So When Did YOU Come Around on Same-Sex Marriage?

[bcla]

What I meant was the prohibitions against government regarding free speech do not apply to private owners of websites. In any case, nobody is being persecuted. They're still posting.

One particular poster seemed to be irked by this and the other gay marriage post, enough to start a thread on the civil rights of fetuses. I knew that thread was going to vaporize. And again, the owner of the site is free to have moderators control the content, and the government won't interfere. If you can find a forum that will host your message, that the government won't censor or penalize you for your ideology is the hallmark of free speech.

Frankly the only warnings I ever got was for a profanity post, and even then I didn't spell out the word but simply stated the letter that the started this word.

 

[TLSnell1981]

Nevermind

 

[NHdisneylover]

I may be opening a can of worms here, I hope not. The way this thread ended has bothered me for several days, so this morning I tried to send an apology to Topper via PM.
That turns out to have been a mistake--when I hit "start conversation" I got a message about not being permitted to have conversations with him--which I think means he has blocked me, which I can only surmise means I really hurt him very badly, so now I feel even worse, as that was so not my intent.

Anyway, I do not think I can apologize to him at this point, but I am going to post what I wrote here anyway in case someone else was reading along and felt similarly but did not feel comfortable speaking up. The apology below applies to any of you who might have been bothered by my terminology--I am trying, I promise. Or, in case someone does know of a term I have somehow missed that say what I want to say and includes who I want to include without hurting anyone, because I really do want to know.

Hi Topper,

Maybe I should let sleeping dogs (or threads) lie, but I was really sincere when I said that I did not want to hurt anyone'S feelings, and it is still bothering me that obviously I hurt you so I just wanted to PM you and let you know that I truly do not mean to offend, and I truly resisted using the term "queer" for years for that reason but was finally convinced that more people were hurt by being left out of and marginalized by other terms, than by the use of that one.

I was also very sincere in asking if you knew another term that I can use in conversations about rights for the group which is inclusive of all. I really do not like having to just go with "the lesser of two evils" and then someone like you still gets hurt. So, if you ever come across a term being used enough in the mainstream that people will know what I am talking about, please remember me and send it to me. I'd love to know.

In the meantime, I really am sorry to have hurt you with my phrasing. It's absolutely not my intent to hurt anyone in a community that has fought so long and hard just to have the same rights and level of respect as everyone else (and is still fighting many battles, I know).

Hadley.