From:	David Buehrer <dbuehrer@******.CARL.ORG>
Subject:	Re: Same-Sex Marriage in 205X (kinda rambles, sorry)
Date:	Wed, 13 May 1998 13:41:47 -0600

Erik Jameson wrote:
/
/ But you also have states and local governments banning same-sex marriage,
/ Colorado being one of them as I recall.

And it's on the way to the supreme court. <sigh> Colorado is a
great state, but damn if we don't have some boneheads living here,
IMHO.

Anyway, I think homophobia would be alive and well in Shadowrun. You
have all the elements to feed the different types of discrimination:
many poor people, class stratification, poor economy (despite the
success of the Megacorps their profits do not "trickle down"), social
unrest, political unrest, lack of education, etc. When you've got
that much bad news it makes it that much easier for people to start
pointing fingers.

And unfortunately, IMO, homosexuals are an easy target.

As a point of interest, one of the reasons homosexuals are prey to
discrimination is that they can "hide". You can't look at someone
and positively identify them as a homosexual, whereas you can
identify someone's race 99% of the time based on their appearance.
For a person who is prejicuced against homosexuals they have the
added fear that a homosexual could be hiding anywhere.

This also makes it hard for homosexuals, as a group, to defend
themselves, because that works both ways.

If you're a troll everyone knows you're a troll. And you know who's
a troll and who isn't a troll (and that goes for the other trolls).
If you're discriminated against it's pretty easy to find other trolls
to help you. You could go up to a troll on the street who was a
complete stranger and say, "Don't eat at that restaurant, they treat
trolls like shit."

If you're a homosexual you can tell your friends, but on the street
you're on your own.

-David
--
"This above all: to thine own self be true..."
- Shakespeare
--
email: dbuehrer@******.carl.org
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/1068/homepage.htm