I have nothing against finding comfort in a friend, or having a support group. They just can't be divisive or excluding.
How would a safe space be divisive? How would it be excluding?
If you exclude people based on their gender/sexuality, that I'd frown upon. If you exclude people based on whether they support you or not, that's fine. But either way, you have the right to assembly. These are private areas, private organizations, and they can do whatever the hell they want to.
Religious people have bible studies. They like visitors.
Churches have unlocked doors. Anyone can go in.
Good for them, but they don't
need to be that way. Nobody is requiring them to accept everybody.
But "you aren't gay, what could you possibly know about how we are treated!? Get out!" Style meetings, where pain and hurt get echoed in a place that feels safe through that exclusion? No. Must not permit. Violence that way. Always.
Wierd, remember Sword vs Shield? You're talking about the Sword. The Sword is bad, yes. I agree. The Shield is not.
Doze, I was bullied and beat up in highschool too. Ridiculed for never dating of going to prom. Called gay and faggot for having decidedly female hobbies, like crochet.
I have even been sexually assaulted.
I simply choose not to recoil from it. I want to know why they hate. The why fascinates me more than the what.
I'm sorry if I seemed to presume that you lead a sheltered life. But
you didn't need a safe space. Okay. You could handle living in a hostile society - good for you!
But
not everybody can. Some people are driven to
suicide by this. Having a safe space
doesn't mean that you can't study or understand hatred! It means that when you are overwhelmed by the hostility, you have somewhere to retreat you. You can use it as a permanent shelter if you are lucky, you can ignore the hateful world about you. I would argue that that is a
fine choice. But you could also use it as a "home base" of sorts as you explore and understand the hate.
Basically, safe spaces as swords are bad. Safe spaces as shields can either be used as a block-the-world-out shield or a safe-home-base shield. Either choice is fine. If the world hates someone, perhaps it would be better if someone still explored, but is it your job to push them out of the nest?
Could we call them 'respectful places' maybe? The idea being that they are open but expect people to maintain decorum? I'm pretty sure that that is basically whet weird is saying right?
Isn't that what shieldspaces
already are? They don't say "you aren't one of us, we don't want you." They say "no hatred here."
Support group has been around since the 50s. No need to call it anything else.
So you're a linguistic prescriptivist, eh? New names are fine.
Holy crap this is still going on
A classroom should not be considered a "safe space". Shutting down discourse in that way is terrible.
Safe spaces as swords are bad, yes.
Yet people should have the right to meet up in private and exclude others, because people need to be able to relax and socialize occasionally.
This is a possible shieldspace, as is "no hatred, everybody welcome".
We are not automatons ready to defend our beliefs from prying eyes and criticism at all times.
And many, maybe most, people get that criticism at home - if they even dare reveal their nature.
Good point. I would note that the home is usually a safe space for most people. For LGBT people, it's often not.