"You can't seem to decide what it is exactly that you're arguing."

I suggest you re-read my posts without your holier-than-thou glasses on. My position is clear. There is a large number of people on Moon Guard who define themselves with an openly sexual label that are being asked to stop taking actions that are directly opposed to their personalities. I am arguing that the people that don't like it should just go elsewhere instead of expecting other people to change to meet their desires.

Since you seem to be having a problem understanding, let's make our language clear. Lesbians don't do this. Gay guys don't do this. Bisexuals don't do this. Transgender people don't do this. Members of the "LGBT community" are the ones that decide to label themselves this way. The "movement" has an agenda and have decided to be very open and public with their sexuality. That's fine. Let them. I don't care one way or the other. It doesn't bother me, and if it did, I would leave.

Labels have power, and yes, they are stereotypes. You seem to think, though, that stereotypes can only be applied by haters, or that all stereotypes are negative. Neither is true. People who label themselves as part of the LGBT community are in fact usually overtly sexual, it's part of the reason they identify so strongly with the agenda of the movement. When it is very obvious to everyone around you that you are gay, it becomes very important to you that there be no shame or ridicule attached to it. I'm on board with that. It's your life do with it what you want. but the other side of the coin is that if you choose to carry that label, you have to accept the image that comes with it.

Think of it this way. Do you get the same mental image when I say "truck driver" as when i say "teamster"? How about the difference between "a bunch of kindergarten teachers" and "teachers' union"? These labels have power, they have meanings, and nothing you or I say about it is going to change that. These people have chosen to define themselves, and applying their own labels to them is neither offensive nor wrong. If you carry that label and it DOES offend you when you are identified by it, perhaps you are carrying the wrong label.

"There's a line, a distinction to be made here...there are people who are LGBT who define their entire lives by their sexuality, and there are people who are LGBT who do not. Both, however, are LGBT...that fact of their personnas remain. Now, at this point, perhaps then you're suggesting that if they didn't define their lives by their sexuality, they wouldn't flock to a server that has a known concentration of that community"

The second part of this is exactly what I am saying, except in reverse, kind of. I'm not saying they flock there or anything, just that they ARE there and people who go there should be reasonable and not expect the ERP'ers to act differently just because it offends them. The people who are complaining are going to a rodeo and complaining that it smells like cows.

However, the first part of your statement is where I disagree, and I think it is probably just a matter of semantics between us. The large majority of my gay friends never use the term "LGBT", they just say they're gay. In fact, they usually act ashamed of that culture and that movement. They just want everyone to accept them and leave them alone. They do not define themselves as "LGBT" and they are not a part of that community, and I think that applies to probably 90% of gay people in America right now. Most of them just want their sexuality to not even matter. For the most part, however, the ERPers on Moon Guard are in the other 10%, the ones who DO use the label of "LGBT", wear it proudly, and stay very open about their sexuality. There's nothing wrong with it, and good for them, but from what i have been told by my gay friends, they most certainly do not speak for even a majority of gay people. They speak for their own community, their own culture.

I think the disconnect comes because you are defining every gay person as "LGBT" when most of them wouldn't even define themselves that way.

"A lot of us try that. To simply play wherever the chips fall, on whatever server strikes our fancy as we roll up a toon for the first time. Then you face months of this in channels both public and private, maybe even in guild, over Ventrilo...

"That's f****** gay"
"What a f****t."
"Ugh, f***** queer."

And worse.

Does it then mean you're defined by your sexuality if you try to find someplace to get away from the same tired tripe you have to deal with IRL?"

No, and if you're not one of the ERPers on that server and you just went there to get away from the hate, then I'm clearly not talking about you. However, I would say that you should stand up for yourself. I am not gay, but when I see people talking like that in trade chat, I report them and ignore them. If it happens in guild, I tell tehm to stop. If it happens again, I, being GM, boot them. If they ask why, i tell them it's because they're a bigot and ignore them. You seem to forget that this is a game. You can pretty much do whatever you want. If you want to make a guild full of like-minded individuals, you can do it. If you don't want to hear the hate someone is spewing, you can ignore them. If they are in your guild saying it over vent, you can mute them. If it still doesn't stop and the GM won't stop it, you can leave the guild.

There are always options, but jumping on the case of someone who WAS ACTIVELY DEFENDING YOUR RIGHT TO BE WHO YOU ARE just because you didn't like the way he used someone's self-applied label is really not the best option.