I am shocked that this thread was locked, and I'm shocked by the locking message

[yardwork]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=433&topic_id=689416&mesg_id=689416

On a daily basis gay DUers are asked why we don't support President Obama. "The list" of things that President Obama has done for the gay community is posted frequently in insulting OPs that state - not just imply but state unequivaocably - that gay DUers are ungrateful. In the past week there have been many OPs and individual posts in which gay people were ridiculed, accused of being selfish and ungrateful, etc. One post yesterday stated that the Democratic Party "kowtows" to gay voters even though we are (insert long list of nasty accusations).

in response to this barrage of criticism, I posted the OP to point out that at least 70% of gay voters consistently support Democratic candidates, including President Obama. I suggested that straight DUers who are so worried about people voting against Democrats - as they constantly harangue gay DUers of doing - might want to look at their own community. Fewer than 50% of straight voters in the U.S. consistently vote Democratic. As many responses in my thread pointed out, the African American and other minority communities also support Democrats with very large margins. This raises a very real question based on facts - why do so few straight white people vote Democratic?

Apparently that question offended the moderators. Why? Why is it perfectly ok for many DUers to accuse gay voters of being ungrateful and unreliable in our support of Democrats and President Obama (when the evidence clearly shows that we are actually overwhelmingly supportive of Democrats and President Obama) but apparently it is a breach of DU rules to point out the voting habits of straight white people?

I guarantee that every serious candidate for public office pays close attention to the data showing which demographic votes Democratic. The suggestion that discussing those figures on DU is a violation of DU rules is absurd.

[EarlG]

1. I understand the point you were trying to make

But the fact is that any thread which is started for the purpose of specifically going after a group of other DUers runs the risk of getting shut down. The mods lock that kind of thing all the time, no matter where it comes from -- including threads where groups of DUers are accused of being ungrateful and unreliable in their support of Democrats and President Obama.

[yardwork]

2. You have got to be kidding.

Pointing out that 70-80% of gay people vote for Democrats while only about half of straight people vote for Democrats is "going after" a group of DUers?

And, if you think that threads and posts that accuse gay people of being ungrateful are "locked all the time" you have a very skewed idea of what is happening on your website. Every single time "the list" is posted it's an in-our-face accusation of ingratitude.

I can't believe that you typed this response. Do you think that I'm stupid?

For example:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=433&topic_id=688889&mesg_id=688935

I alerted on this post. If posts that call out other DUers are "locked and deleted all the time" then why is this post still there? The entire thread is a call-out to gay DUers, for that matter. My thread was a response to it. Was my thread locked because I'm gay?

Sure looks like there is one set of rules on DU for gay posters, and another set of rules for everybody else.

[EarlG]

3. I don't think you're stupid

So let me lay it out for you. I wish there was an easy answer to this but there isn't. Unfortunately, sometimes stuff gets posted and it's just not that easy to make a decision. Sometimes the moderators just have to bite the bullet and make a call, and people don't like it. You posted "What's wrong with straight people." We got half a dozen alerts saying "If someone had said this about black people, you would be horrified!"

The mods looked at it, and debated it, and had to make a decision. Do we leave this post here or do we shut it down? Ultimately, rightly or wrongly, they decided that if someone had said that about black people, or gay people, or whomever, then the post would be shut down. So playing it down the line, they locked your thread. (Yes, I know -- saying it about straight people is different than saying it about gay people. And the moderators know too. But there it is.)

This is a problem with our system of rules and enforcement. It's not the moderators' fault. Our system promises that we can be completely fair, and we can make apples-to-apples comparisons of everything that gets posted, and that there can be complete consistency. And that's bullshit. This is what we've been trying to tell people for a long time now, and that's why we're throwing out our current system and creating something new.

[yardwork]

4. EarlG, you are being disingenuous. People post "what's wrong with gay people" here on a daily basis.

Daily. And the posts are almost never deleted. I linked to an example in my post above - which I notice you ignored.

I encounter more homophobia here on DU than I do in my real life. There are a handful of posters here who regularly go after gay people, and a handful of moderators who aid and abet them. This has nothing to do with being bound by rules or having to make difficult decisions about grey areas. This is homophobia, pure and simple. You're tolerating it on DU. And when gay people and straight allies complain, we are usually the ones punished.

[yardwork]

5. I'm still mad about this. The double standard is so glaring in this instance.