mr_bogus Posted November 14, 2010 Posted November 14, 2010 http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2010/nov/13/coming-out-at-work-gay Thought this is a good one to post here, since the Sexuality Thread closed all those months ago.
Ashley Posted November 14, 2010 Posted November 14, 2010 Thread ripped. The Sexuality Thread was closed in the "lets not have all encompassing threads" movement so posting this in another thread dealing with a different aspect of sexuality is kind of going back on that. In other words - its interesting enough to warrant its own thread.
MoogleViper Posted November 14, 2010 Posted November 14, 2010 I don't get the significance of the article. Unless I've missed the point all I got was "LGBT rights in the workplace have improved significantly, but it's not quite perfect." Great revelation there.
Ashley Posted November 14, 2010 Posted November 14, 2010 Perhaps this article isn't a shockingly Earth-shattering one but the topic is still healthy grounds for debate.
Dannyboy-the-Dane Posted November 15, 2010 Posted November 15, 2010 The only thing that bothers me in that article is that jokes about gender and sexual preference seem to be labelled as bad, evil and homophobic.
chairdriver Posted November 16, 2010 Posted November 16, 2010 People should be responsible for what they say. Jokes don't magically make what you're saying any less offensive. Punchline jokes are evil in general anyway (in my opinion). Mostly because that type of humour is shit. --- Saw Elly Barnes speak today. She's championing LGBT History Month in schools. She literally makes you feel like everything and anything is possible, and anyone that disagrees with you means nothing to anyone. Amazing.
Dannyboy-the-Dane Posted November 16, 2010 Posted November 16, 2010 People should be responsible for what they say. Jokes don't magically make what you're saying any less offensive. Jokes are evil in general anyway (in my opinion). Mostly because that type of humour is shit. --- Saw Elly Barnes speak today. She's championing LGBT History Month in schools. She literally makes you feel like everything and anything is possible, and anyone that disagrees with you means nothing to anyone. Amazing. I disagree completely about jokes. When I make a joke, I am rarely of the opinion that the joke conveys. The opinion may be offensive, but the joke is not. Self-irony is an ability I value highly. Of course, if people feel offended by a type of joke, I'll refrain from telling that type of joke in their presence. However, my opinion is that anything can be made fun of.
Diageo Posted November 16, 2010 Posted November 16, 2010 My mam told me recently that she things that homosexuality is like paedophilia. I disagree completely about jokes. When I make a joke, I am rarely of the opinion that the joke conveys. The opinion may be offensive, but the joke is not. Self-irony is an ability I value highly. Of course, if people feel offended by a type of joke, I'll refrain from telling that type of joke in their presence. However, my opinion is that anything can be made fun of. A lot of truth comes in jest.
Dannyboy-the-Dane Posted November 16, 2010 Posted November 16, 2010 (edited) A lot of truth comes in jest. I'm unsure what you're trying to say. If you're referring to the fact that you often actually mean what you're joking about, I of course don't condone that. People who make jokes about homosexuals because they're actually homophobic are scum of the earth. Edited November 16, 2010 by Dannyboy-the-Dane
Guy Posted November 16, 2010 Posted November 16, 2010 Is the world still struggling to deal with people being gay? Deary me.
heroicjanitor Posted November 16, 2010 Posted November 16, 2010 I disagree completely about jokes. When I make a joke, I am rarely of the opinion that the joke conveys. The opinion may be offensive, but the joke is not. Self-irony is an ability I value highly. Of course, if people feel offended by a type of joke, I'll refrain from telling that type of joke in their presence. However, my opinion is that anything can be made fun of. I agree with this, either everything is ok to be made fun of or nothing is. You can't have some groups immune to jokes and others being easy targets. Not making fun of one group is discriminating against that group imo. Acting as if they need protection.
ReZourceman Posted November 16, 2010 Posted November 16, 2010 Is the world still struggling to deal with people being gay? Deary me. Shame for you, fag!
jayseven Posted November 16, 2010 Posted November 16, 2010 All jokes are fine if offense is not meant. Obv. there are sensitive areas like 'your mum' jokes to someone whose mother has just died - but again we've all heard of slip-ups where the joker hasn't realised the mum in question is dead, and immediately feels embarassed - embarassed because they did not mean any harm or offense with the joke. It's a minefield of grey areas and situational accidents, but I still believe that maxim is correct. All jokes are fine if offense is not meant. Obv. there are sensitive areas like 'your mum' jokes to someone whose mother has just died - but again we've all heard of slip-ups where the joker hasn't realised the mum in question is dead, and immediately feels embarassed - embarassed because they did not mean any harm or offense with the joke. It's a minefield of grey areas and situational accidents, but I still believe that maxim is correct.
Diageo Posted November 16, 2010 Posted November 16, 2010 If you are gay, and everyone around you is making fun of gay people. You're hardly going to open up and tell them you are gay.
jayseven Posted November 16, 2010 Posted November 16, 2010 But if you do then you'll get a chorus of "oh shit, sorry dude, didn't mean any offence" and the cessetation of jokes at your expense (for they did not want to cost you any hard feelings) and, at the least, if any continuation occurs then you can quickly conclude that the ceaseless are not worthy of your friendship. It's no different to the "your mum" thing, really. I'm deaf, blind and ginger, and have an unfortunate surname. I get a lot of flack. Being uptight about a joke is just snooty. I also juggle. Fact is that after a while you hear all of the possible jokes (or in my case, not! .. because I'm deaf, geddit?) and learn to see past it. Oh! And I'm half welsh. You should never be ashamed to accept who you are. You'll only boil in your own thoughts, rather than get to understand the people behind the jokes. You'll construct your own interpretation of their meaning and enter a world of paranoia and ignorance. Easiest example is the welsh thing. People making sheep-shagging jokes I can jump in and say I only shag the left half of the sheep. Self-deprication only comes with confidence and self-security. If you're insecure then that's your problem, not anyone elses. You big gay.
ReZourceman Posted November 16, 2010 Posted November 16, 2010 God Jay, you're so typically ginger, deaf and blind.
MoogleViper Posted November 16, 2010 Posted November 16, 2010 I'm deaf, blind and ginger, and have an unfortunate surname. I get a lot of flack. Being uptight about a joke is just snooty. I also juggle. Fact is that after a while you hear all of the possible jokes (or in my case, not! .. because I'm deaf, geddit?) and learn to see past it. Or in your case not .. because you're blind, geddit?
jayseven Posted November 16, 2010 Posted November 16, 2010 I'm using the Brailternet, guys. Such fail. Did you know 'moogle' feels exactly the same as 'ugly stupid face', and 'ReZ' is the same as 'retardboy'? Yeah you probably did know that.
mr_bogus Posted November 16, 2010 Author Posted November 16, 2010 Let's put it this way, if you stand in the middle of Belfast and make derogatory Irish jokes, you can expect to get your head smacked in. Funny as it may be, there's a time & a place. Unfortunately in my experience, people in the workplace who make harsh gay/lesbian comments have this "everyone around me is straight" attitude, and don't notice if only 9 out of 10 people around them laugh.
Diageo Posted November 16, 2010 Posted November 16, 2010 I think it depends on the jokes. If it's like the ones told here in this video, then I think they are funny. But then are the ones that use gay as a negative thing, which I think are bad jokes.
nightwolf Posted November 17, 2010 Posted November 17, 2010 Sometimes its a case of a person not learning when to keep your mouth shut. For example, the comment jay made about your mum jokes, now my mum has been dead quite some time, it's not a massively sensitive issue 99% of the time, so when say friend A of mine makes a 'your momma so fat her patronus is a cake' I find it amusing, this is acceptable behaviour to have with friends. Now if this would Stranger A saying this to me I'd be furious, why you say, how are they to know? Because sometimes you cannot anticipate with strangers what can happen. It's the same for every joke, every action, sometimes homophobia is just mistaken for stupidity. Unfortunately it is also quite stupid to believe that there aren't a lot of BNP type followers who believe all sorts of homophobic/racist things in this and other countries and don't wish all of them to disappear off the face of the earth. For another example (look at me with all my real life stuff.) a friend in first year was scared to tell me he was gay, I recall I noticed he had a boyfriend of over 2 years I think on fb and then he mentioned it to me, the boy poor thought I'd give him so much flack for it that he didn't mention it, a lot of people didn't know about it. It's a shame that these people are able to get away with bullying almost like they are stuck in high school. Grow the fuck up.
Goafer Posted November 17, 2010 Posted November 17, 2010 In my old workplace (a factory) anything was fair game for jokes. I think I preferred it that way than constantly pussyfooting around worrying about who was going to get offended. I've noticed in a few workplaces as well as out of work, the only jokes about homosexuality tend to be people pretending to be gay. It just seems like light hearted jokes really. I guess it depends on the general environment of the workplace really. If jokes are told about most things, I don't see why homosexuality should be excluded. Surely excluding those types of jokes is patronising and implying gay people are too sensitive to be included in the "banter" (I hate that word)? On the other hand, if the only topic of jokes is homosexuality then things might be a bit odd. I guess each workplace is different and needs to be assessed as such.
Diageo Posted November 17, 2010 Posted November 17, 2010 Jay, you know no one will think you are inferior, abnormal or unnatural because you are deaf, blind and ginger. But you know there are plenty of people who think that way about Homosexuality.
Goafer Posted November 17, 2010 Posted November 17, 2010 Jay, you know no one will think you are inferior, abnormal or unnatural because you are deaf, blind and ginger. Tell that to this family.
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