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[Scelly9]

I've always heard him described as gay. But being trans is pretty much exactly the same general public perception.

-.-

[Owlbread]

I've always heard him described as gay. But being trans is pretty much exactly the same general public perception.

It's how she identified herself, it's common for trans people to do that.

[XXSockXX]

I had initially heard neither. Heard it here first, but that was not that long ago.
I guess it will rather have a slighly adverse effect if any on the perception of transsexuals, since Manning is a controversial figure already. For positive effects you need beloved entertainers coming out, like Ellen in the 90s. And I doubt something like that is going to happen soon, as that is a bit more complicated than coming out as gay.

[Nadaka]

The highest profile trans person I know is one of the Wachowski's, director of "The Matrix", etc.

I've always heard him described as gay. But being trans is pretty much exactly the same general public perception.

Pronouns are a pain in the ass, as the only gender neutral ones we have in English reference either objects (it) or group (they). Saying "she" is described as "gay" isn't necessarily correct ether for a m->f trans either.

[kaijyuu]

I have also become confused when it comes to trans folk's sexuality.

The ones I know use their actual gender to determine sexuality. MtF who likes men = straight. However, I have come across a few who said differently.

[Owlbread]

The way I see it sexuality is such a fluid thing classifications barely fit anyway.

[Graknorke]

I personally define my sexuality as "penis wants what penis wants".
If people ask it's funny enough to not make a big deal of but while being sufficient enough of an answer.

[scriver]

How was it pretty clear?

http://boingboing.net/2010/06/20/was-alleged-wikileak.html

And then two letters under the name 'Breanna' which got her labeled as unstable.

Of course there were some obfuscating elements, such as her intent to hide her transition until the trial was over, but from the trickle of information we've had access to there was a pretty clear picture being painted of somebody who was transgender and suffering for it in that hell called the military. Maybe not 100% but beyond reasonable doubt in my mind.

Ah. I hadn't heard of even anything like that.

[GlyphGryph]

The current categorization of sexuality is flawed in many ways. At the very least a slight improvement would be to describe it as "target"-sexual - so something like Massexual and Femsexual. Femsexuals like women, massexuals like men. It would have the side effect of being specific to sexuality and sexual interest, whereas our current standard requires also knowing the gender of the person involved.

I can't be the only one who sees the "label for sexual attraction" not actually specifying who someone is attracted to being a weirdass fucking thing. You'd think knowing someone's sexuality would help you know who their attracted to, but it's useless! What a useless piece of crap label.

If I tell you someone is "homosexual" you would still have no idea if they were attracted to men or women. All it means, really, is "not normal" - you'd know they were deviant, and that was all.

Is that really the sort of terminology we should be using?

Ah, but the world is stupid...

[Frumple]

Needs more fancy latin. Andro-/gyno- sexual?

[SalmonGod]

The current categorization of sexuality is flawed in many ways. At the very least a slight improvement would be to describe it as "target"-sexual - so something like Massexual and Femsexual. Femsexuals like women, massexuals like men. It would have the side effect of being specific to sexuality and sexual interest, whereas our current standard requires also knowing the gender of the person involved.

I can't be the only one who sees the "label for sexual attraction" not actually specifying who someone is attracted to being a weirdass fucking thing. You'd think knowing someone's sexuality would help you know who their attracted to, but it's useless! What a useless piece of crap label.

If I tell you someone is "homosexual" you would still have no idea if they were attracted to men or women. All it means, really, is "not normal" - you'd know they were deviant, and that was all.

Is that really the sort of terminology we should be using?

Ah, but the world is stupid...

One of those moments where I'm reminded just how deeply language and culture are connected...

[Pnx]

One of those moments where I'm reminded just how deeply language and culture are connected...

There used to be a time when I thought things like, "It's just words, it's not going to matter very much how you use them."

These days I find myself amazed at how much of a difference one little word can make in the world.

I also think it's rather heartwarming how many people after the conversation about Manning being transsexual, a lot of people very blatantly started using "she", and "her" to refer to her. It's like an awesome kind of subtle show of support/protest.

[GlyphGryph]

The decisions that I made in 2010 were made out of the concern for my country and the world that we live in. Since the tragic events of 9/11, our country has been at war. We have been at war with an enemy that chooses not to meet us on a traditional battlefield. Due to this fact, we’ve had to alter our methods of combatting the risk posed to us and our way of life.

I initially agreed with these methods and chose to volunteer to help defend our country. It was not until I was in Iraq and reading secret military reports on a daily basis that I started to question the morality of what we were doing. It was at this time that I realized that our efforts to meet the risk posed to us by the enemy, we had forgotten our humanity. We consciously elected to devalue life both in Iraq and Afghanistan. When we engaged those that we perceived were the enemy, we sometimes killed innocent civilians. Whenever we killed innocent civilians, instead of accepting responsibility for our conduct, we elected to hide behind the veil of national security and classified information in order to avoid any public accountability.

In our zeal to kill the enemy, we internally debated the definition of torture. We held individuals at Guantanamo for years without due process. We inexplicably turned a blind eye to torture and executions by the Iraqi government. And we stomached countless other acts in the name of our war on terror.

Patriotism is often the cry extolled when morally questionable acts are advocated by those in power. When these cries of patriotism drown out any logically-based dissension, it is usually an American soldier that is given the order to carry out some ill-conceived mission.

Our nation has had similar dark moments for the virtues of democracy—the Trail of Tears, the Dred Scott decision, McCarthyism and the Japanese-American internment camps—to mention a few. I am confident that many of the actions since 9/11 will one day be viewed in a similar light.

As the late Howard Zinn once said, there is not a flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.

I understand that my actions violated the law. I regret that my actions hurt anyone or harmed the United States. It was never my intent to hurt anyone. I only wanted to help people. When I chose to disclose classified information, I did so out of a love for my country and my sense of duty to others.

If you deny my request for a pardon, I will serve my time knowing that sometimes you have to pay a heavy price to live in a free society. I will gladly pay that price if it means we could have a country that is truly conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all women and men are created equal.

[Descan]

Nevermind.

[GlyphGryph]

Left out of what?