How do you feel about "queer" people (gay, bi, transsexual)?

I only say that I wouldn't want my son to be gay because it is a difficult road. It is not the forces from within that are the problem, it is the ignorance of people who discriminate against others.

I don't have a problem with homosexuality. And for the record, I think you missed an option: "I'm straight, but if a person of the same sex as myself told me he/she liked me, I would be flattered"

For the record:

Homophobia is merely a symptom of patriarchy.

about the same as I think of non-queer people... seems like a stupid way to divide folks except when you're concerned about having sexing with someone.

To each their own, and don't judge someone unless you've walked a mile in their gym socks. But I could never look at a woman with desire or think seriously about changing my gender. I like being a straight girl too much.

I get along really great with gay guys (in fact like half of my friends are gay), for some reason. Most are really funny and sweet and I sometimes even fall in love with them But I am distinctly uncomfortable around lesbians or bisexual women. Not having had exposure to them from an early age, I think, did it for me. They're scary. And sometimes twice as big as me.

The only one I ticked is 'They are people, like all others.' This question is just the same as someone asking, 'What do you think of people with red hair?'

They're people like anyone else. I have quite a few lesbian, gay and bi friends. It seemed a bit unusual to me at first to see girls kissing in the common room - just because it wasn't something I've seen growing up - but it's completely natural. My friends love their partners.

Oh, and I think I may be bi anyway. Maybe. If I have any concept of attraction yet. If I am attracted to this lad, then I can see that I have/have had that same feeling for other people (lads and lasses) without realising what it was. But on the other hand, maybe I *don't* like him like that and I'm just making myself think that because I feel like a bit of a freak. Confusion rules in Claire-land!

My mum would be "disappointed" if I ever had a girlfriend. My loving, liberal, caring mother who brought me up to know that some people like people of the same sex would be disappointed. If I did and she was, I think I'd have more right to be disappointed with her. She'd get over it anyway!

   What surprises me is that nobody checked "lesbians turn me on" or "gay men turn me on". About lesbians - I suppose it's fairly common, and about gay men - I'm sure I've seen a post made by a woman here who told about that.

I agree with you on that. I grew up in the 60's & 70's in a small, redneck town and I wouldn't have dared to out myself. I would have probably been tarred & feathered and run out of town if I had. BTW-did you get my post in Forum about username changes. In case you didn't, what I said is that you post requests to Bill in Feedback for that.

My best friend is one of 'em.

i'm lesbian and i'm fine with straight people, i wish they wouldn't touch each other in public tho'.

I'm one of them, but nobody knows yet:
   I'm one of them, but... Oh well, everyone reading this knows already.
Lesbians turn me on, but I wouldn't want to have one as a friend:
   They do. But I do have lesbian friends. So my answer is "No", because this option is about treating them as sexual objects.
Bi men are fine, but I wouldn't want one as a partner:
   Because I'm attracted exclusively to females.
I would like to be with one of them sexually once or twice, to check it out:
   No. There would be nothing wrong if my own *wife* was bi. But I'm not really into the whole sex with strangers thing.
There's nothing wrong about them, and I wouldn't mind it if my own children were that way:
   Yes. Guess that was just a protective reaction at first. I was raised in a highly orthodox homophobic spirit, but in order to be comfortable with myself, had to change my views completely. Wasn't easy, but thankfully now I'm over with it. And yes... I wouldn't mind it for my children. Just wouldn't *wish* it. Because it's hard.
I like them and would like to find a friend among them, but they're too secretive:
   That's a phrase I could have said half a year ago... Since then I became a bit less nosey. And started paying more attention to asking personal questions at the right moments, not just offhand.
My best friend is one of them (I'm straight):
   Even more than one.
They're just people, like all others:
   Yes.
I'm straight, but somehow I find I like those people more than others:
   The first part of the sentence would be a stretch, but yes. Seen less undeserved prejudice from them. Probably they also learn to be more accepting wanting acceptance for themselves.
I'm straight, but if an attractive person of the same sex as myself told me he/she liked me, I would probably give in:
   No.
I wouldn't mind it to have my taxes spent on social programs associated with them:
   Yes. Would be even glad. This "taxes" option came from the survey about same sex marriages (3247.html), where taxes were mentioned way too often. I explained my opinion in more detail in a comment there.
   It seems that even if a survey covers all possibilities, I will still want to explain my own opinion in even greater detail...

*laughs* Ok, it doesn't.

You're serious about not touching?

Yeah, I just came from there. Thanks for the tip. I'm still new and appreciate all the help I can get.
So, do you find that you have much more freedom now? Do you live in a larger, more liberal and accepting place? I still think that if you are gay and you tell people, it is in the forefront of people's minds from that point on. We have not advanced as far as we would like to think, methinks.

They are OK just like anyone else. I don't like it so much when gay men that I know are gay (at work) check me out or use double entendre to try and steer the conversation towards dicks. Lesbians seem to be angry all the time.

There's nothing wrong about them, but I wouldn't like my children to be that way;

There's nothing wrong about them, but don't expect me to like them;

They're just people, like all others; AND

I just don't care


Oh, my English professor is gay, but I don't really care. He's really funny and I don't really think about it that much, execpt for his really big ass sparkleing annoying earring. Those sparkles man!! So annoying, so distracting!!

Oh: as far as tax dollars, it depends on the individual programs on case by case basis. An example of a program I would be against: a gay awarness broad way play paid with tax payers money, An example of a program I would be for: A police detective investigating a hate crime case using public funds to do his everyday job of investigating murders.

My g/f is bi.

Wow - what a lot of choices! Say it loud, I'm gay and I'm proud!

Well, I am bisexual and very open minded about fully homosexual people. I believe we all have our own thing and that sex etc is a perfectly natural thing.

my g/f is a lesbian

I'm transgendered, and a bit of a multiple personality. From the stance of my mind (most of the time), I'd be gay if liked women. From the stance of my lower genitalia, I'd be gay if I liked men.
I primarily like women. Sometimes that is a gay experience, sometimes it is not.

It more open, but not as liberal as I would like. We have an Oregon group called the Oregon Citizen's Alliance (OCA) which is always putting Anti-Gay measures on the voting ballots. So far the local community has succeeded in voting them down. Let's hope our luck holds out! BTW-I live in the same town now as I did back then, but things have changed somewhat, but not enough.

Wow!!!!!! This is a longgggggggggggggggggggg option survey!

Almost half my family member are gay,so I don't have a problem.I love them!Their my blood,their my family!

To each his own.Live & let live.

Buried in amongst all that weirdness I actually managed to find an option that suited me: "They're just people, like all others".

In reference to your "why didn't anyone pick" comment, the "I wouldn't want one as a friend" bit may have something to do with it.

Bi and proud...

I think I'm lesbian too.. just LOVE women!!

lol lol lol, no, it's a joke, you know, kind of a switch on what some straights say about gays.............. lol lol

Too. Many. Options.

ASBT tells me all the time that he is a male lesbian loves women lol

   Because some people won't explain their opinion in comments, and all of those options are completely different. I can explain the difference between any two of them.

   Hoped so But wouldn't be surprised if you said you were serious. Because it would be fair.

   I'm a would-be M2F trans. Why "would-be" is because I don't think I'm going to have SRS. For a whole lot of reasons. I may dream of being a girl, cry in my pillow and refer to myself as a "she" online, but I can live with it.

Didn't even feel like reading all these options.

People are people.

The benjamin standards called for living as woman before SRS, and though I balked at that when I went through it, I see the wisdom of it in retrospect. It's proof that you can get by as a woman in the greatest of adversity by your mind alone rather than believe yourself to be at the mercy of what your body defines you as. I've been woman for years, but at this point, I'm thinking to do without the SRS. I can give you a lot of critical and practical info that other TG sources don't offer, but not at the moment. I have an appointment soon.

I would love to play a little with a pre-op transsexual. Makes that two of these, one pre-op, one post-op. Plus Mandy.

She's bi? Had a chance to experiment with that ... option... already?

   What you said is sick. And evidently shows that you either didn't read this thread, or chose to disregard it.

Nope, not yet. Maar wat niet is kan nog komen!

"But what hasn't happened can happen"? Had a trouble translating that...

Exactely!

   Ok, I have a question. What do people here usually use for personal talks? I see three options: surveys, chat and forum, but I don't know which is better and which is used more often.

I use the surveys. I prefer the archival quality without the need to follow threads or the highly distracting refresh of the chat feature. whenever i visit chat, it seems to be about a bird passing by or something found in ones cereal box. The forum seems to generally be a place for disenchanted arguments. The most substantive dialogue still seems to me to take place within surveys, though perhaps I've missed things. I only visit the others when someone insists upon it. You forget other options: messenger services and email. Many of us post this info. I'm kristal_phoenix@msn.com My site is http://www.ereiam.com I warn you though, I might not get around to email responses for weeks though i check it a few times a day. SC replies force one to keep up or get hopelessly behind.

   Here it is... I hope I didn't make any mistakes. This consists of two pictures, you can save them for future reference, because I don't think you're going to find this anywhere else And don't worry, pronouns are just the most complex part of Russian, everything else will be simpler

I can't see the pictures What are they?

Alot of my friends are bisexual/gay. They don't come onto me. I used to kind of like my bestfriend (in that way). She's not attracted to me though. LOL

   By the way, what version of the operating system do you use (95/NT/ME/2000/XP, assuming it's Windows)? And try to do one thing: go to Start menu -> Programs -> Accessories -> Character Map, click on "Advanced view", select "Character set: Unicode" and "Group by: Unicode Subrange", and choose "Cyrillic" in the "Group By" window. Then type any Russian word by double-clicking letters in the main pane and copy it to the clipboard. Then go back to Explorer (again, assuming you're using Internet Explorer and are still in this window), click anywhere inside the window, preferably on text or in a place free of anything, with the right mouse button, and choose from the appearing menu Encoding -> More -> Unicode (UTF-8) (or maybe without the "More" step, it depends on whether you've used it before). Then paste that word into the reply box and submit it It is important to keep the encoding UTF-8, otherwise you will see meaningless characters. (The instructions were for Windows 2000, it may be different if you're using a different version, but try it anyway.)
   I asked Bill in feedback to switch the encoding to UTF-8 by default, let's see what he replies

It is a Windows. Maybe 2000, but I'm not certain. I can't find anything called Character Map though

I'm in Chat now

I see you

   The program I sent you may not work with your system though (I hope it does). If it does, select "Subset: Cyrillic" and then choose a "Font" that will display Russian letters. If you can't find such font, then in Internet Explorer go to the menu Tools -> Internet Options, on the first tab ("General") there will be a button named "Fonts", click it and tell me what is selected under "Web page font". And if you do have a font with cyrillic letters, then as before - type any Russian word by double-clicking on letters in the main pane of the Character Map, copy it to the clipboard, go back to the Internet Explorer window, click on text or in a place free of anything with the right mouse button, select from the menu Encoding -> [More ->] Unicode (UTF-8), and paste that word into the reply box

Programs|Accesories|Sytem tools possibly - still no guarantee you have cyrillic installed though.
I seem to have it listed under IE fonts, but not char map. Vesper seems to know more about this though.

I've downloaded it but been advised not to install it by a pop-up help file. I don't understand but I don't want to break the computer!

   What message was that? Could you look at it again and tell me what exactly it said? Windows has a lot of messages of that kind, but they don't always make sense. Anyway, the program I sent you doesn't even need to be installed. It won't break anything, the worst that can happen is that it doesn't start

*pootles off to have a look*

If I walk into the chat-room now am I going to be scared and have to run away? (*has noticed mandy is in there*)

Nope

   Not right now. We're just having a conversation about sex, not having sex. I guess it's the most decent thing that can be expected. *laughs*

Okay, I'm going to walk in! If I run away again quickly you'll know why!

   By the way, can you see this (do all the symbols show up correctly)?

   Я к вам пишу - чего же боле?
Что я могу еще сказать?
Теперь, я знаю, в вашей воле
Меня презреньем наказать.
Но вы, к моей несчастной доле
Хоть каплю жалости храня,
Вы не оставите меня.
Сначала я молчать хотела;
Поверьте: моего стыда
Вы не узнали б никогда,
Когда б надежду я имела
Хоть редко, хоть в неделю раз
В деревне нашей видеть вас,
Чтоб только слышать ваши речи,
Вам слово молвить, и потом
Все думать, думать об одном
И день и ночь до новой встречи.
Но говорят, вы нелюдим;
В глуши, в деревне все вам скучно,
А мы... ничем мы не блестим,
Хоть вам и рады простодушно.

   Зачем вы посетили нас?
В глуши забытого селенья
Я никогда не знала б вас,
Не знала б горького мученья.
Души неопытной волненья
Смирив со временем (как знать?),
По сердцу я нашла бы друга,
Была бы верная супруга
И добродетельная мать.

   Другой!.. Нет, никому на свете
Не отдала бы сердца я!
То в вышнем суждено совете...
То воля неба: я твоя;
Вся жизнь моя была залогом
Свиданья верного с тобой;
Я знаю, ты мне послан богом,
До гроба ты хранитель мой...
Ты в сновиденьях мне являлся,
Незримый, ты мне был уж мил,
Твой чудный взгляд меня томил,
В душе твой голос раздавался
Давно... нет, это был не сон!
Ты чуть вошел, я вмиг узнала,
Вся обомлела, запылала
И в мыслях молвила: вот он!
Не правда ль? я тебя слыхала:
Ты говорил со мной в тиши,
Когда я бедным помогала
Или молитвой услаждала
Тоску волнуемой души?
И в это самое мгновенье
Не ты ли, милое виденье,
В прозрачной темноте мелькнул,
Приникнул тихо к изголовью?
Не ты ль, с отрадой и любовью,
Слова надежды мне шепнул?
Кто ты, мой ангел ли хранитель,
Или коварный искуситель:
Мои сомненья разреши.
Быть может, это все пустое,
Обман неопытной души!
И суждено совсем иное...
Но так и быть! Судьбу мою
Отныне я тебе вручаю,
Перед тобою слезы лью,
Твоей защиты умоляю...
Вообрази: я здесь одна,
Никто меня не понимает,
Рассудок мой изнемогает,
И молча гибнуть я должна.
Я жду тебя: единым взором
Надежды сердца оживи,
Иль сон тяжелый перерви,
Увы, заслуженным укором!

   Кончаю! Страшно перечесть...
Стыдом и страхом замираю...
Но мне порукой ваша честь,
И смело ей себя вверяю...

I see lots of boxes, interspersed with punctuation!

   Whoops... What is your web page font then? It's in the menu Tools -> Internet Options, on the first tab ("General") there will be a button named "Fonts", when you click it, what is selected for "Web page font"? And is there an option named "Cyrillic" in the "Language script" list, right there?

The character set is Western and there is an option for cyrillic. The proportional font is Times New Roman.

It works for me in IE 5.5, but I can't get any permutation of language and character set to work in Netscape 4.7

   And even when you select "Cyrillic" for "language script", it's still unreadable? How about this: does this become readable when you select "Cyrillic" for language script and switch the encoding to "Cyrillic (Windows)" - "ìàìà ìûëà ðàìó"?

Not even then

Still works in IE 5.5 (but requires switching character sets now); still doesn't work in Netscape 4.7.

*nods*

   I'm quoting:
   Only low-molecular-weight sugars such as the mono-, di- and oligosaccharides are available for yeast growth. Polysaccharides are not used by the yeast. The sugars are, in order of concentration, maltose, maltotriose, glucose, sucrose, and fructose, which together constitute 75 to 85% of the total extract. The other 15 to 20% consists of nonfermentable products such as dextrins, beta-glucans, pentosans, and oligosaccharides. Regardless of concentration, fermentable carbohydrates are usually assimilated by yeast in the following order: sucrose, glucose, and fructose are consumed most rapidly (24–49 hrs); followed by maltose (70–72 hrs); then maltotriose (after 72 hrs). Some overlap in assimilation does occur. A majority of the strains leave maltotetraose and dextrins unfermented.
   

Brewing advice?

Nah. It has to do with biology rather than with brewing.

It resembles a comment I made a few days ago about how one uses lactose to brew a sweeter beer.

Oooh, that's helpful Thankyou!

   
   *laughs* today I caught myself typing your name on my screen in the largest font possible (half the screen height). It was involuntary, I swear And only then realized what I was doing
   *sleepily* Ok, I do need to fix my early hours...

*is afraid, is very afraid* lol

You should really, really get some sleep I'm replying to your emails right now

   I didn't get your replies... There were problems with our mail system yesterday, so maybe your letters got lost. Could you resend them?

I'll send them again tomorrow. I have to go and do *more* homework in a few minutes Tomorrow is the last day before half-term!!! (Week's holiday )

*smiles*

Congratulations on the half-term

It's half-term now! And I'm happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy!

My Politics teacher (who is also teaching me Russian) was telling our class about the Russian sense of humour today - she wasn't complimentary lol

You've got mail

   Ok, I've got the joke straight now.

Customer calls Technical Support. "My computer's power unit is smoking, could you help me?"
Support person: "Then you need to buy a new power unit."
Customer: "But maybe there's some other way to solve it? For example, change something in the configuration files?"
Support: "No, it won't help, the power unit has to be replaced."
Customer: "But maybe there's some utility program that could help?"
Support: "No, only replacing the power unit will help."
The customer argues on for half an hour more.
Support (frustrated): "Ok, we don't usually tell people about this, but there is a utility called NoSmoke. Put the line "LOAD NOSMOKE" to the end of your config.sys file and reboot your computer."
In ten minutes the customer calls in again. "It's still smoking!"
Support: "There seems to be a problem with the utility, please contact Microsoft about your problem."
In half an hour the customer calls again. "Please, could I have my power unit replaced?"
Support: "But what did people at Microsoft tell you?"
Customer: "They said that my old model of the power unit is not supported by nosmoke.exe..."

Um. Okay.........?

   It wasn't funny??? Bah. You British people have a strange sense of humour. I asked Oscar and she said it was funny

It was ploor-ha! (Okay, so I'm still transcribing and not transliterating but what's the harm?) Maybe it would have been funnier if I understood computers more

   Umm. I'll try to explain: the support person tries to convince the customer that he needs a new power unit. The customer doesn't want it. So the support person invents a fictitious program (that, of course, doesn't work) to get rid of him by pointing him to the customer service department at Microsoft. But people at Microsoft manage to convince him that it's not their program that doesn't work, but it's his outdated power unit that is not compatible with the program.
   Better now? The funny thing is the silliness of the situation...

   Though some people would argue that it's about the ability of Microsoft to sell programs that don't really exist

   I think I understood what lesbian girls feel...
   In usual cross-sex relationships, you're attracted to and are friends with different people... And here you're attracted to the same people you're friends with... It's hard
   And has something in common with infamous incest. (As an afterthought.)

I still don't think it's funny!

I don't get people who don't think their lover/mate should be their closest friend.

   You said you wrote poetry - do you have any of it online? I can give you the URL to one of my melodies

Only the poem I wrote for Brian in the forum. Most of my poems are just silly things I've written for friends birthdays. I try t write decent poetry but it just sounds like teenage poetry - very mediochre! I'm hoping it'll be one of those things that comes with age. Technically, my poems aren't bad, but in reality they have an air to them which is "cheesy" to say the least.

   Come on, I never said that I was a great composer, my melodies are just simple melodies too - and there have been only three of them *hides*
   And I like that poem for BrianW

When do you sleep?

   Can you find the answer to this question?

Not having studied either type in much depth, probably not! I would assume lads' pants are a bit more roomy in front and a bit smaller in the back?