Bzalthek wrote:
There's still a long way to go in this country. That's a given. So we just need to keep putting one foot in front of the other.
It wasn't long ago that sex between same sex consenting partners in the privacy and sanctity of their own home...was illegal. I have a series of crime photos from the LAPD in the 1920s-1960s that has sheets and sheets of 'Queer Files'...booking photos of people who's only crime was being homosexual. Some of those people were institutionalized. Some were lobotomized. Some were castrated.
This isn't some dark distant past. Cribbing from something I wrote elsewhere:
Quote:
Every state in the U.S. except for Illinois criminalized homosexual sex between consenting adults in a private home in 1961: "An adult convicted of the crime of having sex with another consenting adult in the privacy of his or her home could get anywhere from a light fine to five, ten, or twenty years—or even life—in prison. In 1971 twenty states had 'sex psychopath' laws that permitted the detaining of homosexuals for that reason alone. In Pennsylvania and California sex offenders could be locked in a mental institution for life, and [in] seven states they could be castrated."(Carter, p. 15) Castration, emetics, hypnosis, electroshock therapy and lobotomies were used by psychiatrists to attempt to "cure" homosexuals of their desires through the 1950s and 1960s.(Katz, p. 181–197.)(Adam, p. 60.)
As I wrote elsewhere the night of the election (very late into the night): I think it's scant comfort to tell someone, '
Well...things were worse!' when they're being oppressed. I don't think when blacks were struggling in the civil rights movement for equality, pointing out that at least they weren't slaves any more made their struggles easier. It's merely a benchmark of progress. Things have gotten better, and will continue to do so as long as we work to make it so.
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It was very important to me to be reminded by others how far we've come. I spent election night doing a walk down that memory lane. It makes the bitterness of the defeat easier to swallow when you realize how very far things have come, and how very close the vote was. The "final" count still isn't in...but it's probably around 300k-500k votes, and in a 9 million+ vote count, that's damned close.
More importantly our society has changed. Beyond Khan's crawling up a bit on the cross in this thread, he's talked about how his attitudes have changed in the last decade on some issues. Khan isn't a stupid guy, and I don't believe he magically got smart 10 years ago.
No, 10 years ago, Khan started playing EverQuest. In that game you don't see Marian, a redheaded freckled chick who has the dark circles under her eyes many days from a stupid fucking illness. You didn't see a 5'9" woman with (I'm constantly told) startling blue eyes...and at the time a chain smoking problem. You didn't get to hear my voice or my ability to verbally pretty much beat anyone into the ground (you just get to see me TYPE it).
Nope...you saw a tiny blue (I never realized I was tiny until after a long time of playing EQ when I saw screenshots of others) chick with white hair and a penchant for evil.
Now sure, we all brought our personal lives into the game to varying degrees...but who around here doesn't think of Leo first as the bard who fell asleep BEFORE Michael the man trying to change the world? Khan looks like a big scary dude (let's be honest!) with a motorcycle...but no one saw that at first. There's more than one player that I was shocked...SHOCKED at who they were behind the screen. I was guilded with a guy who played a high elf, then a barbarian...who I found out was black
after two years of playing with the guy. Hell, few knew I was a redhead until a picture of me was posted (only among friends at first, I was a bit leery of the internet and potential problems honestly. And the thought of guys jacking off to any picture of mine kinda weirds me out).
We learned WHO we were before we saw WHAT we were. And even then most of you don't know the personal details of each other's lives.
You guys know quite a bit about *my* life, but I guarentee I could post three facts about myself that only people I'm friends with IRL here know (and even then a detail or two they probably don't know) which would literally shock the shit out of some of you.
I guarantee most of you could do the same. They're the personal details of our lives that we keep very private. But some things we wouldn't normally keep private just aren't visible 'on the internet'.
So we judged each other by the contents of our character...literally. We saw the work and kindness people showed each other in a game. People who went out of their way to be nice. People that worked together for common goals.
Look at Xantheus's guild. I'm going to say something controversial. He was the most successful leader on Lanys. You want to know WHY I say that? His group frankly is the most tight knit group out of that game. Want me to prove it? How many people fly in to Khan's house? There are others who are close as well. Oryx has much the same thing in a lot of ways. So do a lot of other guilds which STILL exist. There are people who are friends from that game that no longer post here, but keep in touch or play together elsewhere.
One would have to be a goddamn retard not to change some of their attitudes and beliefs. I'm certainly no exception.
I was told for years when I would go away to college everything would change. You go from a small localized group of people into a much larger world. And that was true.
But the internet does that even more than I could ever have imagined.
It's much easier to hate or fear something faceless. It's probably easier to be racist against blacks if you don't know ANY blacks, or the only black people you see are people you don't understand, get and you think are 'bad' in some variety of ways. It's still easy for people to justify racism IMO when they know 1 or two exceptions, because they then think (and sometimes even say) oh but not YOU.
It's much harder to hate people you actually know.
And for some people it's a tough responsibility. Fribur's the only "out" Quaker on the board, and he knows all too well that his religion is often judged by him. I've seen him lament that he's a 'bad example'. I personally disagree strongly. I think he's a 'human' example, and while he and I have disagreed on things at times, sometimes hotly...I have nothing but respect for him and his beliefs...while I do not and cannot share in them.
And I feel that way sometimes too as an 'out' atheist here. I'm mortified by the asshole atheists who think all churches and religions are somehow bad and evil, and should be abolished. I'm embarrassed by the atheists who proclaim that atheism is a positive statement that 'there is no god' (that's not atheism, that's a belief). I'm sickened by the so called 'Brights' movement and the idea that being an atheist makes you SMART while believers are DUMB. And I think that atheism is sometimes judged as a whole by either that stupid shit, or sometimes worse...by my opinions or statements.
I guess we all feel that way though about things we represent or feel we're sorta of a minority in. I'm sure some of you feel or felt that way about gaming and gamers in the 'real world'. When we wanted to distance ourselves from the ugly stereotypes of nerdy gamers, while proudly proclaiming ourselves geeks.
The world has come a long way in a short time. And I have seen great progress even in people I know. Perhaps I should be more grateful for that than I am. I find it difficult though.
It's very hard when one is passionate about an issue. It's much worse when it's personal. This isn't a faceless concern for me. Even if it somehow didn't or couldn't impact me or people I know ... I'd fight for it because it's a matter of right and wrong and honestly such absolutes are pretty damn rare. But it is a right/wrong issue. But it's not faceless.
And it is painful.