I’ll frankly admit to being mystified by the brave new world of gender identification. Perhaps it’s a generational thing; when I was growing up, you were a “boy” or a “girl”- no grey areas, no questions, and no confusion. At least that’s the way it seemed in my remote, White, exceedingly heterosexual outpost. I never had to think of gender as being a point on a spectrum. Nor did have to consider terms like “sexually fluid,” “gender-neutral,” or any other aspect of the rapidly growing vocabulary currently used to describe gender. When I considered the subject at all, it seemed about as black and white as anything could possibly be.
That’s the way it all registered in my young mind…on the exceedingly rare occasions it registered at all. I had NO idea that a concept I’d readily internalized without question or examination could turn into something so complex, challenging, and astonishingly diverse.
I don’t understand the modern definition of gender, and it’s entirely positive I never will. Then again, I don’t have to in order to recognize and grant others their right to be their most genuine and authentic selves. Understanding is a good thing, because when it’s done right it leads to acceptance and tolerance, but you don’t have to understand something in order to accept it and live with it. I’m comfortable with my gender identity and who I am…which is all that should really matter. My understanding and/or acceptance of how someone defines their sexual identity shouldn’t have any impact on that person’s right to be who they are.
Understanding isn’t a prerequisite for peaceful coexistence. I don’t have to have a firm grasp on another person’s realities in order to acknowledge their right to live in whatever manner feels authentic and genuine. Conversely, not understanding doesn’t provide me the right to grant my bigotry and prejudice the force of law.
Transgender isn’t a new concept, nor is it part of The Homosexual Agenda © intended to recruit our children into what some see as the sick, twisted, and sinful Sodomite lifestyle. People who identify as transgender don’t do it because they think it’s chic or trendy. In the vast majority of cases, the personal journey of someone who identifies as transgender has been anything but easy and/or pleasant. The emotional trauma that too often accompanies a person coming to identify as transgender can be devastating…and that’s just a person’s internal conflict. The struggle to gain acceptance from friends, family, and a society too often frightened of what they can’t be bothered to understand can be almost overwhelming.
Being transgender has never been a ticket to acceptance and tolerance. The numerous current efforts to legally define the “T” in “LGBT” as second-class, as “less than” isn’t new. The LGBT community in all its myriad manifestations has long been the object of hatred and derision from Conservative Christian culture warriors who hate what they refuse to understand.
Haters and bigots like Gordon Klingenschmitt find it virtually impossible to present a solid, defensible argument for oppressing the LGBT community, but they’re happy to wrap their calumny in their “sincerely-held religious beliefs.” As if Jesus Christ preached that hatred and bigotry in His name is permissible if it’s directed at the LGBT community.
Sorry, but if your religion allows you to oppress and discriminate against someone based on their sexuality and/or sexual identity, you have no religion. What you have is a twisted personal ideology based on ignorance, prejudice, and bigotry.
That’s not faith. That’s pure, unadulterated hypocrisy.
