LGBTQ Americans Could Become a ‘New Class of Political Refugees’ | Hacker News Reader

LGBTQ Americans Could Become a ‘New Class of Political Refugees’

nytimes.com

3 pointsheavyset_go8 comments

I'm honestly shocked that some of the most powerful LGBTQ people in finance and tech haven't come out and told the Republican party to knock this shit off. They have enough $$$ to sway lots of non-MAGA middle-of-the-aisle politicians who don't really want to be spending government money enforcing the religious views of a loud but small minority.

Cook, Theil, Rabois, just to name a few. These guys wield incredible clout and overall have elected to not use it to prevent people who were born a certain way from being persecuted. It's pretty disturbing honestly.

How are they being persecuted? Maybe in the other 74 countries or so in the world with laws against their lifestyles but in the US it's impossible to escape their lifestyles with rainbow flags everywhere, pride parades, pride marketing, pride kids clothing, pride emails from bosses while trying to work...meh.

How are LGBT people persecuted? Because we as a society are actively engaging with politicians who want to destroy them. There's currently a popular political party who defends religious institutions that think being LGBTQ is a choice, or is unnatural, and comes with eternal damnation. There's even a sect of a religion that for years said that US soldiers are dying overseas because we don't kill our gay population....and no Republican politician would go as far as condemning them which is quite sad.

Being LGBTQ is a matter of chance, nothing more, nothing less. Same as being left-handed, straight, etc... There's no choice. You are born with it or you aren't.

Saying "we don't like you because of the way you were born" implies that some people are predetermined to be fucked in life because we tolerate people that are conforming to one standard, and everyone else is to be cast off and ignored. That's not what the USA is all about.

Seeing Pride stuff everywhere is indeed exhausting. As someone who is straight, I don't really give a damn either - because if catering to that population is how a company wants to spend its advertising or marketing dollars, let them - that's the market at work.

But keep in mind it's stuff like that that makes LGBTQ mainstream, and also shows to LGBTQ people who aren't comfortable being out that it's OK to be LGBTQ. I know a few LGBTQ people that spent a lot of their lives being incredibly depressed or even suicidal because they couldn't come to terms with being LGBTQ in a world that was openly hostile to them. I have family members who still in this day and age can't come out to my grandmother because she's a big Fox News fan and is not accepting of the LGBTQ community.

It's sort of how the people who got cannabis legalized were the most blatant users of it, not the people who went about their lives quietly and enjoyed a toke behind closed doors on occasion - because those people couldn't say anything as it wasn't mainstream and massively criminalized.

All valid points but being different is that really persecution? I would only consider it persecution if it harmed them physically or financially and on a large scale, not a small number of cases which will always exist and always will exist.

Take the Acadians ran out of Canada. To me that was persecution. Are LGBTQ being ran out of areas, physically beaten and murdered? No. Do they feel isolated because there is not that many of them? Of course. Are older folks stuck in their ways ever going to accept them? Probably not but that's not persecution just because someone doesn't like you. Only if they physically harm you or cause financial harm out of spite. I don't see that going on some massive scale.

>I would only consider it persecution if it harmed them physically or financially and on a large scale, not a small number of cases which will always exist and always will exist.

There were mass shootings at LGBTQ clubs both in Orlando and Denver in the past few years....so yeah they're being murdered. Does it happen all the time? No. But has it happened and enough people killed to think that LGBTQ people might feel scared that it could happen near them, especially if they live in heavily GOP areas? Absolutely.

Don't forget, Florida's current governor openly courts actual neo-Nazis, and does nothing when they post signage on highways and other public spaces. And that's a state which has a sizable (and very wealthy) LGBTQ population in its biggest city.

Now imagine a state like Arkansas or Alabama that is governed by far-right reactionaries. You think some kid who is not gay by choice but by chance is going to feel safe when his elected representatives at local, state and federal levels openly embrace far-right Christian nationalist bullshit?

The one in Orlando, he tried to target another place first but it had too much security. He wasn't targeting an LGBTQ establishment. It was a weak target with no security. Believe what you want though but it was investigated. He wanted to kill people. It didn't matter who.

I don't know about the one in Denver but the same could be said for the Vegas shooting and other school shootings or even black communities. It happens.

Regardless, LGBTQ have parades annually in almost every city for decades and many other events. If they were being persecuted they would be beaten in the streets or worse. They are not but again, believe what you want. If you believe it then that is your right. I do not believe they are being persecuted like the Cajuns were in Canada or blacks in MS back during the MS Burning Days. That's not what is going on.

>The one in Orlando, he tried to target another place first but it had too much security. He wasn't targeting an LGBTQ establishment. It was a weak target with no security.

That doesn't excuse the fact that it WAS an LGBTQ establishment and some 40+ people were killed, most of whom were LGBTQ.

The one in Denver was very much a MAGA type and very anti LGBTQ.

>Regardless, LGBTQ have parades annually in almost every city for decades and many other events

Not every city. Every major blue city, in blue states, sure. But definitely not in some of the red states.

I just wanted to know how they are being persecuted in the US. Everyone is persecuted on some level though in the US. If someone is more qualified for a job and they get passed over for it not being the right race or sex that is also a form of persecution.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com