If there's roughly ~2,000 subscribers I'm figuring there's probably at least a dozen of us. I normally don't like to broach the subject of sexual- and gender-identity but in new spaces I find it's nice to know how many people like me there are.

For clarity's sake I'm defining "queer" as a catch all like LGBT+.

• Article from Times of India: ‘Gay sex is not a crime,’ says Supreme Court in historic judgement

• Video from Times of India: LGBT community celebrates across the nation

• Article from NDTV: Section 377 Verdict Live Updates: "History Owes Apology To LGBT," Says Supreme Court

• Article from CNN: India's top court decriminalizes gay sex in landmark ruling

Pose (imdb)
Airing on FX since June 6.

Centered around a group of mostly black LGBT people in NYC, towards the end of 1980s.

Main themes seem to be social acceptance, underground culture and pursuing one's dreams.

Nothing is terribly new, there's a bit of Billy Eliot and a lot of RuPaul's Drag Race, especially at the beginning (but all throughout). It is however pretty dynamic and entertaining. Seems to have a good mixture of fun, drama and social discussion.

Characters are well presented and generally likable, they seem real enough although a bit exaggerated, but I guess that's part of the setting. Cinematography is good, nice shots, I think I can see some of Feud's style as well.

There are some intimate moments and character development through unsaid actions, which is always nice. Some of the poignant moments were a bit cliché though.

All in all, good start, interesting enough, will keep watching for now. I'd say 7/10 for the pilot.

Well, there comes a time in every community's existence where someone gets an idea for discussion from another thread he wishes were better framed. So buckle in. This discussion is intended to sit at an uncomfortable cultural crossroads.

In the EU, gay spouses are now able to have the same freedom of movement rights as straight spouses. The Supreme Court in the United States ruled that a baker was treated unfairly by a Colorado regulatory commission when they tried to suss out if he discriminated against a gay couple who wanted to purchase a wedding cake.

In Brazil (you thought I was going to let this one be), courts have explicitly allowed conversion therapy to continue.

In Chechnya (a part of Russia that I always seem to struggle to spell), you could be hunted down and tortured or killed if you were gay, with people turning their own family members over to the local government. The local government, in absurdity, claimed after the purge that there were "no gays" in Chechnya, so there could have been no purge.

The point I'm trying to make here is that LGBT+ discrimination is an issue that should touch just about everywhere.

Before we get too deep, a point on terms. Discrimination, strictly speaking, is separating one thing from another. It is not necessarily a hostile act. If I say "you can drive only if your vision is good enough to read signs while you drive," that is discrimination on the basis of your ability to see, but most people aren't likely to say it's unreasonable discrimination (there is a rather obvious safety implication, for starters). Similarly, if you tell women to go to the bathroom in one space, and men to go to the bathroom in another space, that is discrimination based on gender. Is it reasonable discrimination? That might depend on if you're trans, and what state you're in.

This topic has to be more limited than this set up implies it will be. We won't be able to narrow things well enough to have a meaningful discussion otherwise. Today, we're just going to touch on the simple (ha!) matter of whether baking a wedding cake is art, whether refusing a wedding cake to a gay couple is discrimination, and what a government should be expected to do about it. So, the questions:

• Is making a custom wedding cake for a wedding "art"?
• Is refusing a custom wedding cake to a couple because it would be for a cause you do not support discrimination on the basis of that couple's identity?
• How should a just government resolve a dispute between a couple who feel unreasonably discriminated against and an artist who feels compelled to use speech for a cause they do not support?

And a bonus question:

• What role should a judicial branch have in advancing various groups' rights? Does relying on this less democratic method for securing rights open a movement up to counter-reaction or is the counter-reaction simply an inevitable consequence of a movement's success?