realizing his sexuality. To make matters worse for the said killers, their girlfriends lied to the police about how Shepard had propositioned them. So, yes, they knew he was gay, which was why they had targeted him.
The notion that his death resulted solely from a robbery was a lie pushed by the right in order to downplay homophobic violence.

i can sorta understand what he is sayin' here but i have to point out that this type of logic has a very short range- i mean, where does the "just don't be obvious" bit end? would the nazis has calmed down if only the jews had stayed underground? would the kkk have calmed down if only the POC would have stayed underground? just sayin.'

You can google it yourself, the guy who killed him was going to rob another person that night and was a meth addict. After failing, he went after Shepard. Whether or not Shepard was gay wouldn't have made a difference in the outcome.

Doesn't mean I don't support hate crime legislation. But activists try to look for martyrs. We all saw it when BLM made a dude who punched a store clerk into some sort of hero (Ferguson). Doesn't mean I don't think there are valid points, but movements try to find martyrs and when the details don't match they don't like to admit it.

The Ferguson situation predated BLM by years.
As for Shepard: even if the two killers (there were two of them) were specifically out originally to just rob someone else, would they have killed him as well? Most robbers aren't interested in becoming murderers. The fact that they had tortured Shepard then killed him speaks volumes about the genuine hatred they must have felt for him. And the most likely reason for that kind of hatred was their homophobia.

BLM predates Ferguson

Homophobia can happen anywhere. T.W. discussion of traumatic events (violence and homophobia).

At work. At school. On the playground. At home. On a bus. Or a train. At a club. Or a bar. Anywhere.

I was attacked before my area started having Pride events (that I knew of, anyway). There was no uncertainty about that attack. It happened in a forest glade. Back then, I was on my way to a park / playground. I'd come out to someone at the park, and someone else had overheard our conversation. He must've told his - what I assume to be his friends - about it. Trouble is they were strangers to me. I didn't know this group. So when he showed up with his mates and unexpectedly attacked, I didn't have many options. No recording exists. I have no proof. No idea who they were. I can't remember their faces anymore. The strange thing was, after the attack I just kind of lay there. None of it felt real. I don't think my brain was ready to process that information. Yet I understood the motive. He'd called me disgusting and used certain homophobic slurs. Told me about how it was wrong. I was fortunate that I only gradually developed bruises and no serious injuries.

The incident scared me and I went back in the closet. I didn't come out to anyone else until two years passed since then. So I can understand the appeal of keeping quiet. However, I choose not to. I don't want my life dictated by others. Nor should others have their life silenced. We exist and we're not going anywhere.

A basic google search shows the BLM was formed 1 year before Ferguson.

Not worth my time anymore. You don't even do a basic google search to see if what you are saying is wrong. It makes me think everything you say is wrong.

Ah there you go, any slight criticism is immediately equated to "you must be against womens rights, and hate black people, and others." Its this "intersectionalism" mindset where if you don't go along with every single bit of the "movement" you immediately get cast aside as representing "everything that is against us."

No, I have problems with everyone being pressured to go along with something. Having to go along with LGBT pride month or therefore, you hate LGBT is abhorrent to me.

You can be prideful! Go for it! Self advocate! But don't socially pressure everyone to go along with a pride month and then say everyone who is mildly annoyed with it is your enemy. As I said, tolerance is a different standard. I tolerate other lifestyles. I favor legal protection. But it ends there. Social pressure to wear a flag is annoying at best; at worst it reduces others' freedom to NOT wear the pride stuff.

I don't give a crap about autism acceptance month either. It doesn't impact anything. No one goes, "look back, the turning point in civil rights was Black History month."

If you don't see why having a professional gay guy on staff is problematic, its because you live in a bubble. Most people are OK with most things until its in their face. People are ok with pot legalization until they have someone smoking pot around them outside, then they want it banned because they hate the smell.

Imagine if a company posted a job that said, "job opening, only straight people will be considered." It would be an outrage! But when you have a DEI person, its NEVER some straight white dude in a pickup truck. Its implied that DEI people will ALWAYS be LGBT or some kind of minority group. Always.

Its hypocritical, and most people can see through that. It builds resentment, not bridges.

I don't know who you are responding to. If its me, I never said "just don't be obvious"

I'm going to invoke "Godwin's Law" here. Its why we can't even have real discussions. Everyone who disagrees with "the movement" is therefore the same as Hitler.

Your both not wrong.

Homophobia was bigger before pride. Having gay sex was a crime, considered a mental illness to be cured by conversion therapies, and an automatic disqualifier for employment. My bullying was because they thought my differences meant I was gay. That changed because of protests.

All protests involve some in your face and blowback is inevitable. “Too much” in your face can delay progress and even cause retrenchment. Nixon’s and Trump’s elections demonstrate that and arguably the current anti trans backlash falls into that category.

I would argue that gay marriage came about due to a smart less confrontational approach specifically by appealing to libertarian instincts “we should be able to live the life want” and pointing out that that gay marriage does not threaten straight ones.

Not wrongly some advocates argue that why the f**k should we wait another minute to get the rights we deserve, why f**k should we have to ask permission? Why should we suffer to message your discomfort? You probably do not intend to give us anything, calls for delay is an attempt to weaken our resolve and make us go away.

Problem is everything is situational, one truly does not know the best strategy.

Invoking Godwin's Law is a little ironic, considering based on his own expressed opinions Godwin wouldn't find fault with Blabby's reference.

No, he specifically referenced politicians advocating for rolling back rights as well as right wing rallies.

Not someone on the internet saying "hey maybe if someone is annoyed by a professional gay guy." You really are stretching his words to say it applies in this situation. You are looking for any way to call anyone who disagrees with you a Nazi.

I understand your point. However, I think it's fair to say that no one here considers you to be a Nazi. There's definitely a conversation to be had about positive discrimination and workplace quotas. Perhaps though in another thread where it can be focused on in greater depth. A conversation about assimilation VS more radical approaches of protest. Perhaps in PPR?

I stand corrected. I misremembered BLM as originating with Derek Chuven crushing Lloyd's neck.