Hoping to build on the efforts of Prism, dsc and others....

[Smarmie Doofus]

....I've been discussing with Skinner on Ask the Administrators ways in which the long-sought "dialogue" between DU GLBTers and DU "proper" might productively take place:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=437&topic_id=2053&mesg_id=2053


Long story short: I thought I'd start this thread as a vehicle for "us" to discuss... essentially among ourselves ( it's of course, a "free country" , or used to be; so whoever contributes, contributes) HOW such a dialogue might effectively be structured.

In other words, if we still want to do this ( I do), what form or shape should the dialogue take?

Let's limit this thread to that question. (There are so many specific areas of contention that opening it up beyond that format will, I'm pretty sure, quickly lead to incoherence.)

Skinner has expressed a willingness to engage in "good faith" discussion only. I believe he means by this that he wants it assumed that he is NOT a bigot, and has established his credentials as a fair-minded progressive and any direct dialogue with him ( or *about* him, I guess) should proceed from this premise.

If the world were only so simple. But , OK, I say we accept this assertion at face value if for no other reason than to get this "dialogue" off the ground. Also, I don't want to be the proximate cause of more GLBTDUers getting disappeared. ( Frankly, that's what tugged my coat to this issue in the first place. Not homophobic posters in other forums --- which personally, I couldn't care less about--- but the TSing of people whom I liked and whose postings energized my own postings... and energized ME, frankly.)

So.... all DU posting rules apply to this and any subsequent thread on this topic. Please do NOT get banned.

So: what exactly do we want to do? How do we want to have this "dialogue"?