• Mossy Feathers (She/Her)
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    2 years ago

    “Not all countries have the same values and legal system that we have in Canada. As a result, it is important for you to be informed about the legal framework and social customs governing sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics in your destination country,” that page notes.

    Wow, way to understate that. I suppose they have to downplay it though because if they were honest about the state of the US then they’d have to acknowledge that large swaths of the US can no longer be considered even remotely safe for members of the LGBT community. As such, they would have to consider the possibility that of members of the LGBT community might seek asylum in Canada and if so, that they could no longer turn them away on the basis that the US is a safe harbor (iirc many countries ban US citizens from seeking asylum because the US is supposed to be a “safe country”).

    Edit: Canada likes to claim that LGBT people from the US and UK can achieve refugee status, however the US-Canada Safe Third Country agreement says otherwise. Note that while there are exceptions to the agreement, none of them involve people who are members of the LGBT and/or BIPOC communities. In fact, it sounds like, based on the canada.ca link, that Canada recently expanded it to make it harder for people to claim refugee status if they’re coming from the US, which is kinda the opposite of what they should be doing.

    • Roundcat
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      82 years ago

      There’s a chance that me and my sister might be fleeing to Canada if the situation gets bad enough even in the safer parts of the US, but even then, I know Canada has its own growing problems with fascism, and I’m looking into backup plans if things get bad enough there as well.

      At the end of the day though, we may just run out of places we can run to.

        • @[email protected]
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          22 years ago

          A minority, but they are loud and have influence. I still remember the convoy that shut down the country for weeks.

          • @[email protected]
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            22 years ago

            The Convoy terrorized a city for weeks. Maybe shut down certain aspects of that city. The rest of Canada was largely unaffected.

            • @[email protected]
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              22 years ago

              It still was a scary situation to me, and reminded me a lot of the Jan 6 insurrection. It wasn’t just Ottawa either that was terrorized though. There were smaller convoys that terrorized towns in Alberta, and there were several border crossings that were blocked by truckers.

              Canada may be a more tolerant place than America, but it still faces a lot of the same vulnerabilities that we face here from being overtaken by a militant minority.

      • Mossy Feathers (She/Her)
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        12 years ago

        Same. Tbh I fully expect that if I tried however, they’d just turn me back and cite the legal agreement that basically states that Americans can’t be refugees.

  • @[email protected]
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    62 years ago

    goddamnit I remember joking that one day there’d be the entire alphabet stuck on the end of that acronym – remember when it was just LGB? – and now they’re adding fucken’ numbers

    • Flying Squid
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      52 years ago

      They’re “adding fucken’ numbers” because the 2 counts for 2-spirited, an indigenous Canadian and American concept that they are respecting. And you should fucken’ respect it too considering what has been done to those indigenous people in the last 500 years.

  • @[email protected]
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    102 years ago

    honest question, what’s this “two-spirit” term? I can’t find a straight forward explanation on the web

    • @[email protected]
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      72 years ago

      AFAIK, it’s basically people with different spirits inside them, falls in the gender queer domain, like being trans/NB (not a sexual orientation)

      It primarily seems to be a First Nations/Native American identity, and appears to have a decently long history throughout time.

      It also has a kinda cool flag.

      • @[email protected]
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        32 years ago

        Interesting. So it is a myth based orientation?

        No disrespect I’m trying to understand if these people actually believe they are non binary, or if they believe a mythological entity lives within them

        • LegionEris [she/her]
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          12 years ago

          Their souls contain metaphysical aspects of both masculine and feminine tradition. They may contain an entire soul of both genders. None of these things are external. There is no separate or outside entity. All of the soul within them is them. Anything more specific requires knowing the person and their culture. Don’t worry about mapping it onto your worldview. Just accept it within theirs.

            • LegionEris [she/her]
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              22 years ago

              That’s an offensive way to refer to someone’s religious and cultural experiences. Being two spirit is a gnostic spiritual experience that is both current and real. Calling it a myth isn’t acceptance. It’s judgement, the imposing of your frame of reference on their lived experience.

              • @[email protected]
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                2 years ago

                Fact: people retain their own identities and alignments (even multiple!) In their own head, and that’s great.

                Fact: souls and spirits are not proven to exist.

                If people want to believe in religion and myth, that’s totally fine. It’s not my “judgement” to learn about, and acknowledge that others pursue traditions based in myth.

                When I use the word myth I’m not singling out any one faith, all religion is myth based.

                • LegionEris [she/her]
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                  22 years ago

                  This isn’t a respectful attempt to understand two spirit people. You are intentionally using dismissive language that implies a lack of validity to their lived experiences. “It’s fine that you think and do these things, but it’s all in your head, and your reasoning is made up nonsense.” is something trans people of all sorts hear before their rights are attacked and diminished. It’s something I have heard out of the mouth of flesh and blood humans in front of me. The structure with which you address two spirit people is comparably delegitimizing. If you must handle this with familiar terms instead of seeking the third party gnostic understanding of empathy, consider it a cultural metaphor. Because this metaphor contains facts and realities that you don’t understand, even if they are couched in ideas you personally find implausible, and you’re never going to really understand these facts by simple reframing. You have to understand from their perspective to deconstruct and reconstruct the truths held in the two spirit experience into your reality.

    • @[email protected]
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      172 years ago

      Two Spirit is a non binary identity with a specific cultural context within the history of indigenous peoples. In Canada, due to the increased focus on dealing with the reconciliation of Indigenous peoples the current Acronym is 2SLGBTQIA as it sort of symbolicly puts precedent on amplifying indigenous voices in the movement.

      • Yeather
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        122 years ago

        That doesn’t explain it at all. By this context the term could mean gay and native Canadian.

        • @[email protected]
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          22 years ago

          I too am curious about this term “2 spirits”. From the above explanation and the term itself, I assume it means the person pretty much has a male and female component, thus “2 spirits”. Sounds like gender fluid or non-binary to me but I’m not an expert on the differences.

          • Midnight_Ice
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            32 years ago

            Two spirit in a Canadian Indigenous context refers to people who identify as having two spirits inside of them. They have the spirits of both a man and a woman, so in terms outside Indigenous culture I think the most related term would be non-binary.

            • @[email protected]
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              12 years ago

              It’s interesting to see this. There’s got to be a list for more of these from all over the world.

        • @[email protected]
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          2 years ago

          It’s a non-binary so neither male nor female aligned and it’s basically not something someone who is not of the tribes where it’s a thing can use the label. So that’s basically the cliff notes.

          To get more granular it’s a partially ceremonial category of gender that is neither male nor female. Culturally this third gender has unique cultural and social roles similar to how male and female do that are unique to that culture. It’s a social category that has it’s own modes of dress, rituals and social expectations applied to it. Western culture doesn’t exactly have a rigid third gender classification in this way so there’s not much that two Spirit can be easily compared one to one with making it difficult to explain. Two Spirit people are sort of formally recognized by their people and assume the cultural trappings of this third gender role.

          It’s not linked to a specific tribe and is kind of an umbrella term, these third gender roles are a feature of a lot of different tribes that all call them something specific in their own languages so “two spirit” is just an English speaker’s short cut to referring non-specifically to a person occupying one of potentially dozen different varieties of these different culture’s third gender categories.

    • @[email protected]
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      2 years ago

      Most places in the world recognize two genders and their respective social roles: men and women. Some places recognize a third gender and its respective social and/or ceremonial role. This is the case for (some) North American Indigenous people, and two-spirit is a catch-all term to refer to a third gender role that they recognize.

      It’s hard to map onto the more standard two gender system that most of us are familiar with. When you think of men as the breadwinners and women as the child bearers, some cultures think of an additional distinct third gender with a designated social/ceremonial role.

      But as you might have thought while reading that, men being the breadwinners and women being the child bearers is already a fairly outdated view of gender and social roles. Turns out social constructs are messier than they seem when you start to really analyze them and attempt to strictly define them.

      TLDR: two-spirit is a catch-all term for a type of queer identity recognized by some North American Indigenous cultures.

      • @[email protected]
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        52 years ago

        So, at risk of being reductive: it’s like non-binary, but in the way some North American indigenous cultures see it

        • @[email protected]
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          32 years ago

          It’s reductive, but still close enough if you don’t know/interact with nonbinary or two-spirit people on a regular basis. At least to the extent of my understanding.

    • Midnight_Ice
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      22 years ago

      Two spirit in a Canadian Indigenous context refers to people who identify as having two spirits inside of them. They have the spirits of both a man and a woman, so outside Indigenous culture I think the most related term would be non-binary.

    • TheRealKuni
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      562 years ago

      LGBTQ 2 has better graphics, split-screen multiplayer, a customizable interface, and hot-swappable controls. It also supports macros.

      But now you have to pay for DLC maps.

    • vlad
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      322 years ago

      It’s LGBT Q2. It’s the second quarter for the LGBT corporation.

    • StarkDay
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      292 years ago

      It stands for “two spirit,” which is an Indigenous term for a gender identity similar to being transgender. Canada has been making a more concerted effort to acknowledge and respect Indigenous views and traditions, so it’s added to the LGBT+ acronym in Canada

      • @[email protected]
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        22 years ago

        I always thought it was for 2A, for asexual and ally.

        Having allies be a part of the acronym is a whole other debate though.

      • @[email protected]
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        122 years ago

        I have no idea what any of this means lol. How’s it different from the T? If they “added” it on, then where did the + go? I’m old and confused and people are just people regardless so I have no idea what is the correct term for anyone anymore, y’all are just humans to me.

        • NιƙƙιDιɱҽʂ
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          142 years ago

          There are a lot of differing opinions on what should be used, LGBT, LGBTQ, LGBTQ+, LGBTQIA, etc, etc. I appreciate what inclusive acronyms try to do, but it does get very burdensome for non-queer people. I typically just use “queer”, personally, though you obviously have to be a little careful with that one depending on context and perhaps it isn’t always entirely encompassing. E.g. are intersex people “queer”? They just have abnormal sex chromosomes.

          -A queer

          • Flying Squid
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            12 years ago

            The 2, in this case, is about respecting Indigenous Canadians. I think it’s warranted.

          • @[email protected]
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            22 years ago

            Personally I’ve always liked GSRM (Gender, Sexual, and Romantic Minorities). Unfortunately that probably won’t catch on anytime soon.

          • Carl
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            32 years ago

            Well imo, to make it easier for people… since the acronym started as LGBT, why not make it LGBT+. It is short and sweet, and less letters to remember.

          • @[email protected]
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            +1 for the simpler queer term.

            There’s also GRSM (Gender Relational and Sexual Minorities) which I find much more meaningful than LGBTQIA2S+. First it isn’t a mash-up of a load of loosely related terms and, secondly, it also includes D/s relationships or ENM (Ethical Non Monogamy) for example. Sadly it doesn’t seem to be getting much traction anywhere ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

            • NιƙƙιDιɱҽʂ
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              32 years ago

              Dang, I hadn’t heard of that, but I like it! It’s a shame it isn’t very “catchy” I suppose lol.

        • @[email protected]
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          32 years ago

          Trans generally means a man born in a woman’s body or a woman born in a man’s body. People who are trans prefer to be treated as the gender they are inside, whether or not they appear to be that gender externally, just like traditional men would take offense to being referred to as she or her. It’s fine to see people as just people but you should acknowledge that you wouldn’t want to be referred to as the wrong gender and neither do trans people.

          Two-spirit appears to be more of an umbrella term for native American third genders, with no single general meaning. The third gender part appears to be important, meaning they are neither male nor female on the inside, regardless of what gender they may appear to be. Take this with a grain of salt since this is the first time I’ve heard the term and just looked it up. There appears to be some contention around the meaning, so I’m probably wrong.

          • @[email protected]
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            12 years ago

            When did the rainbow go from “it’s OK that some people want to have sex with their own gender” to “you must believe in abstract religious concepts”

    • regalia
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      342 years ago

      LGBT was so popular that they made a sequel with 200% the gay

    • Pyr
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      142 years ago

      I’m not sure of why anything but Q is involved, doesn’t Queer basically cover everything that isn’t Hetero? Also I thought people were against labels, but maybe I was wrong since everyone seems to want a label now.

      • @[email protected]
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        102 years ago

        Also I thought people were against labels, but maybe I was wrong since everyone seems to want a label now.

        You are wrong.

        • @[email protected]
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          2 years ago

          Because talking is what you do on forums.

          Your post and criticism is similarly valueless, as you don’t provide any answers, as is mine

          Sometimes people simply want to engage in the discussion.

      • @[email protected]
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        12 years ago

        Don’t know the answer to your question but wanted to support the question anyway. I don’t get why you’re being downvoted

  • @[email protected]
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    82 years ago

    So nice to see public safety taken seriously. I don’t fit into the letters but also know full well that if a state is that intolerant then I won’t fare well either so I avoid said state. With the atmosphere some states are building , anyone can be caught up in their net of Others to be othered. Hell they can just make shit up as they are doing already, logic and reasoning are not a part of this whole scheme.

  • @[email protected]
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    662 years ago

    There was a petition to offer refugee status to LGBT Americans put before the House of Commons recently, I just got an email update about it because I signed it, and apparently they accept some refugees on this basis, but it doesn’t look like many. I say open the borders and bring me your gays, America. We’ll be nicer to them than you are.

    • Franzia
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      62 years ago

      I was born to go dance and cycle all over montreal. Im in a northern state, rural, fuck all going on here.

      • @[email protected]
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        62 years ago

        To be honest a lot of Canada is very provincial in location and mental state. But at least we’re mostly nice.

    • @[email protected]
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      162 years ago

      My fiance and I have been looking into moving to Canada. He’s a librarian in a small town and things are not looking so great.

        • @[email protected]
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          62 years ago

          We’re planning on lilypadding our way up through New England while we go through the citizenship process. These next few years are gonna suck major ass.

  • Altima NEO
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    282 years ago

    There’s a part 2 now? How much better is it? Or is the original always the best?

  • @[email protected]
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    132 years ago

    Strangely Canada is the only country I travelled to from Europe where I was verbally asked in their airport border control: if I was Mormon, as not, what my religion was, and if I was gay. Not the tolerant country I always heard about.

    • Midnight_Ice
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      182 years ago

      I live in Canada and I’ve never heard of this happening. Did they just straight up ask you this at customs?

      • @[email protected]
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        12 years ago

        Yes, he was the police admission controller in the airport. The one who decides if you can access it not the country. I was 21yo. I dislike people don’t believing me but that supports the fact that those questions were as inappropriated as I always thought.

    • LegionEris [she/her]
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      32 years ago

      You were getting hit on by a gay ex-Mormon. He was awkward. He wants you to know he’s sorry he made you uncomfortable.