LGBTQ+ Rights Worldwide

SSM comes to Finland!

Yay! Look how happy he is!

Well, I should be grateful you didn't pick on of his psychotic smirk days.

Badass Queensland mom puts out a retracted birth announcement in the paper when her daughter said she felt she should be her son.

It's a wonderful ad, very witty, and very supportive. Kudos to Kai and his mom!

How to be an ally productively.

Emphasis mine.

Cross posting in the Race and Racism thread.

edited 8th Dec '14 12:55:26 PM by Gabrael

Privilege: If you notice it, it's probably not yours.

The American architect of the Ugandan "kill the gays" bill will face trial for crimes against humanity.

This is a good development - that fucker needs to burn.

Cross-posting from the America thread, it's perhaps more relevant here.

edited 8th Dec '14 4:42:39 PM by CaissasDeathAngel

Prosecution of Egypt's gay community continues in high gear.

US Marine charged with murdering a transwoman in Manila, with full cooperation from the Corps.

Having read the article now, I'd like to add the rather important syntax that the Corps is cooperating in the investigation, not the murder

CHINA DOES SOMETHING GOOD!

They still have a ways to go, but this is a good step forward!

Russia bans Transgender people from driving because "it's a psychological condition." I wasn't aware that in Soviet Russia, your dick is what drove your car, but they're clearly running the government.

Meanwhile in the States gendercrits/TERFs are of course supporting the abusive systems against trans people that led to Leelah Alcorn's suicide. I actually saw Cathy Brennan offering direct support to Leelah's father.

So...

I actually find putting the T onto the end of LGB just causes it to be ignored as an issue, to be honest. Like people can say "LGBT" and it looks like they're being inclusive, but then they never actually bring up trans people.

Like my college cafeteria that has a poster saying "being lesbian, gay or bisexual can be difficult" with no mentions of being trans.

Trans is a bit of an oddball because it's largely a different set of issues to face.

Yeah, gender identity and sexual orientation are often completely unrelated. At the moment though, combining the two seems to be the only way to get T issues significant attention. It's certainly going to come up more as the major barriers to orientation equality fall, though.

And it can go hand in hand. My mother is currently opening a community cafe, that is intended to be all inclusive. As part of this, the toilets are going to be "changing places" - completely gender and ability neutral, for any one of any gender, sex, orientation or physical capacity. That sort of thing is very rare (that we're in a rural area in particular makes it stand out, though I hear Dumfries has one of the largest trans* populations in all of Scotland), but you'll see it more in future.

Well, like you said, gender and orientation are separate things. That means that a lot of trans people are attracted to people opposite their original sex, which makes them gay.

edited 25th Jan '15 2:59:57 PM by Elfive

I've had an interesting thought in my head recently. Would it be considered homophobic for a straight actor to turn down the role of a gay person, because they don't feel comfortable being intimate with/kissing someone of the same sex?

Personally I'd look for gay actors to play gay characters to avoid that whole mess entirely, but, eh.

Would you have a problem with a non-smoking actor refusing a role for which they would have to smoke? Or an actor turning down a role with sex scenes because they don't want to do them?

I wouldn't say homophobic, kinda silly but not homophobic specifically. It would be surprising though, I mean actors don't tend turn down roles that involve doing things they wouldn't do in real life, that's why it's called acting.

Has it ever come up as an actual thing? Actors act, if someone is an actor that's uncomfortable acting something as simple as romantic attraction to someone they're not attracted to they're probably in the wrong job. I seriously doubt any special consideration would need to be given for avoiding such situations.

Not exactly in this form. Kevin Hart said something along this line and said he would feel insecure in this role. It sounds like a legitimate enough reason to me.

edited 26th Jan '15 3:31:56 AM by blauregen

It's only homophobic if he's saying "EWW! DON'T MAKE ME PLAY THE GAY!"

Some actors have stuff they can't get into. Physical intimacy is different then playing a different faith or nationality. It's not easy all the time. Hell, there are plenty of straight actors who don't do sex scenes, nudity, or are very careful about any affection they portray because it makes them uncomfortable.

Some are really good at it and it doesn't matter. Jerrod Leto pops into my mind. Chris Cooper surprised me with American Beauty. And of course, there is Heath and Jake.

I would rather see more gay actors but considering we have gay actors playing straight roles with complete immersion, I think it's just a personal choice.

Why not seek out a gay actor instead? People dislike when a white person plays a non-white character, or when a cisgender male plays a female trans character. How is this different?

Well the first example has the character being changed to fit the actor as opposed to the actor simply having to act. For an equivalence you'd need to actually change the character to being strait just because the actor is strait.

The second example... Well I'm not entirely sure, I'd assume that it's because such people feel a cisgender cannot properly portray such a character, but you'd have to ask such people. I get being upset when a character is changed to match an actor (well I kinda do) but when an actor has to act... I don't get being upset at that unless the actor acts badly.

Yeah that seems legit, I mean he pretty much admits that it's silly of him and is very much because of his own weakness that he'd feel unable to play such a role properly.

There's nothing wrong with turning down a role you're not comfortable with — actors aren't obligated to do shit till they sign a contract. People turn down romance roles all the time, especially if they think it'll cause problems with an existing relationship.

They turn down villain roles that might hit a bit too hard too. Christopher Reeve thought playing Verger in Hannibal was a bit too far, for instance.

edited 26th Jan '15 11:48:22 AM by Pykrete

My understanding of the problem was that non-white and trans actors and actresses do exist. And they're being passed over for roles that fit them in favor of white and cisgender actors because reasons.