Gay rights - job done

[rubyred]

Dancing is about feeling the music, the chemistry between the leader and follower. What's sexuality got to do with it . When you feel a connection and dance with someone you create poetry and rewrite the script. Age ? Sexuality ? feel the rhythm and love the drama,strike a pose and shake off all the prejudice out there.

[ducasi]

We will have true equality (between the sexes, between different sexualities, between people with different hair colour, whatever) when we have no need for threads like this.

I don't think it will happen in our lifetime.

[rubyred]

We will have true equality (between the sexes, between different sexualities, between people with different hair colour, whatever) when we have no need for threads like this.

I don't think it will happen in our lifetime.

YES it will babes ,cos we're going to start a movement for just followers and leaders and the connection we feel when we dance with PEOPLE who exude attitude and give off the most fabulous invitations to grab the moment in a piece of music. We will look at our followers and leaders and say I want to dance with you cos you give me attention and lead me into the moment when I can truely express myself free of any hang ups that are controlled by the thought police out there.

[Andy McGregor]

Given that one of the motivations for partner dance is the opportunity to meet folks of the opposite sex, I wonder whether we have a lower proportion of homosexuals than the general population.

Maybe we need a quota. Can you imagine a weekender organiser saying "I'm sorry but I can't take any more heterosexual men until we get a few more Queens book onto the weekender"

[DianaS]

Maybe we need a quota. Can you imagine a weekender organiser saying "I'm sorry but I can't take any more heterosexual men until we get a few more Queens book onto the weekender"

I think we should have wrist bands too varying degrees of pinkness. Blue for I'm so straight I only dance with my wife, to hot pink I'm so gay I dance with fairies...

[Dreadful Scathe]

I'd say longer.

I was saying 40 years until its at the level that the male/female divide is NOW, but I don't think I made that very clear

[Dreadful Scathe]

I think we should have wrist bands too varying degrees of pinkness. Blue for I'm so straight I only dance with my wife, to hot pink I'm so gay I dance with fairies...

Andy was joking. Highlighting the differences is the wrong way to go, who CARES what someones sexuality is?

Of course I know you were joking too, but there was no smiley

[DianaS]

Andy was joking. Highlighting the differences is the wrong way to go, who CARES what someones sexuality is?

Of course I know you were joking too, but there was no smiley

Subtle Irony is ruined by emoticons

[stewart38]

Andy was joking. Highlighting the differences is the wrong way to go, who CARES what someones sexuality is?

Of course I know you were joking too, but there was no smiley

You care as you keep going on about it

Dont see many threads about bald people are we special, sorry are they special and different ?

why does someone need to put a smilie at the end of what they say re Gays , you big brother ?

[Twirly]

I have danced with gay women and straight women and had intimate dances with both. At some level it does embarrass me though, I feel vunerable scared a little and exposed.

When I dance with gay men I experience a different kind of freedom. I know that what I do isn't teasing them and I feel less inhibited. I know that they won't misconstrue or develop feelings and its less complicated!

Diana – I find your honesty very refreshing… and I have some sympathy with your feelings. I have no problem if I’m asked to dance by a woman, but if I was asked to dance by a woman and then she made it obvious she was attracted to me, I think I’d feel awkward… though I’d feel the same if it was a man making it obvious and I wasn’t interested. But I’d know how to handle that better because it’s more familiar.

Also, don’t assume that just because someone is “gay” that they are not necessarily going to sometimes be attracted to a member of the opposite sex – this assumption has got me into trouble more than once

I would like to think I was a broad minded, tolerant and not prejudied against other people ....but... on the way to work on Saturday a lesbian couple in front of me were walking along holding hands and then had a big massive snog at the train station, which totally wierded me out. I was then really surprised and annoyed with myself for having that reaction. Maybe we have a gut level prejudice against anyone different from ourselves that we can override (or is it just me being a bad person! )

Yes it's the fact that it's different. If it was a man and a woman snogging in full view in public hardly anyone would notice let alone mind. It's simply because it was two women.

Everyone should be able to show their affection

Yes, the fact that it’s different probably makes it stand out more and you’re not used to it, but to be honest, anyone trying to perform a tongue tonsillectomy on someone else in public always makes me cringe Probably the more common it becomes that any two people show their affection in public, the less we’ll notice it.

I actually have two lesbian friends who are about to start Ceroc (at least they’ve said they want to). It’ll be interesting to see how they get on. I’m assuming that they will both go in and learn to follow, though one of them might want to lead. I’m not sure if I should discuss it with her or not. If she goes along and learns to follow, she won’t be able to dance with her actual partner at all to start with. But if she goes along and learns to lead straight away, without learning to follow, then where will that leave her dancing – at least the option of who to dance with? (I should probably add here that she looks quite androgynous.) To be honest, I'll probably just leave it and see what happens. Anyone have any thoughts?

[Dreadful Scathe]

You care as you keep going on about it

No I don't care what sexuality people are but I'm quite aware that many in society think it does or should matter. They need to be told how wrong they are

why does someone need to put a smilie at the end of what they say re Gays , you big brother ?

I was winding up Diana

[Gav]

I was sitting in the foyer of my regular venue for the last time last night and two of the regular older ladies came in. We must have been talking about weekenders because one of the ladies interrupted with "I went to Prestatyn last weekend and the most entertaining bit was watching the gays dancing together, they're really quite good aren't they?"

Those of us young enough to not remember the war fell about laughing. When I told her that I'd danced with most of them at some point, she went bright red, scowled and shuffled away!

I was going to point out to her that most of them aren't gay, or even mention that she dances with ladies that lead in the lessons, but I was enjoying her embarrassment and shock too much!

[Dreadful Scathe]

those pesky gays can sure dance

[Twirly]

How come everyone has voted for the first option, yet that's only 96.3% of the vote? What's happened to the other 3.7%

[Jhutch]

How come everyone has voted for the first option, yet that's only 96.3% of the vote? What's happened to the other 3.7%

Down to 92.86% now with all the votes for the top category Are some votes being counted for the total* but not actually registering in the category chosen?

*i assume that 26 out of 28 is 92.86%

[DavidY]

I'm guessing that if you click on "Vote Now" without ticking any of the tick-boxes, it adds to the total of voters, but doesn't add to any categories?

[killingtime]

Dancing: couldn't care less about sexual preference. Even if she was a lesbian, how arrogant it would be to assume that she fancies me.

Are you kidding? I assume everyone who dances with me fancies me. No one tell me otherwise and burst my bubble, please .

but if I was asked to dance by a woman and then she made it obvious she was attracted to me, I think I’d feel awkward… though I’d feel the same if it was a man making it obvious and I wasn’t interested.

I can see that though I wouldn't really be uncomfortable with someone being attracted to me. I think making direct passes on the dance floor at me would make me uncomfortable. But then it would off the dance floor as well.

Also, don’t assume that just because someone is “gay” that they are not necessarily going to sometimes be attracted to a member of the opposite sex – this assumption has got me into trouble more than once

See Kinsey Scale.

But if she goes along and learns to lead straight away, without learning to follow, then where will that leave her dancing – at least the option of who to dance with? (I should probably add here that she looks quite androgynous.) To be honest, I'll probably just leave it and see what happens. Anyone have any thoughts?

Well I guess if she learnt to lead then she'd have to, for the most part, ask other women to dance (on the assumption that she lead and they followed). Possibly with accepting request to dance and just try to "pick up" following. I did meet someone in Edinburgh who did just this. She was looking to be able to lead her friend at night clubs and such so she started out by learning to lead.

I wonder if women finding out she is gay will cause problems during rotation. I'm not gay but I wouldn't go into the main rotation as a follow just because a lot of guys are still hung up on that being wrong and it would just cause too many problems. Women obviously lead in rotation quite frequently but maybe other women guess that they are straight; knowing otherwise might make them uncomfortable too.

How come everyone has voted for the first option, yet that's only 96.3% of the vote? What's happened to the other 3.7%

They probably didn't select any option when they voted.

[stewart38]

How come everyone has voted for the first option, yet that's only 96.3% of the vote? What's happened to the other 3.7%

Maybe the vote ometer is bent ie Gay ?

ps

[Jamie]

I actually have two lesbian friends who are about to start Ceroc (at least they’ve said they want to). It’ll be interesting to see how they get on. I’m assuming that they will both go in and learn to follow, though one of them might want to lead. I’m not sure if I should discuss it with her or not. If she goes along and learns to follow, she won’t be able to dance with her actual partner at all to start with. But if she goes along and learns to lead straight away, without learning to follow, then where will that leave her dancing – at least the option of who to dance with? (I should probably add here that she looks quite androgynous.) To be honest, I'll probably just leave it and see what happens. Anyone have any thoughts?

Yes.

This is exactly the same situation Dai was in when she started dancing. She wanted to lead, so she did. She didn't start learning to follow until about 2-3 years after starting dancing. She's a fantastic leader. She also learned how to do drops, I'll tell you now, I'd far rather be thrown to the floor by her than any man.

[nebula]

When I went to Camber in March, there were a couple of guys dancing together upstairs - sorry, don't know their names, but one of them later turned up at one of the evening dances in Pinebanks in Norwich. They were fabulous - I really enjoyed watching them. I had no problem with the idea that two of them might be together as in "gay" together. I even managed to have a dance with each of them. The chap in Norwich was one of the best leads I ever danced with - strong, yet didn't start pulling my arms out, which some strong leads do - and I suffer in silence! And his latin moves were out of this world - gay or straight, I fancied the pants of him when he danced!!!