Right off the top, I want to unequivocally state that I never once referred to you or anyone on this site as homophobic--if I thought that, I would not be here. Let's take "phobia" off the table here. But in my experience what happens is if I call anything out, the poster immediately doubles down and dismisses me as "woke," or get told my feeling is invalid and that you don't know what else you could possibly do to make us feel more included. Well, one way is to stop doing that and maybe try to receive the message I am trying to relay.ponchi101 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 15, 2022 6:28 pm How is that JT? I have yet to read anybody in this site NOT supporting LGBT+ issues: marriage, rights to adoption, rights to love whomever you want. I have yet to read somebody here that is NOT against discrimination based on sexual orientation. In TAT1.0 we were pretty vocal against the discriminatory laws in Russia and other countries. In the Religion thread (TAT1.0), many of the skeptics expressed that one of our main issues with organized religions is their treatment of LGBT+ people: the Bible's open and extremely clear definition of male homosexuality as an "abomination", which we decried (it is truly one of the reasons I detest religion, together with their treatment of women as second class people).
Our support is such that we have banned slurs, done so automatically.
So, we are in 99% of agreement with the LGBT+ community. But then, we have some disagreement on some aspects, and we almost homophobes. We go back to the perfect purity test: 99% is not good enough, it has to be 100%. We enjoy Dave Chapelle, that's it, we are transphobic. We read what JK Rowling says, and we are, again, phobes.
I say it is the opposite. People stay away from the forum because the general atmosphere is that there is no tolerance for dissenting opinions about liberal issues. The one time in which somebody called somebody else "gross" was because of the untouchable subject of equal pay, and it was the supporter for equal pay, not the person posing the question. And, again, that subject is basically impossible to discuss; one member here once said equal pay was right because it was. And that ended the discussion, which I felt was unfair.
I really don't know what else to do to make the site as open to ideas as possible.
This is kind of what happens whenever this conversation is brought up--people immediately get defensive. I'm not saying that everything that you are saying above is not true--it is, but definitely more can still be done to make people feel more welcome when they call out some of the more outrageous comments that show up here. Some of the posters here have some very opinions on LGBT+ issues that are very antiquated/out-of-touch/uninformed (whatever you want to call them), and when this is pointed out, instead of trying to hear our side of the conversation, we are shut down and told basically that it us who are being rigid and inflexible, while others dig in their heels and double down on those ideas to which we are objecting. Go back and read the posts that were made during one of the French Open order of play threads when Kevin raised a red flag--one poster in particular was being over-the-top defensive, and when several TAT members who identify as LGBT+ brought this up, we were immediately shut down and made to feel like we overstepped. I very nearly quit TAT for good after that.
You are also right about what you stated above about TAT 1.0--I didn't have these feelings and experiences there. Something has shifted in the migration, though, and while I don't think it's pervasive in everyday conversation, things have come up a few times that have given me pause. I'm speaking up because I want to improve our community and would hope that everyone would want to do that.
I also want to stipulate that I love TAT and (very nearly) all of you. I realize that people contain multitudes, and can be more than one thing at once. You can enjoy Dave Chappelle and JK Rowling, likely separating art and artist, and not be homo- or transphobic. I do it all the time; I'm not a black and white person.