Legal rights, benefits, recognition is at an all time high. Every employer Iāve ever worked for has been pro LGBTQ.
What is impossible to change are peopleās views and minds, if that is what you are hoping for.
Especially those whose beliefs and are rooted in their religious beliefs and in trying to go there, you risk encroaching on folks religious rights which are just as valid as LGBTQ rights, Racial Eights etc.
Iām just curious as to what more can be done outside of mind controlling people.
I believe the all-time high would have been prior to the proliferation of A Certain Religion, since most civilizations did not have a lot of homophobia before it
Well thatās a silly thing to say because peopleās views and minds have been changing since the dawn of time.
The protection of the law and legal rules being written out, thatās the easy part. The other part, the society, is a bit more difficult, but it is not impossible. Thatās a proven fact. Societies change over time; they change their perspectives, their norms and their views, otherwise weād still think slavery and human sacrifice are okay, and we evidently do not even though these things were considered entirely acceptable in many societies for a very long time.
First of, even people with religious beliefs are changing their views because when religions donāt change, they die. Every religion alive today has been adapting and slowly changing over time (and space; because religious beliefs, even if theyāre part of the same religion, are not the same depending on the area you live in). If they donāt adapt, theyāre overrun by social changes and new religions take their place. Thereās plenty of religious people who reject the discriminatory roots of their religion and advocate for changes and adaptations to be made for the better good and for the safety and equality of everybody.
And second, religious rights end the moment they endanger someone. If a religion advocates for stoning people to death for being gay, then that āreligious rightā is no longer a right and no matter how much people want to argue that, it wonāt be true. Once your beliefs put real people at risk, your beliefs are no longer under any sort of protection. Human safety takes precedence. A gay person is in no way endangering a religious person by simply existing, but a religious person preaching harmful and potentially lethal practices and ideas against gay people is endangering others, therefore nobody has any obligation to honor something that can cause kids being kicked out of their homes, poverty, homelessness, injury and even death.
Obviously, I canāt stop someone from being angry at the gays ā¢ in their own home, but as a society we have an obligation to provide public and widely available scientific education to prevent any harmful ideas from spreading. Thatās how, ultimately, we might reach a point where the LGBT community wonāt face the problems it faces today (and weāve already made progress on that front in comparison to the previous decades so this method is clearly yielding positive results). Education, awareness and representation are crucial for society to change its view on any issue.
Very well said. What I meant from a view standpoint is that of religious folk viewing homosexuality as a sin. Most modern day Christianās donāt stone folks. The sane, law abiding ones at least. In fact I remember a preacher telling a congregation that āwe need to love our neighbors who are gay the same as any other person.ā And that āJesus brought sinners into his inner circle, surrounding himself with those the outside world considered degenerates, unsavory etc. And we should do the same.ā So yes, views are changing on a bigger scale.
What I donāt like to see are the mom and pop bakers or florists who chose to live by their religious beliefs and politely refuse to make a wedding cake for a gay couple but offer to make anything else instead, only to be dragged through the court system, shutting down their business due to financial loss, yet have the Supreme Court rule after the fact that their religious right to not make the wedding cake was appropriate.
We can love our neighbors and get along peacefully. Neither side should encroach on the other. And there should be zero discrimination on both sides. Thatās my view.
Those stores would have plenty of business still if they just kept it to themselves and made the cake. They have the right to refuse, but thereās social consequences for it now. I wouldāve just made the cake, gotten my money, and bemoaned it in privacy. Unfortunately, I canāt really say I feel that much sympathy. Especially when that religion doesnāt actually mandate homophobia and itās just upheld largely arbitrarily. Itās not like it was the victims who started it.
No, we cannot get along peacefully as long as itās legal for LGBT folk to be fired for being gay, or as long as āā gay panic āā is a legitimate defense in several states which can get you off prison time for killing an LGBT person.
There are no Christians, at least not a majority, that wants church and state to be separate. Letās talk about getting along peacefully when there is no law that religious folk can abuse to hurt LGBT people. Letās, not.
All bigots have excuses. But the one excuse they all have is other people being bigoted against them. You sound just like every white supremacist who ever tried to convince me to their side. You donāt want to get along with straight people because youāre bigoted against us. And youāre a bigot because youāre life has been too easy to make you wise.
Did you even TRY to understand the comment I was trying to make? Itās all fine and dandy to preach about āā WE SHOULD ALL JUST ACCEPT EACH OTHER AND BE EQUAL āā when there are laws and societal structures that prevent this kumbaya from happening. Itās all fine and dandy to preach about that ESPECIALLY when itās YOU who arenāt suffering from these laws or societal structures. Like, thatās completely tone deaf.
Do you actually think itās illegal to fire someone for being straight?
The āgay panicā argument is horrible. And I support armed and organized vigilantism against people who use it and allow it to work. But straight people arenāt the only demographic that uses BS excuses to get away with crimes. Do you also blame all the worldās black people for the ones who play the race card?
And letās make something clear. It isnāt always a false accusation. In the same way that there are black people who are mistreated because of racism, there are predatory non-straights.
Iām not sure what is the argument youāre trying to prove here. That all people are bad no matter what group they represent? Sure, yes, I never said that wasnāt the case. What else? I canāt understand your train of thought.
No, Iām saying we should see people as individuals, and not judge them by the demographic they are a part of. I have friends, coworkers, family, and so on who come from every demographic there is. I also have enemies from every demographic there is. My best friend is a lesbian. But thereās also a lesbian who put me through a living hell, and is on my TOO list.
If you think about it, you can probably think of straight people who have shown you real kindness and didnāt care about your sexuality. You can probably also think of LGBT people who have been unfair or even cruel to you.
At no point did I mention anything about straights. I addressed religion and how it is extremely short-sighted and tone deaf to talk about āā accepting each other āā when thereās one side higher up in the hierarchy that uses societal structures they created to uphold discrimination. And whether or not you want to acknowledge it, straight people do have more power in the society than LGBT minorities. In order for a āā just accept each other and each othersā differences āā situation to work out, both groups need to be equal in the eyes of the government, society, law and otherwise. But if one of the groups can actively demonize and persecute the other, thatās not going to work out. Then itās all about us having to submit to someone elseās system and potential persecution that they can strengthen any time they want, while they just āā tolerate āā usā¦ until we show dissatisfaction to the system THEY CREATED and they start getting stricter.
If you need some kind of a #NotAllStraightPeople mention, then yes, not all straight people are meanies or oppressors. Not every straight person is lucky or extremely blessed in life either. You happy with that?
Let me help you understand one thing: Itās not a hierarchy. Itās aristocracy. For every SWCM with enough money and connections to ignore the law, there are thousands of others who are probably even worse off than you are. Maybe, just maybe, youāde be better off getting along with those people instead of blaming them for some supposed system none of them will ever have any power over. Even if youāre being oppressed, that doesnāt mean others arenāt.
To be honest, I can never tell with you politicals. Youāre the ones who vote the most. Half the people in my country that can vote donāt. Yet for some reason every election the half that does just getās more upset about the way things are going.
So why donāt you tell me what specific people are doing what specific thing?
This is not a politics thread. This is a āā I do hope that this game would have more LGBT characters or that the current LGBT characters could have more lore āā thread.