Paradigm Concepts

[mighty28]

[Auroris]

Lol don't worry mighty28, I won't punch ya. The I stands for intersex, meaning transgendered transvestite individuals. A stands for allies, heterosexuals that support the queer cause. As far as shortening the list, some people use queer rather than rattling off the alphabet. And you'll have to ask the lesbians about the arrangement of the letters; they're usually pretty vocal if they think they're being discriminated against and I haven't heard anything yet.

Kitty, thanks for your input. I think the central issue for me is that you really shouldn't have to officially state that homosexuality exists on Arcanis; it should have been apparent without an official statement. Now I agree that including certain elements into a mod just for the sake of ticking off boxes on a politically correct checklist is not the way to go. And it is certainly true that most authors write what they know and many times they don't question their basic assumptions. This is the age-old problem of being sensitive to the diversity of others and I don't have an easy answer. Let's have more queer Arcanis players writing mods, maybe that will help. But regardless, I'm glad to have this discussion and to have an official response.

Let me reiterate that in the grand scheme of things this a minor complaint of mine, a trend that I spotted, and nothing more. It is an issue that's important to me personally so I thought I would bring it up. Nothing more or less.
_________________
Kailandos, Elorii Chanter of the Rebirth and the Bright People
Prince Arcahvir of the Tir Betoq
Harvester for Iowa
James Vacca

[Nierite]

Homosexual and bisexual characters are everywhere. Hell, statistics say that 5-15% of the population falls into one of the two catagories. My quetion originally stemmed from the fact that much of our current society opposition to homosexuality is religiously based (at least to an extent). Since the Larissan Church is half-based on hedonism, I doubt that a similar restriction is in place.

I presume Coryan will fall more in the historical Rome context, while Milandir could go either way as the opposition towards male-female touching could lead to more homosexual affairs or the more closed sexual mores could lead to a societal stigma against it. Altheria I would assume would be fairly against it as it is a fairly strong patriarchy.

As for the Elorii, since they are immortal they give lots of time to experiment. . .
_________________
Cody Bergman

aka = Haakon Marcus val'Virdan, Priest of Nier (Divine 1.
aka = Dyabe val'Abebi, Templar of Althares (Divine 1.4)
aka = Jorma Ostoman, Battlemage of the Coryani Empire (Arcane 1.2)

[KittyCurtis]

I is intersex, which means not anatomically strictly male or female, usually some combination of the two. This can be anything from DNA showing a set of chromosomes which does not align with their outward appearance (usually undiagnosed until some other medical procedure requires a genetic test) to having both or neither gender's secondary sex characteristics. Intersex is similar to transgender because it's a gender identity, not a sexual orientation, but they are grouped together because they face a lot of the same issues. (James V, interesting that in your area transvestites are grouped with transgender, as my local community is very clear that they are different, although sometimes overlapping, groups.)

Locally, A is for Asexual, and allies just say ally. There is no "officially", as there isn't a legislative body that speaks for all these groups. People put the letters together, explain them, start using them, and some catch on, and some don't. (Otherwise, we'd be up to at least GLBTQQIAPHHCDTVGQGF2S.) (Matt, I'm PMing you, because I know you're curious.)

I usually shorten to queer, an umbrella term that just means "not straight", and can include all of the other terms, and more (some people use it to mean "it's too complicated for a label, just ask me"). However, I tend not to use queer outside of social justice spaces because someone not familiar with my background could interpret it as the slur of the same name, which is far bigger of a problem than having to slow down and enunciate clearly.

GLBT goes a couple different ways. I adopted the use of GLBT, as that is common use in my area, and how it was chronologically accepted as common. Gay -> G&L -> GLB -> GLBT -> GLBTQ -> GLBTQI -> GLBTQIA. I've also seen GLBTQQ (2nd Q is Questioning), but I don't see it as often. I've seen some groups switch to LGBT if they're specifically talking about a group that deals more with lesbian issues, and some that make a point of using GLBT because because they posit that's the order in which the groups will be accepted as mainstream.

If you have more questions, or want links, I'll be happy to address them off-list, as we've gotten pretty far off the actual topic here.

I'm not likely to punch you when I see you - I have a sparring partner now. Besides, you know I'm partial to elbow strikes.
_________________
~Kitty Curtis~
Legends of Arcanis Campaign Director
director@shatteredempires.com
**We are looking for stat monkeys & cartographers - Message me if interested!**
Origins: Gathering HQ Staff

[KittyCurtis]