Are all cultures equal?

[retroboy]

I sometimes argue with my liberal friends about whether all cultures are equal and sometimes I think the LGBT forget how much worse it is to be not straight than in non western countries and how backward some countries are about alot of things. What is anyone else s take?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mewn7Tq1KPo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsKgq7lslCI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vluPvn5G6yM

[retroboy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkA_c2Wzc7I

[Stavros]

I sometimes argue with my liberal friends about whether all cultures are equal and sometimes I think the LGBT forget how much worse it is to be not straight than in non western countries and how backward some countries are about alot of things. What is anyone else s take?


Your pose one question which begins with a general question about culture before limiting the response to LGBTQPIAN/B rights in different countries. Attitudes as well as laws that do not support LGBTQPIAN/B citizens are common across the world and examples may be more numerous than the more liberal laws and attitudes that can be found in parts of Europe, America and Asia -but even then, you don't need to go far to discover that even in the US or the UK, for every successful LGBTQPIAN/B individual, there are more examples of distress, which may be related to the lack of employment opportunities, restricted access to education and health services, and most of all vulnerability to violent attack.

Whether the country they live in is Religious or Secular may not be the cause of the problem, let alone its culture whatever that means.
LGBTQPIAN/B people are often not equal with other citizens, wherever they live, that is the core problem.

[MrFanti]

I think the LGBT forget how much worse it is to be not straight than in non western countries and how backward some countries are about alot of things. What is

Agreed 100%
This is one of those 'ugly truths' that an be hard to swallow and that we oftentimes take our status here in the USA for granted.

[smalltownguy]

Cultures may look different but people still act crazy & passionate for TS

[Laphroaig]

Cultures may look different but people still act crazy & passionate for TS

Or in some cultures, against...

[MrFanti]

Another 'ugly truth' (or difficult to swallow truth), is that the videos in the previous postings illustrate some of the differences between Black America and Africa - and why Africans have a distinctly different view of Black America...often different than what "we" want....

[BostonBad]

Not all cultures are equal. Try going to many of the "religion of peace" nations and make love to a ts there. Make it public and you will be killed.

[Stavros]

Not all cultures are equal. Try going to many of the "religion of peace" nations and make love to a ts there. Make it public and you will be killed.

Make it public and you will be killed.

As happens in the USA. And most of those African countries are Christian, and when was the last time anyone dared be seen in public with a transgendered girlfriend in Jamaica and lived to tell the tale?

There doesn't even seem to be an equality of bigotry here.

[trish]

To ask whether one thing is ‘equal’ to something else is already to allow that distinct things can be regarded as ‘equal’ provided you look at them through various prescribed filters.

It take it that this thread is interested in filtering out everything but how cultures interact with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons.

Under this filter, few cultures do well. The U.S. seems to be improving but not very many years ago gay men were jailed, beaten and killed. Our President wants to make America Great Again in that very respect. Presently Roy Moore’s popularity as well as his infamy is in part due to his despicable views on gays and transgender persons.

I find it a bit confusing, because it’s tempting to begin comparing nations, religions and races when the question is about equivalence between cultures. Are Christianity and Islam cultures? How about Evangelicals or Sufi? Does the gay community count as culture in and of itself? Black American males? I would caution against making judgments about too broad a group of people.

[filghy2]

Agreed 100%
This is one of those 'ugly truths' that an be hard to swallow and that we oftentimes take our status here in the USA for granted.

It is also an ugly truth that the greater tolerance of LGBTs in western countries has happened in spite of the best efforts of your fellow travellers on the right. That's why trying to use this as an anti-liberal argument (a the initial post implied) is quite disingenuous.

[MrFanti]

It is also an ugly truth that the greater tolerance of LGBTs in western countries has happened in spite of the best efforts of your fellow travellers on the right. That's why trying to use this as an anti-liberal argument (a the initial post implied) is quite disingenuous.

Who are you calling "your fellow travelers on the right"?
I never said I was a person on the right...

Read up!

[Lester316]

The thread title is rather short and simple but it's a minefield to be honest; more specific versions of it have probably been subject of no end of university dissertations over the years.

Sadly the simple answer to the thread title is no they aren't and probably yes they should be. Sadly true equality in any place isn't a reality yet; we are just closer to it in some than others, with some countries being decades behind. But the impacting factors are too many to mention with economics, religion and politics to name just a few.

I feel privileged that I live in a country where I feel safe enough to openly be who I want to be despite the fact some people still openly hate that fact at the same time. It's a scary thought that in so many places just being yourself is enough to warrant hatred and the threat of death however; but then every time I watch the news I wonder if those of us from countries where we can feel so privileged will feel that way for much longer. If recent years have taught us anything there are sections of society that have voted for political change for very scary negative reasons and feel they can be more openly hateful because of those results.

Don't get me wrong I'm not really pro or anti-brexit for example I can see the sensible reasons for both but there is most certainly a minority that voted out of hatred of others; and I'm no fan of Hilary Clinton - in many way the old South Park episode came true in my eyes with voting between a giant douche and a turd sandwich - but a world where a man as hateful as Donald Trump currently holds so much power scares me.

[MrFanti]

I feel privileged that I live in a country where I feel safe enough to openly be who I want to be despite the fact some people still openly hate that fact at the same time.

Nailed it!

[filghy2]

Who are you calling "your fellow travelers on the right"?
I never said I was a person on the right...

Read up!

I have. Every post I've seen from you on a political question has supported the right-wing position (gun control, net neutrality, climate change). If there are others that I've missed then how about pointing them out?

[MrFanti]

I have. Every post I've seen from you on a political question has supported the right-wing position (gun control, net neutrality, climate change). If there are others that I've missed then how about pointing them out?

You missed everything....

Well....I guess you need to pay objective attention rather than cater to your own biases.
Never have I stated that I'm a right wing person.

And for the record - I'm not.
Perhaps you should stop, think, and understand that world is not fully Left nor Right.......one example of that are Libertarians another are Independents.

Or to simplify things for you, everything is not Black or White....Or if you're a Star Wars fan, to simplify for you....everything is not absolutes in that you're either with me or against me...

Etcetera, etcetera....

[chupapau]

All animals are equal
but some animals are more equal then others.

[legault]

Absolutely not

[ghbryans1]

Equal? Try "successful", read a lot of history, and you'll have your answer.

[holzz]

no. all hold the right to their culture, but some are more progressive, or more advanced, than others.

[Stavros]

no. all hold the right to their culture, but some are more progressive, or more advanced, than others.

But is it culture that determines if one is more 'advanced' than another? The capitalist economy that proved to be so important to the economic growth of Britain moved through different phases from say, the 14th to the 19th century, by which time science and technology was challenging religion as the dominant intellectual discourse, and only beginning to tackle the problem of slavery which persisted in the growth of capitalism in the US following the demise of British America. Other Empires also employed slaves, and privileged religion as the primary mode of discourse, but not much in the way of scientific and technological development. For most of the 20th century, Catholic Spain was backward compared to Catholic Italy. Are we dealing with culture here? Politics? Economics? It is too complex an issue to be glossed over with phrases that upon inspection and interrogation have little meaning.