RE: LGBT: Should we be raising awareness?
I agree with many of your points, but I do think there is some use for "awareness" still...
You use the word "decide" when someone feels they are gay or need to be transgendered. The LGBT group that I'm familiar with believe they were born that way. Whether you agree with their assessment of themselves or not isn't really something for us to discuss... (And, BTW, I'm about as straight as they come - and am in the religious community as well.)
Bathrooms and forms to fill out.
If you are someone who has been transgendered (love/hate the idea, doesn't matter), you feel a liar if you put either male or female on the form. If you are a man changed to a woman, you can't really choose either the male or female restroom without problems. it's not asking a special privilege of a private bathroom... They're often simply asking "what about me?" If I were in their shoes I would have the same question, same difficulty. One possible solution I've seen in other countries is to have one large room with completely private cubicles for all members, male/female/other... Don't give me all the reasons why it wouldn't work, let's instead work out the details so that everyone can feel safe and have their needs met.
Why the "LGBT community" rather than the "people's community?" So long as people feel excluded due to their sexuality (real/imagined/altered/natural - doesn't matter) or any other issue, there will always be schisms within the community. The more we all learn to understand each other, the less we need to fear/hate. Instead, we can learn to love each other regardless of our differences, and those with differences will feel less need to speak out for "awareness"...
With respect.
Raising awareness in the way that it has been over these past years is exactly opposite of any of the reasons you have stated.
Lets look at something that is a large percentage then the transgenders, and was completely ignored my whole life. Peanut allergies. You say, the transgenders go to the restroom and think, what about me? Well, it can be an inconvenience, but you learn where the single stall bathrooms are. Now, how about me? I walk into a restaurant, and should I have to worry about dying? I get a candy bar that says without nuts, should I have to worry about dying? Well, my life has been threatened many times. All my friends dread taking me to a new restaurant because I will ask a million questions before even starting to make my decision to order, before...
So, I do not agree with the "what about me", because there is only so much a person, company or restaurant can do. Whatever you do, it will displease someone.
And, the "raising awareness" has done nothing but hurt the slow (everything dealing with communities takes decades) migration to accepting LGBs
Are you still obsessing? Jeez man I tagged you in a post twice and you're STILL refusing to leave your echo chamber?
Steemit has no way of notifying a person of tags.
So, I do not know what you are speaking of.
And, what echo chamber are you speaking of?
I must not have enough gay, lesbian and bisexual friends, is that it?
I seriously feel the push back coming. The way that LGB is forced into people's faces, it is making a large group of people angry. I fear very much for my friend's lives.
I have no idea who your friends are. Your problem is with partisans, not with LGBT people.
I just assumed you were using a bot or one of the many web services to monitor Steemit notifications. GinaBot is pretty great for that sort of thing. My bad for assuming. Anyway this is what I was referencing.
https://mentions.steemdata.com
I tend to believe in a "third way" - it's rarely an all or nothing option. Why does one side have to be completely right and the other completely wrong? In my experience as a parent, it is rarely so simple.
Sure, a company won't want to bear all the burden of this, but the more we start talking about the issues as a society, the sooner we will come up with solutions which work for everyone - the peaceful method. (And no, I'm not a liberal - I just look for ways to get along with others better.) As much as people dislike the "third gender" option turning up in places, it is a simple solution to a complex issue. It's not perfect, as there are no perfect solutions to moral dilemmas, but it's a start.
And it is unfair to involve food allergies on this... that's very different and really should be addressed far more seriously as well. I have a soy intolerance myself - one of the top three allergens in the US and still they put it in everything. Okay, it won't kill me, unless I happen to ingest soy before driving, then it could very well kill others along with me... (It causes severe brain fog for three days or so, and extreme fatigue for a week.) I find it frustrating that I can't eat out without asking a million questions (as you must), I can't buy a loaf of bread for less than $5 (yes, I can/do make it), I can't buy a chocolate bar for less than $3... because the other options always have soy. What's really frustrating with the fatigue thing is that there are many, many people who have the same intolerance, and don't even know it. I didn't know until I started reading labels to try to keep my asthmatic son healthy. Soy was one of the first triggers I discovered, no thanks to doctors... But it's okay to have soy in the schools in every meal, but I can't have a peanut butter sandwich because it might manage to get into contact with you somehow... (Yes, I do understand that your allergy is still more dangerous, but when I had my girls off cow's milk for awhile - testing for an allergy - and wouldn't give them soy, but they couldn't have almond milk at school due to other people's potential allergies, it was frustrating.)
Anyway, keep it up, but I hope you're still open to hearing/learning from others. :-)
I am very open to learning from others.
However, what is happening now is that people and companies are afraid to even talk. One mis-speak and you get a flood of hate mail. This is not good. This is actually making it harder to talk about solutions.
The only thing worse than soy allergies is corn. That stuff is filler in everything. Including medicine. I am sorry to hear of your allergies, that sounds like a real pain. (BTW I grind my own flour to make my bread. I find whole grain flour much much better for the body, I did a post on its benefits.)
As I said to @dreemit, I had originally said "people who believe they are gay" but thought people would say it isn't a belief. I'm struggling to find a better way to put it in all honesty.
I very much like the idea of large bathrooms with many private cubicles. This sounds like a good solution to some of the debates over transgender bathrooms.