h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My friend and I have always joked that when we reach a certain age if neither of us is married we'll just get married... of course as we get older that age gets higher and higher... I think we're now talking about when we're in our 80s..

There was a programme on Channel 4 a few months back about gay muslims. There was a lesbian whose parents literally wanted her dead.

>> My friend and I have always joked that when we reach a certain age if neither of us is married we'll just get married...

A favourite moment on tv last year was Sandi Toskvig saying to Graham Norton "...I think you and I should get married just to annoy the Daily Mail..."

There are some heterosexual women who have so little respect for gay men that they try to 'turn' them. Many of those fall into that faghag definition I gave earlier.

I remember watching that programme. It was a difficult watch too.

Yes being gay and not white is even tougher because homophobia in thsoe cultures is so much more open and is sanctioned by governments and religous leaders. For example, Iran executed two boys for being suspected of being gay. In the black world. jamaica's oppression and open harrssment of gays is widely reported and gay hate is even prominent among Jamaica's black 'music' artists, again something reported widely when they were thankfully prevented from performing in thie country due to the way they stir up followers to attack gays in their lyrics.

I think if is only Europe which shows any sign of tollerance of homosexuality. Nowhere else in the world does.

I agree about some women thinking they can *cough* change a gay man. It's just plain wrong. People are what they are.. granted some people may change their orientation on their own at some point and I see nothing wrong with that - as long as it's strictly their choice and not coerced in any way. A long ago friend of mine who is bisexual had the best description I had ever heard. He once told me "I'm neither gay nor straight. I love who I love."

>> some people may change their orientation on their own at some point

Is that possible? I had always assumed that you'd got what you were born with, whether that was straight, gay, or bi. Even Rising Tide who was talking about "when I was gay" and "now I am straight" didn't change his orientation - he kept his orientation and changed his gender.

I do remember that there was a political fashion for being gay or bi in some universities in the early 1980s, and I was probably more put off my own bi-sexuality by having it politicised than by anything else. The sight of student politicians having lesbian relationships because they ought to was not a pleasant one. I am perfectly willing to accept that these women were bi, but I honestly don't think most of them were lesbians. Bless.

Maybe one day I'll meet the right girl....

B

Just to clear up a little confusion about Personal Spaces...

h2g2 is a full community site. This means that members get a Personal Space that comes with a message centre where people can leave messages for the person, as well as a journal and the facility to create entries.

The Messageboards work on the same platform - DNA (Named after Douglas Noel Adams) - but Messageboards traditionally didn't come with Personal Spaces, and so the DNA ones don't either.

(Just to confuse matters, all DNA accounts come with the *framework* for Personal Spaces, just in case it's decided to add them later. So if you view a Messageboard account via a full site like h2g2, it will look as if it has the journal, message centre and introduction section, but these aren't actually activated. This is why, when Messageboard users come to h2g2, the h2g2 people sometimes get confused as to why they can't leave a message, because from their point of view, there's a message centre, but from the view of a Messageboard person, there isn't. Told you it was confusing. We still get people insisting until they're red in the face that the message centre exists, because they can see the forum number for it, and that we've deliberately 'broken' it.)

We don't openly advertise our facilities to Messageboards people, simply because there are people who ask to have their account moved to h2g2 - or just sign up new accounts - solely to bypass their own site's moderation and to use our facilities without ever contributing to h2g2. They just go back to their own board and carry on using our features over there, which is a bit cheeky, especially if they then begin to misbehave and we have to pay for it!

So technically, if you wish to be an active member of h2g2, there's no need to create a new account. This isn't an offer we make to everyone, for the reasons outlined above, but as you've been contributing extensively to h2g2 over the last couple of weeks, if you wish, we can move your existing messageboard account over for you and you'll be a full h2g2 member within seconds.

Obviously, I have to say at this point that with this comes an understanding that you accept the House Rules and agree to contribute within them.

When I was 25 I moved to Toronto and ended up hanging out with many gay people (mostly men) partly because one of my cousins is a gay male and he was one of my first contacts there.

My other cousin in Toronto, W (a straight woman), was often called a fag hag because she hung out at gay bars with our gay cousin F, and her boyfriend was also a member of their 'mostly gay' baseball team.

She mostly laughed it off in a grand Ms Midler style - as in 'fk em if they can't take a joke!' - but I think it really was unfair for some people to call her this.

Most of the nightlife I enjoyed the first year I lived in Toronto was hanging out in predominantly male gay bars and it was actually a lot of fun. Great music, very friendly and generous people, and W and I could dance together to our heart's content. Even 'the boys' would sometimes dance with us. As I say, it was all very enjoyable.

Later on, as I met more people, and because my favourite 'going out for an evening' included seeing live bands, I went to the gay bars less and less. Who knows, maybe some people back then also thought that I was a fag hag. Weird.


az

I probably didn't say that right, Ben. I'm not sure I could without sounding insane. I was actually referring to people who might think they are one then the other or think they are going through some sort of "phase" at one point - not that that is what it is.

Batty, I think you got it here:
"A long ago friend of mine who is bisexual had the best description I had ever heard. He once told me "I'm neither gay nor straight. I love who I love.""

Actually that is the point, you are attracted to A PERSON, not a gender!

...and that´s why this stereotyping is so...boring... unnecessary and actually foolish...



BTW, your absolutely right...never tickle a sleeping dragon

thanks dragonqueen.. I liked that too... it's always stuck with me since my friend said it..

*giggles* mind Pandarus, he is quite ticklish..

Well, it's very possible that I am a hetty (aka breeder) simply because I haven't met the 'right woman' yet. I actually think that is a possible possibility. Which wouldn't necessarily make me gay or even bi if that happened to happen, just probably open-minded? I certainly don't find this concept threatening.


az

Stereotypes...

Breeder? yes I have hatchlings, fathered by the same guy many years ago.

Straight? well, so far all my partners in crime have been male...

Bi? there are women that give me naughty thoughts...

Openminded? at least I hope so

...so what does that make me? Openminded bi curious straight female breeder...?

The point is...all this labeling is just ... I am the person I am...

I agree.. though my relationships have all been with men I'm not sure you could call me a breeder.. no little batlings running around... though I 'practice' at every opportunity.

Just responding to this before reading the massive backlog

>>You haven't *actually* read the House Rules, have you, HonestIago? Be honest <<

I did ... once and it was a long time ago. I don't think I've ever breached them either, at least not under your jurisdiction. But I could be wrong on that.

I want a Iago only policy! It'd be Iago-phobic if you didn't develop one. I'm not quite sure how that works but I want a policy for me!

>>I think if is only Europe which shows any sign of tollerance of homosexuality. Nowhere else in the world does<<

It depends on whether you are talking about legal or social tolerance. Certainly Australia, NZ, Canada and even the US have quite high levels of both.

Then there's the big surprise - anyone know which was the first country where the government promoted full legal and social rights for gay, bi and trans men and women?




It was South Africa. The Belgians and Dutch beat them to implementing everything, but South Africans were drafting *full* equality legislation in the mid-90s, way before anyone else

I'd like to be believe that in the US we'd be reasonable enough to do this but realistically that is not the case.. and thanks to the current administration we've been knocked back a few decades to boot...

I'm not sure I can be classed as a breeder as I've only got the one and she's MORE than enough

Reply to post 366:

I think that is an excellent quote from your bisexual friend.