No need for this

Do you really? I don't think I've ever seen that, and it's not like I've never looked. I've seen lawyers and firms identifying themselves as "serving the gay community", which is different. I've seen "gay owned", which is also different. I certainly don't go around describing myself as a gay software engineer, even though it's perfectly accurate. But why would you care either way? Can't people call themselves what they want?

Do you feel the same about lawyers who put pictures of themselves in their ads, revealing that they're black, or female, or a member of a group that dresses distinctively? Is a male lawyer wearing a skullcap calling himself a Jewish lawyer? Or a female lawyer wearing a head scarf calling herself an Islamic lawyer? Do you realize that the reason people don't describe themselves as "straight lawyers", or similar, isn't because they think it's wrong, it's because people will assume that if it's left unsaid?

Is it possible that you're reading into things something that's not there?

Think about growing up not knowing who you are, not understanding what's different about you, not knowing anyone else who feels the same way. Don't you realize how important it is for such kids, and even adults to be able find their own community? Would you want to go back to the way it was a few decades ago, when we stayed hidden, so that rest stops and public bathrooms and selected street corners were the meeting places, especially for those too young to get into bars? While that's not really needed in SL, it's still a valuable thing to have. Having a gay bar in SL says there's a good place for gay people to hang out without having to worry about others. Having a gay mall says something more, namely that it's ok to let other people in SL know that you're gay, that being out is an accepted part of community standards.

I think it's more that the OP just want's things to be fair. Why can't we have a straight mall? It's an age old ar.uement, and one which is unlikely to be resolved - ever

Actually you're confusing the Greek and Latin.
Homo does indeed mean Man in Latin, but Homos means "the same as" in Greek, likewise Heteros means "opposite" in Greak.

Homosexual = greek for "Same gender",
heterosexual = Greek for "opposite gender".

Phobos of course means fear, as we all know. THerefore "homophobia" means "Fear of things that are the same". Really, if we are to be accurate we should use the word "homosexualphobia", but like "Blog" and "Podcast", today we shorten words to make them easier to say even if they end up making no sense.

"gay mall"

gay and mall are keywords just like any other keywords I'm not sure why anyone would even worry about this but it draws traffic and if you actually have stuff designed for a certain part of the population its silly not to ad the word especially if you know that section of a population is looking things up using that word.

I have yet to type in the word "heterosexual" when shopping for stuff

If i was gay I probablywould type in gay simply because its a minority and if your looking for a "gay bar" its hard to find one unless you type in the word

however the "norm" is heterosexual and everyone assumes it so why would anyone bother to use it as a keyword cause no one is gonna be typing it in

I also have no idea how people try to read stuff into a guy posting ads. I share space on my lot with another person and when I put up an ad I asked them which particular keywords I should include or leave out so she could use them in her place and we would not compete for traffic. The word was lesbian. I put some keywords in myland description since I had some extra space on my place to share and had space for a few keywords to cover her stuff. Its funny some stuff isn't as insidious as people think it is you know lol. If you want to draw eyeballs towards your product and the product is made for a certain niche you use the word. IN this case I left it out of my description so that she could put it in her land description and would only bring up her place and not my spot logical is it not?

/shrug

If we're talking about a product appealing to a niche market then fair enough. However, we are talking about an entire mall.

The point here is; what can that mall possibly be selling that would appeal only to gay customers? I cannot think of anything that would not also appeal to atleast as many straight ones. This reminds me of the drinking fountains in some US cities that used to be marked "BLACKS" and "WHITES" - both groups require water, but the means of dispensing the water is segregated. Again, there is a big difference between a product and a location.

Applying a prefix to the establishment in this manner is to make clear that the location itself is specifically aimed at the specific group - meaning all other groups, by inference, are discouraged from entering.

There may well be "gay-friendly" products (again, I struggle to imagine what they could be), but saying that a place is "gay friendly" is the same as calling it "not-gay unfriendly" (if that weren't such a mouthful, that is). I know the point has been made many times over the years, but it still remains true that if someone opened a "straight club", there would be uproar over it.

It'd seem to me that it's an incorrect comparison. True segregation is when you have to (by law) use the "colored" spigot for water if you are African-American. The closer comparison, if you are going to bring up race, would be to being up television networks like BET (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Entertainment_Television) - you don't have to be African-American to watch BET, but you'll find most of the programming is developed with an African-American audience in mind. No one is going to bar anyone of any race from watching it.



Isn't nearly every club a "straight club?"

Mari

You'd be surprised and honestly I dont think you understand the keyword issue and I think your kinda overdoing it.

Gay lesbian bdsm furry unisex are all niches and words that people search for when seeking certain items out. Again a niche is not the norm everything by "default" is considered straight the rest is a niche. What your doing is trying to make a racism issue out of it or something. Its not and this thread needs to die really soon because its just silly.

Anyhow have your ideas yuor not defending anyone's rights with this stuff your just showing an over sensitivity to something which is commonplace. Get over the fact that yes there are people who will seak out things based on keyword.

Anyone who makes items geared towards this market or any other market would be a fool not to use the keyword including a mall which would be geared towards this market. There really is no difference (well in your head maybe but that is where it ends.)

I also have no idea why I even bothered to say anything in this thread because quite frankly the ideas that some people have are ridiculous.

Its a keyword and being used to bring up a listing in a search engine just like on the internet..

Also try showing up at some gorean or furry sims not clothed right and watch how fast you get ejected. The fact remains if this is what you speak of inner communities can and will exist and how would anyone know in second life if they didn't put it in their keywords.

"Its not and this thread needs to die really soon because its just silly."

This was written on the above post as well as in a few more in this long thread. So, why should it die? Because some don't like this issue being questioned? Or maybe because it seems others are coming down on gays?

You bare your soul to the world by telling them you're gay or what-have-you then expect whatever follows.
No one wants to know what your preference in sex is, that's your business. So again, you bring it out to the open knowing the way society is in general then don't complain about it when people ask questions or say what's on their mind. Don't try shoving it under the rug now, you made it public, so shhh.