How gay are you?

[Sprout]

Tim and Kyle et al,

Im glad you responded, and I agree with a lot of what you are saying. I agree that by opening dialogue on PC topics allows for greater acceptance and a truer sense of community. I just don't agree that this was the best way to start the conversation.

I guess my main point was that the way the original first set of posts sounded, you didnt get the sense that this survey was not meant as a "bashing" or "mockery" of gay lifestyle.

Reread all the first posts and subsititue the word "black" for "gay." Imagine if you had said that "being from the south automatically makes you 10% blacker." or "I'm 45% black. I win" And what if, like this gay test, the "black" test was about African American culture or history and not some form of degradation? You would never get or understand that just by reading the first set of posts.

That's all I was trying to address. Im sure people will now understand what the test is saying...so I'll come off my soapbox.

[Tim Whitehead]

To be honest, if you changed the word "gay" to the word "black", I'd still think it was super funny. I like to laugh at and celebrate our differences, because to me, they are really no big deal.

At the same time, maybe coming from where I do, there aren't the same racial or sexual preference tensions that there are in certain places in the US. We've had gay marriage here in BC for a few years now I think and it really hasn't been much of an issue. Its expected to soon be legalized across Canada and its not nearly the issue it was in your last election. Perhaps it came off as insensitive or as "gay-bashing", and if that's the case, I apologize. But to me up here, it was no big deal, it was just for laughs. In fact, we all had a good laugh yesterday at work when I had a gay man take the test, and the test had him 13% less gay than me.

[bste_lax]

I took this and majority of the other stuff on this Water Cooler forum as pure humor. Maybe if the Water Cooler was 100% serious stuff and this thread came about, I could see getting a little "antsy in the pantsy". Some people just take things a little too serious. Don't get me wrong Sprout, I understand your arguments but I don't think anyone was going out of their way to make fun of homosexuals. If this poll would have been "How Texan Are You?" or "How Purple Are You?", I doubt we would be having this conversation.

[Kyle Berggren]

I really do see your point, but I really think the fact that we don't care or think about the issue as a negative, kind of leaves a lot of us insensitive to the subject. As much as I don't care about someone's sexual preference, we do use the term gay as a negative all the time. Saying that was 'really gay,' isn't the most mature thing in the world, and I don't have an excuse for it, but it happens everyday. I'm sure I'll hear something along those lines at practice some time this afternoon. We all know the stereotype of how people are a lack of a man for being gay, but again, I would truely believe that the people posting in this thread that may appear insensitive about it, simply don't see it as an issue. I have friends that make racist comments all the time, but to poke fun at the morons actually do believe in racism.

Who knows? but I'm sure no one meant anything offensive, or even has a negative opinion about someone simply because their gay.

[Danny Hogan]

I would truely believe that the people posting in this thread that may appear insensitive about it, simply don't see it as an issue.

i got the highest score of anyone so i should have the final word on it. Kyle summed it up well.