Okay

I talked to David (the person who's confidence I was afraid I'd be breaking) and he says go for it so here it is.

There's a thread on the DL forum about "What grosses you out". Some of the posts hit home because a few months ago I found out that my son is gay. I love and support him no matter what. To me his sexuality is not an issue. However I guess I've become hyper sensitive to any type of homophobia or gay-bashing.

In this particular thread, someone posted that gay displays of public affection grossed them out, then stated they hoped there weren't any gay rights activists on the board. I stated I was and was offended by his attitude. We were told to take it to PM, which I didn't do, since I'm not really interested in his/her point of view.

A few pages later someone posted that fags and lesbians grossed them out. I PM'd the playground mods with this

"I know that a warning was already posted but the gay bashing is still going on. As the mother of a gay son I find it highly offensive and I would appreciate it if you'd take a look and delete the offensive posts.
Thanks"

This is the reply " All posts after the warning message that were commenting on lesbians and / or gays have been removed. The post that flared it up again has been edited, with the word "fags" being replaced with "gays". Why it has been allowed to remain, for now, will be explained below.

There have been no attacks on people of any sexual orientation because for a member to let it be known that public acts of homosexual affection gross them out (which is the topic of the thread) is simply a statement of their opinion. It's no different than a member saying that public acts of hetrosexual affection gross them out. The aforementioned problematic post, by ******, does not clarify this though as it simply states "Lesbians and Gays", and as a result we will be asking this member to either modify their post so to make this clear, or to simply remove their comments altogether, or we will.

The first post, by ******, that stirred up bickering between members was quite clear in that there was no malice towards gays, and that rather it was simply a dislike of homosexual acts of affection. It seemed the problem there was said members attempt at humor in his ending sentence, which didn't go down too well. That should have been addressed via private message, and not on the board."


By now I was pretty upset so I replied with this: "I see, so it would be okay if I posted that seeing a multi-racial couple showing affection in public grossed me out?"


The mod's reply "No, it would not be okay. If you said it grossed you out because it was a multi-racial relationship, that would be racist. It would not matter if it was a hetrosexual relationship, or a homosexual relationship, any comments about multi-racial couples would be removed. They would be removed because it would be focusing on the colour of peoples skin, rather than the actual public showing of affection. The core of the dislike towards seeing couples showing affection in public is that people do not wish to see it, the act itself, which should go on behind closed doors. And, we're not talking about little things like holding hands, or hugging, or a peck on the cheek. What people are referring to is full on kisses with the tongue, and feeling each other up in public, etc.

Seeing a homosexual couple showing affection for one another bothers people more so than a hetrosexual couple because they cannot understand the previous, they do not find their own sex attractive, and do not think such thoughts about their own sex, and as such do not wish to see it in public. Many of whom dislike seeing shows of affection from both homosexual, and hetrosexual couples, it's just the latter can override the previous for the above reasons. There are those who dislike it for lesser thought of reasons such as their children seeing it, and then they (the parent) would have to attempt to explain to their child what was happening, and why, when the child may be too young to understand, or comprehend, and then again the parent may struggle to understand and comprehend it themselves.

Members saying that they dislike seeing couples (hetrosexual or homosexual) showing affection in public is not to be confused with them having a problem with said individuals on any other scale. "

My most recent reply "Gotcha, on the DL forum it's okay to be a bigot about homosexuality but not about race.
I'll keep that in mind."

Am I overreacting? I don't feel like I am but I admit I'm not very objective on this subject.