Are Homosexuals NOT Persecuted Around You?

[Eumersian]

I don't think my high school had any openly homosexual people. There were a few people that de-closeted after they graduated though. That was probably because my town is very suburban with a lot of kids that don't have anything better to do than bother random people for any reason whatsoever.

Although there was one guy, who was openly gay in that he let all of his "girlfriends" know. He was an asshole, and I called him that to my friends, somebody overheard it and accused me of homophobia.

Now in college, there are a lot of open homosexuals, and I don't think people care. My roommate's gay, and the only problem I had was this one incident where he and his friend who was also gay were talking about things like "the first time they knew" or "what kind of guy you go for" and I felt really uncomfortable. I would have been just as uncomfortable if there were two straight people talking about "the first time they knew they were straight" and stuff like that. The bad part was the fact that I just sat there, typing up a report, trying to look like I wasn't eavesdropping, but I didn't want to leave because I didn't want to possibly offend them. To that same effect, I couldn't say anything, because then they would have known that I was listening, which could also make me look like a jerk. So I just sat there, uncomfortably, for an hour or so, while they talked about things that can only be classified as "gay stuff".

Disclaimer: I have no problem with gay people, and if any of this offends, tell me and I'll edit it.
Thanks, E?n

 

[knhirt]

Not really. Not more than anything else. I mostly saw people ragging on the hyper-religious among us, last time I attended school.

I can't really say for sure though, to be honest. Open persecution is one thing, sometimes that sort of stuff tends to be pretty well hidden by both parties involved.

 

[Lilani]

I've known a few people who are wary of gays, but none of them are particularly hateful people who would do things like that. I think gay bullying tends to be more subtle than that, occurring only when the person is separated from others, or in online situations. Look at that college boy who committed suicide because his roommate posted videos of him having gay sex. That was all online--it wasn't something you would have witnessed out in the open or on campus.

It's spawned by the same things that spawn every other form of discrimination--ignorance and the fear of what's different.

Im pretty sure if I closed my eyes and wished hard enough I could find videos of heterosexual room-mates having sex who's video was posted against their wishes. Im pretty sure I could find a site dedicated to it in fact. Im willing to bet they are probably still alive and kicking, and in all likely hood having more discreet sex when the room-mate is away.

I fail to see how, in practice at least this differs atleast for the female half. If anything the guy might raise in social status if your lucky and it was a particularly hot girl, but generally that sort of thing tends to get you call a slut as a woman.

I don't think I quite understand. Are you questioning the validity of my story? Because here are some links to it right here:

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/09/hold_new_rutgers_post.html
http://www.aolnews.com/crime/article/suspects-silent-as-anger-mounts-over-rutgers-suicide/19658110
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20021341-504083.html

It happened toward the end of September this year. That last link actually slightly disputes the original claims. It says the people who recorded the video never put it online, however the video was recorded and one of them did twitter they saw Tyler "making out with a dude." And in any case, SOMETHING had to have happened with it, otherwise he wouldn't have known. He must have seen it, or they showed him, or someone told him about it. In any case, it was a rotten thing to do and an amazing individual is dead because of it.

About your whole "guy's social status going up but girl being seen as a slut" thing, I don't see how that applies in any way considering the story is about a video about Tyler having a GAY sexual encounter with another male. He found the sudden public-ness (or potential public-ness) of his sex life humiliating, and to him suicide was the only other way he could have lived with himself.

 

[Irony's Acolyte]

Well at my old high school I would occasionally overhear some homophobic remarks from some of the more ignorant kids and they (the gays) were treated as an odd social group by a majority of the school. That may of just been because most of them were "odd" by the majority of students' standards, but I would have also fit into that category. I don't really remember there being any straight up persecution of them though, in fact that had a Gay-Straight Alliance club in the school. Some people were a bit more open-minded about it then others, but there weren't too many that were out-right homophobic.

 

[UltraParanoia]

No, mostly because people around don't feel the need to broadcast their sexuality to fucking everyone, so nobody really cares.

 

[theminiarkana]

To be honest, a while back being gay/bi was seen as a 'fashion' in most of our colleges. It's not really a big issue around my little Northern England town. We have groups for gay/bi/curious youths to go to, no one really bothers them, they don't bother anyone.

It's probably seen as acceptable nowadays.

Once you get past the High School immaturity, then people start realising 'oh damn I better grow up' and hatred against gays melts with the immaturity.

Not saying hatred doesn't exist round here, but there haven't been any hate crimes against gay/bi people for absolutely years.

 

[manaman]

I used to feel very uncomfortable around gay guys. It wasn't because I personally have a problem, rather becasue I felt that I had to be on guard with what I say, the none offensive PC bullshit is practically shoved down your throat growing up, it's hard not to be on guard with anyone different from yourself.

At some point I just stopped giving a damn, screw correctness I was just going to be myself, and treat people no differently then I would anyone else, if anyone doesn't like it they can get bent.

 

[farscythe]

nobody seems overly bothered by gays round here anymore,,guess its accepted now...so now the trends hating on immigrants n muslims here.
cba personally people are people beyond that i aint fussed

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

In my last city of residence they were heavily persecuted. Here in Austin they seem to coexist without problems. That said, I have not met someone that I know to be gay so I cannot get their opinion on the matter.

 

[Hashime]

That depends, does it count is you are doing the persecution?
In all seriousness besides me giving a cold stare to an extremely irritating and flamboyant attention seeking individual I have seen no persecution of homosexuals.

 

[Admiral Stukov]

I live in the supposedly most gay-friendly country in the world, Sweden, so no.
Not that I've ever noticed at least.

 

[Tharwen]

There are a couple in my school, and they hardly even get mentioned more than the normal couples.

I did once see a conversation along the lines of...

"You're gay? Get away from me, you homo!"

...which was quite funny to watch because the person in question just moved closer

 

[Talshere]

snip

I was never doubting the truth of the story. Merely stating that similar things will have occurred to none gay people. Just because you don't prefer men doesn't exactly mean you would be any more comfortable with your sex life going onto the net. They just don't kill themselves over it. I'm asking you to think. Is this REALLY a situation about persecuting homosexuals, or is it just another college prank that drove someone over the edge.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

Nope. Around here I've never seen any discrimination whatsoever. There used to be one gay kid back in 6th Form who no one liked, but that was because he thought everyone hated him for being gay, but no one did. He was a massive drama queen (pun is entirely accidental).

People seem to actively support gays here.

 

[superbatranger]

There are some people here that don't agree with gays or gay rights, but for the most part there is not a whole lot of discrimination.