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John..
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Toe is in the water |
Registered: March 2008
Messages: 56
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Tell me please,
if Europe openly accept gay people generally.
Why is it such a problem in the USA..
Well in most southern states.
Is it self denial?
I pick the USA because its vast, but i feel lags sadly behind Europe on the Gay front.
I think there are more gay people in the closet there than in Europe.
bye the way Hi all
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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Really?
The south is their own worse enemy..... always have been...
Here where I live, and incidently, all the places I've lived, it is not rare to see openly gay paople.
As far as acceptance, well that is in the eye of the beholder isnt it?
And for as the gay front.... just exactly what is that?
As far as the closet goes.... how can you count those that are annonymous?
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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Well, John I haven't recently been on the mainland of Europe, but I have the impression that in quite a lot of it gay people are tolerated.
In England it certainly seems to me that they are but again I'm very rarely in a situation where I can be identified as gay - but maybe I deceive myself as I wear tights instead of trousers and don't think people see me as gay. Perhaps I'm wrong and they do!
In that case people are very tolerant here!
I do think that where the churches have a strong hold on the people tolerance is rarer and in quite a lot of the USA (not just the bible belt) one finds the fundamentalist view that it is an 'abomination' and nothing will then persuade them that it is only thus because of a mistranslation.
But I gather from reading the mailcrew site that quite a lot of schools in the USA have a gay-straight alliance. I don't know of a single one in England.
But children here don't even exceptionally shoot a gay child to death although in the schools I know 'gay' is the denigratory adjective of choice in the playground and children don't come 'out' for fear of being bullied.
So it's a mixed picture and really needs a proper survey to establish the differences.
Love,
Anthony
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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acam wrote:
>
> But children here don't even exceptionally shoot a gay child to death although in the schools I know 'gay' is the denigratory adjective of choice in the playground and children don't come 'out' for fear of being bullied.
Well, it's not like the bodies are piling up here either... A shooting incident like the Larry King thing is quite rare.
>
> So it's a mixed picture and really needs a proper survey to establish the differences.
>
> Love,
> Anthony
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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John, living in the USA, below the Mason Dixon line (the south), is a strange experience. People here are openly prejudice, and not just about gays. The one thing for sure is, you know who your ememy is. The prejudice up north is hidden and covered over, so the person you think is your friend is the one stabbing you in the back. For years the Falwells and the Roinsons and the Roberts of the world made their living off of the poor, uneducated people in the south. When money would run short they would start a campain to generate funds and one of the easiest was to convince these people that gays were out to convert their children to the gay lifestyle. things have gotten better as the demographics of the country has changed and people from different parts of the country are moving around. All of the hate mongering preachers are dying out and they dont have the following they once had.
If you stand for Freedom, but you wont stand for war, then you dont stand for anything worth fighting for.
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unsui
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Likes it here |
Registered: September 2007
Messages: 338
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No Message Body
[Updated on: Fri, 24 October 2008 17:57] |
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As a Southerner, from North Carolina, I have to say it is unfair to generalize about the South and the prejudices that one might encounter there. I think the correct division would not be "North" versus "South" but metropolitan and rural. If generalizations can ideed be made, then I would suggest that in general people living in urban areas have a greater degree of toleration and acceptance of gay and bi persons. I also think there is a strong division between highly educated and less educated persons in their degrees of acceptance. Less educated people tend to more fundamentalist beliefs because it's easier to be told what to believe than to think for yourself. The more educated a person becomes, they in turn tend to think more for themselves.
Roger was absolutly correct when he mentioned that people in "the North" are equally as prejudiced as those in "the South." A very good discussion of all this was in Eldon's excellent and well-reasoned postings on slavery and the question of blacks in society.
Is the South it's own worst enemy? Are blacks their own worst enemy? Are Jews? Are Christians? Are the Boy Scouts, founded by a sexually repressed gay pedophile incidentally? Is the North? Are Latinos?
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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Whitewaterkid wrote:
> Is the South it's own worst enemy? Are blacks their own worst enemy? Are Jews? Are Christians? Are the Boy Scouts, founded by a sexually repressed gay pedophile incidentally? Is the North? Are Latinos?
No...
[Sentence deleted by Moderator]
[Updated on: Thu, 24 July 2008 11:17] by Moderator
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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We certainly have a tendency to label people and to stereotype them. But I think you have a more realistic grasp of where prejudice is more likely to be found. Rural vs urban... pretty much a given, I'd say. Mostly because the rural areas only have their churches as sources of socializing. And you won't find many churches hosting "same sex" dances... lol.
Now, educated vs uneducated? I'd say I have to lay the blame for prejudice and bigotry at the feet of the religious Christian, Jewish and Moslem leaders - most of whom are very well educated. And I believe their very education gives them an advantage in swaying the minds and hearts of their lesser educated followers. So, I don't believe it is a matter of the uneducated being mentally lazy as it is of them being less exposed to more worldly viewpoints. But the internet and mass media are making huge inroads here. Ministers, Rabbis and Mullahs are becoming more and more vocal and angry as they can see their influence slowly eroding. And it can't erode fast enough to suit me.
Youth crisis hot-line 866-488-7386, 24 hr (U.S.A.)
There are people who want to help you cope with being you.
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Until theocracies limit the freedom of speech on the internet. Might not come to that i hope but still!?
People will tell you where they've gone
They'll tell you where to go
But till you get there yourself you never really know
Where some have found their paradise
Other's just come to harm
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