I meant ‘you’ in the wider, moire general sense, referring to the users of the forum, not just the funny foreign types

It was my typo, quoted…

Hmmm…. taking the mountain bikers I know on my FB friends list as an example:

5 are female
3 categorise themselves as gay
15 are white males
2 are non-white
1 is transgender

PJM1974 – and that’s not me?? oh?

Rachel

I’m intrigued at “categorise themselves as gay”?

Innit? I don’t categorise myself as ‘heterosexual’, that’s just a part of who I am. S’got nowt to do with riding bikes. Bit like colour, creed etc.

I don’t categorise myself as ‘heterosexual’, that’s just a part of who I am.

??

So if you had to fill out say a medical form that asked for your sexuality then you’d tick “Other/Don’t Know”?

I’m assuming PJM1974 simply meant they self-identify, which is what most reports on colour/creed/sexuality/biscuits use.

I only brought it up because I noticed the rest of the list.

1 IS transgender
5 ARE female

not 1 catagorises as transgender etc etc.

It’s no big deal

Rachel

So if you had to fill out say a medical form that asked for your sexuality then you’d tick “Other/Don’t Know”?

Well, you can’t really know until you’ve had sex.

Sex? What’s that again? I forget….

Me is as gay as a tree-full of monkeys on nitrous oxide. I love women but don’t want to do owt but chat and have laffs with them.

Perfect Kinsey 6, as they used to say.

And Welsh.

I’ve just realised that along with biking, life can’t get much better than that! 😀

Emsz is gay

sounds quite cool.

Rach, excellent news my lovely, hope it all goes well XXXX

So if you had to fill out say a medical form that asked for your sexuality then you’d tick “Other/Don’t Know”?

I’ve never seen any form, medical or otherwise, where I’ve been asked to indicate my sexuality. If I did, I’d probbly just leave it blank. Can’t think of any situation where my sexuality would have any bearing on anything tbh.

For the same reason, I leave the ‘ethnicity’ boxes unticked too. But that’s mainly cos I know it annoys those having to input the data from the form. 🙂

Am in danger of releasing my inner statistical spod ( 😳 ), but a few figures:

– are all ‘outdoor pursuits’ predominantly white – yes. (disproportionately so relative to the percentage of ‘non-white’ people in the UK

– are all ‘outdoor pursuits’ predominantly male – no. Mountain biking is one of the most male-dominated activities (much more so than climbing etc), other activities have an equal gender split (eg hillwalking).

Does it matter? Depends on the reasons why – if people feel excluded from doing an activity, then yes it does. Also, physical activity levels are much lower amongst certain social groups, and this brings significant health problems – increased health care costs affect all of us in society.

Well, you can’t really know until you’ve had sex.

I see. Presumably that means you might like bestiality and necrophilia, but you’re not sure? 😀

Can’t think of any situation where my sexuality would have any bearing on anything tbh.

Try giving blood.

For the same reason, I leave the ‘ethnicity’ boxes unticked too. But that’s mainly cos I know it annoys those having to input the data from the form.

Brilliant. Ensures that brown people are under-represented and don’t receive as much funding or consideration in community issues.

Racialist!

Who’s going to fess up to batting for both sides then? We must have someone who’s half rice, half chips?

I can’t work out if that’s more generally accepting and inclusive, or uber-niche?

Who’s going to fess up to batting for both sides then? We must have someone who’s half rice, half chips?

I can’t work out if that’s more generally accepting and inclusive, or uber-niche?

Bet they ride fixie.

*runs away quickly*

Oh the whole blood donation thing is absolutely ridiculous!!!

If I had sex with a man now, I would be prevented from giving blood for 12 months. If, post surgery I had sex with a man, no problem. How has the risk changed? Not one bit…

Rachel

Try giving blood.

Fair point, forgot about that one. AdamW will remember me getting all worked up over that issue (good to know that my onion on that matter is supported by many medical professionals though).

Apart from that, I can’t think of owt really, not in any general information sense at least.

As for the effnisitty; if I believed that stating my effnisitty was important and valid, I would do so. Many forms now simply have it on there as a matter of course, so’s companies/agencies etc can fill quotas or claim they are being cultimultural or whatever. Load of cobblers most of the time. Plus, until quite recently, there weren’t boxes for my kind, just ‘other’. Bolx to that.

Binners – have no problem with being someone who ‘bats for both sides’ (horrible phrase though – but then I can’t stand ‘bi-sexual’ either!)

Not sure if half rice / half chips works – can we come up with more enjoyable food combo?

Oh, and can I now be uber-niche! I’ve never been cool enough to be niche about anything 🙂

Adam – damn I don’t ride a fixie … does that mean I can’t be uber-niche? Do have a cx bike though …

@ Rachel

Sincere apologies if my poor grammar caused offense, I was merely differentiating between friend singular and friends plural.

My gay friends define themselves as such BTW, it’s not a label that I’ve applied when attempting to “categorize” them.

Does it really matter if thebloke or girl at the back or side of you is gay,it should only matter if theyre shouting, chase me, or you cant catch them on the hills.

I think today is the wrong day to tell STW I have gypsy blood in me 😉

I think it might be a worse day to ask someone else if they’d like any? 😉

@PJM1974 – no offence at all – just something I noticed about how they were written differently.

😆 at binners.

God, I’d love some!

it’s been ages, can’t stop thinking ’bout it 😆 😆

Oh the whole blood donation thing is absolutely ridiculous!!

No argument here! If it can be based on actual statistical facts then arguably that’s fair enough, even if it does seem a little non-PC. But that doesn’t seem to have been the case with this.

Many forms now simply have it on there as a matter of course, so’s companies/agencies etc can fill quotas or claim they are being cultimultural or whatever. Load of cobblers most of the time.

Okay. But you can’t really complain about say lack of culti-multurism and or any inherent racism in British society if you actively go out of your way to sabotage efforts to measure and address such issues.

Just saying like.

Does it really matter if the bloke at the backside of you is gay

You’ll soon know 😀

I think today is the wrong day to tell STW I have gypsy blood in me

He’s a Vampire.. RUN!

@ emsz

I’m having a quite office chuckle because I’m also reading a thread on b3ta.com about biscuits, which contained a comment almost identical to yours.

Binners / emsz – proper LOL 🙂

Please stop ‘cos I’m getting funny looks for giggling to myself on the train!

Okay. But you can’t really complain about say lack of culti-multurism and or any inherent racism in British society if you actively go out of your way to sabotage efforts to measure and address such issues.

Just saying like.

Ok then; can I have a box that sez ‘Of multiple ethnic heritage but identify culturally as British although still acknowledge the influence of non-British culture in forming my own individual identity’ then please? 🙂

Seriously, most of the time, the ethnicity thing on forms is totally irrelevant to me. So I don’t bother with it. Most of the time, it’s not even a problem I’m told, which begs the question why tf it’s on there in the first place.

Okay. But you can’t really complain about say lack of culti-multurism and or any inherent racism in British society if you actively go out of your way to sabotage efforts to measure and address such issues.

It’s fine – I’m white and I once hilariously put myself down as a jedi.

Ok then; can I have a box that sez ‘Of multiple ethnic heritage but identify culturally as British although still acknowledge the influence of non-British culture in forming my own indivudual identity’ then please?

This. Please.

I’m not ethnically British, even though it’s the nation of my birth and the culture I identify with most strongly.

Apparently “Baz is a gay”, i’m not sure he rides bikes though.

Oooh! Elf and me would get to tick the same box…

Once, when asked ‘where do you come from’ by a police man just doing his job and questioning me as part of his work helping to build positive relations between the police and the Local Community, I oh so amusingly replied ‘Martian’. Which I though was so clever and witty.

Strangely, he din’t seem to feel the same way. Most odd….

There’s simply no pleasing some folk, eh? 😐

But you’re not from Mars, Elf so that was just silly.

I’m white, hetero but not a Christian. My dad’s side is of Jewish descent, and no-one in our family has ever been religious. My parents did send me to a youth club that they thought was Church of England run, so I could learn about Christianity, but got pulled out fairly sharpish when my dad realised they were in fact hardcore evangelists.

How do you know? You can’t say that for sure

I’m seeing some similarities