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Our goal is to spread awareness of, lessen unwarranted hatred of, and create a safe haven for the LGBTQ community and their allies. 

Tags: Gay Straight Alliance, LGBT, homosexual, straight, transgender 

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Are there any members of the LGBQT community whose identity you do not support/ respect?
  Yes
  No
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tiedyedtrash

PostPosted: Thu Mar 14, 2013 3:37 pm
Also, I'm a trans guy who likes My Little Pony, who likes tight V-neck shirts, purple, is fine with pink in small quantities, shipping characters, beautiful music (Example: the To The Moon game soundtrack), and neon socks. I like hugging and cuddling, and don't feel weird hugging other guys.

I'm not gender queer or any other gender identity besides male, however I do admit I act feminine sometimes. I just only identify as male, and feel comfortable about being male enough to like those things. I have male qualities as well of course, and like stereotypically male things. I just am not a very stereotypically male guy.  
PostPosted: Sun Mar 17, 2013 1:28 pm
One of the things I really hate is arguments about "passing". It is a problem - but it is a problem with society, not with those of us who happen to "pass". For example, I am a bi-identified cis woman in a relationship with a cis, straight man. So obviously, most people assume I'm straight. While this can *certainly* be a benefit in many contexts (not having to worry about violence or bad reactions to displays of affection, no issues with marriage or adoption or any other family issue, no misgendering of my SO when I haven't identified his gender, etc.) and I don't deny that those are privileges I'm afforded different than many of our queer peers, it actually achieves the effect of denying my sexual orientation or identity completely, which comes with its own sets of problems. Granted, again, they may not be as severe or have as many social repercussions, but they absolutely do exist and they are not fun to handle, like repeatedly coming out and then having people deny it.

And either way, my struggles don't get "negated" by the fact that society privileges me "accidentally". Society is ******** up, and it hurts us all. It's the same reason that men can be harmed by a sexist society, even if men tend to be privileged, or the reason that ultimately denying rights to LGBTQ people ends up hurting even straight/cis members of society as well.

And this is exactly one way - misgendering is uncool no matter what your presentation is. People shouldn't make assumptions about your gender that don't take into consideration your gender identity. You should be able to dress more like a woman, or a man, or any other gender presentation without it detracting from the legitimacy of identity, which is ultimately what gender and sexual orientation are. The whole problem is the boxes - because not everyone fits in the boxes! And even for those of us who do, it doesn't help us to have boxes and limit our ability to honor and respect other people's whole identities.

Finally, while I completely understand that there are some really tough struggles for many trans* people, and I understand that my privilege makes it a bit problematic to condemn, I do think that it's a misplaced anger to be angry at someone else who is misgendered, even if they don't identify as trans*. Frankly, it is all just multiple sides of the same issue, which is that people are far too narrow-minded. And it does upset me that the anger is placed at people who are suffering from the same oppression, rather than at the cause of the oppression itself, which is a bigoted society.

Edit: Also, as far as the poll - it's less that I don't respect certain identities, but there are certainly some subgroups under the LGBT umbrella that I don't particularly care for - one group that comes to mind is certain gay men who are extremely misogynistic and/or sexism-denying. And actually the lesbian women of the "men are evil" mindset rather than just the "men are not the object of my personal sexual attraction palate". Pretty much, I don't think that being LGBT necessarily precludes you from other forms of bigotry, although in many cases it does give a better perspective about being oppressed.
 

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The Gaian Gay-Straight Alliance

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