LGBTQA+ Community

[Kenzi 146]

*points to the sky* YOU GET A GAY MARRIAGE

*points to a tree* YOU GET A GAY MARRIAGE

*points to the westboro baptist church* AND YOU GET A GAY MARRIAGEEE

 

to think that we are living through actual history

now whatta bout that

 

:')

[Balthazar Manfredie 226]

i cant believe ome south states actually agreed on this 

[machine 52]

(thank you, you two for posting because I saw stuff I wanted to add but didn't want to make my first post from earlier today even longer) 

 

Some 9 hours later after first hearing the ruling and I've still this stupidly happy grin on my face :')

 

Though I personally find it a little crude, a lot of things, such as this image, are going around social media currently are regarding what progress still has to be made in the US regarding LGBT+ rights and quality. Gay marriage is a really huge step but it's only one small step towards full equality. (Kinda wish this could've been held off a day so we could all just take a day to be happy about this and celebrate all the marriages before going back to remember that there's still a lot of progress to be made in the US and internationally but I suppose it's better than people acting as though this decision solves all LGBT+ inequality.)

 

And if you want to see some cute pictures of same sex couples getting married/marriage licenses today, here you go! 

These pictures are a very good reminder of just how important a decision like this is! Some of these couples have been waiting literally decades for today and seeing pictures of the moment they've been waiting for so long is really powerful!

 

 

i cant believe ome south states actually agreed on this 

 

Some of Texas's influential political leaders are more or less unsurprisingly voicing their views on it. I haven't heard too much negativity coming from other southern states but there probably is quite a bit of anger down there regarding the new ruling. It seems like the majority of the country is really happy and proud of the decision today though!

EDIT: Louisiana's, Texas's, and Mississippi's governors are standing against the Supreme Court's decision.(x) I don't know what they think their opposition will accomplish though...? It seems like those three are the only southern states actually not recognizing the ruling.

[Ryo 73]

Great moment that happened today.

My state was one of the many that still had same-sex marriage bans, so I'll take 

that as victory.

[Balthazar Manfredie 226]

im surprised that arkansas is not on that southern list

[machine 52]

Did you guys hear about all the buildings that displayed rainbow lighting last night? Most of them have the rainbow lighting due to it being LGBT Pride Month and that a lot of Pride Parades happen around this time but I think the White House just put up the rainbow lighting yesterday

 

 

(more rainbow buildings here)

 

im surprised that arkansas is not on that southern list

 

I didn't see anything about Arkansas last night or today. I looked into it today though and while Arkansas's governor expressed that while it goes against his personal beliefs, he'll abide by the Supreme Court's ruling and marriage licenses will be issued to same sex couples that want them. 

[Metantei Kiddo 147]

Did you guys hear about all the buildings that displayed rainbow lighting last night? Most of them have the rainbow lighting due to it being LGBT Pride Month and that a lot of Pride Parades happen around this time but I think the White House just put up the rainbow lighting yesterday

 

 

(more rainbow buildings here)

No US news here unless I visit BBC News or something so nah

 

Gonna reply to your long post tomorrow

---

Just saw on reddit Doge all for LGBT rights xD

[machine 52]

Youtube did a thing! A really, really nice thing!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSiehK2asbI

 

No US news here unless I visit BBC News or something so nah

 

Gonna reply to your long post tomorrow

---

Just saw on reddit Doge all for LGBT rights xD

 

is it bad that I laughed at "so gay"

[Metantei Kiddo 147]

First things first, I started writing this at the end of May, my laptop restarted a couple days ago and lost everything I had written, and because I had finals and two big tests last week and had family stuff recently so I didn't get time until now to rewrite anything so sorry for the wait! dear lord this took a long time to write

DCW has an autosave feature, if you don't know.

It saves what you wrote in the reply box from time to time in case of accidental exiting from DCW just like what you have said. All you have to do is return to the thread you were before, click on the reply box and click this:

It should show you a dialog box with the unposted reply on it.

Just click Restore Content and you're done.

 

 

That being said, happy LGBT Pride Month!   This month if you google LGBT or the words making up the acronym Google displays a rainbow banner at the top of the page. When I first tried it a couple days ago asexual and pansexual weren't included in this but when I tried it today they both got the banner as well!

Happy LGBT Pride Month to all LGBTs! Sad that this was posted tho on the end of June

 

 

 

--Since I've been working on this sporadically over the month the news stories have been in chronological order but this is too important to go towards the end! The United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of same sex marriage!! The vote was only 5-4 but this means same sex marriage is now legal in all 50 states! This is a huge win for all Americans today because even if you, yourself aren't affected by this decision, your family/friends might be! The fight for LGBTQIA+ equality isn't over but this is a huge, huge, huge step in the right direction! To have this happen during Pride month only makes it better too! Congrats to any and all couples personally affected by this decision and are now married or engaged as of today!

Let's not forget Ireland's approval on Gay Marriage. I think they really influenced other countries to take a step forward too which I hope leads to domino effect in the future especially that it's US, your country and the one of the most influential nation in the world, who took this step.

 

 

Unfortunately, not all LGBT news this month is good news. Michigan Governor Rick Synder signed in a law that would allow faith based adoption agencies to deny service to same sex couples/families. So y'know in other words this is essentially saying that certain adoption centers could not give kids the opportunity to go into loving homes if that home just so happen to be a family with two dads or two moms. I just.... ohm y god why (huffington post article)

I know I argued before that religion has not much effect on the anti-LGBT thingy. I still stand to this but I'm somewhat gonna change to "Not all religion or religious people goes for anti-LGBT". There are lots proofs out there that religions has a big effect on anti-LGBT movement so my argument before was complete BS but still calling all religious people Anti-Gay is just complete stereotyping.

 

Anyways, There are religions out there that are tolerant of LGBTs or neutral to LGBTs or frowns upon but not violent against them. Also, I hate how media always uses the word "Religious people" instead of being specific of what religion those people are adhering to. This really causes alot of misunderstanding and confusion that all religions and denominations have the same mindset. Not all, duh.

 

 

(I wrote a lot holy crap sorry if I accidentally skipped any parts too! It just started looking like a wall of text at some point haha)

I never really got how people valued sexual attraction over emotional attraction too.

It really isn't! For people who want their relationships to have a lot of sex, that's fine but it's not fine that so many people who think like that are so vocal about their intolerance of people who don't agree with them. What happens or doesn't happen in someone else's bedroom isn't their business so why they're so against it is just really baffling. If a couple can be perfectly happy just cuddling every night or simply being in each other's presence, good for them.   

With sex being put on a pedestal for guys and their partners, whether it be their girlfriend or boyfriend, giving into their pressuring to sleep together, I don't think they complain afterwards solely because they felt used. In most situations it seems that they felt pressured. They wanted to please their partner only to realize after they'd done it that they weren't ready to take that step yet. Sex can be a very emotionally involved thing for some people and sorta waking up afterwards realizing you weren't ready can understandably leave one feeling pretty horrible. It could lead to them being used, especially if they keep giving in because they want to make their partner happy. It's most likely just a communication problem though so avoiding getting yourself into such a situation probably isn't too hard. Having a partner that completely respects your boundaries is also a way to prevent yourself from ending up in a similar situation. You, yourself making sure you're not pressuring your partner is just as important too though. Saying it's stupid for someone to regret sleeping with someone kinda distracts from the actual problem at hand which is a lack of communication (or in the worst case scenario, a lack of respect) between the two, or more, parties.

Digressing a little bit, it is bad that society really urges boys, especially teenaged ones, that having lots of sexual partners is a good thing. Especially since teenagers can't always get their hands on condoms/birth control and that sex education is, at least the US, embarrassingly bad and not realistic. This can be a very gray area topic though since you don't want to slut shame those who hook up more often than other people but you also don't want to teach impressionable kids that sex is some badge of honor and those without the badge are lesser or on the opposite side of the problem, that losing your v-card before marriage "tarnishes" your purity for your future husband/wife.

 

Ah I see! Welcome to the ace community nonetheless!

 

I imagine understanding those who a lack of a feeling that something many people idolize can be pretty hard. I've noticed a lot of aro-spectrum people, regardless of gender, tend to feel a lot stronger platonic attraction than people who don't fall on the aro-spectrum so I wonder if instead of feeling romantic attraction we sorta "make up for it" emotionally by just having stronger platonic bonds. I'm not an expert on guy/guy friendships but in comparison to girl/girl friendships they do seem to be not as verbal in terms of appreciation. Like there seems to be an understood sense of "hey this guy's my good friend and we're there for each other" in comparison to girl/girl friendships where there's a lot of hugs, being more emotionally open, and occasionally "'love you!"'s. Going deeper into why that is intersects with feminism and how sexism can affect men and that's a whole 'nother topic. 

True, just dating someone or having a QP partner to not appear different is pretty sad since you're not doing it for yourself. Considering how some people's families put so much pressure on dating and later getting married, you can see why some would do that though. I get what you mean by not personally being able to have such a close relationship with someone you ultimately only view as a friend. To people in QP relationships/want a QP relationship, the idea of having someone you're close to with no romantic//sexual strings attached is really appealing though. Not all kinds of relationships are a good fit for everyone, hence why some people have monogamous relationships and others have polyamorous ones or open relationships. (and in case anyone doesn't know; polyamory and polygamy aren't the same!)

 

Alloromantics (if I haven't previously explained, alloromantics/allosexuals are the opposite of aromantics/asexuals. It sounds better, and lessing confusing, than referring to those who experience romantic/sexual attraction simply as "romantics"/"sexuals") who aren't super caught up in dating are really in the minority. It's really nice to run into alloromantics that aren't hellbent on getting into a relationship though because as you said, some people then sorta ignore their friends once they're in relationships. Having high standards isn't necessarily a bad thing! It can mean you have some respect for yourself by not taking anyone who throws themself at you and/or not getting involved with someone who's potentially abusive. It can make things very tricky though as all the good ones seem to be taken or not interested but the long wait can making finding someone who's good for you feel 10x better!

 

Yeah sexuality and gender can both be very fluid and are especially volatile when you're younger. That's why, in the US at least, transgender children usually opt for puberty blockers when they get around that age and then take time to decide with their family if they're going to transition or not. If I'm not mistaken you have to be a certain age to legally transition in the US too so even if a child decides at 12 or 13 they are going to transition they might have to wait a year or two to start transitioning. 

I'd also like to add that some kids just assume they're straight when they're younger. Like with a lot of asexuals, if they never heard the term and didn't have any particular reason to doubt their assumed heteorosexuality, why would they question it? It is true that some people's sexuality/sexual preference can change at the drop of a hat though. 

 

I can't quote your most recent post because I've been working on this for the past couple weeks days but; I'm pretty sure my family thinks I'm gay too but just doesn't want to confront me about it haha. Asexuality is a newer term, it's gaining popularity though! AVEN's only been around since 2001 and considering how long LGBT awareness has been around I think for its 14 years it's doing fairly well!  Hopefully in a few years time it and some of the other lesser known queer labels (nonbinary, demisexuality, pansexuality etc) be as well know as bisexuality c:

Haha, it doesn't matter really that you skipped some part. I wrote a very long post which is really hard to reply on so yeah :3

 

The sexual thingy over emotional thingy, probably gotta do with their sexual drive and on what environment they were raised. I mean a person might have parents/relatives/peers that values sexual stuffs over emotional stuff which influenced him/her or the person might just have a very high sexual drive.

 

Never thought you would reply on the relationship thingy coz that was way off topic Anyways, haha, yeah true. I hate how some people shove their opinions on other especially on things like this. They're like being really subjective on things and think that the things that they do to make themselves happy would also make other people happy if they do the same thing which is just complete moronic. Everyone has their own personal preference on things and we should respect that. Plus, gah... those people who share their bedroom stories and how much they had. Just disgusting. :V

 

Well, some complain becoz they really feel used. Trust me, I'm a guy and I have guy friends who just want the thing from some girl especially those who they describe as "sluts". They pursue a relationship with them and then after they get it, they run away and never to be seen again. This kind of thing is the one I'm talking about not those relationships that have sexual intimacy in it coz, as you said before, there are couples who believe that sexual stuffs are one of the ways to express "love" with each other and I'm totally A-OK with that. And yeah, it's not fair to blame or call someone stupid for giving in to this kind of requests but it's not good either to completely deflect the blame. In seriousness, the offender and the offended have the fair share of blame; the former for being a shallow person and the latter being an easy prey and not being responsible enough.

 

Anyways, about the communication problem and on a partner that totally disrespects your boundary, the thing is that it doesn't show up early in a relationship especially if you're in a relationship with someone you just met some week or month ago on a dating scene or it's someone you do not know fully. Of course, they would show their best side first but after awhile you'll know their true intent. And this is where problem arises, you're already head over heels with the person before you realize their abusive tendencies, like for example, your partner will give you silent treatment if you do not give in to his/her sexual wants. And of course, a person that is completely in love with that kind of person would think irrationally. They would give in to the request just to stay in relationship even though they know that it's gonna be a repetitive cycle. And this is why I'm really against random dating/speed dating or what ever dating that doesn't require that much time investment in knowing the person first. I prefer building friendship and trust and knowing the person first before dating them over dating the person and knowing them afterwards. In this way, there's not much emotional investment in it and It's easier to cut off ties or stay as friends if I really really see the person in a bad limelight or it's not the person I want to be with. Just sharing my opinion.

 

Yup, I also really hate how having sex is like an achievement nowadays.

 

And yeah, we don't want to slut shame anyone but anyways, about preserving the V-card thingy till marriage or abstinence, if you really think about it, it shows good quality in a person, if the person for example had many relationships before/a lengthy relationship but was able to preserve the thing, it shows great self control that they did not give in to any pressure or primal urges and patience for waiting that long. And that's a honorable thing. Plus, also, this kind of lifestyle completely prevents STDs. So yeah, people who have successfully practiced abstinence deserves a higher praise than those who aren't able to do so. That doesn't mean tho that we can resort to slut shaming on those who have lost their Vs early on and continues to pursue sexual relationships. It's just like the Fat and the healthy thingy, we shouldn't shame the fat people but we shouldn't just completely "welcome" them. Rather, we should explain and remind them that being fat is an unhealthy thing/lifestyle and not something to be proud of. (I'll probably get alot of hatred now But I'll stand with my moral code no matter what.)

 

I see. I see. That's something new learned today! Haha, the thing with guy-to-guy friendships is that if we ever do the same physical intimacy or other kinds of intimacy as the girl does with each other, people would think that it's homo already so we avoid getting to intimate with one another not becoz we're bunch of homophobes but rather we just want to send a message straight out that our gender is male. :3 Gah.. it's just something instilled to guys by the society. There's nothing much we can do.

 

Haha, you really know lots of terms bracketed under LGBT So I can identify myself as Alloromantic? Anyways, yeah, I've yet to meet someone who isn't caught up with dating/love thingies that much just like me. Btw, Aren't there gray romantics ? About the high standards thingy, that's very true!

 

That's another thing learned today :3 Yup, true, before I heard that asexuality exists I really just believe that I'm heterosexual. But of course, I start to question my own self since I'm not as much as interested with sexual things compared to other people out there. I'm 100x more interested in forming emotional and romantic bond, instead. Yeah, people can change their sexual orientation in a drop of a hat.

 

I really do hope that term asexuality gains more prominence in the future and will just be as well known as the gays and lesbians and more people will be able to identify themselves as asexuals . Yeah, true. I hope the same for those queer labels.

 

 

Yeah, the amount of sex thrown at us in movies, advertisements, and songs can feel a little suffocating. It's one of those things that once you're aware of it, you continue to stay hyper aware of it. It's arguably better than sex being so taboo it's not talked about at all but it's a little much y'know?

True. True. It's not just a little too much. It's way too much already. It already became a main part of the Western Culture or those countries adopting Western Culture. I'm totally fine with sexual themes being thrown in movies and the likes a few times but if it's way too much, it tends to get distracting, annoying and cheap way of getting people to watch it. Just like in GoT, for example, I never watched it becoz of so much nudity in it. Seriously, that thing can already be considered "pornography". I know the reason why lots of guys watch it is becoz of the nudity in it not really becoz of the story.

[machine 52]

Now's as good of a time as ever to revive this thread. I was intially putting this off because the Kim Davis thing happened, and while waiting for that blow over I forgot this thread existed :') Because MK's gone for the most part and because it's been an unreasonably long amount of time, I'll not respond to anything in the post above so this can be its own thing, but if anyone wants me to answer anything from the previous conversation, I can.

 

It's been fortunately pretty quiet the past few months! The only thing I was considering posting here a little bit ago was a few LGBT+ inclusive Christmas ads I saw, but when I realized most of those were a few years old I decided against it. Here's two things I recently came across though:

 

Firstly, New York's Govenor recently announced that he intends to eliminate the use of conversion therapy in New York state saying that it's "a hateful and fundamentally flawed practice" The main objective will be to protect LGBT+ minors from being forced into conversion therapy which is proven to do more harm than good. Last year, a bill in New York was passed a bill with a similar goal and hopefully these measures will be passed and put into place as soon as possible. A few have expressed worry that, while plan is a step in the right direction, it might not be extensive enough to make the practice fully obsolete as some independent mental health conselors might slip through the cracks. x

 

And a transgender student at a South Carolina high school has been suspended for "using the wrong restroom" The student identifies as male and has been transitioning since middle school. At first there were complaints that the student was using the girls' room, but after the middle school allowed him to use the mens' room, and presumably locker room as well, there hadn't been any problems. After a teacher at the school saw him using the mens' restroom, the student was called down by administrators and told he may either use the girls' restroom or the nurse's. Unsurprisingly, the student ignored this and after being spotted by teachers going in and out of the mens' room, was suspended. His mother has since put him in online school, but has mentioned that while her child is still recieving an education, he's no longer able to participate in the extracurriculars he was originally doing, including the school play. She's said she's recieved an email from the Department of Education and that's reportedly indicative that the school's in the wrong.

What a horrible thing for a 14/15 year old kid to go through though. While it sounds like this case is likely to go in favor of the transgender student, I can't imagine how the student's mother feels about sending her child back to that school after this. Hopefully the school will own up to their mistake and apologize soon. x

 

---

 

This'll be the first Valentine's Day that gay marriage has been legalized in all 50 states, and Ireland! (Also Finland too sorta, a bill making gay marriage legal over there was passed last year, but it doesn't go into effect until 2017 for whatever reason) I haven't noticed many LGBTQIA+ inclusive ad campagins, but Hallmark's #CareEnough ad includes two gay couples! It's a cute commercial where the couples talk about their relationship and just the usual stuff you'd expect in a Valentine's Day ad and because those two couples are included and a big deal isn't made is great! While accpetance of LGBTQIA+ people is the end goal and having Pride Parades, GSA's, and locations geared towards the LGBT+ demographic are nice, showing LGBT+ couples alongside straight couples and showing them as just normal, relatable couples is also really important. While those things listed are very normal and commonplace, they can still sort of add to the idea that people with non-cisgender and/or heteorosexual identites are different. To maybe word it better, though having places that can act as safe spaces for queer people is also important and unfortunately needed, it could potentially add to the idea that LGBT+ people are inhernently different from the norm and need to be differentiated. But when LGBT+ people are shown as more than just their sexualities and/or gender identites and can be viewed as just your average person, it gets the point across that LGBT+ people and relationships aren't all that different from cis-het people and relationships. It's a small thing, but a noteworthy one. Not the most elqoently worded, but I hope I still got across what I was trying to say. 

 

 

Ok, so, Manny Pacquiao said "It's common sense. Do you see animals mating with the same sex? Animals are better because they can distinguish male from female. If men mate with men, and women mate with women, they are worse than animals." yikes

The sex =/= gender arguement aside, I'm just going to leave this lengthy wikipedia article (nsfw) here about homo- and bisexuality being displayed in numerous species. No matter how much you disagree with bi-/pan-/homo- sexuality, saying it doesn't exist in nature is untrue and could potentially spread misinformation. Also, calling any group you don't like "worse than animals" isn't a good move.

Pacquiao has apologized, but said he still stands by his views. Pacquiao also has a career in politics, so it'll be interesting to see if this comment will have any effect on that since this year is also an election year in the Phillippines if I'm not mistaken. 

EDIT: Unsurprisingly, Pacquiao lost his Nike deal. Aside from the fact that most companies would drop anyone they sponser if they said/did something controversial, Nike's has a history of supporting the LGBT+ community, most recently Nike release their #BeTrue line last June, aka LGBT+ Pride Month, which is a line of clothing and shoes with a bunch of rainbow accents, so there's no way they could have any sort of ties with a guy that's openly homophobic.

 

---

 

Another sports wear brand, Adidas, also found themself in the news recently. On Valentine's Day, Adidas posted this picture to Instagram with the message "The love you take is equal to the love you make." Some people flipped out and left homophobic comments, but whoever runs Adidas's Instagram account shut them down pretty quickly. 

The first guy... Can't imagine how conflicting it feels to find out that both of your first choice athletic attire companies support something as "shameful" as two adults, who just so happen to be the same gender, in happy, consensual relationships. 

[Black Demon 466]

Didn't notice that this poll has changed, and it seems that my personal orientations have also changed over time, so time to edit my votes.

 

- Sexual orientation: Still picked Asexual because I'm still not into sexual relationship of any kind, regardless of genders, and don't plan to either. Nor do I feel sexually attracted to anyone even if I may have romantic feelings for them.

 

- Romantic orientation: Asexual -> Homosexual. After many years without being able to love anyone (literally), I recently have romantic affection/obsession towards a guy I know IRL. And this is probably the only place where I can openly admit this lol.

[machine 52]

Didn't notice that this poll has changed, and it seems that my personal orientations have also changed over time, so time to edit my votes.

 

- Sexual orientation: Still picked Asexual because I'm still not into sexual relationship of any kind, regardless of genders, and don't plan to either. Nor do I feel sexually attracted to anyone even if I may have romantic feelings for them.

 

- Romantic orientation: Asexual -> Homosexual. After many years without being able to love anyone (literally), I recently have romantic affection/obsession towards a guy I know IRL. And this is probably the only place where I can openly admit this lol.

 

It's funny how that sort of thing can happen, huh? It's good that you don't seem to be struggling with the change in your orientation though   And assuming it's something you want, hopefully you'll be able to be open more about it in the future!

[Black Demon 466]

It's funny how that sort of thing can happen, huh? It's good that you don't seem to be struggling with the change in your orientation though   And assuming it's something you want, hopefully you'll be able to be open more about it in the future!

 

Well, before this guy I also had a special feeling for someone else (also a guy, of course), but at the time I was still in denial because my mind didn't want to think of it as genuine romantic affection rather than a brotherly kind of love, even though thinking back now it obviously was romantic love (but only a one-sided one on my part). The reason I was being in denial wasn't because I thought being homo was wrong, but before that I hadn't been able to genuinely fall for anyone so I didn't really trust my feelings at the time. Obviously this person must have had a very great impact on my life for such a change to happen. Also don't laugh if I sounded like a whiney baby, that was ages ago, I'm much more mature emotionally now... 

 

My current "target", well, let's just say that it's also a one-sided feeling, because 1. he's a straight and 2. he already had a girlfriend. I haven't told him of my feelings and don't have any intention to do that either, for obvious reasons. Even so, I can't seem to be able to remove his image from my head. I tried not to follow his Facebook for days but that didn't work because I can't stop thinking about him. It's like an unhealthy obsession, so to speak. (Not that I mind though, but it can be distracting at times.) It doesn't help that eventually I'll have to meet him soon because we have some projects to do together; I also always have this inferiority complex towards him (he is objectively better than me in many aspects), that's probably why I fell for him in the first place.

 

But as things stand now, I won't make any move and just let things be. I don't want to end up being "the selfish third person" ruining someone's happiness for no good reason, especially when that's someone I care deeply about. I'm satisfied with the current situation. For many, love is when you have to take "ownership" of a person, both body and soul. But that is not my love. If the person I care for is feeling happy with whoever he chose, then that also makes me happy. After all, my view of true love is when you put someone's happiness above your own. And life has taught me that there are so many ways to take care of someone, without having to be in a relationship with them. So I want to express my love for him in my own way, without him knowing and without ruining the status quo. I don't care if I can't ever move on, I want to live with these feelings because they make me feel warm in tough times. Personal love is not wrong, only undermining someone's relationship is. 

 

As for being more open, I probably won't tell anyone anytime soon, at least not until I have a more stable relationship. So far, none of mine are mutual so there's just no point. I also don't think it's really necessary ATM. After all, having a love life is not the top priority of my life. I don't really mind if I can't ever find someone "right" for me.

 

P/S: Wow, this ends up much longer than I thought. Sorry for the rambling 

[machine 52]

LGBT+ couples can now adopt in all 50 states! A federal judge in Mississippi just overturned a ban that prevented LGBT+ from legally adopting children! Ironically and unfortunately, around the same time the ban was lifted, a bill was passed that would allow businesses to deny service to LGBT+ persons for religious reasons. The bill could also allow clerks to not issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples for religious reasons and not face legal repercussions. The bill being passed has unsurprisingly sparked backlash.

One step forward and one step back, huh, Mississippi?

 

x x

[Kaito Natake 4]

HELLO MY FRIENDS I... AM A HOMO! ._. Sorry I'm bored and decided to lead with that XD

 

I have come out to my family, all except my grandpa =.= He is a stereotypical old white guy with old-fashioned views and I fear he will disown me if I tell him... (Btw lesbian not gay I guess idk gay is easier to say ^^)

But anywho, I don't think my mom approves. She won't let me date even though I dated a boy before for almost a year :/

And I know, I'm a teen, I don't need to date, but even so her not letting me is bothering me... ono

She doesn't even trust me. I went to a sleepover with TWO STRAIGHT GIRLS and she made me promise not to do anything =___=

 

Anywho, some help would be appreciated ^^ You can pm me or post here, tho I'm more likely to see it if you pm. Thx~ ^^

[machine 52]

HELLO MY FRIENDS I... AM A HOMO! ._. Sorry I'm bored and decided to lead with that XD

 

I have come out to my family, all except my grandpa =.= He is a stereotypical old white guy with old-fashioned views and I fear he will disown me if I tell him... (Btw lesbian not gay I guess idk gay is easier to say ^^)

But anywho, I don't think my mom approves. She won't let me date even though I dated a boy before for almost a year :/

And I know, I'm a teen, I don't need to date, but even so her not letting me is bothering me... ono

She doesn't even trust me. I went to a sleepover with TWO STRAIGHT GIRLS and she made me promise not to do anything =___=

 

Anywho, some help would be appreciated ^^ You can pm me or post here, tho I'm more likely to see it if you pm. Thx~ ^^

 

Hello! Always nice to see this thread get some new activity

 

I'm sorry to hear that some of your family members don't seem necessarily happy about you not being straight. It sounds like aside from some disapproval though, you're not in an unsafe situation which is good! If you don't mind me asking, how did you come out? I don't believe anyone here, including myself, is out to their family, so hearing what it was like for someone who's made that step could present a new perspective. 

 

And could you perhaps elaborate or at least vaguely describe at sort of help you're looking for? Even if no one here can help you, I could at least try to point you in a direction that would help you find the answers you're looking for.

[machine 52]

Sorry for the double post!

 

thread revival attempt #128753

There's been quite a bit of talk around another one of those 'bathroom bills' that would legally require transgender individuals to use the public restroom that corresponds with the gender on their birth certificate. (How they would enforce this, I haven't the slightest clue) Mississippi passed one of these not too long ago, though it's not in effect yet, but it's North Carolina that's currently getting all the attention. (That's probably because the law also prevents cities from passing anti-discrimnation ordinances that would protect LGBT+ people) A few artists that were set to perform concerts in NC have cancelled those stops, Paypal was going to build an expansion in Charlotte, but has since changed their minds, a 2017 NBA All-Star game might also get moved out of NC, the UK has issued a travel warning to its citizens that Mississippi and North Carolina have recently passed these anti-LGBT+ laws; it's a bit of a mess. It's a mess that only gets hairier as time goes on too. Donald Trump has (surprisingly) also come out against the law. Fellow presidential candidate, and Ohio governor, John Kasich has said he would probably not sign a similar bill into law. Target, while not directly referring to either NC or MS, released a statement saying transgender customers are free to use whichever restroom/fitting room they feel most comfortable with. But also, recently fired ESPN baseball analyst Curt Schilling, shared a tasteless, transphobic meme on facebook and added "A man is a man no matter what they call themselves. I don't care what they are, who they sleep with, the men's room was designed for the penis, the women's not so much." Though I could not find the exact post myself and could only find descriptions of it (granted I didn't look very hard), I presume this caused a problem because he shared it on his public facebook, rather than his private one for personal use. 

 

The aim of these bills is to protect mainly women and children from predators that may exploit any laws that allow people to use whichever restroom they are most comfortable with and/or best fits their gender identity. Sounds alright in theory right? There are undoubtedly horrible people out there who do want to harm others and want to do so when they're vulnerable and most likely alone, but the issue lies in just how much of problem assaults in public restrooms is. I wasn't able to find reports of any transgender individuals, or someone pretending to be a transgender person, assaulting anyone in a public restroom; so it appears to be a virtually nonexistent problem. However, I did come across two cases which are related, though neither occurred in public restrooms. One was a man claiming to be transgender to get into a women's shelter, with the intent of sexually assaulting women staying there. (He was a known sexual predator long before this incident though) And the other was a man who walked into the women's locker room at a pool and began undressing in front of patrons saying the "transgender law" allowed it. In short, it has happened, but it's a rare problem. Exploited or not, assault is still illegal too, so there's no added threat because no loophole is created. In fact, transgender people themselves are the ones who report having frequent problems regarding public restroom use. In Washington DC, 70% of transgender people polled reported that they had experienced some degree of negative reaction/ when using public restrooms. 9% of that 70% reported that they had experienced a physical confrontation/assault when trying to use one of those public restrooms.

John Oliver on Last Week Tonight actually did a nice segment on this is one of his videos last June. (If you aren't familiar with LWT, it can be nsfw at times, but overall the content is informative) It's not perfect, and covers more than just bathroom bills, but it does explain it quite a bit better than I probably could. 

 

Overall, these bathroom bills being passed does more harm than good. It only adds to the stigma transgender people already face, and also makes people unnecessarily fearful. If the worry at the heart of the problem is that dangerous people, primarily men, will exploit these laws, the fix is going after these predators, and taking them into custody so they can't hurt anyone else, not faulting the entire transgender population and forcing them into potentially dangerous situations. Obviously tracking down all sexual predators is no easy, or even really possible, task, but the way to prevent sex crimes, especially ones that rarely happen, isn't by unjustly pushing the blame onto an undeserving, often misunderstood group. 

 

sources: x x x x x x x x x x (sorry if I forget any)

Sorry for any mistakes too, it's almost 5am, so there's bound to be an error or two somewhere in there. Hopefully it's not too incoherent though.

[Kid the Phantom Thief 252]

HELLO MY FRIENDS I... AM A HOMO! ._. Sorry I'm bored and decided to lead with that XD

 

I have come out to my family, all except my grandpa =.= He is a stereotypical old white guy with old-fashioned views and I fear he will disown me if I tell him... (Btw lesbian not gay I guess idk gay is easier to say ^^)

But anywho, I don't think my mom approves. She won't let me date even though I dated a boy before for almost a year :/

And I know, I'm a teen, I don't need to date, but even so her not letting me is bothering me... ono

She doesn't even trust me. I went to a sleepover with TWO STRAIGHT GIRLS and she made me promise not to do anything =___=

 

Anywho, some help would be appreciated ^^ You can pm me or post here, tho I'm more likely to see it if you pm. Thx~ ^^

 

Have you tried asking your sister for help? Sometimes the best help might come from those closest to you. And it sounds to me you need to explain your mother what it means to be a homosexual.

[Kirsch 95]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brynn-tannehill/debunking-bathroom-myths_b_8670438.html

Sorry for the double post!

 

thread revival attempt #128753

There's been quite a bit of talk around another one of those 'bathroom bills' that would legally require transgender individuals to use the public restroom that corresponds with the gender on their birth certificate. (How they would enforce this, I haven't the slightest clue) Mississippi passed one of these not too long ago, though it's not in effect yet, but it's North Carolina that's currently getting all the attention. (That's probably because the law also prevents cities from passing anti-discrimnation ordinances that would protect LGBT+ people) A few artists that were set to perform concerts in NC have cancelled those stops, Paypal was going to build an expansion in Charlotte, but has since changed their minds, a 2017 NBA All-Star game might also get moved out of NC, the UK has issued a travel warning to its citizens that Mississippi and North Carolina have recently passed these anti-LGBT+ laws; it's a bit of a mess. It's a mess that only gets hairier as time goes on too. Donald Trump has (surprisingly) also come out against the law. Fellow presidential candidate, and Ohio governor, John Kasich has said he would probably not sign a similar bill into law. Target, while not directly referring to either NC or MS, released a statement saying transgender customers are free to use whichever restroom/fitting room they feel most comfortable with. But also, recently fired ESPN baseball analyst Curt Schilling, shared a tasteless, transphobic meme on facebook and added "A man is a man no matter what they call themselves. I don't care what they are, who they sleep with, the men's room was designed for the penis, the women's not so much." Though I could not find the exact post myself and could only find descriptions of it (granted I didn't look very hard), I presume this caused a problem because he shared it on his public facebook, rather than his private one for personal use. 

 

The aim of these bills is to protect mainly women and children from predators that may exploit any laws that allow people to use whichever restroom they are most comfortable with and/or best fits their gender identity. Sounds alright in theory right? There are undoubtedly horrible people out there who do want to harm others and want to do so when they're vulnerable and most likely alone, but the issue lies in just how much of problem assaults in public restrooms is. I wasn't able to find reports of any transgender individuals, or someone pretending to be a transgender person, assaulting anyone in a public restroom; so it appears to be a virtually nonexistent problem. However, I did come across two cases which are related, though neither occurred in public restrooms. One was a man claiming to be transgender to get into a women's shelter, with the intent of sexually assaulting women staying there. (He was a known sexual predator long before this incident though) And the other was a man who walked into the women's locker room at a pool and began undressing in front of patrons saying the "transgender law" allowed it. In short, it has happened, but it's a rare problem. Exploited or not, assault is still illegal too, so there's no added threat because no loophole is created. In fact, transgender people themselves are the ones who report having frequent problems regarding public restroom use. In Washington DC, 70% of transgender people polled reported that they had experienced some degree of negative reaction/ when using public restrooms. 9% of that 70% reported that they had experienced a physical confrontation/assault when trying to use one of those public restrooms.

John Oliver on Last Week Tonight actually did a nice segment on this is one of his videos last June. (If you aren't familiar with LWT, it can be nsfw at times, but overall the content is informative) It's not perfect, and covers more than just bathroom bills, but it does explain it quite a bit better than I probably could. 

 

Overall, these bathroom bills being passed does more harm than good. It only adds to the stigma transgender people already face, and also makes people unnecessarily fearful. If the worry at the heart of the problem is that dangerous people, primarily men, will exploit these laws, the fix is going after these predators, and taking them into custody so they can't hurt anyone else, not faulting the entire transgender population and forcing them into potentially dangerous situations. Obviously tracking down all sexual predators is no easy, or even really possible, task, but the way to prevent sex crimes, especially ones that rarely happen, isn't by unjustly pushing the blame onto an undeserving, often misunderstood group. 

 

sources: x x x x x x x x x x (sorry if I forget any)

Sorry for any mistakes too, it's almost 5am, so there's bound to be an error or two somewhere in there. Hopefully it's not too incoherent though.

You've really been taking up the reigns of this thread, haven't you? I really think you've dedicated quite a bit in keeping it updated and providing support to whoever pops up, no matter their problem. You're always very mature in handling different situations. Call me sappy, but I sincerely feel that I need to just say thank you.

 

Okay, so my reason for posting (beside being mushy gushy) is just to add this: https://driftingthrough.com/2016/04/29/your-silence-is-deafening-an-open-letter-to-the-target-boycotters/ and this: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brynn-tannehill/debunking-bathroom-myths_b_8670438.html

 

First link is a little blog article that addresses the bathroom bill, specifically the backlash Target got from people worried for the safety of women and children. Though I can't say I agree with the way the author starts to point fingers at too many things somewhere in the middle, I was pretty happy that this perspective appeared among Wordpress's trending articles. 

[Metantei Kiddo 147]

I'm gonna keep my mouth shut on what you are guys talking about right now...

 

But just wanna share this, here in the Philippines, our next president elect (we had a presidential/vp elections just like last week) is pro LGBT which I'm pretty happy about. He might eventually push for same sex marriage someday which I'm already gonna see a lot of hate. Also, an LGBT politician won here in the local government, for the first time.

 

It's not something that I really would celebrate about but I'm just happy that LGBTs are slowly getting more accepted here. Don't get me wrong, they are already pretty much accepted here but there's still a lot of discrimination against them.

[machine 52]

Again, sorry for any errors since I'm bad at proofreading

So North Carolina and Mississippi are back in the news

 

The American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi is sueing their state because the new law there would allow citizens to deny service to same-sex couples for religious reasons. If nothing comes of this lawsuit, the law will go into effect July 1st as originally planned. It's yet another case of trying to figure out just where LGBT+ rights end, and religious freedom begins and vice versa. To quote the article directly: "Supporters say the law will protect people's religious beliefs that marriage should only be between one man and one woman. Opponents say it violates the equal-protection guarantee of the Constitution."

The ACLU is filing the lawsuit on behalf of a MS same-sex couple who have been engaged for 2 years and said: "When House Bill 1523 passed, it was heartbreaking because it takes away our chance to finally be treated equally. At a time when we're supposed to be excited as a couple engaged to be married, this law permits discrimination against us simply because of who we are. This is not the Mississippi we're proud to call home. We're hopeful others will come to realize this and not allow this harmful measure to become law."

Should be interesting to see how this case ends because it could set the tone for any similar cases that could pop up. Being the MS is in the south, it'll be also be interesting to see what sort of reaction the end result sparks from both sides.

 

As for North Carolina, ooh boy... This sure has spiralled into something much larger. Seemingly everyone's got a stance on this, and is very passionate about making their stance known. I'm admittedly having a bit of a hard time summarizing everything, but hopefully this'll suffice:

So, iirc, last Monday The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against North Carolina because of the bathroom bill, and threatened to stop federal funding for NC's schools, including the University of North Carolina. NC's govenor, Pat McCrory responded by filing a lawsuit against the govenment by saying "Transgender status is not a protected class" and if the DOJ thinks it should be, they should go through Congress to get the law changed instead of attempting to bypass Congress and rewrite the law. Then later that week, the Obama admin. sent a letter out to all public school districts saying they need to allow transgender students to use whatever facilities match their gender identity, or risk losing federal funding. As you can imagine, this move hasn't gone over well everywhere, particularly in the south, but especially in Texas, where three politicans there (the governor, lt. governor, and a senator) have condemned this action, and understandably so. Assuming I didn't forget or miss anything, that's about where we are right now.

(sources: 1 2)

 

Regardless of you opinion, I think we can agree pulling federal funding is an extreme, even if the intent is to promote acceptance and safety. Money can speak louder than words though, especially when it's millions, if not billions of dollars at stake, so it's understandable why they went that route, but still.... It's only really angered people more too. It's a waiting game at this point, because considering just how many school districts there are, and just how many of those are unhappy about this, there's bound to be at least one that won't comply. And how their defiance is handled, and received, will really set the tone for this entire thing, which is potentially somewhat scary.

 

 

You've really been taking up the reigns of this thread, haven't you? I really think you've dedicated quite a bit in keeping it updated and providing support to whoever pops up, no matter their problem. You're always very mature in handling different situations. Call me sappy, but I sincerely feel that I need to just say thank you.

 

Thank you! 

Though I'm pretty much just preaching to the choir here, I think it's still important to at least try to start a healthy, informative discussion, and also share accurate information, since misinformation regarding certain LGBT+ issues, like those bathroom bills for instance, is still really prevalant. Not everyone is lucky enough to be in a supportive envirnoment, so being able to provide resources is really important too, especially since those resources can be educational for even people not in those sort of situations themselves. 

 

Okay, so my reason for posting (beside being mushy gushy) is just to add this: https://driftingthrough.com/2016/04/29/your-silence-is-deafening-an-open-letter-to-the-target-boycotters/ and this: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brynn-tannehill/debunking-bathroom-myths_b_8670438.html

 

First link is a little blog article that addresses the bathroom bill, specifically the backlash Target got from people worried for the safety of women and children. Though I can't say I agree with the way the author starts to point fingers at too many things somewhere in the middle, I was pretty happy that this perspective appeared among Wordpress's trending articles. 

 

The Huffington Post article was actually really nice. It was published in November though, and I can't seem to remember anything that was going on then that would cause them to post that, but hopefully in light of recent events, the article is being passed around and shared again.

With the second one, the overall gist of the blog post is fine, and does add another aspect to the conversation that's not really talked about, but I agree with you. Though LGBT+ issues can often intersect with other social issues, such a feminism, and while it is important to acknowledge those intersections, it's not always the best idea to tie everything together. LGBT+ stuff on its own can be very complex, and you already lose some people when the word "transgender" is even brought up, so having an accusatory tone when trying to spread correct information, and bring up valid points, can only really anger people, and/or make people tune you out, and potentially tune out anyone else that tries to talk about similar topics. It also adds to any negative reputation the LGBT+ community might have with some people since they might assume some LGBT+ supporters are representative of the entire group. It's just not the best approach when talking about such things. Her anger, and many others' anger is understandable, and that's her personal blog right? So she can post whatever she wants, but that's still probably not the article you'll want to show your friend who might be pro-LGB, but might not completely understand why the recent bathroom bills are harmful, or understand why the T is even included in LGBT. The first article, and some wikipedia pages, would be better suited for that. If you reworded the blog post though, it'd probably be received much better, and have a bigger impact since, even though she has many valid points, they're not executed in the way that most people would hear them. Maybe her intention wasn't to try to point out how ridiculous bathroom bills and boycotting Target are to a large audience, but was actually just to put her perspective on the whole thing out there though. If that is the case, her tone would be more excusabe since it was never intended to address a large number of people, but rather just people who probably already agree with her, and want to read more about the flaws with bathroom bills

 

I'm gonna keep my mouth shut on what you guys are talking about right now...

 

But just wanna share this, here in the Philippines, out next president elect (we had a presidential/vp elections just like last week) is a pro LGBT which I'm pretty happy about. He might eventually push for same sex marriage someday which I'm already gonne see a lot of hate. Also, an LGBT politican won here in the local government, for the first time.

 

It's not something that I would really celebrate about but I'm just happy that LGBTs are slowly getting more accepted here. Don't get me wrong, they already pretty much accepted here but there's still a lot of discrimination against them.

 

You can chime in if you want! It's quite the mess at the moment though, so it's fine if you'd rather not

 

I heard about the recent election over there, but I didn't hear about the last part. The Philippines is quite religious, right? So it's certainly a positive sign that people who are pro-LGBT and/or LGBT themselves got voted in. If he does ever push for same sex marriage, it'll be interesting to see how the public there will react. If/When that happens, hopefully the Philippines will be join the slowly growing list of countries where same sex marriage is legalized.

Could you elaborate what you mean by "they're already pretty much accepted here, but there's still a lot of discrimination against them"? Is there a lack of legal protections for LGBT+ people, or that while the general public is alright with them existing, they believe being LGBT+ is a good enough reason for someone to not be served at a resturant, be denied service at a store, to lose their job, or etc.

[Metantei Kiddo 147]

On 5/20/2016 at 2:13 AM, machine said:

I heard about the recent election over there, but I didn't hear about the last part. The Philippines is quite religious, right? So it's certainly a positive sign that people who are pro-LGBT and/or LGBT themselves got voted in. If he does ever push for same sex marriage, it'll be interesting to see how the public there will react. If/When that happens, hopefully the Philippines will be join the slowly growing list of countries where same sex marriage is legalized.

Could you elaborate what you mean by "they're already pretty much accepted here, but there's still a lot of discrimination against them"? Is there a lack of legal protections for LGBT+ people, or that while the general public is alright with them existing, they believe being LGBT+ is a good enough reason for someone to not be served at a resturant, be denied service at a store, to lose their job, or etc.

Yup. Our country is a religious country and I'm pretty sure the Catholic Church will be on its knees to try and block the wish to have Same-Sex marriage legalized. I dunno tho if he is certain about pushing Same-Sex marriage coz he is this kind of person who says  a statement on an interview and then changes it or takes it back on another interview but I hope he really does.

But anyways, to me, the Church has still to be respected in a sense that if they don't wish Same-Sex people to get married in the church (since again, catholic nation. People here want to get married on the church), then civil marriage is the only choice.

Discrimination in a sense that it's more society wise. Like for example, they try to apply for a job on a resto, some hiring managers would be discriminative against them and won't hire them coz they are gay but there are laws protecting them and they are under the same human rights that everyone has and discrimination is against the law but thing is, laws here are not really that regulated and imposed compared to other countries so it's more of a general problem than a problem just shared by the LGBTs.

[machine 52]

I missed Pride month--hooray! I started this at the beginning of the month around June 3rd or so, and due to my self-imposed lack of time, I won't be changing the tense the first part was written in since it doesn't affect the overall point. I'll apologize in advance for what will probably be a double post, since I want to post something about the shooting in Orlando in a day or two. I'd tack it onto this one, but because the tone will be so different from the rest of this, it'd be better suited for its own post. 

---

It's LGBT+ Pride Month! Again this year Google has a neat little rainbow banner that pops up whenever you search "lgbt", "gay", "lesbian", "bisexual", "transgender", "asexual", "pansexual", and/or "queer" (There's probably more, but those are the only ones I looked up) President Obama proclaimed June as LGBT+ Pride Month this year too. Similarly, Canada's Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, raised an rainbow flag on Parliament Hill on the first. Even though gay marriage was legalized in Canada in 2005, this was the first time the LGBT flag had been flown there. Canada's also in the process of trying to extend legal protections to transgender citizens, so this gesture is nicely timed in that sense too. 

On a related note, The Sims 4 recently got an update that changed some things regarding gender. I don't have The Sims, so this is from what I could gather from a video I watched that briefly went over the update, but body types were changed to masculine and feminine I believe. Sims can now wear any of the clothing and/or hairstyle options in the game and have any voice regardless of whether they have a masculine or feminine body type. When you switch between the two, a little menu pops up so you can be more specific, I think there's three or four questions, but I know of them were "Can this sim get pregnant?" and "Can your sim use the bathroom standing up?" Not only is this a neat feature for transgender and nonbinary Sims players who want to make characters they can relate to, it's convenient for people who might not follow gender stereotypes closely or just so happen to really like one of the clothing options that was previously only available for Sims of a certain gender too. 
In a similar vein, Tinder is going to be more trans-friendly soon. Not much as been said about what changes will be made exactly, but striving to provide a more pleasant experience for transgender Tinder users who may have already have a negative experience through the app is certainly a good move on Tinder's part. 

To end the month on a positive note, the Pentagon announced today that the US military would be lifting its ban on transgender service members. The estimated number of transgender people already serving in the armed forces varies between 2,500 - 15,500, so this ban being lifted will immediately affect thousands of service members! Transgender service members will no longer have to stay in the closet about their gender identities out of fear that they could be discharged. 
"By October, the Department of Defense will craft and distribute a commanders' training handbook, medical protocol and guidance for changing a service member's gender in the Defense Eligibility Enrollment System. That is also the deadline that all the services will be required to provide medically appropriate care and treatment to transgender service members, according to Department of Defense protocols.
Current members of the armed forces with a diagnosis from a military physician that gender transition is medically needed will receive that care.
However, DoD "policy will require an individual to have completed any medical treatment that their doctor has determined is necessary in connection with their gender transition, and to have been stable in their preferred gender for 18 months, as certified by their doctor, before they can enter the military," according to the Pentagon." (source)
It will take about a year for this to go into complete effect everywhere, but this a huge step in the right direction. 

Also, clerics in Pakistan recently released a religious decree saying that transgender people can get married under Islamic law. This appears to only apply to transgender individuals who have undergone full transitions and don't have "visible signs of both genders". To be honest, I find this really interesting! It's not only a step in the right direction, but this news is coming from a country in/near the Middle East, a region infamous for many things, including it's overwhelmingly negative view of LGBT+ individuals. Though it's not necessarily likely to happen, it'll be interesting to see if/what strides are made over in terms of LGBT+ acceptance in normalization in the coming years. Obviously this doesn't mean public opinion of transgender people in Pakistan has miraculously changed, and transgender people Pakistanis will no longer face any struggles, but a bunch of small strides like this are what could help get the ball rolling over there. 

On 6/2/2016 at 0:24 PM, .MK. said:

Yup. Our country is a religious country and I'm pretty sure the Catholic Church will be on its knees to try and block the wish to have Same-Sex marriage legalized. I dunno tho if he is certain about pushing Same-Sex marriage coz he is this kind of person who says  a statement on an interview and then changes it or takes it back on another interview but I hope he really does.

But anyways, to me, the Church has still to be respected in a sense that if they don't wish Same-Sex people to get married in the church (since again, catholic nation. People here want to get married on the church), then civil marriage is the only choice.

Discrimination in a sense that it's more society wise. Like for example, they try to apply for a job on a resto, some hiring managers would be discriminative against them and won't hire them coz they are gay but there are laws protecting them and they are under the same human rights that everyone has and discrimination is against the law but thing is, laws here are not really that regulated and imposed compared to other countries so it's more of a general problem than a problem just shared by the LGBTs.

Are the younger Catholics (younger as in under 30 or so) over there more accepting of the idea of same sex marriage? Most of my schooling was through Catholic schools, and most of my classmates and young teachers supported it in a legal sense, but, understandably so, not all of them were keen on the idea of gay couples getting married through the Church. Generally speaking, is there a similar mindset there, or do most seem content with gay marriage not being legalized since the issue of where religious rights start/end, and LGBT+ rights start/end is an issue the public doesn't want to address right now?
Sounds like we'll just have to wait and see then. If he doesn't ultimately end up pushing for it, hopefully he'll at least bring it up once or twice, so we can see how the citizens and politicians react to the idea of it being legalized. 

I'm surprised to hear the discrimination sounds fairly commonplace over there. If/When the anti-discrimination laws start getting enforced, I wonder how much backlash there might be.