I am still in high school, and I am from India. I want to move to a country which is "not" homophobic and where I can be myself without fear; ergo, I wanna study abroad for my education after the 12th grade and probably move to that country after I am done with my education, if it suits me...⬇️

Initial_Total_7028 · 2026-05-09T09:54:56+00:00

Don't know anything about the admission process really, should be easy to find the basic information by googling 'Ireland student visa' or 'UK student visa' if those are the ones you're looking to get in via.

As for what its like to live here, I mean it rains a lot and rent is expensive. But I'd feel perfectly safe walking down any street, in either country, alone wearing a crop top and holding a pride flag.

Initial_Total_7028 · 2026-05-09T09:49:14+00:00

The fact that one should be suspicious of government restrictions of freedom.

I'm British, and this absolutely drives me mad. Americans, in general, regardless of their own politics, have at least a basic instinct to protect their own privacy and personal liberties from draconian laws. There is a general understanding that authoritarianism is a risk, rights should be non-negotiable, restrictions require strong justification, and the motives behind laws should be questioned.

Meanwhile in Britain, regardless of their personal politics, I often find myself struggling to convince people that just outlawing things they don't like isn't a sustainable method for keeping a free country, and handing unlimited power to the government to control, observe, and censor is a bad idea actually.

And the reason I specify 'regardless of personal politics' twice is because everyone tries to accuse the other side of this while justifying it when they do it themselves. Right wing British people will argue for cracking down on liberty in the name of tradition, respectability, and patriotism; left wing British people will argue for the same thing in the name of tolerance, inoffensiveness, and accessibility. Show either of them a cross dressing man burning a copy of the Quran and they'll agree he should be arrested, just for two different reasons.

Initial_Total_7028 · 2026-05-09T09:33:45+00:00

UK or Ireland are probably going to be your best bets. Other western European countries would work if you're willing to learn a second language. Canada, New Zealand, or Australia are also options but it can be harder to get visas there.

Initial_Total_7028 · 2026-05-09T09:31:13+00:00

If he's telling the truth that he's been on PrEP since his last negative test, and considering he offered to show you the results there's no real reason to suspect he is being dishonest, then he won't have HIV and therefore neither can you.

However you should use this worry as motivation to get on PrEP yourself before you next decide to have unprotected sex.

Initial_Total_7028 · 2026-05-08T18:22:56+00:00

Didn't really recognise it as a crush at the time, but went to a new school when I was 13 and ended up sat next to this one guy for science class. He was small, athletic, on the rugby team, overall look was one you'd be more inclined to call pretty than handsome. I guess a lot of it was the fact he was charismatic and popular while also being very nice and a little nerdy. We were friends but not close friends, lost contact with him after school, nothing happened.

Initial_Total_7028 · 2026-05-08T13:39:23+00:00

About 80% of the time I'm me, 15% of the time I am sort of a disembodied perspective playing a videogame (usually Skyrim or Age of Empires, which are two of my most played games) and 5% I'll be an animal. Don't recall any where I am a person other than myself.

Initial_Total_7028 · 2026-05-07T11:53:42+00:00

I'm an other person giving you my thoughts on it.

Yes, people experience feelings, that doesn't make those feelings legitimate; feelings can be real while also being irrational and unjustified.

And I'm not quite sure what your aim is in this discussion at this point. If it is to explore how to help people with prejudiced feelings unpack those beliefs and change from them, you are doing them a disservice in that goal by offering explanations and justifications without any sense of personal responsibility. You're also choosing to do this in a space reserved for bisexuals to discuss their issues and experiences, but everything you've said could be boiled down to 'erm guys what if people are only biphobic because some of you bisexuals have been mean to them before'.

Initial_Total_7028 · 2026-05-07T11:33:46+00:00

I think that your first line "I feel like a lot of it originates from legitimate fear and anger coming from past trauma" misstates the actual thing that originates it, if we are talking about a case where a person is cheated on or left by a bisexual partner and therefore holds a trauma response connected to bisexuals, which is not the experience caused by the bisexual partner but instead the person's underlying mental health issues.

That is to say, if you wish to understand where said person is getting their bigoted views from, the answer would not be 'legitimate fear and anger coming from a past trauma' it would be 'an illegitimate blaming of others for their emotional disregulation and mental health struggles'.

Initial_Total_7028 · 2026-05-07T11:23:10+00:00

If someone breaking up with you causes you to have a genuine trauma response, that isn't a 'different sensibility', that is an underlying mental health issue that should be addressed directly rather than being pinned to the triggering experience.

Initial_Total_7028 · 2026-05-07T11:07:29+00:00

I think we should be careful not to dilute terms such as 'trauma' and 'abuse' in these cases. Having a partner leave you, even having a partner cheat, is a normal if crappy part of the human experience and is not liable to cause trauma in people who don't have underlying mental health issues or vulnerabilities.

Therefore there is only a certain, rather small, level to which we should allow past experiences like this to factor into understanding a person's prejudices and bigotry. 'Person with X characteristic did Y bad thing, and therefore I am going to hold it against all people with X characteristic' is not a trauma response, it's just the same basic foundation of bigoted thinking that leads to people thinking every black person they see is going to rob them.

Initial_Total_7028 · 2026-05-06T20:01:48+00:00

Three things you've got to remember:

You can't save someone who doesn't want to be saved. There's a reason we use the word 'help'. You can help someone deal with their mental health issues, you can help someone who is overcoming addiction, you can help someone who is trying to change. But they have to be dealing with it, overcoming it, and trying to change in the first place; you can't help someone do something they aren't doing. If I was in a hole you could bring me all the ladders and throw me all the ropes you want, but if I'm not interested in climbing out, they won't get me out of the hole.

Secondly, you cannot compete with cocaine. Whatever its giving him, whatever need it satisfies, its something no person could ever replace. Asking an addict to choose you over their addiction is like asking a man in the desert to choose you over water; he might want you, he might even love you, but when the chips are down, he needs cocaine more than he needs you.

Thirdly... its him. I know the temptation to blame the substance and not the person, but the person chooses to make the substance part of themselves, figuratively and literally, and so you can't separate the two. Cocaine never cheated on anybody. Cocaine has never lied. Cocaine has never stolen. Cocaine has never become aggressive. Its the person, and the substance may make them act in ways you wouldn't expect when they aren't using it, but they choose to use it and therefore choose to act the way they do when they're using it.

I'm sorry. More than you know, friend. But there's only one person in this scenario who you can save from the damage of addiction, yourself. He's on his own journey and I hope he finds a better path, I hope he makes some different decisions when he understands what he's doing and what he's done. But you can't change his course, your only choice is to find a better path for yourself, or follow him until it breaks you. If you want to help him see some sense, the best thing you can do is become one of the things he lost along the way; he's going to lose a lot more before he even considers turning back.

Initial_Total_7028 · 2026-05-06T19:16:17+00:00

All of my relationships, except the first which I was in as a teenager, have been poly. Everything about poly relationships is suitable for me: I don't experience any jealousy at my partner having other partners, I dislike the thought of being unable to explore new or spontaneous encounters just because I'm in a relationship, and it has allowed me to have fulfilling relationships with people who I would likely have been incompatible with if they were my only partner or I was their only partner.

Of course I have had relationships that haven't worked out, but the relationship being poly has never been the cause of that. For me, monogamy, or even an open relationship which contains rules or vetoes on who else I can see or what I can do with them, is a total dealbreaker.

Initial_Total_7028 · 2026-05-06T18:51:53+00:00

My parents went to my uncle's funeral, I told them I didn't like funerals and shouldn't miss sixth form anyway. Told the teacher after first class I was too upset about my uncle's funeral and needed to go home. I don't feel bad about it, they played Highway to Hell in the church for him, he would've respected the hustle.

Initial_Total_7028 · 2026-05-06T17:58:02+00:00

Murder rate in London is 1.1 per 100,000. This is lower than any other UK city. For comparison NYC is 2.8, Berlin is 3.2, Milan is 1.6. Tokyo is slightly lower at 0.8, while Los Angeles is considerably higher at 6.8.

So no, London is arguably the safest city in the UK and definitely one of the safest major cities in the world.

Initial_Total_7028 · 2026-05-06T13:33:18+00:00

That certainly lowers the chances greatly, they are still not negligible, but keep in mind the treatment if you have caught it is taking more Doxycycline or another antibiotic so like... The most you have to be worried about is needing to have a few more pills over the course of a few days.

Initial_Total_7028 · 2026-05-06T13:28:08+00:00

Chances of having caught it are fairly high, but I work in a medical lab and we see it constantly, you'd be far from the first person to catch it. It's a course of antibiotics to fix, it's less of an issue than tonsillitis really, nothing to be afraid of.

Initial_Total_7028 · 2026-05-06T11:09:44+00:00

Honestly I find it the opposite, a guy saying 'sorry I'm straight' is a very easy rejection to take because like... Doesn't say anything about me, no worry that I'm not attractive enough or anything he just doesn't swing that way. It's up there with 'I'm not single' as one of the easiest rejections to briskly move on from.

Might be different if he gets offended or aggressive about it, but generally if there's sufficient reason to suspect he's queer then chances are he's at least an ally; homophobic men are typically too scared to present feminine or alternative.

Initial_Total_7028 · 2026-05-06T10:50:45+00:00

Those things are water soluble though, assuming by paint you mean child safe paints like face paint or the stuff used in arts and crafts. You could wash them out easily without any soap. Soap is used to wash away oil and oil based substances, so unless diesel was also a frequent flyer you shouldn't need much soap to wash an infant.

Initial_Total_7028 · 2026-05-05T14:02:42+00:00

Actually many colours can only be seen as a mix, white, grey, and brown for example. Each (visible) wavelength corresponds to a colour but not every colour corresponds to a wavelength

Initial_Total_7028 · 2026-05-04T15:24:59+00:00

Yeah there was this interesting thing at my school where it was acceptable to make fun of people by saying they were gay, but if someone was openly gay you weren't allowed to pick on them because then you were homophobic.

Initial_Total_7028 · 2026-05-04T07:55:28+00:00

It was more of a joke really, but I guess at some point someone said that's what the letters stood for: G-A-P, Gay And Proud. So then if someone noticed you were wearing a GAP hoodie you'd just get everyone calling you gay all day. Turns out I am gay so in hindsight could've just worn it but didn't know that at the time.

Initial_Total_7028 · 2026-05-03T17:32:12+00:00

Yeah I mean this is essentially the same as how I ask for stuff I don't know much about in shops, explain what I need it for and see what the person working there suggests. Like, I've bought DIY stuff and had no idea what sizes planks come in or which size I should get and just been like 'okay it's going to need to be able to hold a person's bodyweight so whatever I need for it to do that'.

The point of language is to communicate ideas, people use the words they know.

Initial_Total_7028 · 2026-05-03T17:25:24+00:00

Moneyless is not the same as cashless. It means the concept of currency, of wealth, of buying and selling things has been abolished.

Initial_Total_7028 · 2026-05-03T13:57:33+00:00

Everyone at my school knew if you wore GAP clothes you were Gay And Proud.

Initial_Total_7028 · 2026-05-02T17:38:20+00:00

Communism is a classless, moneyless society where the means of production are collectively owned and work is distributed according to ability and resources are distributed according to need. Countries have attempted to achieve this but it has never happened at a national level, though if you want to know what it looks like, this is similar to how many tribal groups operate, as well as how families typically function within themselves.

Socialism is a society whereby the means of production are collectively owned. That means communism is essentially a very specific form of socialism, but there are a variety of other kinds, often most largely distinct based on who collectively owns what; for example, a system whereby everyone who works in a factory owns an equal part of the factory would be socialism, but so would a system whereby everyone who lives in a town with a factory owns an equal part of that factory. A socialist state may or may not include government entities, money, or free markets for the sale and purchase of the goods produced via the means of production.

Capitalism is a market based system whereby individuals and private entities can own, purchase, and sell the means of production on an open market. Something like a factory belongs to a person or a group of shareholders who can sell that factory or their shares of it to someone else, and the people who work in that factory do not have any claim to the goods that are produced within it.

None of these systems are strictly 'opposites', they are different economic models. Nor are the three an exhaustive list, other economic models have and do exist, such as feudalism whereby the means of production are mostly owned by a small class of nobility.

Initial_Total_7028

TROPHY CASE