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Poll: Do you have gay relatives? Gay friends? Transgendered family/friends?

Do you have gay and/or transgendered family/friends? o


  • Total voters
    85
I don't have any close gay relatives of which I am aware but I have lots of gay friends and one close friend who is pre-op transexual.

Edit: Oops, I forgot, I do have one distant cousin who came out as a lesbian a couple of years ago but I haven't seen her in probably 20 years, that's why I forgot about her. My bad.
 
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I understad, but it's too bad that if there are LGBT people there, and given the poll results and percentages of the nation it's likely, they don't feel welcome to come out.

It's just the way it is. People gossip and judge no matter where you are, but it's especially worse in small towns. It's not limited to just gays. I had to leave town to see a shrink, just because the hens cluck too much, followed by a mountain of dumb ****. It's not like they couldn't tell me, it's just one of those things people don't talk about around here.
 
None.

I know a bisexual individual that I chat with regularly over Steam, but not in person.
 
Inspired by Redress' post regarding Chief Justice Roberts' lesbian cousin attending the Supreme Court arguments on SSM, I wondered how many DP'ers have gay relatives and friends. As people are more and more comfortable with coming out, I think it's more likely than ever that most of us have gay relatives and friends.

For my part, two of my deceased uncles were gay. I also have had numerous gay friends and acquaintances over the years. One of my extended members is undergoing gender reassignment.


Yes, I have a lesbian friend. No GLBT relatives that I know of.

Doesn't change my views, which are religiously based and don't include shunning or otherwise ill-treating anyone who is gay, regardless of what I think about it from a spiritual standpoint.
 
Yes, I have a lesbian friend. No GLBT relatives that I know of.

Doesn't change my views, which are religiously based and don't include shunning or otherwise ill-treating anyone who is gay, regardless of what I think about it from a spiritual standpoint.
While my beliefs are not spiritually based, I feel the same way. I dont think i have 'gay friends' or 'gay family members'...thats so gay. I have family members, friends, and coworkers that happen to be gay. I treat them with love and respect. I dont agree with them on some issues, but then, if that were a qualification for treating people with love and respect, I dont know how many people I would even 'like', let alone love and care about.

Gay marriage...meh...I dont agree with it but whatever. Recent articles talking about how its time for the first openly gay football player to come out. Sure...fine whatever. Maybe a gay NASCAR driver...why not. Just so long as homosexuals dont invade male figure skating, it will all be good.
 
Gay friends, yes.

Gay relatives, well... I'm not sure. Sometimes I think my uncle is a fag.
 
I have friends who are gay, and friends who are transgedered. I have trangeneder friends who were straight and still like what was the opposite and is now the same sex.

Interstingly no family. At least not out.
 
I've got a cousin who's bi, but we don't get along well. As far as friends and acquaintances, a few.
 
As far as I know I have no gay relatives.

But we are very good friends with a gay man and his partner who was the recipient of our eldest daughter's heart when she died from injuries sustained in a 1995 automobile accident.

Amazing! Wow.
 
Gay friends, yes.

Gay relatives, well... I'm not sure. Sometimes I think my uncle is a fag.

Well, this is all I ever-ever needed to know about you.

Thumbs down.
 
I think HS's need to stay in the closet as to the whole world for sure just because of the dangers but I would still think they could be out as to their family and closest friends. IDK--it just feels like a balance thing moreso than a feast or famine thing.

I think it's an individual thing. Every set of circumstances is unique. But in my own experience, coming out to one's family is often much harder than coming out at school/in public. There, you can make a statement--"I'm here/I'm queer/Deal with it"--in a very brave way (given what little dirtbags insecure adolescents tend to be) that isn't nearly so terrible as facing the rejection of one's father or mother.
 
I think HS's need to stay in the closet as to the whole world for sure just because of the dangers but I would still think they could be out as to their family and closest friends. IDK--it just feels like a balance thing moreso than a feast or famine thing.

It's a bit off topic but...Well just reading the occasional news article, it seems to be getting better. There are some gay prom king/queen and the local HS has a gay student body prez, so not everywhere is Louisiana swamps. In those cases, it doesn't seem worth hiding it.

Sometimes though all it takes for everyone to figure it out is acting fem or not having a GF, and in other cases they're outted by those 'close friends' or kicked out by parents. It's just highly variable and difficult for a teenager to assess the risks.
 
It's just the way it is. People gossip and judge no matter where you are, but it's especially worse in small towns. It's not limited to just gays. I had to leave town to see a shrink, just because the hens cluck too much, followed by a mountain of dumb ****. It's not like they couldn't tell me, it's just one of those things people don't talk about around here.

Yeah small towns are extremely repressive, and everyone suffers as a result. From what i remember of it, you couldn't sneeze without the whole town finding out by the end of the day. Obviously in that environment, it's terrifying being... different.
 
No on all counts. No gay relatives, no gay friends, no gay nothing.

The son of a teacher who was at our school, when I was in highschool, came out of the closet. I was in my final year of highschool, he was... i don't know, maybe the first. I remember there was a lot of chatter at school about that. I didn't care one way or the other.

There was a video about him and his mother, talking about what they went through as her son discovered that he was a gay. I grew up in a small town... so that was the talk of the town for a month or so, until election season came along and people stopped giving a crap about any of it.
 
Neither friends nor relatives who are gay. The one's I suspect that are gay suddenly show their fiances to change my opinion. I only know one American who is gay.
 
I've got a gay uncle.

Unfortunately, he was pretty much the living stereotype that groups like Focus On The Family warn about - he was also a sexual predator and preyed on my father among other people when he was a small boy and my uncle was entrusted to babysit him. It was a major factor in contributing to his suicide.

Fortunately, for myself, I'm rational enough not to let it color my judgment of the gay community at large. I'm one of the most vociferous supporters of equality for gays I know of in my personal life, and though I don't actually know any other gay men or lesbians, I'd certainly be happy to make friends of either stripe. I just don't really have the opportunity to.
 
Inlaws' relatives (I guess you'd call them outlaws :lol:) and friends over the years but we've lost touch. The inlaws are invited to all family functions and participate to a high degree in their niece and nephews lives.
 
I have a cousin who is a lesbian, and an old friend from high school who is a lesbian. I know a couple of other people who are homosexual, but they're just casual acquaintances. I don't know anyone who is transgendered.
 
My grandmother, to this day, refuses to acknowledge my uncle being gay.

He wasn't incredibly feminine, but he did have the traditional lisp. He grew up in rural Alabama, went off to college, got his degree in accounting (followed his footsteps) at University of Alabama (not in that aspect - I went to a real business school). He eventually got a job in Atlanta and lived up there.

She'll swear to this day that he just had a guy "roommate"...of several years. He wasn't married because "he was so involved in his career". I mean, he was involved in his career, but c'mon...

I had a favorite elderly aunt who has since passed on but her best friend had a son that they would go visit occassionally. But they both thought he was just a normal guy who never found the right girl.

He was employed as a hairdresser in San Francisco. I'll leave it at that.

I do have gay friends and coworkers. Have one gay male friend who has helped me work on remodeling projects and I consider a good friend. He often will joke about the gay thing.
Other gay friends who do not speak about it there becomes the elephant in the room.
 
One of my best friends is presumably gay/bi. I have no idea which as he seems to be a little unsure as to who he is. Nice chap though.
 
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