# What were you THINKING? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 13, 2023, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532 "2023-10-13T19:36:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 350
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/7371 "2026-06-16T13:14:27Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I would be reluctant to assume that any of the LGTBQ+ gains of the last 50 years will survive the present far-right turning Which is why we shouldn’t give homophobia an inch. Even if it makes some of us laugh, @Miller ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/7372 "2026-06-16T14:26:46Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > It’s not a common problem _where you live_. This is a good point. I’m in the Seattle area, which is really liberal. Then again, my oldest daughter also grew up with a lot of acceptance, and she lives in North Carolina. And not an especially urban part of it. I suspect that the script has flipped, where it used to be relatively small areas where you could be safe expressing yourself as anything but the old conservative cishet “normal”, now there are relatively small areas where you aren’t safe doing so. Granted, it should be safe _everywhere_, but it’s still progress. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/7373 "2026-06-16T16:28:41Z")
Based on my interactions with my kids and their friends, sexual orientation isn’t a big deal even here in Wyoming, of all places (in the younger generations). ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/7374 "2026-06-16T16:30:41Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Which is why we shouldn’t give homophobia an inch. Sure, I just think terming anything in this conversation as “giving homophobia an inch” is more than a little absurd. ---
**Author:** ![JaneA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5a626/32.png) [@JaneA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JaneA)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/7375 "2026-06-16T17:07:47Z")
A student at my transgender child’s school threatened to shoot her under similar circumstances. And I also live in a liberal area. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/7376 "2026-06-16T17:11:45Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > I’m in the Seattle area, which is really liberal. And yet, > **[Transgender University of Washington student stabbed to death in laundry...](https://abcnews.com/US/transgender-university-washington-student-stabbed-death-laundry-room/story?id=132847597)** > > A student at the University of Washington in Seattle was found stabbed to death in a campus housing building, Seattle police said. Fellow students aren’t the only potential threat to Q students or people in general. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/7377 "2026-06-16T17:38:27Z")
The humor is not directed at gay behavior; it is at the absurdity that this was something believable to us as kids, the credulousness of so many, and the _at_ the biases that have allowed the stories to ever have legs. It is making fun of our former selves and those who are _still_ as stupid and biased as we were then. So yeah. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/7378 "2026-06-16T17:48:55Z")
> [@susan](#): > > Fellow students aren’t the only potential threat to Q students or people in general. Yes, isolated incidents are an unfortunate possibility everywhere. And I’m aware of that killing, as it is a somewhat big story around here. I _don’t_ think that people need to generally fear for their lives, but incidents like this certainly change that, at least temporarily. And as others have said, this administration is openly hostile to anyone in that community, which just emboldens those kinds of actions. I do worry about a backslide, as @LSLGuy mentioned. I’m hoping that it doesn’t take root and cause a permanent backward shift in our attitudes toward tolerance. I, personally, suspect that we’re going to see the pendulum swing back in a big way soon-ish, though that just might be my optimism talking. People seem to be fed up with how things have been going in this country, and I am hoping it puts MAGA into irrelevence within a generation. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/7379 "2026-06-16T17:56:45Z")
The murder of Juniper Blessing is horrific, but it does not appear to have been motivated by anti-trans bigotry. The attacker is currently being assessed to see if he’s mentally competent enough to stand trial. Blessing may not even have been his original target - there’s some reports he may have been stalking a different woman before switching targets when a more convenient one presented itself. Mind, “It’s not transphobic, it’s just the sort of violence women have to deal with every day in this society!” isn’t much of an improvement. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/7380 "2026-06-16T18:29:07Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I would be reluctant to assume that any of the LGTBQ+ gains of the last 50 years will survive the present far-right turning. I wish it will, I hope it does; but I doubt it will. I think it will, because most of the anti-LGBTQ+ bigots are older and will die off, and most young people are fine with whatever people want to identify as. (Note the weasel word “most.”) ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/7381 "2026-06-16T18:35:44Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > I think it will, because most of the anti-LGBTQ+ bigots are older and will die off, and most young people are fine with whatever people want to identify as. I forgot about that aspect as well. Much of the MAGA crowd are people harkening for “simpler times” when “men were men and women were women, and men loved women”, that sort of antiquated bullshit. Younger generations are not growing up in such an environment and so will not have that feeling, and the older people who did are dying off. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/7382 "2026-06-16T19:16:03Z")
Making little tee-hee schoolboy jokes about famous men sticking stuff up their butts etc. is definitely doing homophobia’s work for it. Nothing remotely absurd about it. > [@DSeid](#): > > The humor is not directed at gay behavior; it is at the absurdity that this was something believable to us as kids But you (pl.) somehow can’t do that without repeating the homophobic original bit. And so it lives for another generation. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/7383 "2026-06-16T19:20:32Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > I forgot about that aspect as well. Much of the MAGA crowd are people harkening for “simpler times” when “men were men and women were women, and men loved women”, that sort of antiquated bullshit. Younger generations are not growing up in such an environment and so will not have that feeling, and the older people who did are dying off. I’d this still received wisdom? From what I can see on my daughter’s college campus, there has been a huge jump in reactionary shit from male students. Stuff that simply wouldn’t fly five years ago. This is a large state university. Has never been a bastion of liberalism, but still the change in campus climate has been pretty marked in the last two years. Doesn’t help that the University is majority male. Maybe campuses that are gender balanced or majority female have a different climate. But it’s hard for me to believe that 18-24 year old males aren’t way more right wing than they were quite recently. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/7384 "2026-06-16T19:24:37Z")
> [@Mighty\_Mouse](#): > > But it’s hard for me to believe that 18-24 year old males aren’t way more right wing than they were quite recently. I was on campus when a similar shift happened in the early 80s. I’m disappointed but not at all surprised. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/7385 "2026-06-16T19:27:15Z")
> [@Mighty\_Mouse](#): > > From what I can see on my daughter’s college campus, there has been a huge jump in reactionary shit from male students. Stuff that simply wouldn’t fly five years ago. This. They figure they won’t get pushback like they used to. The rock was turned over ten years ago and even after it’s put back it’ll be a while before the vermin crawl back unter it. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/7386 "2026-06-16T19:30:03Z")
No need to belabor but I see it as similar someone claiming that All in the Family encouraged bigotry by having Archie say bigoted things. These rumors, including the Curtis one that triggered the discussion in this thread, have legs that have run ultramarathons. That is not due to the likes of us making fun of their absurdity and our own past idiocy, but because there are enough who are still big enough idiots to have them fit their prejudices. Conflating the latter with the former is not fighting their ignorance. Not that pointing and laughing at them here is so powerful, but it is not of harm at least. ---
**Author:** ![Disinfectus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/disinfectus/32/11085_2.png) [@Disinfectus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disinfectus)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/7387 "2026-06-16T19:35:42Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > But you (pl.) somehow can’t do that without repeating the homophobic original bit. And so it lives for another generation. And you somehow think that eliminating talk about an old urban legend is going to make the world better for gay people. It isn’t. There are far more things to worry about and try to change than policing people who make fun of others. And I say that as a gay man. I still find your argument to be absurd. And by the way, ask any kid if they know about this rumor. I guarantee you aren’t going to hear them say, “yes, I heard all about it on the SDMB.” Rather, they are going to look at you like you are weird. You might be doing more damage by insisting it is a big deal, and thereby making it a bigger deal than it actually is. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/7388 "2026-06-16T20:07:51Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Making little tee-hee schoolboy jokes about famous men sticking stuff up their butts etc. is definitely doing homophobia’s work for it. Nothing remotely absurd about it. No, it’s not “doing homophobia’s work for it,” and pretending that a bunch middle aged pro-LGBT farts reminiscing about the dumb bigotries they heard in their youth is somehow aiding and abetting homophobia is just fucking stupid. > [@MrDibble](#): > > But you (pl.) somehow can’t do that without repeating the homophobic original bit. And so it lives for another generation. Rod Stewart’s reputation may never recover. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/7389 "2026-06-16T20:39:45Z")
> [@Mighty\_Mouse](#): > > there has been a huge jump in reactionary shit from male students. Stuff that simply wouldn’t fly five years ago. Another key factor is how much of this BS women will accept from prospective male partners. I don’t have much (or any) contact with young women today, but I suspect that, at the very least, their resistance to reactionary sexual ideas is higher than that of men of the same age. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/7390 "2026-06-16T20:54:39Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > > [@MrDibble](#): > > > > Rod Stewart’s reputation may never recover. He is doing a good job of hurting his reputation on his own right now. > **[Outrage as Rod Stewart seen drinking at Scotland game — after canceling CA...](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/music/articles/outrage-rod-stewart-seen-drinking-155928184.html)** > > The 81-year-old singer scrapped his scheduled Friday night show. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532.md?page=349) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532.md?page=351)