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A comment on Where do our sexual preferences come from and how flexible are they?. Parent comment

Re:Where do our sexual preferences come from and how flexibl... by krapp on Friday April 05, 2019 @01:09PM (#19584693)
>Surely we're past the whole "Aids is a gay disease" stage by now?

Nope. People still believe that.

People still believe that God sends hurricanes and terrorist attacks to punish societies that tolerate LGBT people.

People still believe that LGBT people are just closet pedophiles, and equate accepting them with accepting bestiality.

The LGBT community itself has people (TERFs) in it who believe transgender people are just men pretending to be women for sexual gratification.

We haven't really moved past any of that.

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Re:Where do our sexual preferences come from and how flexibl... by lenticular on Friday April 05, 2019 @01:23PM (#19584872)
By "not all," you should say "nearly none." I can tell you must not know any transpeople.
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Re:Where do our sexual preferences come from and how flexibl... by philwelch on Friday April 05, 2019 @01:30PM (#19584981)
People still believe that apostasy should be punished by death. People still believe that Stalin did nothing wrong. People still believe that the Bourbon monarchy was a good regime and that France has faced nothing but centuries of decline since they tried to abolish it.

"People still believe" isn't a meaningful or impactful argument. You can find at least 100 people who believe virtually anything, because there are over seven billion people and the human mind has much more than a 1 in 70 million chance of believing something dumb.

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Re:Where do our sexual preferences come from and how flexibl... by krapp on Friday April 05, 2019 @01:50PM (#19585215)
We're talking about far more than a few kooks on the fringe of society, though. The beliefs I described are mainstream in some places, and anti-gay bigotry is codified into law in some countries.
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Re:Where do our sexual preferences come from and how flexibl... by philwelch on Friday April 05, 2019 @03:30PM (#19586155)
So is punishing apostasy with death--usually the same countries.
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Re:Where do our sexual preferences come from and how flexibl... by lenticular on Friday April 05, 2019 @02:00PM (#19585328)
I'm gay. You should believe me when I tell you that plenty of people still believe it is wrong and it does impact me in very big ways. Times that by 10 for transpeople. Do not attempt to speak for these groups when you have no idea of what their experiences are.
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Re:Where do our sexual preferences come from and how flexibl... by philwelch on Friday April 05, 2019 @04:23PM (#19586644)
You're assuming that I'm straight. Interesting. Also false.
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Re:Where do our sexual preferences come from and how flexibl... by lenticular on Friday April 05, 2019 @04:42PM (#19586821)
Sorry, my mistake. However, you are repeating the claims of crypto-homophobes that deny that anti-LGBT discrimination is still a very big problem. It is still a horrible scourge, and minimizing it is morally wrong. You may not experience too many issues due to what I imagine is a higher-middle class tech industry social status, probably in a coastal city, but others aren't so lucky. I stand by my criticism.
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Re:Where do our sexual preferences come from and how flexibl... by philwelch on Friday April 05, 2019 @05:50PM (#19587382)
Then discuss how and why it's a big problem instead of making existence claims. That's my only point.
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Re:Where do our sexual preferences come from and how flexibl... by lenticular on Friday April 05, 2019 @06:10PM (#19587504)
Are you seriously asking me for evidence of my claim that homophobia is a big problem? Do you need similar evidence of racism being a big problem?
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Re:Where do our sexual preferences come from and how flexibl... by philwelch on Friday April 05, 2019 @08:22PM (#19588321)
No, because you've demonstrated neither the capacity nor the inclination for good-faith discussion. I'm simply clarifying my original point, since I seem to have expressed it poorly in the first place.
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Re:Where do our sexual preferences come from and how flexibl... by stcredzero on Friday April 05, 2019 @01:27PM (#19584935)
The LGBT community itself has people (TERFs) in it who believe transgender people are just men pretending to be women for sexual gratification.

Many TERFs are effectively identitarians. The unfortunate reality, is that every widespread system which can be exploited, will eventually be exploited. So society needs to be designed with this in mind. Otherwise, one is just providing ammunition to people like TERFs. (Ideological slogans like, "Listen and believe," have probably meant with good intentions, but are epistemologically bankrupt. The same goes for all erosions of due process and innocent until proven guilty.)

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