To your user name.
10 years ago this artist drew a dragon for me.
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Completely true. For the last 4 years weāve had a lovely pair of dedicated gay male mallard ducks visiting our garden, they behave in just the same way as a male/female pair that also visit. In fact the gay couple are more loving to each other, preening themselves and each other on our lawn, chasing off other mallards that come too close, its lovely! :D Nature is nature whatever the species and love is love.
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7 posts were merged into an existing topic: Moderation decisions about several posts in the LGBTQIA+ Thread
If you donāt know someoneās pronouns (in English), they/them is the best way to go, then you can use whatever their pronouns are once they or someone else tells you.
EX:
You see someone walking down the street with a cool haircut. Instead of assigning he or she pronouns based on what you assume of their gender, you can say, āWow, did you see their hair? That was so cool!ā
You could also use one, I suppose, but it might confuse people since thatās usually not used in everyday conversation these days.
It would be interesting for a new English pronoun set to be created for specifically when you donāt know someoneās pronouns, but it wouldnāt stay with that specific role for long, lol, I know lots of people whoād immediately snatch it up (positive) to use as a personal pronoun.
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https://www.mentalfloss.com/posts/singular-they-history
Tbh the singular they has been in use for so long in the english language that it really should be a nobrainer; the hullaboo in the media and general US culture right now is entirely manufactured outrage.
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A very good quote from the linked article:
āFor centuries, this function of they was grammatically accepted. It could transition from plural to singular depending on the situation, similar to the pronoun you. Only in the 18th century did grammarians declare that the singular they was invalid, their reasoning being that a plural pronoun canāt take a singular antecedent. Never mind that you, which used to be exclusively plural, had undergone this exact change.ā
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If you think misgendering trans people is wrong and should not be allowed in this forum, tell staff that on the new thread they made since they donāt want the posts criticizing them to be seen here: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/moderation-decisions-about-several-posts-in-the-lgbtqia-thread/42122
Watch this one get removed too!
Iām queer and recently joined INaturalist. Itās disheartening to see others being misgendered and is discouraging when this is a community I would like to be involved with. Listen to queer folks, take down posts misgendering others, and acknowledge the mistakes that were made. We are all here with similar goals and to learn about the world around us. Staff and moderators should be welcoming the response of queer folks as an opportunity to learn and grow, rather than getting defensive. Hereās hoping we can all move forward in a more respectful way to everyone in the community.
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This is directed at no one in particular, but I want to say that I have been so happy to see the new wave of young (and of course the older ones!) naturalists that are LGBT+. You are seen and you are valued and I want to assure you that you are welcome and very necessary.
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Knowing what I know of what has gone on behind the scenes, I wonder if the staff even know what tone policing is. If they do, theyāre obviously okay with it.
Whatever happened to the āview hidden contentā button?
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I understand people have different views on all sorts of stuff, this included, but I think people need to realize that outside views do not matter compared to oneās life. Oneās opinion on how another person naturally is and how they exist and who they are is simply not comparable to that personās life at all in terms of value. And I donāt mean that to be disrespectful but itās not like we are discussing our favorite foods or something. Itās frustrating that through all the discourse, it is forgotten that this who people are and how they live and itās their daily life. Itās not up for debate, nor should it be. You are who you are and when people have a problem with that, the least they can do is keep it to themselves. I think anything other than that is basically hate speech and should not be tolerated on the forum or the site.
Itās a shame any of this is even questioned by some people. Iām grateful that most people Iāve encountered on here seem supportive and I wish everybody was just like that. Whoever you are is who you are and that is correct because it is you and thereās only one you. Which is great and special.
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@sedgequeen have you tried putting yourself in the other personās position? Suppose that someone on here had very negative experiences with the term āshe.ā Maybe he was a boy who was thought of as a sissy, bullied and tormented and called a girl by the other boys, who cruelly referred to him as āshe.ā Thatās valid, right? But now supposed that he told you, to your face, that because of those connotations, he was not going to refer to you as āshe.ā Would you consider that to be respectful?
āAssume that people mean wellā ā maybe you hadnāt thought of it that way. But now that you have, you have the opportunity to revise your posts, even though the moderators do not remove them. I think it is clear by now that leaving them āfor contextā is not beneficial.
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Thanks, Dallon. A breath of fresh air with the kindness I have learnt to expect from you.
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Actually, Iāve tried twice to modify one of my posts and canāt because of the slow mode.
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Youāre here to tell us queer naturalists that we donāt experience what weāre telling you we experience?
On the absolutely simplest level, visibility is encouraging to people who have historically been made unwelcome in a given social space. In general that means women, people of color, and queer people. Iām not sure why thatās so difficult to understand.
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I hid two posts above because the first was calling out other users and making accusations about them based on behavior from other sites, and the second was a response to it. Trying to keep this focused on the LGBTQIA+ experience and iNat/nature.
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In interest of bringing this topic back to, hopefully, something a little more positive (since thereās also a moderation thread regarding the mod decisions and it keeps spilling back over here,) does anyone have any queer artists they can recommend supporting? Pride month seems like a good time to call out people!
I want to point to Abprallen, their threadless store is here https://www.threadless.com/search?artist=abprallen - this artist had a collaboration with Target that was due to be released but it was pulled due to the threats and target not being willing to back their queer designers. I think their designs are super cute and really aesthetic, hubby & I ended up picking up a few shirts
I also want to call out a youtube call-in channel that I support called The Line; one of their weekly shows is called the Trans-Atlantic Call-In show, its sole purpose is to educate people on trans and queer issues and they are generally willing to take any question, even controversial ones, as long as people go in intending to have a conversation in good faith. The content is occasionally spicy when hateful people call in, but in general I think its a great educational resource for people who might not necessarily understand the queer community but want to educate themselves. They are live right now if anyone is looking for something to tune in to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2jIrx6uy_I
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I have a friend who works in receiving at Target and I was told Target āintends toā put it back out but havenāt because of continued threats towards employees. I could get behind that, if true, but I was also told by this friend that he was ordered to wrap up the pallets. As in, sending them somewhere out of the store. Which makes me think they probably are not putting them back out and are just saying that. Companies be like that. Very eye-roll and fist-shake of them.
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Theyāre trying to play both sides of the aisle and its honestly infuriating; likeā¦ I canāt fully be upset with them because there was a pretty concerted stochastic terrorism campaigned being levied at them, but Iām still upset that the CEO caved so easily.
I wanted that freaking two-piece swimsuit they had in the pride section man, all the transphobes got their panties in a twist over the tuck-friendly swimsuits but ya girl just wanted a bathingsuit with more coverage and some extra support panels.
I certainly donāt want base level employees having to endure threads - that is absolutely not something a service worker should ever have to deal with. That said, I feel like there is another path Targetās leadership could have taken beyond immediately caving and then lying about not caving to pressure.
But I basically never expect any big corporation to have any sort of moral center, they all just answer to their investors.
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