Kel wrote:

.......And you know what corporate donors and grant makers don't want to be associated with these days? The word "straight".......

 They don't want to be associated with the word describing who we are?

Wow....just wow. I can't get my head around that


 

Last edited by Ellexoh_nz (September 16, 2021 7:49 pm)

I like the new site.  I like the videos.  I like the testimonials.  I like that it finally feels like I am visiting a group that exists in the 2020s and not stuck in the 1990s.

If anything, my biggest complaint about the old SSN site is it always felt a bit like a club of people who really bonded and got something out of it back in 1999-2003, but who neglected to pay it forward.  The not-so-subtle message was ‘Shoulda been here years ago because nobody cares anymore.’

However, the obvious truth is that there is a dedicated and hard working team of people behind the scenes who have dared to try something new in order to revitalize something in desperate need.

They have steered the old decrepit SSN into a new era. 

Based on what I see on this new site, I’m a believer that the people running this organization have a vision and are implementing it.  Amen!

Kel wrote:

... they can't have a company with the word "straight" in their name listed on their roster of nonprofits they donate to. And do you know why? Because a few years back when white supremacists started holding straight pride marches, they effed it all up for us. And no, we can't "educate" corporations about it. What they're worried about is other non-educated individuals seeing them in a bad light because they're helping an organization with the word straight in their name..

Why do you keep repeating this falsehood? The Straight Pride Parade was not a white supremacist event. You are perpetuating a completely fabricated claim and using that claim to justify the decision. This is just one part of wider social movement to make heterosexuality and cis people out to be bad (either directly or by association).

I understand why you can't educate corporate suits. They don't care about truth. They only wish to jump onto a social movement that might reap power and money for themselves. However, you can choose not to perpetuate the falsehood yourself. The board could choose not to align this organization with the ever bending of reality to meet the goals of others, and just stand firm in public. A few hundred people get called "white supremacist" (with no evidence in favor and tons against the claim) and use the phrase "Straight Pride". In response to this pile of nothing, this site change's its name?

We should have had a delegation at a parade with a name like this! After all, the feeling of "pride" doesn't just belong to the gay spouse, does it? I have been told that "Pride" isn't about being actually proud anyway, just not feeling alone, isolated, and closeted up. Well, doesn't that sound familiar to those here? Straight spouses could do for some of that. However, we aren't allowed to feel this way, are we? We are just supposed to be "allies". So, when people heard there would be a "straight pride" parade, the attendees were vilified before anyone protesting them even knew who would be there or why. They were slandered for simply saying "straight pride." Again, as it turned out, it was little more than a small band of Trump supporters, lead by a white gay man with a black gay husband - all for a laugh at the pearl clutching masses of leftists.

What if it was called the heterosexual pride event? Would you drop that word? At some point, which was a long time ago, people need to stand their ground. Heck, even if the little parade was what you and propagandists falsely claim it was, SO WHAT? A singular and nothing event in one city? We have more members than that parade had participants several times over. Why should we be expected to change?

Oh, yes, because the public doesn't want to find out that some company gave money to anything with the word "straight' in the name. Well, guess what that makes us straight people? Presumed guilty (just like the parade attendees). You are perpetuating the injustice done to the parade attendees onto us.

I am fine, in all honesty, with the name change - but I abhor and reject this capitulating justification based on a lie - a lie designed strictly to belittle those that don't cooperate with leftism and desire to stigmatize and diminish straight people. They will come for this site, eventually, regardless of the name. Arguably, they already have, and this thread proves it. Leftist agenda inserted, yet again, where it has no place. Calling ourselves SSN isn't conservative or white supremacist - its factual. Doing otherwise, to satisfy one side of a sociopolitical movement is to become partisan, not avoid doing so. OurPath is a name that's okay, I guess. Its just this reasoning I cannot accept.

I genuinely appreciate this site's existence and those that helped it to be here when I needed it.

Sam (Admin) wrote:

....As long as we are perceived by outside sources as homophobic, even though we know we are not, we will not be able to grow and reach more of those who need us. ....

 
When the LGBTQ community began.... were they considered straight-phobic? Did they have people say "if we're to be seen and accepted we can't be seen to go up against a *straight majority"...?

Elle

I have tried the following search on Google: "I think my husband is gay and I need support" .There were literally 100's of articles, research, blogs etc. When I got to page 5 of my Google search I stopped . There was no mention of OurPath and 1or 2 mentioning the SSN. This web-site is amazing and helped me immensely when my husband, of 38 years married and together for 42 years, told me he is gay. I also then only realized the SSN exists because I read an article by Bonny Kaye and the SSN was mentioned.  I think the most important consideration is to ensure that newbies are aware of it's existence. Is there no way that something could be done to ensure that straight men or woman(obviously newbies) can actually find this web-site easily in a time of need? If more people are reached, there will be more members and I think this could also be a positive for external  funding. Sorry if I miss something. I am not a computer expert and do not have any idea how search engines' work.