...or Decline to Answer?

[Kat]

Like here they can ask and there isn't any law against not hiring you or not letting you go to school if you are gay. Some states have those laws and some don't so if Washington doesn't then they could say you can't go to that school if you aren't a certain way.

If I were applying I'd leave it blank or write refused on it and if that wasn't good then I wouldn't go there anyway. I'm straight but some of my friends aren't and it doesn't matter, people are people no matter who the love. You aren't smarter or dumber or prettier or anything no matter how you are you can do the same things anyone can so that shouldn't even be asked.

It's the same as saying you can't do something because your skin is a certain color or you're a man or a woman and for no other reason.

[MisterTinkles]

Start a petition to have people enrolling in school to either refuse to check the box or write in

[SIZE="7"]HUMAN BEING[/SIZE]

[Counselor]

What about this: if something like this were to become common among registrations (not just for school), does the fact that the question is being asked benefit LGBT's by promoting it? Or will it detriment the perception society generally has?

I think I might be changing my mind about this...

[Lalo]

Welll I can think of a whole helluva lot wrong about this!
1. Many people in the younger generation don't define themselves as either gay or straight and really aren't as fixated on the labels as much my own generation is.
2. Assigning just two choices to something as diverse as sexuality is offensive to a whole hell of a lot of people and continues the "us vs them" paradigm.
3. I don't care whether the thought behind this plan was positive or not! The fact is that this is personal information that has no bearing on educational efforts, and MIGHT be used against people later on!

This is not only a bad idea, I think that it is ridiculously short-sighted and potentially very harmful!

Answer: Refuse to answer!

[Counselor]

Lalo, in response to your number 2, in the fifties, they didn't have drinking fountains for blacks, whites, Hispanics, Asian, Latin Americans, etc., but eventually that severe segregation has been reduced to such a small group of narrow-minded people. I was looking at the short-term aspect of this when I should have considered the impact over a decade from now. Sure, the results will be skewed for a while until they start defining sexuality with better terminology, but this sets a precedent to affect the mindset of the public for equality.

[monk]

Waste of time - if people don't want to answer, they'll just lie.

[Counselor]

Waste of time - if people don't want to answer, they'll just lie.

And this has been the attitude for decades, but with tolerance and equality being pushed into the limelight, I think this might be a good way to normalize the general attitude towards LGBT's. If it doesn't on it's own, it's already in place for when the debate on equality becomes non-issue.

And I have a couple corrections:

The question apparently is more inclusive, according to a registrar I spoke with, and the information is intended to be disclosed only to club members WITH ACCESS abiding by privacy guidelines to contact students to inform them of eligibility for grants, scholarships, and similar matters.

[Vaylen]

The main reason for LGBTA is to be a safe haven and a place for anyone to hang out and have fun without the strings of judgemental values or social pressure, and the ultimate goal for us is to dampen (preferably eradicate) the question of sexuality. We want it to be a given that people are different in every way...and putting a question like that into the entire mess kind of brands us with flaming letters. I seriously don't understand or promote doing this, especially not if the suggestion came from an LGBTA group.

We are something called PEOPLE, they might as well ask THAT on the survey, it makes an equal amount of sense.

[MisterTinkles]

What about this: if something like this were to become common among registrations (not just for school), does the fact that the question is being asked benefit LGBT's by promoting it? Or will it detriment the perception society generally has?

I think I might be changing my mind about this...

When has anything like this been a GOOD thing????

[Counselor]

When has anything like this been a GOOD thing????

That's a paranoid question, though. The atmosphere surrounding LGBT issues isn't anything like the War on Terror, or the Red Scare. People aren't afraid of LGBT's, and I really believe this is more similar in turn of events to Women's Suffrage and Black Civil Rights. Neither of those political atmospheres included internment camps.