Blazing Saddles
Pursuit Driver
If I see another thread about queers I am going to explode. My God people, give it a rest.
DOJ Tells Employees to Verbally Affirm Homosexuality....
- Thread starter J-man
- Start date
Blazing Saddles said:
It's the daily dose, like those Word of the Day calendars. Can't go 24 hours without some type of discussion about it, or so it seems. I was just shocked when I read the article, reminded me of some type of communist indoctrination complete with slogan and rainbow flag.
Waski_the_Squirrel
Resident of the least visited state in the nation.
Even though I kid, I do get your sentiment, if not the way it's expressed.Blazing Saddles said:
On just about every conservative website, the articles about homosexuality get all kinds of comment, emotion, etc. Others get a lot less attention. (Perhaps liberal websites are the same, but I'm not a regular reader of those.) The Sayanything blog (a North Dakota website) had a really substantive article on taxes and another one about something to do with homosexuals on the same day. The tax one got 3 comments (and I was one of the 3). The homosexual one ran over 100 comments.
There is something about social issues, and this one in particular, that seems to get people's attention. And we really struggle sometimes with how to handle it, especially those of us who are Christian and view it as a sin. Most of us really wish the whole issue would go away.
I've made my peace with the issue through my Libertarian politics. I prefer to live and let live. As long as no one is being hurt, no problem. This is why pedophelia and bestiality fall into a different category to me: the issue of consent. If I am going to concede that two adults have the freedom to engage in a behavior I don't approve of in the privacy of their own home, that I have to deal with that reality.
Whether it's two people of the same gender, or a heterosexual "shack-up" the people involved in the relationship will want to talk about their life just as much as the married people will. For some reason the homosexual relationships get a lot more attention than the heterosexual "shack-ups." We seem to have accepted the shack-ups as a society and put up with them more easily than the other.
There are some people I prefer not to be around and whose lives I don't want to hear about, even people who are living perfectly moral, normal lives. I feel that relationships I don't agree with fall in that same category. I'll be polite, but I'm really not interested.
If someone ever "comes out" to me, I really don't know what to say. "You're going to Hell," doesn't seem appropriate, nor does, "How exciting for you." So, right now society is finding a way to deal with the issue and we're still working out how to balance religious beliefs with proper etiquette.
So, to sum it up, I think there are so many threads on this issue right now because our society is trying to figure out how to deal with it. If the internet had been around when "shack-ups" were becoming common and public, we would have seen a lot of threads about those. This will pass and we will be on to something else.
Madea
zip a dee doo dah
Waski, you do have an incredible way with words. And, you make sense. 
)
But, (isn't there always a but) in the era when "shack ups" were becoming popular, we weren't constantly bombarded in the media with it and beat over the head to be "accepting". Folks who aren't immediately "accepting" are ridiculed. I don't care what folks talk about at work. I either join in or I don't. I just don't see the need for this brochure. I've share water-color stories with gay co-workers, but those stories weren't about our sexuality, it was sharing experiences in other areas. The conversations included both of our significant others. I recognize that "Southern Folk" are generally the ones considered "backward and unaccepting" but I can tell you from personal experience that we know a lot more about getting along than counterparts from other areas of the country that I've met. But Southern folk are also stubborn. We don't like to be brow beat and told this is how it's gonna be.
As a young woman, a young male (black) co-worker asked me out. I politely declined. He said don't you like black people? I said some, but not all. I don't like all white people either. I learned a long time ago to take folks one at a time based upon their personality.
The high school my children will attend is 62% white, 33% black, 4% hispanic and 1% asian. Those children know how to get along quite well. In fact, some adults could learn from them. They don't need a pamphlet to tell them how to react.
And, just for clarification, I'm not saying that you, Waski, are guilty of any of that, just some observations.
) But, (isn't there always a but) in the era when "shack ups" were becoming popular, we weren't constantly bombarded in the media with it and beat over the head to be "accepting". Folks who aren't immediately "accepting" are ridiculed. I don't care what folks talk about at work. I either join in or I don't. I just don't see the need for this brochure. I've share water-color stories with gay co-workers, but those stories weren't about our sexuality, it was sharing experiences in other areas. The conversations included both of our significant others. I recognize that "Southern Folk" are generally the ones considered "backward and unaccepting" but I can tell you from personal experience that we know a lot more about getting along than counterparts from other areas of the country that I've met. But Southern folk are also stubborn. We don't like to be brow beat and told this is how it's gonna be.
As a young woman, a young male (black) co-worker asked me out. I politely declined. He said don't you like black people? I said some, but not all. I don't like all white people either. I learned a long time ago to take folks one at a time based upon their personality.
The high school my children will attend is 62% white, 33% black, 4% hispanic and 1% asian. Those children know how to get along quite well. In fact, some adults could learn from them. They don't need a pamphlet to tell them how to react.
And, just for clarification, I'm not saying that you, Waski, are guilty of any of that, just some observations.
unionmom
Pursuit Driver
The brochure is for managers, not all staff. And the subject is not their sexual activity. I think that may be something that is causing part of the confusion. Nobody is asking people to talk about sex at work. And though the brochure is poorly worded in parts, nobody is saying the workplace is the place for discussions on sexuality for the sake of sexuality. The only reason the LGBT thing comes up at all is in the context of day-to-day normal conversations and how to make everyone in the workplace comfortable with those. Kind of hard for Harry The Homo (wow, that was tacky) to fit in with everyone at work when he has to lie about his other half being a wife or a girlfriend. I think that is basically what they are getting at. And let me say yet again that I think they needed to word some of it better.
Waski_the_Squirrel
Resident of the least visited state in the nation.
I had to think a bit before I responded.
At first the "shack ups" were portrayed badly. Then there were the sympathetic portrayals with those not accepting portrayed as closed minded. At that time, without the internet and all the media choices, I will concede that it was a lot less omnipresent.
I'm not sure what "sexuality" means in this context. If it means who you sleep with or what you do when you sleep with them, that is very inappropriate for the workplace. The way I interpret it is as things like, "My wife and I went rafting this weekend." I don't welcome politics in the workplace so, "My wife and I went to the tea party rally" would be as inappropriate as "My gay shack up and I went to the pride rally."
I apologize for coming across this way. I thought I made it clear I was including myself in the post. I've never been any further south than Washington DC.
I agree that the pamphlet was heavy-handed. As I said in one of my two posts on the topic, it's clear who authored it. But, some people may need help.
I'll just note that the first time a gay man ever hit on me, I was extremely uncomfortable and upset. Part of it was the really horrible way he hit on me (a man would get in trouble for hitting on a woman that way), part of it was the surprise, and part of it was the dawning realization that what I had interpreted as friendliness all day was actually his attempt to sound out whether I was gay or not...and apparently he had concluded I was gay.
My own community is dealing with diversity thanks to the oil. We have a growing hispanic population, and it has been shocking how racist some people are. On the whole, the hispanics fit in just fine, but a few people (on both sides) really color the issue. We have a few rednecks, a few people who don't realize they're being racist, and a few people with a huge chip on their shoulder who think everything they don't like is racism.
In the summer I work at a school that is nearly 100% American Indian. Last year I got to sit through a presentation where a woman explained to the students how whites hate Indians because whites have no culture of their own. There is racism on the other side too: a white school district in that area ended its sports co-op with another school district because that district was getting too many Indians. They were pretty open about it too.
Madea said:
At first the "shack ups" were portrayed badly. Then there were the sympathetic portrayals with those not accepting portrayed as closed minded. At that time, without the internet and all the media choices, I will concede that it was a lot less omnipresent.
I'm not sure what "sexuality" means in this context. If it means who you sleep with or what you do when you sleep with them, that is very inappropriate for the workplace. The way I interpret it is as things like, "My wife and I went rafting this weekend." I don't welcome politics in the workplace so, "My wife and I went to the tea party rally" would be as inappropriate as "My gay shack up and I went to the pride rally."
I apologize for coming across this way. I thought I made it clear I was including myself in the post. I've never been any further south than Washington DC.
The high school my children will attend is 62% white, 33% black, 4% hispanic and 1% asian. Those children know how to get along quite well. In fact, some adults could learn from them. They don't need a pamphlet to tell them how to react.
I agree that the pamphlet was heavy-handed. As I said in one of my two posts on the topic, it's clear who authored it. But, some people may need help.
I'll just note that the first time a gay man ever hit on me, I was extremely uncomfortable and upset. Part of it was the really horrible way he hit on me (a man would get in trouble for hitting on a woman that way), part of it was the surprise, and part of it was the dawning realization that what I had interpreted as friendliness all day was actually his attempt to sound out whether I was gay or not...and apparently he had concluded I was gay.
My own community is dealing with diversity thanks to the oil. We have a growing hispanic population, and it has been shocking how racist some people are. On the whole, the hispanics fit in just fine, but a few people (on both sides) really color the issue. We have a few rednecks, a few people who don't realize they're being racist, and a few people with a huge chip on their shoulder who think everything they don't like is racism.
In the summer I work at a school that is nearly 100% American Indian. Last year I got to sit through a presentation where a woman explained to the students how whites hate Indians because whites have no culture of their own. There is racism on the other side too: a white school district in that area ended its sports co-op with another school district because that district was getting too many Indians. They were pretty open about it too.
ShoeDiva
Shoes!!!!
Madea said:Waski, you do have an incredible way with words. And, you make sense.
But, (isn't there always a but) in the era when "shack ups" were becoming popular, we weren't constantly bombarded in the media with it and beat over the head to be "accepting". Folks who aren't immediately "accepting" are ridiculed. I don't care what folks talk about at work. I either join in or I don't. I just don't see the need for this brochure. I've share water-color stories with gay co-workers, but those stories weren't about our sexuality, it was sharing experiences in other areas. The conversations included both of our significant others. I recognize that "Southern Folk" are generally the ones considered "backward and unaccepting" but I can tell you from personal experience that we know a lot more about getting along than counterparts from other areas of the country that I've met. But Southern folk are also stubborn. We don't like to be brow beat and told this is how it's gonna be.
As a young woman, a young male (black) co-worker asked me out. I politely declined. He said don't you like black people? I said some, but not all. I don't like all white people either. I learned a long time ago to take folks one at a time based upon their personality.
The high school my children will attend is 62% white, 33% black, 4% hispanic and 1% asian. Those children know how to get along quite well. In fact, some adults could learn from them. They don't need a pamphlet to tell them how to react.
And, just for clarification, I'm not saying that you, Waski, are guilty of any of that, just some observations.
Adults could learn from children! Until that time, you wind up with pamphlets.
)
Blazing Saddles
Pursuit Driver
Re: Re: DOJ Tells Employees to Verbally Affirm Homosexuality....
I could care less about that brochure.ShoeDiva said:
Something came to mind when I read the first post.
"They didn't bow. They didn't bend. They didn't burn."
If you don't know what incident I'm talking about, I wouldn't even bother to ask. Google is your friend. ;D
"They didn't bow. They didn't bend. They didn't burn."
If you don't know what incident I'm talking about, I wouldn't even bother to ask. Google is your friend. ;D
honeybunny
Pursuit Driver
unionmom said:
I totally "get it" and I disagree with all of this politically correct feel good gibberish.
Hang a sign in the office that says "Remember the Golden Rule" and be done with it.
There are many gays that have grown tired of always being portrayed as victims of the larger culture.
Being lectured to walk on eggshells and celebrate your coworkers sexuality is ridiculous and insulting.
If there is a problem in the office, deal with it on an individual basis. But let's stop pretending that we
need to treat gays with some sort of special reverence in the social workplace. All employees should
be polite and civil in casual conversation. This directive is nothing more than a thinly veiled political
agenda designed to promote the idea that homosexuals need special pampering and protection from
all those hateful heteros in the office. Infantilizing gays is not the answer to overcoming prejudices.
honeybunny said:
Agreed. I know it's nearly impossible to fire a federal employee. I'd say, "Go ahead and see if you can fire me for saying nothing."
If that's the case, there's a bunch sitting before congress refusing to "say anything" they need to fire FIRST!
Substitute the word "black" for LGBT in that memo. Now how does it read to you?
Is all that necessary to have a race-friendly workplace? No, you just don't tolerate racism. We had to deal with that in my business, we had one employee who thought it was funny to make racial jokes toward a black employee. I didn't send out a memo like that, I just told them that crap wouldn't be tolerated in this company and I'd fire anyone who did it. Problem solved without a dog and pony show.
Is all that necessary to have a race-friendly workplace? No, you just don't tolerate racism. We had to deal with that in my business, we had one employee who thought it was funny to make racial jokes toward a black employee. I didn't send out a memo like that, I just told them that crap wouldn't be tolerated in this company and I'd fire anyone who did it. Problem solved without a dog and pony show.
ShoeDiva
Shoes!!!!
honeybunny said:
You know what, I agree, but we see time and time again the golden rule is not followed hence the directives. This is not new. Management had training/directives when divorce started, singles having kids, etc. Some people even in management do not know how to act or what to say when it come to something out of their comfort zone. It was a wide spread issue for all of those things and this is just the latest.