A single unified LGBTQ+ conversation

Is it weird to be a cis woman who's considering a binder just for smaller breasts?

I'm AFAB and besides the occasional gender questioning, I generally consider myself fem. I'm fine with my boobs existing, although lately, whenever I'm seated slouch forward (i.e the shrimp pose), my boobs directly touch my chest and it feels somewhat uncomfortable. I don't think it's gender dysphoria (I never felt gender dysphoria at all AFAIK) and considering that I'm autistic, it's possibly an autisitc sensitivity thing but that feeling is relatively recent.

Since the existence of my breasts aren't causing me problems, I figured that smaller breasts might be better for me^note I can't recall my cup size off the top of my head, but I'll say that they're average-sized; not too big, not too small and I do recall having to wear a sports bra when the feeling of them touching my chest got too much for me one night. Since breast reduction surgery is probably pretty costly (I live in America after all), binders might be a cheaper, less permanent option.

Granted, another solution might be to not slouch at all but oh well.

No, that isn't strange. Wanting to have control over and/or feel comfortable in your body is not something specific to trans people.

Yep, it's your body and your rules.

I'll be honest, I'm jealous of people who live around LGBT-friendly people, because many of the rl people I know have an inversion of values(Don't know if it's gramatically correct). For example, they consider respecting trans people's gender identities wrong and viewing gay people as freaks of nature the right thing to do.

Edited by CosmosAndChaos on Oct 27th 2023 at 10:58:29 AM

Guys, I have a confession to make here. I think I might be Aroace-Flux. I feel allo in a Pan way but Demi in a Aroace way.

Congratulations.

Thank you so much.

Hello again. It's Trash, have you guys missed me? I've missed this thread, how are we all going! I got fired from my job earlier this year and just got ghosted by a guy I was really interested in, so that was not great, BUT I have a date this coming Friday and yesterday I visited the Victorian Pride Centre in Melbourne for the first time (and bought some goodies from the attached book store!) and my newest autistic special interest is a queer Australian drama, so you win some you lose some, huh?

Edited by trashconverters on Nov 4th 2023 at 10:57:25 PM

Hi! Good to see you again

Last friday a coworker went on a weird tirade about "people identifying as cats or attack helicopters" and could not pick up on the signs of me trying to tell them to shut the fuck up. Also, on sunday no one came to our monthly trans support group.

That kinda sucks. I wish I knew what to do in such a situation. Thankfully, as far as I'm aware, transphobia isn't a major issue here where I live

Edit: does anyone else have the problem where this specific thread won't be marked as read in the "followed threads" view?

Edited by StepexNo2 on Nov 6th 2023 at 12:53:33 PM

Consider yourself lucky, cause most rl people I know think it's wrong to respect a trans person's identity and viewing them as "freaks" is the "right thing to do".

It's a real mixed bag depending where you live I think. Luckily Melbourne is fairly liberal and I haven't encountered that problem often. Did see a guy the other week yelling at a bunch of random teenagers that they look like boys and he was gonna beat them up and that was scary AF because even though I now pass I was like oh shit what if he worked out I was trans. Luckily both me and the teenagers ended up being safe eventually.

I honestly don't know what I'd do in the attack helicopter situation. But I do find a lot of people, even if they won't end up respecting trans people, will shut the fuck up if you ask them to shut the fuck up. But again, I live in a fairly liberal city so.

I had that issue with a different thread. Try marking it as unread.

Okay not to digress but the page for Where Everybody Knows Your Flame really pisses me off because honestly mainstream media depiction of gay bars is one of the only ways they've been accurate about the queer experience, in my personal experience.

This is nothing like a real gay bar????? I've been to a few, including some smaller ones.

That's pretty much how a lot of more mainstream gay bars look like???? A little less fetish gear (but definitely not none).

This trope page feels like it was written by a straight person.

Edited by trashconverters on Nov 7th 2023 at 10:45:17 PM

~trashconverters If you want to change description of that trope, you can propose any changes for it over at the Trope Description Improvement Drive thread.

No prob!

Edited by Cutegirl920fire on Nov 7th 2023 at 3:57:32 AM

I just posted in that thread. Thanks

Surprised this thread is still active after all these years.

As someone who lives in a generally queer-friendly area, I've seen some pretty varied gay clubs/bars. One of my favourite LGBTQ pubs is a really casual and laid-back place, where friends go to drink beer and play pool.

But yes, some gay bars really are the techno music, dancing and fetish gear kind, and fiction needs to stop ridiculing this aspect of queer culture (the reason I prefer the pub mentioned above is I have autistic sensory issues and am more or less introverted, so high-energy clubs personally aren't my thing). To be honest, fiction needs to stop treating Camp Gay and Butch Lesbian characters as caricatures. Yes, it's bad to portray all gay people as camp or butch, but some are, either for cultural reasons or due to opposing all forms of heteronormativity including gender norms. So it'd be nice to see these characters written as more three-dimensional human beings.

Edited by CalicoCaitSith on Dec 17th 2023 at 11:02:04 AM

And besides, there's nothing wrong with being an effeminate man or a masculine woman. And I agree, people are more than their sexual orientations.

Random musing.

Disclaimer: I'm a straight/heterosexual/cisgender (I confess to not fully understanding the distinction between those labels...) male...but recently I have been very, very interested and supportive of LGBTQ rights.

Mostly, due to my current job as an alternate history webnovelist, as well as holding Master's degrees in English (American modernism, to be specific), I ended up doing a lot of research in 20th century history, WWII in particular.

During the process, I was especially both interested and disturbed by the nature and development of fascism...and how much it involves oppression of LGBTQ people. I'm pretty sure all of you already heard of the fact that the Nazi Germany's first book burning involved the destruction of Institut für Sexualwissenschaft/Institute for Sexual Research by Magnus Hirschfeld, one of the first 20th century advocates for homosexual and transgender rights.

Also, in How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them, a non-fiction work by Jason Stanley, one of chapters actually discuss how and why demonizing LGBTQ people is a key aspect of fascism:

Long story short, I hate fascism and the Nazis and if LGBTQ people pose such a threat to them, I will gladly support the latter.

So...yeah. Basically, I became a straight ally, if that makes sense.

P.S. Last time I visited this thread, I think there was only just LGBT in the title. Was there a thread title change or am I just remembering it wrong?

Edited by dRoy on Jan 22nd 2024 at 11:45:14 PM

I think the title was updated a while back, but I might be thinking of another thread.

BTW, if you were wondering:

• Straight: Informal word for "heterosexual".
• Hetereosexual: Attracted exclusively to people of the opposite gender. Opposite of homosexual. Put simply "not gay".
• Cisgender: Identifying with the gender you were assigned by medical personnel at birth. Put simply "not transgender".

If only all straight people were like you, dRoy...

Hmm...so I'm guessing just because a person is heterosexual, that doesn't mean they are also cisgender.

Ah, so there WAS a title change.

It also helps that I'm not a white male, and the kind that attacks LGBTQ people almost always target minorities as well.

Oh, and since I'm also a self-proclaimed socialist, well, I have a lot to lose to fascism, to say the least.