Today is Pride day. This
is the day when people discriminated against by many come together and declare
that they respect themselves and know they deserve to be respected by others.
Who are these people and why are they discriminated against? They are any and
all of those comfortable under the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender,
Questioning) umbrella. Why the discrimination?
Thousands of years ago
(ca 4,000 BC), men inspired by the prospect of a Supreme Being, committed a
code of conduct acceptable within the zeitgeist
of the time to writings which became the Bible’s Old Testament. Any behaviors
not conforming to that zeitgeist were
scorned and subject to punishment at the direction of the community’s
interpretation of God’s wishes.
Thousands of years later (ca 450 BC), the Greek philosopher, Democritus of Abdera, Thrace, hypothesized that:
1. All matter consists of invisible particles called atoms.
2. Atoms are indestructible.
3. Atoms are solid but invisible.
After another 2,500 years (1803
AD), John Dalton theorized that atoms contained smaller particles, Protons,
Neutrons, and Electrons.
Since the early years of the 19th
century scientists have been learning more and more about the tiniest
components of human structure. General ignorance of these minutiae by the
overwhelming majority of people is at the root of the discrimination suffered
by those under the LGBTQ umbrella. Sexual orientation: orientation (not
preference) and Gender identity: unshakable conviction (not choice), are the
two most widely misunderstood states of being within the LGBTQ community.
Recent scientific discoveries in
the fields of Genetics have revealed that orientation and identity though not
automatically connected are both as a result of genetic differences within DNA
strands contained within individual chromosomes. Other discoveries have
determined that XX (Female) and XY (Male) are not the only two possibilities.
Thousands of variations can, and do, exist.
Therefore, any discrimination is
based on an archaic zeitgeist from
more than 6,000 years ago encouraged by the voluntary ignorance of people moved
by misguided devotion to an unsubstantiated belief rather than on provable
science.
The damning claim that homosexuals
are pedophiles is almost too absurd to address. Any gay people I have ever
known want to share with a coequal adult. Although sexual intimacy may be a
part of that sharing, it’s not about the sex. It’s about the sharing.
The ridiculous fear that a “man in
a dress” will claim to be transgender to attack women in the Ladies room is
equally absurd. It takes a great deal more than a dress and a wig to appear
even slightly like a woman much less behave as one.
All that any of us want are the same
freedoms you enjoy. No special treatment. Acceptance is desirable but tolerance
would be acceptable. Agenda? There is NO agenda. Gay is born, not made. Cross-gender
identification is born, not made.
Could YOU be converted to
homosexuality? Could YOU be made to feel like a sex you were not born as? Did YOU
complete a pre-birth choice questionnaire? I didn’t think so. Neither did I.
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