How long do you think it'll take until we'll see an openly gay ruler?

How many more years until some nation will elect a gay president?

How many more years until a monarch can come out of the closet?

Discuss.

Iceland has a female prime minister that is married to a woman, and in most Nordic countries, the president is just cermonial, and the prime minister dooes the administrative work.

There's an openly gay candidate in the Finnnish presidential elections, but it's from the greens, which is a minor party.

As for as the US goes, they can get back in line. I want an Atheist president.

After the US elects a female president, a Hispanic/Latino president, an Asian president, a Native American president, a non-Christian president, etc, etc,...

It's rather telling that we're thinking of increments, as though a person cannot be female, Hispanic, and gay at once.

In Europe, especially Scandinavia, I don't really think it's much of an issue and we'll see one over there. America's got a whole bunch of years to go, though, with half of the country aligned with a party supporting the suppression of LGBT people and the other party trying to ignore LGBT issues as much as possible. Canada's got a shot, though.

What if James Buchanan was homosexual?

@kaschei Oh, want to go for a triple-hitter, do you? That could happen to, I suppose, but I see it as less likely.

Ideally, it wouldn't matter. That day is far, far away, but the sooner we separate minority status from tokenism the better.

We kind of have to take it in increments to ease poeple in. do it all at once and they'll never be voted as leaders. Baby steps. we couldn't havea female president now, we had to keep to tradition and make it a dude, only a half black half white dude so it's like a steady progression from the previous white male ones.

I understand that. I'm just expressing my dissatisfaction with that being the reality.

The problem is that people currently need to express their identities as merely nominal, and they can't have any impact on their personality. Barack Obama "acts white," to be blunt, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but our country would be significantly more uncomfortable with someone who treated their racial identity as a more important part of their personality.

The interesting part is that this is sort of inverted with gender. The USA can't stand women who "act like men." Many people disliked Hilary Clinton and, to a lesser extent, Nancy Pelosi in part because they acted in control, with confidence, and talked as men talk. Their behaviors were called "bitchy" when they would be excused if a man had done them. But the USA also doesn't think a woman who acts in a traditionally feminine way - social, non-intimidating, and cordial - are suited to be leaders. For women, they can't make people "forget" about their gender by acting in a way that ignores it because people get upset about that in a way they don't when people from other identities abandon the indirect connections.

Go Iceland!

Again.

>Barack Obama "acts white, " to be blunt, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but our country would be significantly more uncomfortable with someone who treated their racial identity as a more important part of their personality.

WTF is acting white? Seriously, isn't it racist to imply that there are some intrisic psychological differences between blacks and whites?

It's cultural, not biological.

Yes. It is.

That doesn't mean that broad sometimes-truths have been distilled into stereotypes.

I'm starting a thread on this because all the 'acting white' drama is pissing me off, especially given the common ideas about what is 'acting white'.

edited 2nd Jul '11 1:07:01 PM by nzm1536

"Barack Obama "acts white, " to be blunt, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but our country would be significantly more uncomfortable with someone who treated their racial identity as a more important part of their personality."

I'd love to hear about what constitutes acting black.

See: Al Sharpton.

Al Sharpton is a joke. If being professional and cultured is "acting white," where does that leave the multitudes of rude, ignorant, illiterate, belligerent, and thuggish white people?

In the Deep South.

</bad joke>

edited 2nd Jul '11 1:15:20 PM by annebeeche

I was thinking Eastern Europe, but that works also.

edited 2nd Jul '11 1:19:36 PM by kashchei