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[–]reluctant_commenter 8 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 0 fun9 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Hmm... well, I can tell you about ways that LGB people are oppressed. I'm not so sure what specifically "LGBTQ+ oppression" is referring to, because "LGBTQ+" label includes straight people and asexuals and people into kink and a bunch of other random not-oppressed groups.

Ways that LGB people are oppressed in the US...

Legal

  • Supreme Court threat to overturn Obergefell ruling on same-sex marriage - although recently there's been some hope that same-sex marriage may be coded in law! The bill's in the Senate now, they just need 10 Republican senators to agree to it in order to overcome a filibuster. 5 have already agreed. (And Tammy Baldwin thinks that they're almost at that majority.)

  • Legal to discriminate on the basis of same-sex attraction: housing, workplace - Last year there was some talk about the "Equality Act", but the bill hasn't been passed, it only passed the House. So in many states, it's still legal to discriminate against someone on the basis of same-sex attraction. Also, that bill sucked because it would've made "gender identity" a protected characteristic, which makes zero sense because gender identity cannot be objectively defined.

Social

  • All major social media platforms have censored or even outright banned any discussion of LGB rights or pro-LGB views.

  • Being public and open about one's pro-LGB beliefs may result in damage to your career or loss of employment, i.e. financial threat. In the US, see Katie Herzog-- a lesbian journalist who's been "cancelled" for pieces like this one. (In the UK, Allison Bailey is a good example.)

  • A number of lesbian women have reported that they have been outright banned from using dating apps if they state that they have no interest in dating male-born people (i.e., men).

  • There is a lot of pressure on LGB people to transition. I have felt this pressure myself. "You're just a man in a woman's body. We know better than you about who and what you are-- and we think you need to transition. We just want what's best for you." Gaslighting. At a societal level.

  • As a result of ^ that, many LGB people end up with sexual dysfunction and physically harmed bodies. And lots of mental health problems. There are fewer of us as a result of suicide. Those factors complicate our romantic and sexual relationships with other same-sex attracted people.

If that's not oppression... I'd like to know what is.

I might add to this as I think of more.

edit:

I would also add that media representation of LGB people is pretty terrible. For lesbian women, representation almost always occurs in the context of fetishization; lesbian women are not treated as legitimate characters in their own right but as sexual objects or as stereotype-ridden caricatures of actual human beings. For bisexual women, I see the "crazy/insane/dangerous" stereotype used a lot. I ranted about the crappy depiction of lesbian/bisexual characters in the movie "Everything Everywhere All At Once" here-- contains spoilers. I don't know as much about the men's side of things, though.

[–]HelloMomo 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Legal to discriminate on the basis of same-sex attraction: housing, workplace

People mention this from time to time, and I always wonder... if that was illegal, and then homophobic landlords were forced to have gay/bi tenants, would that actually be a good situation for anyone? If the landlord really feels that strongly about it, wouldn't it be better for the tenants to just live somewhere else?

[–]reluctant_commenter 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Bottom line, housing is a need, not a superficial desire. If a baker wants to refuse to bake a cake for a gay couple, that sucks but it's not like it's going to threaten their survival. However, in a context where the vast majority of opportunities to rent are controlled by private landlords, if it's legal in a state to discriminate against same-sex couples then those couples could suffer a real threat to their ability to live independently.

(Personally, I think it's kind of fucked up that renting is a for-profit industry, period, the same way that healthcare in the US is.)

[–]HelloMomo 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I guess I just find it hard to imagine that there are many landlords like that. In the field of capitalism, the fact that someone has money and is willing to pay usually outweighs personal moral quandaries. In order for this issue to actually hurt people's ability to live in an area, it would have to be a majority of landlords doing this, not just one or two. Like, if homophobia was more powerful than capitalism? I could respect that after some fashion. But I don't think that's the world we live in. While I know personal incredulity is not a real argument, that just seems unlikely to me.

[–]reluctant_commenter 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

In order for this issue to actually hurt people's ability to live in an area, it would have to be a majority of landlords doing this, not just one or two.

I think in certain regions, that actually may be the case. If we're averaging over the entire US, probably not; but in certain counties or states, yeah, I do believe it could make a difference. And even if it's rare for an area to have zero landlords willing to take a same-sex couple as renters, having like half or even a quarter or 10% of landlords in an area being like that would still lead to that couple expending more energy than an opposite-sex couple just to find housing.

While I know personal incredulity is not a real argument, that just seems unlikely to me.

Honestly, it would be ideal to have some data on the extent of the issue but I haven't done enough reading about this area to know. If I get a chance, I'll look into it.