LGBT community

[Nowak]

1 hour ago, handymanshandle said:

Shrug. I'm bored so enjoy my favorite scan.

 

...Squaresoft?

[PlayStation 2]

13 minutes ago, Nowak said:

...Squaresoft?

Yes, they made a racing game. 

It’s not very good. But hey, the soundtrack’s good!

[BoredErica]

Seems my mom is starting to come around on the LGBT thing a little bit. Not all the way, but... wait, has hell frozen over already? 

Also, how about that Title VII Supreme Court ruling? Eh?

 

In other news, people continue to ask me to smile in my portraits. Multiple people. Many people.

[alicskysareblue]

On 5/14/2020 at 2:42 AM, Nowak said:

...Squaresoft?

Yes squaresoft  and Enix did a merger back in 2003 and became square enix. 

 

I remember this many were worried about what would happen to their favorite squaresoft franchises like final fantasy. 

[PlayStation 2]

2 hours ago, alicskysareblue said:

Yes squaresoft  and Enix did a merger back in 2003 and became square enix. 

 

I remember this many were worried about what would happen to their favorite squaresoft franchises like final fantasy. 

I think you might've missed the context of the post you quoted.

[husky1993a]

On 6/17/2020 at 5:06 AM, BoredErica said:

Seems my mom is starting to come around on the LGBT thing a little bit. Not all the way, but... wait, has hell frozen over already? 

Also, how about that Title VII Supreme Court ruling? Eh?

 

In other news, people continue to ask me to smile in my portraits. Multiple people. Many people.

The Title VII ruling is substantially significant, especially considering the amount of moves against the community that have been done by the Trump Administration as well as state laws trying to bar trans folks from using the correct facilities.

[alicskysareblue]

Boy detransitioning was not fun 0/10 would not recommend

 

Anyways I'm happy just being a bisexual male, although at my age biology is kicking in and I want a family of my own. 

 

Edit: should probably update my profile as I'm no longer a transwomen

[Eschew]

TIL: Agender flag is made up of black, gray, white, and lime green.

 

 

Makes me oddly happy inside. Nice aesthetic, me likey. 

(Lime in my profile pic has no correlation with the lime green of the agender flag. That's purely coincidence.)

 

Also makes me wonder how many LGBTQIA+ things I'm not aware of. I know popular and oft-used general terms, but with identity and sexual orientation being a non-linear spectrum, and with so many intricacies that rely on specific phrasing, it's... I dunno, it reminds me of a moving kaleidoscope. Hard to focus on and to remember one color/concept if you haven't studied it.

 

Never actually joined any official LGBTQIA+ groups or dedicated communities, so my exposure to LGBTQIA+ and Pride is quite limited. There was one at my Uni, but I didn't spare the time for it (quizzes, tests, reports, research papers, grades grades GRADES!). Also, never liked the idea of conforming with herd mentality. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[alicskysareblue]

3 hours ago, Eschew said:

TIL: Agender flag is made up of black, gray, white, and lime green.

 

 

Makes me oddly happy inside. Nice aesthetic, me likey. 

(Lime in my profile pic has no correlation with the lime green of the agender flag. That's purely coincidence.)

 

Also makes me wonder how many LGBTQIA+ things I'm not aware of. I know popular and oft-used general terms, but with identity and sexual orientation being a non-linear spectrum, and with so many intricacies that rely on specific phrasing, it's... I dunno, it reminds me of a moving kaleidoscope. Hard to focus on and to remember one color/concept if you haven't studied it.

 

Never actually joined any official LGBTQIA+ groups or dedicated communities, so my exposure to LGBTQIA+ and Pride is quite limited. There was one at my Uni, but I didn't spare the time for it (quizzes, tests, reports, research papers, grades grades GRADES!). Also, never liked the idea of conforming with herd mentality. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Herd mentality is dangerous its what got me to transition despite never having gender dysphoria

[PlayStation 2]

16 hours ago, Eschew said:

-snip-

Eh, can't blame you for carving your own path. Truthfully, I've never been very active in talking much about my sexuality largely because it's not a big part of me. I like guys, not much else to that, it's my business, my boyfriend's business and no one else's. I've got many other things I'd like to talk about otherwise, lol.

[Chrisokane]

After 9 years together @ANDuff and I decided it was time to get rings. We got matching rings made from Irish silver coins (we're from Northern Ireland).

[Sarra]

I'm asexual, does that count?

[PlayStation 2]

19 minutes ago, Sarra said:

I'm asexual, does that count?

Eh, probably. Don't think anyone would particularly be miffed about it.

[PlayStation 2]

28 minutes ago, Benji said:

Well, non-educated people like to think that you never had any and thus come to the conclusion that it is not something you actually want and might harass you due to that, I have heard about that happen. Don't know what the deal about it is either.

 

I consider myself gay and I have no problems with it, neither does anybody around me that knows (I've never outed myself and never will as my sexual orientation is just my business and not something "abnormal" that I have to specifically announce) has any problem with it. Most people find out even before I tell them, just due to my behaviour. I don't really mind it at all and it never is or was a topic that gets any discussion as it, in my opinion, is not something that needs to be discussed. It is just the way it is and it doesn't change who I am.

I guess I should've worded my quote to imply that this thread doesn't care. I personally don't care. I have better things to worry about than to freak out over someone's sexuality (or lack thereof?).

Which I guess leads to when people realize I'm gay: it never strikes anyone that I am. Nothing about me really leads to that conclusion unless I directly mention it. I know back in high school, I had some friends that would've never guessed that. I don't look the part, I don't act the part, my music tastes don't match the part, my politics don't parallel the part, my general being doesn't make the part. And yet...

[Eschew]

An  shared this lil' game with me, I'ma share it too. It's less of a game and more of a story in which the player has minor control over the main character via dialogue options. Mild warning, it's not all sunshine and butterflies rainbows and rainbow unicorns.

 

TLDR: Story about a bisexual young man coming out to his Chinese parents.

 

 

Coming Out Simulator 2014 by Nicky Case

 

It is a thought-provoking game and I have thoughts, coming from a slightly similar background (there are more differences than similarities, TBH). What's that phrase again, "I can sympathize, but not empathize"? Spoilers and unironic spoiler tag below:

Spoiler

Gonna go heavy-handed with the spoilers and say that it turns out alright in the end. If this were another sappy, nothing's-changed-from-the-beginning story, I'd toss it in my mental trashcan and forget about it. I detest stagnant stories, or stories in which the character doesn't evolve.

 

Main themes of the story are parents and sexual identity. The story's author admits that the story is made up of some truths and some lies.

 

Being impatient, I skipped through the About Me and About This Game sections in the beginning. From what I gathered, however, the game's main character, Nick, is a bisexual man with Chinese parents, is living in Canada, and is in a relationship with Jack. Jack's already come out to his parents about his relationship with Nick, but Nick hasn't. For understandable reasons, of course; not all parents are as open-minded towards non-straight sexualities, and we find out that Nick's very much aren't.

 

Unsure whether dialogue choices make much difference in the end, but I chose "unapologetic but curt" responses, if that makes any sense -- "I know who I am and I'm going to tell you, but without freaking out or getting heated up about it." Felt more comfortable to me than the hesitant, beating-around-the-bush type of replies the other choices hinted at.

 

When Nick opens up to his parents about his bisexuality:

• His mother is disgusted and literally vomits into her dinner. She tries to find loopholes in Nick's explanation of bisexuality to "legitimize" him as a straight man in her and her husband's eyes.
• His father is quietly furious. He uses fear tactics, in both verbal and body language, to shove the straight sexuality down Nick's throat.

Ironically, I have the same reaction towards both parents.

• The mother straight up repulses me. Her son doesn't conform to her ideal image of him, so she tries to reject his identity and to convince him otherwise with wordplay, and then cries about it when it clearly doesn't work? The only fitting description I can think of for her is "weak." I consider myself a fairly sympathetic person, but she elicits absolutely zero sympathy from me.
• The father angers me. I don't and will never condone the use of fear tactics (intimidation, ultimatums, claustrophobia, etc.) to communicate with or to educate someone's child. There is always a better way, even if that way takes a little more patience to get to. Also shows signs of being an abusive husband, at least verbally, if not physically.

Once that stress-fest episode is over, the "gameplay" gets more stale, but the story takes a happier turn. The experience fuels Nick's determination to become his own person, instead of dancing around to his parents' expectations like a puppet on strings. He moves out of his parents' house, finds friends that support him (if the Half-Truth is to be believed), and continues his relationship with Jack (I think...? Ending was a bit ambiguous, only caught a sliver of it. There is a boyfriend at the end, lol).

 

Things that I can sympathize, but not empathize, with:

• Parents and Expectations: In the game's case, Nick's parents expect him to be straight and pitch a fit when he doesn't conform to that expectation. In my case, my mother expects me to conform to the female gender identity, and also possibly to end up in a straight relationship and to bear children. I can safely say that I've never cared for any of those things and none of them register on my list of long-term goals. (There's other career-related things my mother and relatives expect from me, but that's a story for another day.)
  • My comeback is: 关你什么事? (How does it concern you?) As in, what business of yours is it how I see myself, and whom I get into a relationship with, if it doesn't pose any harm or hinderance to your life? And "family reputation" or "think of how it would look to your relatives" can wash itself down the drain because that sort of asinine grandstanding is the least of my concerns.
  • Counting my blessings when I see them, however, because while my mother might quietly disapprove of my gender/sexual/romantic orientation, she at least hasn't taken any actions to actively discourage me from me being me.
• Abusive Household: Nick seems to come from a nuclear family -- two parents, and a child (or two) -- with some abuse issues. For my immediate family, there's only my mother and myself -- father passed away when I was very young, I have literally no memories of him -- also sprinkle in some abuse issues. My mother's never raised her hand against me before, and while she keeps harping on about it like some sort of achievement, in my eyes, it isn't any better if her words (sometimes very loud words) and other actions leave a sorer and more lasting mark than any beating can give.

Things that I can empathize with:

• Communicating with Parents: Or the lack thereof. I like to put it this way: my mother and I don't "communicate," she lectures or rants or vents at/to me, and I sit there and listen (or I pretend to, while zoning off with my brain thoughts elsewhere). Added difficulty in my case, because my mother doesn't know a lick of English, and my Chinese (both Mandarin and Cantonese) is as shoddy as wet cardboard.
• Moral of the Story: Forgot the actual wording, but something along the lines of "even if I could change the past, I wouldn't." Because a different history might compromise the person that I am today, and while I'm not "perfect," I am at least quite content with "me." My life won't ever be a Sims game; it won't be "perfect" -- the option's been taken out of my hands from the get-go (see Abusive Household above), and I've come to terms with that -- but it can be "better." I've got some bad memories and some trauma, sure, and the best thing I can do is to treat them as learning lessons and to better my person off from that experience.

I have some other thoughts, but I'm going to play it safe and not mention them. Who know who's reading on the interwebs, hmm?

[piratemonkey]

11 minutes ago, Eschew said:

Spoilers and unironic spoiler tag below:

what an unironic spoiler. how could it be?

 

But seriously, I heard about the game. I'll have to play it now

[Gegger]

imma just leave this here 

 

https://www.pawsofpride.com/

 

[PlayStation 2]

I think I'm realizing as time goes on, that I half-embrace my sexuality and am wholly casual and nonchalant about it. It's not something that it's really not a premier aspect of my personality, but it's not something I'm ashamed about, at least in particular. 

I guess I'd just rather talk about it casually rather than to force it down people's throats.

[piratemonkey]

11 minutes ago, handymanshandle said:

t's not something that it's really not a premier aspect of my personality, but it's not something I'm ashamed about, at least in particular

I might seem like a dick or whatever, but my belief is that your gender and/or sexuality is not a personality. If you make it your personality, you seem kinda shallow. If I seem like a dick, sorry

[Nowak]

Don't forget tho that you should be proud of who you are, considering how much damage government and religion (in particular, religion) has done to us. The fact that we exist as we are stands in defiance of that.

[BurstSMG]

1 hour ago, piratemonkey said:

your gender and/or sexuality is not a personality. If you make it your personality, you seem kinda shallow.

this is literally an LGBT thread, i'm unsure if making your identity a large part of that conversation is even avoidable especially when it's literally the entire subject matter

[piratemonkey]

5 minutes ago, BurstSMG said:

this is literally an LGBT thread, i'm unsure if making your identity a large part of that conversation is even avoidable especially when it's literally the entire subject matter

I never said anything about not talking about your identity in this thread. I only made a statement about a person's life irl. For this thread to be effective you need to talk about that stuff. 

[Guest]

19 hours ago, piratemonkey said:

I might seem like a dick or whatever, but my belief is that your gender and/or sexuality is not a personality. If you make it your personality, you seem kinda shallow. If I seem like a dick, sorry

I agree it's not a personality but that really applies to any aspect of someone's identity. I know a few people who seem to make politics their personality and it's quite off-putting. But I also think sometimes LGBT people are accused of "flaunting" or "making it their personality" for doing things that straight people do that doesn't get the same judgment. Just my $0.02.

[Nowak]

2 minutes ago, Kylan275 said:

I agree it's not a personality but that really applies to any aspect of someone's identity. I know a few people who seem to make politics their personality and it's quite off-putting. But I also think sometimes LGBT people are accused of "flaunting" or "making it their personality" for doing things that straight people do that doesn't get the same judgment. Just my $0.02.

There are people who make the fact that they play video games their personality. It's kinda off-putting.

[Guest]

K.