Since the beginning of this site, dA has been repeatedly criticized for its homophobic approach to art. Homosexual couples (specifically male-male representations because lesbians are hawt, guys) in particular have been repeatedly targeted by the site's admins for deletion, an occurrence so pervasive that one deviant, ~reapersun was able to hold an entire contest to attempt to illustrate the line of discrimination.

You might say, "the site is simply prudish!" Not true. They have an entire section labeled "fetish". Pictures of women having intercourse with tentacle monsters? De rigeur. Buick sized breasts oozing buckets of milk? Fine. But two consenting adults (especially male adults) touching? Kissing? My GOD, what filth!

The newest and most blatant example of dA's skewed treatment of gay people is a new stamp by prosaix

Try reporting it. You can't.

Why? Because tons of people have already tried and dA administrators have marked the case "invalid".

Their stock answer:
"Comment: Thank you for attempting to bring this deviation to the attention of the staff. Unfortunately this deviation does not meet the current definition for "Hate Art". It is important to remember that actual "Hate Art" expresses clearly racist ideals, such as the genocide or enslavement of a certain race or class of people. A work which simply expresses a dislike or negative opinion for a subject is not "Hate Art" regardless of how strong that opinion might be expressed, neither are deviations which you simply find offensive because the beliefs or opinions are the opposite of your own. Please review our FAQ entry on the subject of "Hate Art" available here [link] so that you can be more familiar with the official definition."

Actually, no, dA. Maybe you should acquaint yourself with the year 2010 where gay people are people. Even the US government voted to expand the definition of 'hate crime" to include LGBTQ people with the Matthew Shepard Act ([link]). And even in 1990, George HW Bush signed into law the Hate Crime Statistics Act, the first to include and recognize queer people ([link]). So. Even in your own definition, you include "sexual orientation".

What do you think homophobia is? "Fear of homosexuality" is what the word means in and of itself (etymologically speaking), but this word is now the equivalent of "prejudice based upon homosexual orientation". When someone commits a hate crime against a gay person it is labeled "homophobic", both legislatively and in laymen's terms. Homophobia means that you see gay people as being less, that you see them as a threat (to who knows what). Those feelings are based on stereotypes, stereotypes just as hateful and prejudiced as thinking someone black is going to harm you or that someone female is incompetent. What do you think that stamp means? It means "see gay people as less than you". When you see someone as less of a human being than you are, that creates a culture where it's just not as bad to beat, rape, murder or otherwise harm a person that's gay. This stamp is saying "I think gay people are less important than heterosexual people, who's with me?"

You don't see that as hateful?

But truly, the most appalling thing is the venue. dA is not a middle-of-nowhere town in the midwest (sorry, midwesterners, but I'm from there :/). It's an art site. This is happening on an art site. For centuries, the fine arts have been a haven for the gay and queer community, one of the few venues where we could find work and small bits of acceptance. The art community owes much of its foundation and ground-breaking achievements to gay people and gay culture (and YES, homo-eroticism), whether you're a poet (Sappho, The Iliad, ), musician (...pick one), illustrator (Leyendecker) or something almost indefinable (Warhol).

But dA, the world's largest, most famous art community is staffed by homophobic, prejudiced people and is allowing a stamp that promotes the hate of an already marginalized group of people.

is also making a powerful demonstration of the discrimination of dA's admins with this :thumb175363023: (read the comment before freaking out). This is what alerted me to the stamp in the first place, by the way.

Removal of ~PowFlip's stamp while not the other would illustrate dA's discrimination against gay people.
Leave them both up and dA wouldn't be following their own policy.
Take them both down, everybody goes home happy.

I hope dA takes the stamp down. I hope they make amends here. But given their past actions, I have very little confidence in them. This article is to let others know about the situation and what kind of organization dA really is.