Forum for LGBT Members

[mhara]

Actually, I gather that off-road is quite appealing to lesbians, but I've found this out too late in life to go flinging me+bike down mountainsides to see for myself.

My middle sister's experience would seem to bear this out.

PS It is NEVER to late to fling yourself down a mountain on a bike.

Don't want to assume you're lucky enough to have a lesbian sister,
but has she heard of Missy Giove?
Wikipedia doesn't begin to do justice to her world record achievements
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missy_Giove

She looks hot too.
http://www.bikemag.com/news/cutting_082803/index1.html

[thirdcrank]

We are all better off, credit card or not.

My comment about the credit card was in reply to a post from workhard which was entirely about New Labour.

Having spent the first nine years of my life in a terrace house with an outside lavatory (admittedly a 'through' terrace not a back-to-back and the lavatory in our own yard, not half way down the street) I had sort of noticed that things had got better over the last half century or so, and I know from being told by my parents that things improved for them over their lifetime.

All I'm saying is that any apparent material improvement under so-called 'New Labour' has been financed not only by debt - all governments have to borrow - but deception about the level of debt. (And I think that by any measure of relative poverty, the gap between rich and poor has widened in the last 10 years.)

[bikely-challenged]

I agree, this Governments been great for minority interests. Shame they don't give a toss about the majority. I've voted Labour all my life but never again. The Tories don't inspire me with confidence either. There's nobody to vote for.

Having been a member since my early teens I tore up my "New Labour" membership card when Lord Blair of Kut al-Amara took us to war. Have spoiled my ballot paper at every election since.

I know how you feel but the majority of the population of the country have never been better off, by almost any indicator that you care to mention, than they are now, surely, or did I miss something?

You don't know how I feel and I don't care to discuss my politics here, but I wasn't talking about material things.

Yes, we are much softer and comfortably off compared to our Great Grandparents, though that's nothing to do with New Labour.

[kwackers]

Yes, we are much softer and comfortably off compared to our Great Grandparents, though that's nothing to do with New Labour.

Don't worry it's only temporary (wealth - not New Labour).

Even if we reduce our consumption of resources to that of our great great grandparents we'll still be using more than the planet can supply. If we're lucky future governments will gently lead us down the path of low energy, low resource consumption, sustainable living - if not, we'll keep on 'growing our economy' until we all have private yachts, aircraft, huge houses with every wall an enormous tv.
OR.
Civilisation collapses around our ears. Given how robust the last 6 months have demonstrated it to be, I know where I'd place my bet.

[Jimmy The Hand]

It is really bad manners to interupt a conversation and change the subject completely The original mention of the government was in context with the discussion but the recent posts are not. So can we get back to the original discussion, or if it has died, as it seems to have done, let it die in peace

[Simon L6]

quite so

[kwackers]

It is really bad manners to interupt a conversation and change the subject completely The original mention of the government was in context with the discussion but the recent posts are not. So can we get back to the original discussion, or if it has died, as it seems to have done, let it die in peace

Can't say I've ever had a conversation with anyone that stayed on a given subject and didn't wonder off on a tangent. Given that any conversation introduces elements that would allow it to wonder off at a tangent then I don't really see what the problem is.

I've also yet to find on any forum, on any subject a thread that (if it ran for more than a couple of pages) didn't change subject.

It's a fact of life, if you want to change it I suggest setting up some 'forum police' and getting started in earnest.

[mhara]

It is really bad manners to interupt a conversation and change the subject completely The original mention of the government was in context with the discussion but the recent posts are not. So can we get back to the original discussion, or if it has died, as it seems to have done, let it die in peace

Can't say I've ever had a conversation with anyone that stayed on a given subject and didn't wonder off on a tangent. Given that any conversation introduces elements that would allow it to wonder off at a tangent then I don't really see what the problem is.

I've also yet to find on any forum, on any subject a thread that (if it ran for more than a couple of pages) didn't change subject.

It's a fact of life, [my emphasis] if you want to change it I suggest setting up some 'forum police' and getting started in earnest.

No. It's not a fact of life.

It's fact of straight white male life.
Hog the limelight, dominate public space, dictate their 'correct' point of view by swamping any unapproved-of discussions with non-related comments.
Rely on the straight white male numerical majority to drown out any variant minority voice.
Very effective tactic.

It usefully promotes the straight white male agenda by focusing on what straight white men think is important and at the same time trivialising and derailing the attempts by anyone else to get their different but no less normal, no less important life going.

Effectively trivialised and derailed the thread about getting more women into cycling.

Has effectively trivialised and derailed this thread about whether LGBT people might appreciate a dedicated space in the Forum.

[bikely-challenged]

It is really bad manners to interupt a conversation and change the subject completely The original mention of the government was in context with the discussion but the recent posts are not. So can we get back to the original discussion, or if it has died, as it seems to have done, let it die in peace

Apologies for taking subject OT, I didn't intend to post on this thread but the mention of this Government was too tempting to resist. My bad.

I won't be posting on it again. Too much anger and hostility for me.

[meic]

Now then Mhara, I've just left the hoovering , childcare and dishwashing long enough to say that not all of us straight white men are like that.
However I cant guarantee that I am white. I could even have some English blood in me for all I know.

[mhara]

Now then Mhara, I've just left the hoovering , childcare and dishwashing long enough to say that not all of us straight white men are like that.
However I cant guarantee that I am white. I could even have some English blood in me for all I know.

I love it meic, that more and more men are like you.
Especially young men.
And here are some really fabulous men -
http://www.whiteribboncampaign.co.uk/index.html

Speaking (posting) in stereotypes is a kind of shortcut to get a point across in a quick, compact way.
But it does oversimplify. Thank you for your gentle correction.

TBH - I like the fact that the Government has brought in a Gender Equality Duty.

It gets us away from the idea of Sex Equality.
It doesn't operate on the aggressive concept of women vs men it starts from what are the human rights of a person and then looks at the barriers to each gender in attaining those rights.

In many ways the straight white male 'package' does a lot of damage to men as well as women. e.g. why isn't prostate cancer taken as seriously as breast cancer? What can be done about the prejudice against male child-carers? Why is there such an expectation that men will work all hours and not ask for time off to bring up their children?

[kwackers]

No. It's not a fact of life.

It's fact of straight white male life.
Hog the limelight, dominate public space, dictate their 'correct' point of view by swamping any unapproved-of discussions with non-related comments.
Rely on the straight white male numerical majority to drown out any variant minority voice.
Very effective tactic.

It usefully promotes the straight white male agenda by focusing on what straight white men think is important and at the same time trivialising and derailing the attempts by anyone else to get their different but no less normal, no less important life going.

Effectively trivialised and derailed the thread about getting more women into cycling.

Has effectively trivialised and derailed this thread about whether LGBT people might appreciate a dedicated space in the Forum.

Wow! You really have a chip on your shoulder don't you?


Taking Jimmy the Hands post:

How can we be accepted as normal when the leaders of most of the worlds religions castigate us every chance they get, and lets not even think about the world leaders!

What has that got to do with the OP? In making such comments I assume he was inviting discussion - and indeed since neither he, you or anyone else objected to the minor side-religious thread then I'd assume from that, that you didn't care - or perhaps you're selective in your judgement.

[kwackers]

Actually mhara, I'm curious. What exactly do you want from 'staight white guys'?

You see I have a problem - I don't believe in minorities. As soon as someone claims to belong to one it looks to me that they're deliberately stepping outside of 'normal'. (I even believe labelling ourselves 'cyclists' is a deliberate attempt by us to move outside of normality).

I have no problems with gay people to the point that I don't accept them as being any different to anyone else I know. I used to be really good friends with a lesbian couple (we had lots in common, until they emmigrated and we lost touch), my brother is gay and I've met lots of his mates (although I've never had a gay mate - I've simply never had anything much in common with any of the ones I've met).

So you see, my view is there's no need for special provisions - particularly for gay people, we simply need to move towards social acceptance that they're just people.
This is exactly why my earlier posts questioned whether there was a need for such forum.

Sadly your tirade suggests I'm wrong and there is. Perhaps for all these years I've been mistaken and gay people actually want to be treated as different.

[meic]

"Wow! You really have a chip on your shoulder don't you? "

by posting this you prove her point.

[ianr1950]

But why would one of you as you put it have to bring the subject up if nobody else does,I can't see the reason why it even needs to be brought up.

Your are right it doesn't need to be brought up, and neither I nor any of my friends would per se, but I have given one example in an earlier post and Wild Duck gives another on how the subject may be brought up and in some cases that is the end of it, but in others a distinct chill arrives and you find yourself riding alone

If the group have been riding together for a long time and nothing offensive has ever been said I don't see the reason for it to be mentioned

If the group has been riding together for a long time then you probably know everything there is to know about the members so it wouldn't be mentioned (don't ask don't tell) However if a new member joins and they get the third degree then it will come out

Why do you assume that any new member gets asked what their sexuality is.
In my experience it has never come up in any conversation, new members do noy get the third degree in qny shape or form.