Moderator's note: Nov. 8, 2016

[Brittain33]

Hi all. A note on how to discuss differences of opinion on gender identity on boards I moderate:

Debates on gender identity and understanding of transgenderism are acceptable when relevant to an issue of state or federal policy, such as HB2 in North Carolina, and I will moderate very lightly in support of free debate.

These debates are not acceptable on discussions of individuals who may be transgender who are running for state and federal office, and posts that display a lack of respect for an individual's identity and dignity and follow-up conversations will be moderated appropriately.

Thank you.

[rbt48]

Ok, you call the shots.  What prompts you to make this warning and has this even been a problem?

I realize that by participating in this Forum, I give up some of my freedom of expression, but why the firm ruling on discussing whether a candidate might be transgender or not.  For example, why not a rule on who might actually be a closet Lutheran and not Greek Orthodox? 

[136or142]

Ok, you call the shots.  What prompts you to make this warning and has this even been a problem?

I realize that by participating in this Forum, I give up some of my freedom of expression, but why the firm ruling on discussing whether a candidate might be transgender or not.  For example, why not a rule on who might actually be a closet Lutheran and not Greek Orthodox?  

You indicate some awareness of this, but this is something even people who claim to be intelligent seem to not be aware of. For instance the incredibly arrogant Michael Woods who frequently claims to be a genius with an I.Q of 184 (I think his real I.Q is probably 84, but the person who scored his I.Q test was too nice to tell Woods that so he added a '1' after the '84') and was a troll for Trump on Twitter in this election said that he would no longer post on Twitter after they changed some rules that he wrote amounted to censorship.

The Bill of Rights protection of Free Speech only prevents the government from restricting speech.  No private website is under any restriction to not censor anything you write and can be as arbitrary as it wants to be, though of course, if it operated in an arbitrary manner it would risk losing posters and visitors to that site.