We have non-regulars drop in to the BBS so it’s probably best to remind everybody
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Angry adults started to shout.
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A lot of people think not saying the bad words or consciously discriminating against is the maximum that they can do, and indeed more than enough.
It is in fact the bare minimum, as it also doesn’t involved speaking up when others do use the bad words and discriminate, and doesn’t involve looking to find the ways that society has been built to discriminate and addressing those problems when found. That last one is often where they turn from theoretical ally to enemy. Because it means they might need to actually do more, and possibly to their personal detriment, in order to help others. Or even merely because they might wind up being less comfortable.No shortage of people who are fine with fighting for the rights of others as long as it requires nothing more than the occasional tweet.
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The good news is that we seem to be slowly winning the culture wars. I say this based on my grade 7 kid’s description of his classmates. Several of his friends are openly bisexual, as in ‘talking about it in class discussion’ and nobody seems to think that matters at all. Which it doesn’t - good for those kids - but when I try to imagine someone saying that in my grade 7 class 40 years ago I shudder.
The old people will rant and rave and stomp their feet, but (most of) the kids are alright. Not fast enough, not soon enough, but we are moving in the right direction.
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What scares me is how fast things can change for the worse. Ten years ago things were OK in most the UK, they could have been a lot better but I could go around and mostly not be harrassed for being transgender. What is really scary is that the reaction against LGBTQ+ and specifically transgender started before the Brexit referendum was even suggested. The result was seen as a victory for reactionary politics and things have accelerated downwards since. Now we have the council of Europe comparing the UK to eastern Europe and Russia in terms of transgender rights.
In the past I predicted that bisexuals/pansexuals/omnisexuals would be the next to be targeted, and now that institutional and individual transphobia is the norm in the British press they are starting with the biphobia.
Things are getting dangerous here, so don’t rely on the kids to fight when a vocal and well funded group of adults are trying to silence them. We all need to join in, before it is too late. Don’t repeat the mistakes we made.
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Take a look at Iran or Afghanistan in the 70s.
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I hear that. There is an even chance my younger kid is gay, bi or trans, which has me fiercely interested in supporting and defending the rights of people to be precisely who they are and free of violence and fear.
Kid may also just be trying things on, whatever. But I’m really glad he is comfortable doing that and figuring it out for himself, and I am extremely glad he feels safe doing that at school.
It isn’t perfect. I coached a baseball team last summer and my kid bonded quite closely with another boy that was on the team. At one point they were holding hands in the dugout. None of the other kids noticed or said anything, but I do remember one of the other coaches gasping and glancing at me to see if I had noticed or was going to react (spoiler: react is the last thing I am going to do in that context). Not sure what would have happened had I not been there.
Kid rolled eyes at me a couple days later when I mentioned, again, that it doesn’t matter to me who he likes etc etc.
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Agreed, but that also means it is the most dangerous time, as those with reactionary viewpoints get most desperate to cling to power.
Winning doesn’t mean won, and the tide can easily turn. But we are winning, and the opposition is becoming ever more ridiculous and shrill, helping to accelerate their own defeat. It is a long wearying slog, but the better future we are fighting for is worth the effort.
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“Never Assume.” - Duckie’s Third Law.
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I get my health care through the VA system with many of my procedures being done at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in North Chicago, Illinois. (Translation: it’s an active basic training base for the Navy and Coast Guard.) This means my old, purple-haired, rainbow bedecked, self often ends up in the same waiting area as recruits in training.
I’m actually glad to say that while I have heard some of them refer to various trainers as, for instance, lesbian, they meant it literally as in the same descriptive capacity that one might use tall, blonde, or other such adjectives. (“Oh, yeah, I know her. I saw here with her wife last week. Her wife has some awesome tattoos …”)
This actually does leave me hopeful.
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That young woman trying to get her point out, through her tears, just breaks my heart.
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Wait…totally OT…I thought the Glenview Naval Base was dismantled and the land sold to make yet more suburban housing tracts.
Where exactly is the base now? Are we talking the Waukegan base?
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I hope it wasn’t demolished. I had gallbladder surgery there in September and someone sure gave me an eye exam, including dilation, there last Friday!
Let’s see … official name, at least according to Wikipedia, is Naval Station Great Lakes (with my hospital being the "Captain James A Lovell Federal Healthcare Facility in North Chicago.) I see Wikipedia lists the nearest city as Waukegan (where I’m sitting at my desk in the IT office of the public library right now), but I guess they don’t know that North Chicago is its own city.
ETA: Ah! Glenview was a Naval Air Station. I thought it had been turned into mostly a small civilian airport, but it’s been a long time since I was out near it. (I’ve been geocaching around it; I recall using one of the defunct Klieg lights as a way point.)
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Yup, that’s it: the Naval Air Base is gone (has been for decades) but Waukegan is still up and running.
Good to know they’re giving quality VA medical care there.
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The article seems to think that “cis” is an acronym and refers to sexual identity. It is not an acronym and refers to gender identity (non-transness), not sexual identity (non-gayness).
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