Posts made by JohnAllenson

Yes, I knew the actor who plays Kid Flash came out as bisexual.  I thought you meant that Grant Gustin had (finally) come out.

Canada and the USA are gearing up for Hallowe`en next Tuesday.
Are there other countries that celebrate it?  I remember it wasn't a thing in Germany when I lived there.

I've seen that a few times as well.
Lucas from Corbin Fisher is one of the examples I love.  He started off identifying as straight, then talked one of his friends from the gym into doing scenes with them, then later identified as bisexual in a video when he had to have sex with a straight guy who was obviously not into it.

Then there's the fake 'gay for pay' where guys who elsewhere had identified as gay/bisexual pretend to be straight to sell to the audience who prefer the fantasy of straight guys having sex.

I feel you're misrepresenting my argument.

Your original argument was that there is a long history in literature giving positive images of asking a person out after they've said 'no' which implies it's permissable.  I replied that there's a long history in literature of things that we would recognize as rape being romanticized.

Now you say, I should use examples from the past to justify present behaviour.  Which you were doing.

I hate to break it to you.  YAOI, Bodice-Rippers, and M/M are still being written.

If I could afford it I'd love to visit Asia.

Blue eyes or brown eyes

I've watched the first episode of season 4 and I enjoyed it.  An optimistic and caring Barry is more interesting than a brooding, nihilistic Barry.  Largely due to Grant Gustin being better at 'perky'.

It's good to see the characters supporting one another again.

What difference does it make that YAOI, Bodice Rippers, Slash, or M/M are predominately written by women?  They still romanticize Non-Consent.
(And there have been plenty of research papers on why women fantasize about gay relationships; as well as papers on why women romanticize non-consent.)
This doesn't mean that they depict behaviours that are acceptable in real life.
Granted, the question "If you ask someone out on a date and they say no" doesn't indicate WHY they said no.  If someone says, "I'm busy that day can we reschedule" that's different from "I'd rather stay just friends."

IN Toronto, NAMBLA ended up no longer coming to the Pride March in the late 80s due to counter-protesters marching around them.

I've heard the argument - "after thousands of years of the gender binary…"
The Talmud lists six genders, going back some 1,500.  The majority of Native American cultures had more than two genders.  Various types of non-binary genders - including Eunuchs and Hermaphrodites and Androgyns - existed in European and Asian cultures.  The Balkans, particularly Albania, had a category for women who became men in a social sense.  South Asia has the category of Hegira - which is being swallowed up in modern binary Transwomen culture from Europe and North America.

People are claiming labels for identities that have always existed - sometimes without being named.  There have always been people uninterested in sex, it's only now that they're organizing as Aces.

One example from Western history comes to mind.
Sailors used to get a gold hoop earring to mark the first time they crossed the Equator.  Hence the pirates with earrings.

I may have made an Arguement from Ignorance (none of the Transpeople I've met - which have been hundreds) but it's not automatically a false argument.
Is there evidence suggesting that costumes will desettle gender identity?  Why wouldn't they become Transvestites, or Exhibitionists, or actors?

ON the separate topic or changes in Pride.  I was a volunteer at or part of the committee running Pride Toronto from 1986 through to 2001.  The things that changed:  the event went from 2,000 to about 1,000,000 participants, businesses were originally banned but now dominate, they used to be unsanctioned but now confirm to the laws for public assembly, they used to be highly political but now focus on being celebratory, and there used to be normative hostility between police and Pride.

Due to activism by LGBT parent groups there are now areas in Pride Toronto dedicated to families.  I would not have wanted to bring small children to a demonstration that stood a good risk of being attacked by police or Church groups.  Paedophile organizations used to march in the Pride Parades in most places.

This seems to be the trend, at least in Europe and North America.  Pride events in countries where homosexuality are illegal look more like the old school Pride events.  The corporate events are safer for children.

Treasure Trail.

Grant Gustin or Keiynan Lonsdale.

I've never met a Transexual person who changed their mind about what gender they are no matter how their parents dressed them - not to mention years of therapy for 'gender dysphoria' to convince them that they are cis.

Why would cis-gender identity be so much more fragile than trans-gender?

What type of music do you like?

Rock musicals are very popular in Toronto now - we now have a musical based around Meatloaf's Bat Out of Hell album.  On film there's the Rocky Horror Picture Show, Pink Floyd's The Wall, Tommy, Godspell, Grease, and Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

I generally prefer Otters.
The earlier days of the Bear community in Toronto was pretty shamanistic - a lot of the guys were coming out of the Radical Faeries and there's a big 'Native American' contingent in the Toronto gay community.  There were Bear Feasts focused on food made of berries and/or honey.  People did drumming and talked about their spiritual connection to Bear totems.  I would say that being a bear needed more than having a hairy and non-sculpted body - there were attitudes toward masculinity and pleasure that were outside diets and gyms.

A 35+ Gym Rat who can't seem to lose that last 10 lbs of body fat is pretty far away from what I'd consider to be the essence of being a Bear.

Hallowe`en, I don't celebrate Christmas.  Here in Toronto Hallowe'en is a big gay street party.

Regular or slutty costume

Hot tea

Fire or ice

There are hyper-masculine bottoms and femme-tops.
Hell, there are Drag Queen tops.

There are a lot of different issues to unpack.

Hard power - previous and current world powers had political and military presence on several continents.  (The British Empire had colonies on each of the 6 inhabited continents.  The Soviet Union had client states in 4 continents.)  China is enormous but has little military presence outside of its own borders.

Language - English, Spanish, Russian, and French are widely spoken as second languages.  Chinese is incredibly difficult and has an even more inaccessible written form.  (Pinyin is improving the facility to use Mandarin.  A tendency toward polysyllabic structures is also helping.)

Culture - Other than Chinese food - Chinese culture is seen as quaint and ethnic.  Hollywood is as valuable to maintaining American dominance as the military.

Political leadership - the USA is slipping as a political heavyweight.  Some 50 years ago most emerging nations where using the American Declaration of Independence as a template for their own constitutions.  Now countries are turning toward the Commonwealth version that includes Human Rights and Multiculturalism.  Maoism does not have many adherents.

China should have/will have a more prominent role in the world on the basis of the size, wealth, and population of the country.  It's not going to be the same powerhouse that the British Empire used to be or that the USA is still hanging on to.

I agree with radishes.

Other crops that need minimal attention:  carrots, leaf lettuce, and herbs like mint or chives.

You may have to worry about animals like squirrels.

My condolences.
I came out in 1979, I stopped counting after 50 funerals.