(06-23-2015, 03:34 PM)Hammersmith Wrote:(06-23-2015, 03:10 PM)Blue Wrote: I am going to talk from a pretty neutral standpoint here (I RP both etherosexual and homosexual characters, and am borderline asexual IRL, not like all this should matter anyway), but I think that one of the best ways to prevent discrimination is to avoid lobbying into categories. Communities that try to cater to only certain people always end up causing negative feelings from those that are not "allowed". It has been like this since the age of times, between rich and poor, X race and Y race, religion A and religion B. People don't like to feel excluded or marked as different, and groups like this do cause those feelings. This is why while I fully support people of different sexual orientation, I do not quite agree with LGBT communities or LGBT centered events (cause I mean, it's not like there are straight-centered events).
I do understand the desire to be with people with similar interests as yours, but forming barriers is something lobbies/specific communities do very easily. I prefer to RP my homosexual character in a mixed community, without trying put myself in a special circle or to keep others out. It's the key to become included in the world, both IC and OOC.
With that being said, I'm pretty sure there are several LGBT-only free companies or linkshells, so I'll go back to my corner. I just felt I had to share my opinion as a roleplayer of all orientations (I like to RP characters of all types, long as they're different from my real self to avoid OOC bleeding. It's like an unpaid actor job, in a way!).
This is a pretty flawed and dangerous argument.
Unfortunately for any community that isn't cis, het, and often male, it's expected and normally enforced, often in subtle ways like this, that if they don't let "Normal Joe" in, they're the racist/bigot/bad guy. Â And this is wrong, VERY WRONG.
There is nothing wrong with spaces intended for specific groups of people who are not in the majority. Â Anyone who insists this is discriminatory, closed minded, or otherwise because they're not letting in a "majority" doesn't seem to understand that the majority already owns, operates, and gets into, everything, everywhere. Â Everywhere is a majority holder's safe space. Â It leaves very few platforms where non-majority people can dwell and talk without having to instantly cater to the majority's views, cultural or otherwise.
It's not just a "I want to be with my own people" white room thing. Â It's a "The entirety of the world is not geared towards me and I need a space that I can turn to that is, when I get tired of that" thing. Â It's "There are very few places in this culture that are made and understand me without baggage, judgement, or instant categorization according to a discriminatory cultural standard so having a safe space is good" thing. Â
But you're one of the Allies? Fine.  This isn't your space.  You don't need to get butt-pats for being a good person.  You should be doing that because it's right, not because you want to buy access to something that you're not part of.  You don't need to take something from people who have very little as a payment for your kindness.  You're an ally because you already have everything.  You already have the power and should be applying that without any "but"s and strings attached.
It's a mental health thing to have these kinds of safe spaces, something that's dramatically demonstrated in the kinds of mental health hardships the LGBT community suffers under. Â
Obviously people being people will be dramatic, but that's an RPer community thing that us nerds can afford to work on, not a any specific line OTHER than RPer community thing.
TLDR; Community specific and "walled" groups for LGBT communities are not discriminatory.
I agree 100% with this.Â
Unfortunately, someone is going to bring up the argument, "Well, if they can have their group, then <insert hate group here> can have theirs!" As if that has any bearing on the issue here. It comes up every time someone asks around for a group like this. It's about safe spaces. Let people have theirs without lecturing them, please.