All-gay community?

[NineOfClubs]

When I lived it West Hollywood, it felt like a gay ghetto. And I didn't mind.

Mostly I prefer diversity, but I'm partial to being with like minded people too....

 

[hylas]

People also like the idea that you can move into a big city where you had everything. You had good universities, good services, good bars, good restaurants, more people = better social opportunities, a bigger variety of people...basically, the best of everything, and a variety.

ive lived both on the country side and in the city, and i find about all of that to be true.

What I'm suggesting is that we have been fed this because it is more efficient but its mostly just a fantasy and dream. Because to truly take advantage of this DREAM, and I find it only a dream, not only do you have to be a certain kind of person/personality, you also have to give up a lot. So its not for everyone. The possibilities SEEM endless for most of us that live in bigger cities but its quiet clear that for many people who have specific and certain goals...a situation where they could be around people similar to them would be a much better thing..it would improve their quality of life. ie Specific towns/cities, for specific type of people, is not a bad idea.

um, what? if you dont like the city, you could just move somewhere else? if you want people of "your kind" around you, why dont you move to west hollywood/china town/little italy/whatever-town?

Japanese culture, for instance, lacks much of the ethnic diversity that most of us are used to; but that's part of what makes it so interesting.

ive lived in japan for years. they make fancy clothes, but believe me, you do not want to live there. their lack of openness and diversity has resulted in a culture that is rigid and soul-crushing. their suicide rates are crazy. source


diversity forces us to confront things we otherwise might just ignore (poverty, racial tension, cultural tension), and it keeps us growing as people and as a culture. lack of diversity keeps a culture stagnant, conserved in amber. that might be "interesting" for people from the outside looking in, but its not healthy. cultures should interact with the world and grow and develop with their times, not stand still and gather dust.

anyway, im not against certain "gay areas", as long as that area is part of a bigger structure, with different areas. but having a whole gay city just doesnt make any sense to me. if we are gonna have a ghetto like that, it really has to be a whole independant country, with its own independant govenment and armed forces. so something could be done against the world wide violence against gays.

 

[Krakenbwool]

I wouldn't be welcome there. Oh well.

But what about bisexuals? What about transgendered people and transsexuals who are essentially "straight"?

I think creating a separate community for bigots would be a better idea.

 

[Corny]

Didn't someone try to create a gay island nation at one point in time? It was tropical...

A german guy is trying to .. but it more of a huge holiday resort.

http://www.gayisland.com/


And there really is "gay island"


http://maps.google.com/maps?t=h&q=63.33,-67.83&ie=UTF8&ll=63.33,-67.83&spn=1.814919,4.938354&z=8

(at the green arrow)

 

[bayern20]

Why do people assume it be a ghetto?
I'm thinking beautiful, high-class, offering special services.

 

[LESAINT]

An all gay community would be the pinnacle of interior design but would be hell on earth for mirror time in the mornings. Diversity is better.

Thanks so much for this one ....

 

[bayern20]

No, we are not..I'm not.

I'm just trying to understand why people assume it would be some ghetto.

I guess one explanation is that if you see the idea negatively you connect negative thoughts to it, if you see it as a good thing, you see positive things connected to it.

IMO, anybody could live there..you wouldn't be thrown out if you were straight. It would just be a city/town that was majority gay, because we are minorities, by a huge margin, in every other city/town.

^^^

All gay men are high class?

Or just the stereotype?

The religious right actually actively tries to paint us as wealthy elites.

 

[bayern20]

And by some of the comments, diversity diversity diversity, it seems most people don't actually believe gay people are diverse. It does seem some of you think we are all f'in flamers.(no offense)

 

[BabiGayPimp]

diversity forces us to confront things we otherwise might just ignore (poverty, racial tension, cultural tension), and it keeps us growing as people and as a culture. lack of diversity keeps a culture stagnant, conserved in amber. that might be "interesting" for people from the outside looking in, but its not healthy. cultures should interact with the world and grow and develop with their times, not stand still and gather dust.

That seems somewhat ethnocentric to suggest that every culture has to be wide-open to outside influence and interaction to be healthy or well-adapted to its surroundings. Many indigenous cultures in various parts of the world were highly-functional and getting along fine until they were intruded upon by outsiders (mostly Europeans) who felt that the entire world should be wide-open to commerce, capitalism, and Christiantiy--so that the world could be their playground.

As a practical exercise, creating closed communities won't work anymore because our world is too interdependent. But as a thought experiement, I don't think we should dismiss the utility of specialized, cloistered, relatively egalitarian communities founded to exemplify particular aims that may not have universal application. Our religious communities, for instance. And these types of communities, in the past, have been extraordinarily long-lived and successful--when left alone.

It's our wide-open, nuke-laden, environmentally destructive, highly stratified, cosmopolitan cultures that may ultimately prove to be the failed experiements.

 

[bayern20]

Can you please define "diversity"?

 

[hylas]

Many indigenous cultures in various parts of the world were highly-functional and getting along fine until they were intruded upon by outsiders (mostly Europeans) who felt that the entire world should be wide-open to commerce, capitalism, and Christiantiy--so that the world could be their playground.

i hope youre not comparing the melting-pot situation in our contemporary cities with brutal, violent, inhuman colonisation. the meeting of cultures has not always been very... civilzed, to put it mildly. but how one can say willful blindness and ignorance towards "the other" is a good strategy for any culture, i just dont understand.

 

[bayern20]

you fool, i know its definition. im asking you in REAL words what it means to you.

 

[bayern20]

Real words?

As opposed to what? Fake words? Whatever those are.

People love to throw words around but they don't really know what they mean. So I want to see what they mean with their own words. We are just programmed to say shit.

I think gay people are some of the biggest hypocrites in the world. I almost think most gays deep down hate who they are and it comes through in such discussions.

 

[bayern20]

That's gay.

 

[bayern20]

What 'diversity' means to me is irrelevant. Same thing with 'red'. The definition of 'red' is varied and has multiple connotations and references attached to it. The same can be said of any word. At the end of the day, red is red, and diversity is as its definition implies...in a societal sense relative to this discussion, a society incorporating individuals of all (including but not limited to) races, nationalities or ethnic origins, colours, religions, sexes, ages, mental or physical disabilities and sexual orientations.

You're the fool for wanting a segregated society, not I for defining a word when asked.

If there was only straight people, how less diverse would it be without gay people?

 

[bayern20]

You have cause and effect backwards.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_cause_and_consequence

People hold negative opinions of anything because there are bad consequences of the said things.

Anal sex has the risk of giving you an std/aids much higher than other forms of sex (negative consequence) but a large number of people still do it.

But we are "gay", so we do it.

Where's the differences?

 

[hylas]

I almost think most gays deep down hate who they are and it comes through in such discussions.

i disagree with most of what youre saying and i dont understand your beef with the term "diversity", but the thread has come across as a decent discussion so far. but this... are you implying that everybody who disagrees with you does so out of self-hatred? because thats just... well, it surpasses "offensive" and goes straight on to "comical".

 

[bayern20]

Obviously less, since you are removing one aspect/entity from a society. It's like me taking the green Skittles out of a bag. The bag is still diverse, but not what it could be.

Less but not much less?

There would still be people of all sexes, colours, religions, different backgrounds, looks, ages, ethnic origins, etc

See what I mean. You are claiming this move would get rid of diversity in a big way but it wouldn't. If you look at your own definition, the only difference would be sexual orientation, but the diversity for so much else is still there.

So this is what leads me back to my point that you don't actually believe gay people are diverse and you think the stereotypes are true. I especially felt that to be true when I read someone say it feel like "looking back the mirror each day". For me, it wouldn't. Because I don't think I fit the stereotypes.

 

[bayern20]

That's such a fallacy. I can remove colour and you'll still have different religions, sexes, genders, ages, disabilities, ethnicity and sexual orientations. I can remove religion and you'll still have different sexes, genders, ages, disabilities, ethnicity and sexual orientations. I can remove ages and you'll still have different sexes, genders, religions, disabilities, ethnicity...you're not really going with that angle, are you? Let's just have a city for Christians, because they'll still be diverse. Let's just have a city of disabled people, because they'll still be diverse.

Your entire argument is invalid on principle of its purpose. Diversity encompasses a whole of singularities, not a singularity into itself.

In many European nations(my own), in many African countries, in many Asian, its basically all white people, all black, all oriental. Is that an issue? Does it make them worse? Should they be looking to diversify? No, no and no. In fact, there are positives about it.

 

[bayern20]

How would the gay community, you would create, accept new members into the neighborhood?

Would there be a gay test?

Only test is if you can give me an awesome bj..no hands.