Kinja reply list

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BrocephalusGabrielle Bluestone
11/18/15 10:29am
“With her election, she becomes the first openly gay mayor of the city. But people are acting like it’s no big deal: voters—at least 52 percent of them—support her.”

Probably because she’s been in the state legislature for the last 17 years? It’s almost like they elected her based on her politics, not who she chooses to have sex with. It’s too bad the media apparently can’t focus on the same thing.
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  A House In VirginiaBrocephalus
  11/18/15 11:20am
  YIKES “CHOOSES to have sex with”???
  
  Is this 1994? Are my jeans expanding and becoming more tapered?
  
  “CHOOSE” makes it sound like homosexuality is a conscious choice. Nobody chooses to be a minority.
  
  We say “Sexual Orientation” now, not “Sexual Preference” which sounds like a term you probably still use.
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  BrocephalusA House In Virginia
  11/18/15 11:30am
  YIKES is right. I probably set the LGBT movement back by 100 years.
  
  Honestly though, I wasn’t even using “choose” in the context of male or female, I was literally thinking of the individual people. My apologies for that, I am fully aware it’s not something people choose and see the ambiguity in my statement.
  
  Please accept this as my mea culpa before I have 10,000 people giving me the same lecture.
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Sean BrodyGabrielle Bluestone
11/18/15 10:27am
“But people are acting like it’s no big deal”

Love it.

One day, it won’t even be news.
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  fondue processSean Brody
  11/18/15 10:34am
  Oh definitely (I hope I hope I hope). But for now? HUGE win, especially in a city filled with many Mormons whose church has basically ex-communicated all gay people.
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  IcantthinkofanythingwittySean Brody
  11/18/15 10:35am
  SLC has consistently voted for people like Rocky Anderson for years, so it actually isn’t. Sensationalism sells even when there isn’t much of a story.
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GeorgeGeoffersonLivesGabrielle Bluestone
11/18/15 10:46am
I think what may surprise some about SLC is not that it’s a blue island in a red state; just about every red state has such communities. Rather that the worldwide headquarters of a fairly significant religion still has a huge physical presence right in the middle of the downtown area of this blue island. Temple Square itself is an island within an island. That’s rare and when it does happen, it usually makes the city less progressive.

In SLC’s case, they’ve either found a way to work with the church on the things they can that directly affects the city’s governance or they’ve found some brilliant tried-and-true way to work around the church. Either way, the kind of city they’ve been able to build is fairly impressive all things considered. Maybe Mormonism is a different kind of conservatism; given what SLC has been able to build over the years, it seems it’s probably more pragmatic a conservatism than you’d find from other religious sects in this country that sometime have significant influences in their respective cities.
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  sigmaoctansGeorgeGeoffersonLives
  11/18/15 11:36am
  Mormonism is a different kind of conservatism; given what SLC has been able to build over the years, it seems it’s probably more pragmatic a conservatism than you’d find from other religious sects in this country.
  
  Yes. From what I know about the LDS church (my same-sex partner’s brother is a member who converted to marry his girlfriend), it is definitely is much more pragmatic than other religions. For one thing, as a gay couple, we have never, ever experienced heard a single negative remark from our Mormon in-laws - even though I know they are pretty conservative people. We attended my brother in-law’s wedding (it wasn’t a temple wedding), and were treated with all the same respect and inclusion as everyone else. That, to me, is sort of an allegory for the way the church operates within bastions of liberalism like SLC, other blue cities and states, and even places like otherwise-liberal college campuses around the country.
  
  That doesn’t mean the LDS church is less conservative, just that they have an extremely well-functioning PR machine and realize that reasonable compromise (on anything except highly religiously-charged things) is good for business. That results in things like the “Utah Compromise” legislation that gives good (but not perfect) protection to LGBT people against discrimination in Utah. You also rarely, if ever, see Mormons protesting anything.
  
  That’s sort of the nature of the highly-centralized, wealthy, “corporate” style organization that is the church. Unlike many other religious groups, the Mormons don’t want pick fights and don’t view the world with a crusading “christian warrior” lens the way a lot of other churches sometimes do. Again, that doesn’t mean they don’t find themselves at the center of controversy (especially with regard to gay people), but they don’t go actively seeking it out or grandstanding about it.
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  sigmaoctansGeorgeGeoffersonLives
  11/18/15 11:41am
  Plus, I’m not sure there’s a whole lot the city and church necessarily would disagree on, in terms of managing the city - which is, honestly, fairly apolitical, at least in a liberal-conservative spectrum. The church owns the land they sit on, and have for a very long time. The church has no reason to interfere with city services, in fact, they have just as much an interest in a well-functioning downtown and broader city as anyone who lives there. The city knows the church isn’t going anywhere, and brings a lot of economic activity to SLC. The church is a major and legitimate constituent of the City, so they have every reason and responsibility to maintain an open discourse and level of service with the church.
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Cherith CutestoryGabrielle Bluestone
11/18/15 10:40am
Two first openly gay mayors of major cities in the US are in Texas and Utah.

Meanwhile, in Boston the most diversity they’ve had in the mayor’s office is when they went from decades of Irish dudes to an Italian dude (then back to Irish).

That’s why you don’t stereotype.
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  liverysinuranceCherith Cutestory
  11/18/15 10:47am
  Uh Oregon? Who also has an openly Bi woman as Governor?
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  Cherith Cutestoryliverysinurance
  11/18/15 10:48am
  Which is great. But I was talking about gay mayors rather than bi governors.
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Custer - KinjaPromotionsGabrielle Bluestone
11/18/15 10:41am
Rachel Dolezal is now openly blonde and gay too?
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  BoscohhhhCuster - KinjaPromotions
  11/18/15 10:45am
  Holy shit I was staring at this picture wondering why she looked so familiar. You nailed it.
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  lobstrCuster - KinjaPromotions
  11/18/15 11:15am
  You left out the most unforgivable of them all: openly politician.
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ReverandRichardWayneGaryWayneGabrielle Bluestone
11/18/15 10:30am
I live in a similar blue pocket in a red state, Lexington Kentucky. We elected an openly gay mayor and it never came up as a campaign issue. Not that we should brag about it, that’s the way it’s supposed to be.
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  mrblergReverandRichardWayneGaryWayne
  11/18/15 10:48am
  I kind of agree and kind of disagree. I’m a straight guy, so some people might toss my opinion out. But at this point, I think it’s important to highlight successful LGBT lives. Kids are still getting bullied for their gender identity, so to show this kind of progress is important for them.
  
  And it helps shove it in bigots’ faces that they’re on the wrong side of history.
  
  I do hope someday it doesn’t matter at all though. But I hope the same thing for race, and we’re not really winning any awards on how we deal with that in this country.
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  ReverandRichardWayneGaryWaynemrblerg
  11/18/15 10:53am
  I see your point. I guess I would say I hope we rapidly get to the point where this is not notable. But for sure, we aren’t there yet.
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Cylontater: Genital WhispererGabrielle Bluestone
11/18/15 10:25am
she’s not Mormon

This makes even less sense to me now. Is every stereotypical belief I’ve had about Utah wrong??
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  Enorme Galo, the Muscle Hamster!Cylontater: Genital Whisperer
  11/18/15 10:32am
  No. Most of the state will meet or exceed your expectations in terms of being a repugnant backwater.
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  DoctorNineCylontater: Genital Whisperer
  11/18/15 10:36am
  I think Salt Lake is where everyone throughout Utah who hates the ubiquitous social control of LDS gravitates. So there is a pretty big population there that isn’t going to just roll over for whatever insanity the Church demands. It’s kind of interesting, sociologically.
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RegretsalotGabrielle Bluestone
11/18/15 10:29am
I mean, there’s “openly gay” and there’s “jazz handsing your Mayoral photo.”
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EatTheCheeseNicholsonGabrielle Bluestone
11/18/15 10:24am

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  Mormon Night SnakeEatTheCheeseNicholson
  11/18/15 10:28am
  I love that movie.
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  puttputtbuttEatTheCheeseNicholson
  11/18/15 10:28am
  Anarchy in the UK man
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GregoireGabrielle Bluestone
11/18/15 10:29am
She looks like an awesome late ‘80s stand-up comedienne. Give her some shoulder pads!
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  amtGregoire
  11/18/15 10:58am
  
  Don’t get me started - don’t even get me started.
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