Male erotica in the LGBT group: Why now? What's changed?

[yardwork]

132. My concern over this was not the pictures, but the response to the OP from this group.

The overall effect of many of the posts in this thread, intentional or not, has been to tell those few of us who wanted to discuss this issue that we had no right to even discuss this issue. The effect, intentional or not, is to tell us to sit down and shut up. Some of the responses to Duncan Grant and Ms. Toad, in particular, were over the top. Unfortunately, this incident echoes historical divides in our community, and times when women, for instance, were told that we were not deserving of equal consideration by the gay rights movement.

The overall effect of this has been to make me feel unwelcome in the LGBT group. This has nothing to do with agreement or disagreement with the point of the OP. It has everything to do with the way that our opinions were received, and the very question of whether or not we have a right to even discuss this issue here. According to many of the posts in this thread, we had no right to even bring this up.

Again, this is not about whether or not picture threads should be posted. That is beside the point. The issue here is whether or not members of LGBT have the right to ask questions about the purpose of this group, and whether or not we have the right to bring up questions that may be minority opinions.

Like everybody here, I have a lot of stresses in my real life, some of them related to living while gay in America, others related to the everyday aspects of our lives - work, family, housing, etc. Over the years I have thought of DU as a place to relax, become better informed, laugh sometimes, make friends. The LGBT group was the refuge within the refuge for times when DU as a whole became too contentious.

To say that I am brokenhearted by many of the posts in this thread is no exaggeration. I resigned as a host because of this, and I am taking a long break from DU. I returned only to post this note as a clarification for why this will be my last post on DU for a long time.

I wish everybody well.