I'd just add the caveat that I kind of doubt it's mostly teenagers doing the up-voting. I mean considering how many of the comments reference wives. The 'it's just teenagers' assessment also just doesn't make a lot of sense in that I think we kinda know that younger people tend to be more progressive than older people.

There's also a reason why I choose the term misogyny to describe the situation here more than homophobia. Take another look at the samples I highlighted earlier. You'll find it's much more common for heterosexual women to get lumped into these critiques of Ellie than it is for gay men to. (Hence all the references to wives and their boyfriends and such.)

The apology is accepted. However, we still definitely disagree about the underlying essence of the comments.

Hey, just wanted to mention that the movie Portrait of a Lady on Fire comes out on video tomorrow! I can't recommend it enough! It's seriously like the best lesbian romance I've ever seen on film...which I think has much to do with the fact that, unlike so many others, this one was actually directed by a lesbian. It's way more authentic, and also I think insightful about just how emotional intimacy actually works.

Also, small trivia: outside of its native France, Portrait of a Lady on Fire was the most successful at the South Korean box office. A little surprising, no? I don't think people often perceive South Korea as a particularly accepting place when it comes to same-sex relationships, but lesbian feminism has actually become among the more prominent varieties there in the last several years. Lesbian feminism isn't even a movement that still exists in an organized way here in the Western world anymore, but there are tens of thousands of women interacting with it in South Korea right now! What we call the fourth feminist wave here in the Western world (which essentially refers to the upsurge of the last five or ten years) has taken on a totally different form in South Korea that has absolutely nothing to do with like intersectionality theory or anything like that. I've found it very distinctive and fascinating to watch unfold. Anyway, I definitely think the prominence of lesbian feminism in South Korea is definitely related to this film's surprising success there.

Well anyway, just wanted to strongly recommend the movie.

(Also, I promise to get off this media kick and do more substantive posts here at some point. )

Well, early reports suggest TLOU2 is the fastest selling PS4 game ever, so I think it's safe to say at this point that the "lol oppressed homos 10/10" crowd are just a loudmouthed minority. :)

I coulda told you that! 

So last time (which was way back in June) I promised to make more substantive posts to this thread. Alright, I've got something. This video caught my eye this morning, so I checked it out...

...and it just hit home with me. I've had very little success in dating myself. Of course I have several mental health issues that just make me difficult to live with really, but like Rowan says, being gay and on the asexuality spectrum also makes it qualitatively more difficult than it seems like it would otherwise be. There are just numerous issues. I cannot just assume that someone I might be interested in shares my orientation let alone an interest specifically in me, for example, because in all likelihood she doesn't.  What's more, in my particularly small and heavily religious community, it just doesn't feel that safe to be out (no one here is) and there are no gay bars or gay clubs or anything like that in town (there is THE bar); you have to travel quite a ways. And as a kid in like middle school and high school, of course things like clubs and bars weren't options for one anyway. Also, bars and clubs are just very sexual environments and casual sex isn't really of interest to me. I want a relationship.

In as far as I have been able to date other girls/women before, it has been through some combination of little miracles and no small amount of effort and also almost exclusively informal. Honestly, I've been on quite a few more fake dates with guys I've trusted (to advance the appearance of heterosexuality so people won't suspect me for being alone for so long) than I have been on real ones.

The in thing now, especially with the coronavirus out there these days, is like online dating. Those sorts of options that weren't there when I was younger being there now does help a little! But like Rowan says, you wind up mostly just being directed to men and to like women who just want to use you as a fetish (like for a "bi" threesome more likely than a date), stuff like that.

I don't know what I want out of anyone here in terms of a response, I'm just voicing a frustration. I feel like she does; just like afraid I'm going to wind up spending the rest of my life alone. Anyone else felt like that before?

I'm an RGBT gamer.

Is that a typo or is that a new acronym?

So this is obviously a different situation, but I found my wife on okcupid. I prefer online dating because it makes intentions clear and obvious. Even as a straight dude I never wanted to approach women out and about because most will not be interested (just statistically) and if they aren't interested then I've just been a mild annoyance which I hate. On something like okcupid the pretense is gone. When I was on first dates I would make my goals in life clear and it felt a lot less random. If you haven't tried that particular site I would give it a shot. Still probably get a lot of threesome requests, but maybe you could focus on sending out messages yourself rather than responding to what others send. 

Edit: asking my wife (who is bi) she suggests trying to find a site specific to people looking to date women or femme people. something like Grindr for lesbians and bi women. 

No typo, RGBt lol