Gay community

[Peanut]

I don't think a, "gay community," is a physical collection of boats in one location, but rather a lose association of people in a geographic area, like Manchester or York for example. They may meet up together as others do, even on the canals.

[Eeyore]

6 hours ago, frangar said:

Why is it different to say a group of model train enthusiasts wanting to meet like minded people  

Not entirely sure that what you choose to do with your “bits” is in any way comparable to my chosen interest group. 😇

[Tony1]

On a related note, is there a lithium community in the North west? 

I find people are judging me every time I rattle on for four hours about lithium batteries, and I think it would be great to find a group of people who are ok with talking in public about lithiums. 

Its nothing sexual, of course.

Well not for the others.  

 

 

[Eeyore]

2 minutes ago, Tony1 said:

On a related note, is there a lithium community in the North west? 

I find people are judging me every time I rattle on for four hours about lithium batteries, and I think it would be great to find a group of people who are ok with talking in public about lithiums. 

Its nothing sexual, of course.

Well not for the others.  

 

 

I belong to various informal groupings that can talk complete bol**ks for hours on end. I’ll see if I can steer one in the direction of lithium 😎

[mrsmelly]

There is a National Black Police association there is not a National White Police association its funny how people tend to segregate themselves.

[Nightwatch]

48 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

There is a National Black Police association there is not a National White Police association its funny how people tend to segregate themselves.

Ummm! That’s interesting.

[blackrose]

7 hours ago, Nightwatch said:

If you’re gay or not gay, just do your own thing. I can’t understand why gay orientated people have to congregate. Surely mixing with ‘all walks of life’ is educational at some level.

 

You can't necessarily bum people from all walks of life! 🤣

 

Surely congregating is doing their own thing if that's what they want to do?

Edited September 3, 2023 by blackrose

[churchward]

5 hours ago, BoatinglifeupNorth said:

 I take it if there was a community as you seek you would try to moor within it?

 I don’t  know of any community of the like, as it would mean having most of the moorings available in one location, which would be quite difficult to achieve with moorings hard to find. Most home moorings are a mixture of all sorts of people from all walks of life. So having a quantity of moorings available at a given time to allow for a dedicated community to form would be quite difficult.  I just don’t see it happening or being achievable. Continuous Cruising/Mooring I would say unlikely, but more chance than a dedicated Home Mooring community.
 Hebden Bridge area was once known for its so called Hippy community, but I think that’s long gone. I dont know if the so called Manchester gay scene by the canal has anything people can call a gay boating community?

 

A community of people does not have to live or moor close together a community is just a group of people who associate with each other for mutual help and friendship.

 

My nearest neighbor is 1/3 of a mile away but I would say I live in a community all be it spread out.

1 hour ago, mrsmelly said:

There is a National Black Police association there is not a National White Police association its funny how people tend to segregate themselves.

But that does not mean they are segregating themselves they just belong to a particular club not everyone is just one dimensional (in fact very few are) and can associate or identify with many people or groups.

 

 

[mrsmelly]

15 hours ago, churchward said:

 

But that does not mean they are segregating themselves they just belong to a particular club not everyone is just one dimensional (in fact very few are) and can associate or identify with many people or groups.

 

 

Why the need for a seperate club? Imagine the absolute uproar if there was a white police officers association, the **** would hit the fan in a massive way for anyone who dared to even suggest it. My local pub is run by a homosexual and several pub goers are in that category, they dont sit in different areas, we all mix. Cripes, we even allow labour voters to sit with us.

Edited September 4, 2023 by Jen-in-Wellies
Removing bad language.

[nb Innisfree]

14 hours ago, mrsmelly said:

Why the need for a seperate club? Imagine the absolute uproar if there was a white police officers association, the **** would hit the fan in a massive way for anyone who dared to even suggest it. My local pub is run by a homosexual and several pub goers are in that category, they dont sit in different areas, we all mix. Cripes, we even allow labour voters to sit with us.

😱

Edited September 4, 2023 by Jen-in-Wellies
removing quoted bad language.

[matty40s]

1 hour ago, Nightwatch said:

Ummm! That’s interesting.

The whites are not allowed, but that's not allowed to be discussed either.

 

All I can say is there of lots of happy boaters out there, the boating community is very welcoming to all, nobody needs to ask what particular variety we all are on mooring up as we are all individuals on our journeys round the system. There are lots of happy gays, crossdressers, trans and others out there on boats, which absolutely love the canal communities embracement of the uniqueness of our waterways society. We all make it work and enjoy its diversity without it being preached to us.

Edited September 3, 2023 by matty40s

[churchward]

14 hours ago, mrsmelly said:

Why the need for a seperate club? Imagine the absolute uproar if there was a white police officers association, the **** would hit the fan in a massive way for anyone who dared to even suggest it. My local pub is run by a homosexual and several pub goers are in that category, they dont sit in different areas, we all mix. Cripes, we even allow labour voters to sit with us.

Because they want one.  In any case, I rather thought there was a white Police Officers association called the Free Masons.

 

Why do you assume that someone who belongs to a particular club does not mix with other people who do not belong to that club?

Edited September 4, 2023 by Jen-in-Wellies
removing quoted bad language.

[nb Innisfree]

Pramhood Association and Bowthruster Owners Club, fighting discrimination. 

[LadyG]

1 hour ago, nb Innisfree said:

Pramhood Association and Bowthruster Owners Club, fighting discrimination. 

Now that has to be a very exclusive club. 

Edited September 3, 2023 by LadyG

[blackrose]

6 hours ago, mrsmelly said:

My local pub is run by a homosexual and several pub goers are in that category, they dont sit in different areas, we all mix. 

 

Great, but how do you know they aren't also members of gay associations, internet forums, etc, and what is the problem exactly if they are? Just because some gays happen to mix with you in the pub doesn't necessarily mean that's the full extent of their social/cultural lives.

[wandering]

The dominant group will always feel victimised by minorities doing things that don’t include them. Being pro gay isn’t anti straight. Just like being pro Black isn’t anti white. They feel left out. I call this a taste of their own medicine. A group of gays is seen as a slight to them in some way hence the need to say “why can’t you just do what the rest of us do” (aka conform and submit). We aren’t the rest of you. It is types like this who make us make a point of our differences. I recall once someone saying to me, as though I should take it as a compliment that “you’re not really super gay” as though being gay were a bad thing. I’d be happy never to mention who I sleep with or what I do behind closed doors ever again. I agree, I don’t think we are special. I have heterosexual friends and mix with them and never does who we sleep with come up in discussion (probably how many heterosexuals prefer it). But they understand and empathise with why I need to find others who are gay. Because guess what? Most people aren’t. I could misinterpret a situation with a man and end up in hospital or worse, dead. Attacks on gays are on the rise. I don’t attend Pride or get involved in the politics of the LGBT. But I don’t, continually, proclaim my lack of understanding of such things as though it contributes any value to the discussion which is being done in this very thread. Calls of “I don’t understand X, Y or Z” just highlights your ignorance. It is 2023. You have all the information at your finger tips. How about we drop the “I don’t understand why they congregate” façade and say what you really mean? 
 

Gays want to meet other gays and have sex, surprise surprise. Clutch your pearls elsewhere. It’s so bloody tiring. 
 

I hope OP does find other boat folk who are gay and gets a chance to connect with them. I know I’ve thought about it on my travels as a solo gay vagabond boater. Seeing a rainbow flag sticker in a boat window makes me relaxed because it signals to me they’re my sort. I know this may be novel to other people who dONt UnDeRstANd but it’s small gestures and signs like this that make me feel comfortable in a world that wants to shut me up, hide me away or, worse, blend in. 

[HenryFreeman]

22 hours ago, Nightwatch said:

If you’re gay or not gay, just do your own thing. I can’t understand why gay orientated people have to congregate. Surely mixing with ‘all walks of life’ is educational at some level.

 

I don't the OP is looking for a group to exclusively mix with in a similar way that I have hobbies (not saying that homosexuality is a hobby!) that I look to mix with people who are interested in that hobby AS WELL AS mixing with other people? Not sure how you can't see that.

16 hours ago, Nightwatch said:

I have mixed with gay men and women. A close relation of mine is very much gay. I can never understand why there’s pride marches. The publicity of such is pushed into our faces by media etc. I gather there are heterosexual marches and meeting etc. that doesn’t get a mention on news at ten or whatever. Gays are not special people in general. They are people with a sexual preference different to me and others. In the late sixties and many times since I have frequented gay pubs. I am more than tolerant to the happenings but not when things are pushed too far in these establishments. So, please don’t accuse me of various opinions when you don’t know me. Edited to add not aimed at anyone in particular.

 

This comment to me reads very much like "I'm not racist/homophobic/islamophobic/antisemitic, one my best friends is black/gay/a muslim/jewish".

I'm sure you didn't mean it to come out like that, but it did.

15 hours ago, mrsmelly said:

There is a National Black Police association there is not a National White Police association its funny how people tend to segregate themselves.

 

For the same reason there are support groups and associations for people who are blind/deaf/wheelchair bound rather than support groups and associations for people who can see/can hear/are not wheelchair bound. And the paralympics.

 

93% of the police are white. 1.3% are black. Support groups are generally for the minority not the majority.

 

Come on, mrsmelly, you're not stupid - why are you pretending to be?

[enigmatic]

So in conclusion, gay people should integrate properly into modern society by socialising with normal gay people and not hanging around with fringe minorities that are into canal boats? 

[HenryFreeman]

14 hours ago, mrsmelly said:

Why the need for a seperate club? Imagine the absolute uproar if there was a white police officers association, the **** would hit the fan in a massive way for anyone who dared to even suggest it. My local pub is run by a homosexual and several pub goers are in that category, they dont sit in different areas, we all mix. Cripes, we even allow labour voters to sit with us.

 

For what reason would there be the need for a white police officers association? When they make up 93% of the police force? What problems do white police officers - being the vast, vast majority of police officers - face due to their ethnicity that would demand a support group?

 

Genuinely, you need to stop being so deliberately obtuse.

Edited September 4, 2023 by Jen-in-Wellies
removing quoted bad language.

[churchward]

12 hours ago, nb Innisfree said:

Pramhood Association and Bowthruster Owners Club, fighting discrimination. 

Ah! those were the days! I got thrown out for not having a Pramhood on the boat or if I'm honest a bow thruster neither.  

[zenataomm]

15 hours ago, churchward said:

I rather thought there was a white Police Officers association called the Free Masons.

My lodge had Asians, so you're either ignorant or deliberately stirring things.

3 hours ago, HenryFreeman said:

white police officers - being the vast, vast majority of police officers - face due to their ethnicity that would demand a support group?

How did we get onto support groups?  Many, many years ago I was on the committee of a national old boat club who actually spent all of their time criticising those without rivets and promoting the expression "Noddy Boats".  No support there.

[mrsmelly]

20 hours ago, Nightwatch said:

I have mixed with gay men and women. A close relation of mine is very much gay. I can never understand why there’s pride marches. The publicity of such is pushed into our faces by media etc. I gather there are heterosexual marches and meeting etc. that doesn’t get a mention on news at ten or whatever. Gays are not special people in general. They are people with a sexual preference different to me and others. In the late sixties and many times since I have frequented gay pubs. I am more than tolerant to the happenings but not when things are pushed too far in these establishments. So, please don’t accuse me of various opinions when you don’t know me. Edited to add not aimed at anyone in particular.

Mr Harry's 😜

[Arthur Marshall]

7 hours ago, wandering said:

The dominant group will always feel victimised by minorities doing things that don’t include them. Being pro gay isn’t anti straight. Just like being pro Black isn’t anti white. They feel left out. I call this a taste of their own medicine. A group of gays is seen as a slight to them in some way hence the need to say “why can’t you just do what the rest of us do” (aka conform and submit). We aren’t the rest of you. It is types like this who make us make a point of our differences. I recall once someone saying to me, as though I should take it as a compliment that “you’re not really super gay” as though being gay were a bad thing. I’d be happy never to mention who I sleep with or what I do behind closed doors ever again. I agree, I don’t think we are special. I have heterosexual friends and mix with them and never does who we sleep with come up in discussion (probably how many heterosexuals prefer it). But they understand and empathise with why I need to find others who are gay. Because guess what? Most people aren’t. I could misinterpret a situation with a man and end up in hospital or worse, dead. Attacks on gays are on the rise. I don’t attend Pride or get involved in the politics of the LGBT. But I don’t, continually, proclaim my lack of understanding of such things as though it contributes any value to the discussion which is being done in this very thread. Calls of “I don’t understand X, Y or Z” just highlights your ignorance. It is 2023. You have all the information at your finger tips. How about we drop the “I don’t understand why they congregate” façade and say what you really mean? 
 

Gays want to meet other gays and have sex, surprise surprise. Clutch your pearls elsewhere. It’s so bloody tiring. 
 

I hope OP does find other boat folk who are gay and gets a chance to connect with them. I know I’ve thought about it on my travels as a solo gay vagabond boater. Seeing a rainbow flag sticker in a boat window makes me relaxed because it signals to me they’re my sort. I know this may be novel to other people who dONt UnDeRstANd but it’s small gestures and signs like this that make me feel comfortable in a world that wants to shut me up, hide me away or, worse, blend in. 

Excellent post. Thank you.

[churchward]

38 minutes ago, zenataomm said:

My lodge had Asians, so you're either ignorant or deliberately stirring things.

 

I would say neither but the Freemasons are a kind of community/club that people join but does that mean they cannot also be part of the wider society?

 

My retort was in response to a claim that White Police Officers do not have an association they can join when clearly they can and do.

On 03/09/2023 at 13:15, Nightwatch said:

If you’re gay or not gay, just do your own thing. I can’t understand why gay orientated people have to congregate. Surely mixing with ‘all walks of life’ is educational at some level.

That can be done as well why on earth do you and others think wishing to be part of a club/community excludes the person from mixing with others as well?

 

I belong to the Morris Minor owners club does that mean I must only associate or socialise with fellow members?

[Tony Brooks]

4 hours ago, HenryFreeman said:

 

For what reason would there be the need for a white police officers association? When they make up 93% of the police force? What problems do white police officers - being the vast, vast majority of police officers - face due to their ethnicity that would demand a support group?

 

Genuinely, you need to stop being so deliberately obtuse.

 

One reply to that would be protection from real or fictitious grievances from non-white officers and from the non-white communities, especially when you consider how all pervasive the non-white must be right mantra seems to be.