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?

Korea is rather anti gay. This way they can be together in public without scorn. Is this cover up a common practice in other parts of the world?

Whenever I notice a couple like that, I always want to cheer for them, give them a thumbs up, or shout out loving words of support, but I ultimately just do nothing. Otherwise it acknowledges the fact that their cover is not perfect, which will probably cause them more anxiety than relief.

If anyone out there who did that is reading this, just know : i am rooting for you!

So I'm moving soon and I was just curious about how those of you who move around a bit go about finding new people to hang out with. I usually just try to find the nearest gay bar and go from there. But I'm curious what all you people do.

Coincidentally checked right after this went up, hi gay friends!
As someone living in the South, Pride is actually a fall/spring thing, so I don’t have much to look forward to offline with Pride this month.
What stories and events do y’all have?

Wow, I was actually kinda shocked to see how many of us were trans over in this thread and thought maybe to create another ~talk to mainly focus on our group as a whole. I know that for some of us that being trans isn't how we define ourselves, but I wanted to appreciate that there are already quite a few of us that are trans.

I remember how several years ago when Voat was new (and before I realized it was full of literal Nazis) there started to be a small group of trans folk that tried to establish themselves before being driven away... But I have a great feels that we're already being wholly accepted here.

Anyways, I'm @Ten and have been trying to transition since 2011 and while this may technically be my fourth attempt I still have not been able to start HRT due to unfortunate situations in my life, maybe by the time I'm 40 I'll finally start. Are there any of you that have had to face adversity throughout your journey of transition?