Striving for Equality

[Musashi]

You believe, I assume, that homosexuality is natural based off of, I assume, personal knowledge and experience.

It is natural. Anyone believing otherwise is wrong.

If we ban the mocking, harassing, insulting, and degrading of one group unilaterally, why not extend that same protection to everyone?

If you'd read the announcement you'd see we are.

 

[Pastellorama]

1. While religion has a great importance in the life of many people, at the end of the day, embracing a religion or not remain a choice.

2. As such, while it will receive protection against discrimination and negative opinions, certain criticism of specific beliefs will be tolerated. Criticism of religious organizations (which are like any other human organizations) will not be banned.

Example:
a. "The crossing of the red sea is such a fairy tale, it's dumb to believe someone could have parted water". Not okay.
b. "The crossing of the red sea is a part of Hebrew oral history that was written down centuries later. It should not be taken as a perfect historical account. Some translators believe it refers not to the red sea, but to a reed sea." Acceptable.
c. "The Catholic Church has at various time immoraly covered up sex scandals involving priests." Acceptable.

3. This thread not being about religion, drop it.

You're right. This thread is about the equality act. Members would like you to assure them that you will protect them as equally as any other member, and asking for protection from harassment for being religious is just as valid as asking for any other sort of protection. The OP said that this was a rule concerning all acts of hatred and discrimination, so members should be able to ask and feel assured that the staff, their supposed rule enforcers and fair protectors, will protect them when needed or at least help them to better understand the new equality act.

It really seems most members would just like to better understand the entire ins-and-outs of the rule, and you might feel all questions have been answered, but it wouldn't be fair to cut off their ability to ask--no question is a stupid question.

 

[Sushi-X]

Why don't we simplify this down a bit for anyone that wants to join this rather large scale debate.

In my opinion, this isn't about Gays or Lesbians or Religions or any of that.

All this does is make sure you are not a douchebag to certain people because who they like.

But alas, let me extend this even further if I may. My first question to all the people who disagree with this for some strange reason is why do you have such a problem with people liking the same gender? It isn't obviously harming you so why should you care?

Second of all, people obviously forget that in the exact same part of the Bible it says that people cannot practice homosexuality it also says that men shall not shave and also to burn cows in order to ask for forgiveness for your sins. So obviously you are being a hypocrite by criticizing people who violate that section since everyone violates that section as well so you are not better than they are.


Third of all, this is a Pokemon forum. If you want to debate and hate homosexuals, go to the Westboro Baptist Website or something like that. However, if you just want to be like myself and just enjoy the fucking internet, feel free to stay.

 

[Master Mew]

Well, while part of me wants to make further inquiries concerning policy changes and enforcement, I have no real desire to be further patronized for asking questions and seeking assurance that others will be treated fairly.

Apparently, merely asking is equivalent to being bigoted myself and grants the community free-reign to treat me as such.

For the record, I support LGBT equality and respect members of the LGBT community as fellow human beings who are my equal in every way and would never dream of intentionally hurting them - and yet, despite this fact (which one would think would render me unaffected by this policy-change), I already feel less welcome here.

Tar-and-feather me if you must, I should have known better than to defend a demographic the majority of the community vehemently disagrees with.

 

[Fig]

To clarify, I have no objection to people asking question of the staff, and the staff answering.

I do have objection to two members taking it up to a personal debate between them.

If you have further question for me, ask them. If you wish to further question those questions, that's fine too.

But debating it amongs your (non-mod) selves is not on topic.

 

[MizuTaipu]

This is great and all, but why bring this up now? Wasn't Bulbagarden more accepting of gays and lesbians before this?

 

[Musashi]

We just wanted to take an official stance on this and make our feelings clear.

 

[Fig]

There were issues - several issues - with people coming into threads about homosexuality and being extremely negative about homosexuality (without attaking other posters directly). We wanted to put an end to this, so this policy.

 

[Musashi]

Now that everyone has had a few days to discuss our new policy, I'll be closing the threads. With the B2W2 release a week away, we wont have the time to constantly monitor these threads. If you have anymore questions about the new policy, please PM Evil Figment.