[SAFESPACE] LGBTIQQA Thread - Queer Support!

[micco]

No, I do not find your homophobic jokes funny. Actually, think what you said was very offending. Stupid classmates.

[Aaeriele]

No, I do not find your homophobic jokes funny. Actually, think what you said was very offending. Stupid classmates.

*hug*

[Monika]

No, I do not find your homophobic jokes funny. Actually, think what you said was very offending. Stupid classmates.

Here, have a giant LART to be used liberally on said classmates.

[Plasma Man]

Have some good news from the UK, as well.

[Aaeriele]

And some more good news from Washington, D.C., USA.

[Brace]

School started again. Computer Technician II weekly workload works out to about 70 pages reading, plus ~35 questions at the end of each chapter and an average of 5 hands-on labs. 3 quizzes, one final, 8 weeks. Blah. Networking class I have no idea because I don't have the textbook yet, but syllabus basically says one written, one quiz, one online group discussion per two weeks, then a final. Also, work called me off again.

[Maelstrom.]

I've always enjoyed the way that Utahraptor from Dinosaur comics just happens to be gay. It is never brought up as a topic in itself, there was no dramatic reveal, he is just gay, just as T-Rex is gigantic and green.

Also: the comics are awesome.

[Shivahn]

I've always enjoyed the way that Utahraptor from Dinosaur comics just happens to be gay. It is never brought up as a topic in itself, there was no dramatic reveal, he is just gay, just as T-Rex is gigantic and green.

Also: the comics are awesome.

I love it when stuff like that is just dropped in. A gay character who's not defined as the gay character is always excellent.

I had a similar feeling when I found out that the droid on Obi-Wan's starfighter in the prequel trilogy is female. It's not pink, or femmed up, or anything, It's not even humanoid. It's just a little girly R2-D2.

[Monika]

http://fyeahprivilegedenyingdude.tumblr.com/ is gone ... bastards ...

[Ashlah]

Again? Boo

[Hawknc]

I've always enjoyed the way that Utahraptor from Dinosaur comics just happens to be gay. It is never brought up as a topic in itself, there was no dramatic reveal, he is just gay, just as T-Rex is gigantic and green.

Also: the comics are awesome.

I love it when stuff like that is just dropped in. A gay character who's not defined as the gay character is always excellent.

I had a similar feeling when I found out that the droid on Obi-Wan's starfighter in the prequel trilogy is female. It's not pink, or femmed up, or anything, It's not even humanoid. It's just a little girly R2-D2.

Wait, really? I didn't even realise the R-units had genders. Consider me learnified.

[doogly]

It's from the prequels.

[Shivahn]

Hmm, looks like she's actually a red-pink. But whatever, since she's so grimy you can't tell.

Here she is.

Apparently, Lucas decided she was female because her behind-the-scenes handler was female. I thought it was pretty cool, I'm a sucker for non-sexualized female things in movies, especially where it's just so casual and not even mentioned.

[TheGrammarBolshevik]

Could have sworn they refer to R2 as "he" at various points in the canon. Nevertheless, what doogly said.

[Brace]

I just want to post to say that I love my grandmother. That is all.

[Maelstrom.]

Could have sworn they refer to R2 as "he" at various points in the canon. Nevertheless, what doogly said.

Bby the looks of it - from this ridiculously in-depth article - R4 being female was probably retcon'd in at a later date. She is referred to as a he multiple times in the literature.

[Brace]

Could have sworn they refer to R2 as "he" at various points in the canon. Nevertheless, what doogly said.

Bby the looks of it - from this ridiculously in-depth article - R4 being female was probably retcon'd in at a later date. She is referred to as a he multiple times in the literature.

Obviously they were just misgendering her out of habit :v

[Shivahn]

I just want to post to say that I love my grandmother. That is all.

Whoo! Yay family ^^

Could have sworn they refer to R2 as "he" at various points in the canon. Nevertheless, what doogly said.

Bby the looks of it - from this ridiculously in-depth article - R4 being female was probably retcon'd in at a later date. She is referred to as a he multiple times in the literature.

All that literature is after the movie came out, which is apparently when Lucas decided on the droid's gender. She wasn't retconned to being female, the people writing the novelizations just assumed she was male. Which is kind of illustrative of a societal problem, really.

[Maelstrom.]

Could have sworn they refer to R2 as "he" at various points in the canon. Nevertheless, what doogly said.

Bby the looks of it - from this ridiculously in-depth article - R4 being female was probably retcon'd in at a later date. She is referred to as a he multiple times in the literature.

All that literature is after the movie came out, which is apparently when Lucas decided on the droid's gender. She wasn't retconned to being female, the people writing the novelizations just assumed she was male. Which is kind of illustrative of a societal problem, really.

Well in that case, boo at the books. Im with Hawknc in thinking they didn't even have genders, but if they do then people should bloody well get them correct and not assume male.

[The Mighty Thesaurus]

This is what I always hated about writing dialogue: do you write the way people actually talk, complete with crap like assuming everyone who is competent is male, or do you write the way things ought to be?

[Wyvern]

Maybe if we write enough in the way it ought to be, then people will eventually learn to talk and write that way in their own lives. It'd what I'd do, at least.

[GraphiteGirl]

For the sake of character development and creation of realism, it's hard to get away with every character being fully aware, but having one or two who get it, in a way that matches their character, can work.

[Zarq]

This is what I always hated about writing dialogue: do you write the way people actually talk, complete with crap like assuming everyone who is competent is male, or do you write the way things ought to be?

Depends what genre. Sci-fi is completely open. Past and present depends whether it's fantasy (albeit slightly) or realism. If it's fantasy then you're completely free. Create a world where everything is like it should be. If you're going for historical accuracy, then it's impossible for the past, and possible, but rather hard for the present.

As for the droids: I can see absolutely no reason why one would give a droid a gender.

[Ginger]

People have genders. They like themselves. They like robots that beep and click and fix their spaceships. They give them genders. Seems logical to me. Also protocol droids with their diplomacy and stuff. I think they would be gendered too.

[Zarq]

Well yeah, I can see the reason behind deciding to give them genders, I just can't see a logical reason why they should have a gender.

Current consensus is that there is no is no "Men come from Mars, Women come from Venus" divide between the genders, so if you extrapolate that to robots, you've got two models that are exactly the same except that one has his gender-bits set to Male, and the other to Female, which doesn't have an effect on anything at all. I just don't see the point in that.

[sophyturtle]

I don't think genital-like bits are involved here. Just that these bots sometimes have something like personality, and they have a gender to go along with that.

Not functional, just an artifact of our socialization.

[Zarq]

I don't think genital-like bits are involved here. Just that these bots sometimes have something like personality, and they have a gender to go along with that.

Not functional, just an artifact of our socialization.

I knew someone was going to misinterpret that Bits as in ones and zeroes.

[TheGrammarBolshevik]

Current consensus is that there is no is no "Men come from Mars, Women come from Venus" divide between the genders

That's a bit misleading… there are still gender divides in terms of things like clothing and mannerisms. The latter would probably be relevant for a diplomatic droid, since androgynous behavior can be disconcerting in a gendered society.

Ninja'd.

And ninja'd again:

Even though you're not talking about genitals, gender performance does have effects on various things.

[Zarq]

Current consensus is that there is no is no "Men come from Mars, Women come from Venus" divide between the genders

That's a bit misleading… there are still gender divides in terms of things like clothing and mannerisms. The latter would probably be relevant for a diplomatic droid, since androgynous behavior can be disconcerting in a gendered society.

Ninja'd.

And ninja'd again:

Even though you're not talking about genitals, gender performance does have effects on various things.

Well, diplomatic droids perhaps, but that can be solved by implementing two modes in the same droid, male mode and female mode. No need to hard-program it.
And for little dustbins as the R2 series there's absolutely no need for genders.

I don't know what you're trying to say with the last sentence. Remember, we're talking about droids.

[Jessica]

Is it wrong to feel happy about this?

[Monika]

What could be wrong about it?

[Shivahn]

Spoilered for discussing Star Wars being weird in the LGBTIQQ thread

Spoiler:

According to everything I've seen on it, droids are given genders explicitly because it's easier for humanoids to interact with them as gendered individuals than agendered ones. The R-unit astromech droids work closely with humans so they're programmed to have genders so that the people interacting with them have an easier time.

Though I would bet that the entire thing came up when someone asked "...why are all the droids referred to and voiced by men?" and someone went "uhh... to... make them... easier... to work with?"

Is it wrong to feel happy about this?

Hahaha

That put a pretty big smile on my face.

[ParanoidAndroid]

Is it wrong to feel happy about this?

Haha, this is wonderful.


Story time. Near the end of last semester, my girlfriend and I were walking across campus when we ran into one of her TA's, who happens to be a really attractive, well-dressed guy. They chatted for a minute, then we went on our way.

Me: "So, what class was he a TA in?"
GF: "Anthropology"
(beat)
Me: (glancing back) "Okay...just...DAAAMN."
GF: "Gee Willikers I KNOOOOOW."

She is the best. Even though other friends know about my bisexuality, she is pretty much the only one that is completely matter-of-fact about it. She's just like, "Yeah, my boyfriend likes girls and guys. He also likes coffee."

It's stuff like that that makes me want to just change my "interested in" status on facebook or something. My friends who know don't realize how nice it is when they casually mention something about it or joke about it with me. It's little things like that that say, "I'm cool with who you are, and this isn't a huge deal like you sometimes worry it is." I'm just worried that people will treat it like a much bigger deal than it is.

[Monika]

She's just like, "Yeah, my boyfriend likes girls and guys. He also likes coffee."

Awesome, totally awesome

[Kewangji]

I've always enjoyed the way that Utahraptor from Dinosaur comics just happens to be gay. It is never brought up as a topic in itself, there was no dramatic reveal, he is just gay, just as T-Rex is gigantic and green.

Also: the comics are awesome.

T-Rex had a relationship with him once! The reveal was about that.

This is what I always hated about writing dialogue: do you write the way people actually talk, complete with crap like assuming everyone who is competent is male, or do you write the way things ought to be?

I write mostly the way things out to be, or have the misogyny be a general character flaw (and recognized as such by the text at least) like everything else bad about a person. Or, I hope I write that way. The characters can be terrible and heteronormative without the story being so.

Another way I write is avoiding mentioning those topics entirely. Nobody's going to notice that the haunted house is feminist!

[Gopher of Pern]

Can I just say that you are all awesome people, and that you deserve all the happiness in the world! The Khaos Komix was awesome, spent most of yesterday at work reading it.

Spoiler:

I have a friend who confided in me that he wanted to change to a female. My reaction probably wasn't that great. I didn't try to convince them otherwise or anything, but I just said "oh, alright." I was a bit surprised, but I didn't think any less of them or anything, but i think i might have put them off a bit. It was over a year ago we spoke, and since then, even though I had invited them to a few things, I haven't actually talked to them, as they hasn't replied back to me. I'm afraid that I might have been less than supporting of their change.

Should I just call them? See how they are doing? We were never really close friends, but we were in the same "loser" group in high school, interesting in RPG's and computer games, though they would be considered more of an 'odd' person.

Thought I should spoil that, as my nick can be traced to me, even if it may be hard to work out what I'm talking about.

[Josephine]

That response is pretty common. Actively being supportive is a great thing to do. I can almost guarantee it will be appreciated.

[Aaeriele]

That response is pretty common. Actively being supportive is a great thing to do. I can almost guarantee it will be appreciated.

Seconding this. Totally see about getting in touch again.

[Zeda]

She's just like, "Yeah, my boyfriend likes girls and guys. He also likes coffee."

Isn't that exactly what you need sometimes? A person you love who can be so absolutely accepting?

[Aaeriele]

Spoilered for being incredibly fucking triggering.

Spoiler:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Officer-accused-of-rape-takes-lesser-rap-963942.php

Prosecutors sought the maximum one-year sentence for the official oppression charge, which is a Class A misdemeanor.
As part of a plea agreement, Nash waived an indictment last month and pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor. In exchange, prosecutors agreed not to pursue a felony charge of sexual assault by a police officer, which had a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Nash was arrested last February after the victim — currently serving time in a male state jail facility for prostitution — reported that she had just been held captive and raped by the officer.

Prosecutors opted to pursue the misdemeanor charge against Nash instead of the felony as they began looking ahead to trial and contemplating “additional issues we'd have to deal with,” said Adriana Biggs, chief of the district attorney's white-collar crimes division. She declined to elaborate.

WHAT THE HELL.