“There was a meme going around on facebook not long ago that bears repeating: “If your religion requires you to hate someone, you need a new religion”.”
I personally do not do religion but I have grown to accept those who do. (I used to cringe around religious people)
but yeah when your religion is 1000+ plus years old it is time for an update. it is interesting that “we” put a man on the moon before I was born, can see molecules and transmit data around the world instantly but for a large segment of the world they are stuck in the dark ages. but I digress.
bottom line is I guess there is a clash of civilizations and orlando is not immune!..I must say I am in shock still.
I’ve never known the Q to mean “queer,” and I wouldn’t feel comfortable using that term to refer to anyone. I see that there is disagreement on this topic, but I’m just relaying my own experience.
WorryHurry411
Today at 11:07 am
“It is as much about religion brainwashing as it is about access to guns and mental illness. Every mass shooting has all three elements. An average religious nutcase or homophobe doesn’t go out and commit mass shootings, it’s always a person who is also mentally disturbed, has been brain washed and has access to weapons. It’s a dangerous combination.”
I think that it’s dangerous to say that every mass shooting requires a person to be mentally disturbed . Most mentally ill people do not harm other people. I think that it is too earlier to speculate on the cause of this terrible event . By speculating and spreading false information, it just magnifies and grows the problem.
I’ve never really known the Q to mean Questioning. I know queer has a different connotation to older generations but I can’t remember a time that it was mostly thought of as a slur. People in my generation often wear queer proudly especially when we’re not hetero but don’t fit nicely into any one category.
Queer is also firmly established in the academy. I work under the framework of queer theory and in queer history. Very few people say gay history unless they’re only working with gay men… and even then not so much.
choirandstages… I agree with you it should be questioning (but I do not make the rules)
emilybee…I really wish you would stop. so many people who have suffered for being LGBTQ their entire life…bullies in school, family, people in stores etc… came together to have fun and they are killed ,because of who they were, and you want to argue about muslim/hate crime/mass shooting/etc… please stop. everything does not have to go back to politics. do you know what it is in much of the world to face death because you were born LGBT and in america face scorn, bullying,ridicule, etc…just because you were born into something.
Echoing Carolina and repeating what I said on the other recent shooter thread, stop saying that every shooter is mentally ill. That is a gross oversimplification and further stigmatizes those with mental illness. Unless they have been diagnosed or showed signs of mental illness prior to the shooting, you’re in no position to label them. Being violent and murderous is not a mental illness. And if we want to say that those who kill are mentally ill then you’ll have to be prepared to apply that label to those in the military, police force, etc who kill as mentally ill.
Romanigypsyeyes, I would guess that I first started hearing the word “queer” being reclaimed by LGBT people as a self-identifier at least 25 years ago. It’s very common now. But I’d never use it as a general term to refer to the entire umbrella, because I’m well aware that there are many people – including me – who don’t identify as such.
I think there is a movement to “take back” the queer term. My DC21 started a “Queer Straight Alliance” club at his middle school this year. There had previously been a Gay-Straight Alliance club that had lapsed. They think of “queer” as inclusive of everyone in the LGBTQ realm, where “gay” was not.
Horrible news. I’m dreading waking up DC21 and having to tell him.
This makes me so scared and angry - I literally don’t know what to do. My brother and his husband often danced at Pulse. I know they’re safe this morning because they just left on their honeymoon, but my heart hurts for all the loved ones grieving this morning.
I remember when my brother told me he was gay. I told him at the time that I only wanted him to be happy; I was worried that he wouldn’t find the love he was seeking in our rural Southern town. I never would have guessed that I’d have to worry about him being mowed down while dancing.
@scout59 I’m so happy that your brother and his husband are safe . It’s terrible that the first thing that you need to worry about when you turn on the news is where are my family members.
Absolutely, Donna. And 25 years would be my whole life so that explains why I basically grew up with it. I too wouldn’t use queer as an umbrella term but I’m glad there is a label for those of us not neatly defined.
scout, I’m so sorry for their losses.
I couldn’t sleep last night so I was watching this unfold more or less in real time.
I teared up watching the interview with the mother who still has not heard from her son, a patron at the nightclub. It is a terrible feeling to have, to wonder if your child was in harm’s way or is safe.
“I really wish you would stop. so many people who have suffered for being LGBTQ their entire life…bullies in school, family, people in stores etc… came together to have fun and they are killed ,because of who they were, and you want to argue about muslim/hate crime/mass shooting/etc… please stop. everything does not have to go back to politics. do you know what it is in much of the world to face death because you were born LGBT and in america face scorn, bullying,ridicule, etc…just because you were born into something.”
@zobroward, the second post on this thread and many early post jumped right to radical Islamist and “shades of Paris” when to me this is very different. The perpetrators in Paris and more recently in Belguim were indiscriminate in their targets and carried out against all “Westerners.” Not so in this case at all - which is why, IMO, this is very different and not a terror attack. I think it behooves us all to be very careful how we label these incidents. That doesn’t make it less horrific.
This is horrifying. I can’t think very highly of a religion that condemns homosexuality but condones murder. If you don’t like homosexuality, don’t be a homosexual. (This is directed at the shooter, if I could hypothetically say something to him.)