Thank you all for these kind words.
There is so much hate out there right now... Funny thing...
I sometimes think that being bi is worse than just declaring myself lesbian and forgetting about men entirely. As a bi woman, I get both the idiot homophobes and my own sisters spewing vitriol at me. Then there are the males who think because I am bi I am always ready for a 3way or whatever.
(Ok, I pretty much am, but do you have to be so crude, moronic and simply RUDE about it?)
But I can't and won't be anything other than who I am.
Addressing the other issue.
Anti lesbian and gay bias is everywhere, sometimes just hard to see.
The following is from a British web site;
"High-profile homophobic bullying initiatives are failing to make a significant impact in preventing homophobic bullying according to the Queer Youth Network (a national organisation by by and for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered young people). It argues the very nature of schools themselves need to be looked at in order to eradicate all forms of bullying. Tackling homophobic bullying alone is creating a distraction from dealing with a much larger problem. In the organisation's national survey of young people from schools who had an anti-homophobic bullying policy 79% believed it had failed to make any difference to the level of homophobic bullying in their school, and 84% believed it was getting worse."
Check the news Loulabelle. While I have little doubt that the UK is much much more tolerant than the USA, there have been "gay" bashing crimes in the UK, (
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/law/2005-4408.html) as well as job discrimination. (
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/law/2005-4394.html) Also there's
www.galop.org.uk for more information.
Just search local news in what ever part of the world you live in, Oz, the UK, Canada, wherever you are, and you will finds little snippets of news about hate crimes, like an article on how a woman was assaulted and raped. Read to the end, and often there is a clue, such as a mention that she was "leaving a well known gay bar" when she was attacked. (Of course the same applies to gay men, but I have a bias.)
The denials of hate crimes infuriate me. Hate crime legislation is described as "thought crime laws" by conservatives.
Since explore the thoughts and motives of a murderer to see if it was
an unplanned crime of rage or a planned, calculated detruction of another's life, how is looking at the motives of a gang of men who beat and rob a woman with short hair any different?
Some argue that the Hate Crime Laws give more value to some than to others. It does the opposite, it prevents the devaluing of another person's life.
One well known religious- right wing group claims all crimes are crimes of hate, so adding a sexual orientation bias is not needed. This is stupid, ignorant "unseeing" philosophy.
If you are vicious mugger, beating and robbing to feed your need for money to buy coke or to buy flash, then that's what you are. A cruel uncaring sociopath. It isn't a crime of hate, but desire, the desire for money, and perhaps a taste for violence.
But if you pick a woman wearing "men's clothes", or with short hair, who is leaving a women's bar with another woman, and you "can't stand those f*****g queer lesbians" so beat and rob her, all the while not really caring if she has money or not, THAT is hate. No different than robbing and beating a woman wih 3 kids leaving a synagogue in an SUV because "all Jews are worthless anyhow".
Mark, your friend's problem seems to be his feeling that if he took part in a a sexual act more often part of the "gay" lifestyle he would be considered gay, or "less than human"
Sighs and leaves the soapbox for a while
Linda (WW)