Thank you for a very thorough refutation of anti-trans extremists.

Since I don’t have a degree beyond high school, Gender disphoria having caused me to drink my way out of some of the finest colleges and universities on the east coast around forty years ago, allow me to “qualify” myself.

I learned to read, beginning at the age of three, with the help of my older sisters, who, of course, later became school teachers.

By the time I was seven years old, I had read, and re-read, the entire set of World Book encyclopedias that our father procured for me.

I started school at the age of five, and by the time I was 14, had scored a 147 on the Stanford-Benet IQ test.

At age 27, I scored a 99 on the ASVAB, (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery), stoned, having smoked an entire joint in the parking lot, before entering the armory. (99 was the highest possible score, at that time).

I have read, and often re-read, many thousands of books on all of the physical sciences, philosophy, psychology, medicine, and anything that piqued my interest, over the last fifty years.

I consider myself qualified to offer my, considered, opinion.

Homo/Trans-phobic people are, quite simply, terrified.

I’ll simplify my response by using terms limited to homosexuality. One can safely assume that I am including transgender considerations in that overall category.

Do you remember the sex researchers, Dr. Kinsey, and his wife?

They, through exhaustive studies, determined that sexual orientation is best represented, in the general population, by a sliding scale that they represented using the numbers “0" thru “6". Zero being exclusively heterosexual, six being exclusively homosexual. While his data-collection was criticized, the approximate percentages he derived from the data are overwhelmingly accepted as a reasonable representation.

The results, put simply for the purposes of my response, were that approximately ten percent of the population is exclusively homosexual, in fact, if not in observed social behavior. Another ten percent is exclusively heterosexual. Eighty percent of the population is somewhere in between, meaning that the vast majority of the human race feels sexual attraction to both the opposite sex and the same sex, to varying degrees, depending on the individual who is studied.

An interesting side note…women, in general, are decidedly less motivated by purely sexual concerns. Women absolutely know this. Most men seem not to.

So, we have a majority of the people on Earth being bisexual, in their innermost thoughts, if not in overt behavior.

Human society, from time immemorial, has placed a premium on heterosexual behavior as a biological imperative. The survival of the species depended on it, though, with the overcrowded conditions we now see, we no longer have a need for it.

This biologically reenforced sociological imperative is ingrained in our society.

Effectively, every child is exposed to the constant reenforcement of this “imperative”, from birth.

The problem with this is that, though children are bombarded with the expectation, from multiple directions, to “be” heterosexual, we are, naturally, (80%of us), not fully one or the other. We fall somewhere in between.

The indoctrination we receive leads us to be ashamed and afraid of the homo-erotic desires that are entirely natural. We have been “brainwashed” into believing that those desires are “evil”, “unnatural”, and worthy only of disgust, and in far too many cases, to be “defeated” by any means necessary.

Certain groups, throughout history, have been excused, by necessity, such as ancient armies,naval fleets, and nunnerys, to name a few, but homo-erotic desires and encounters have been shrouded in secrecy and shame.

In military campaigns, with few camp followers being female prostitutes, not to mention the stds inherent in such a system, many soldiers entered into exclusive, monogamous relationships with their fellows, often,(but not always), returning to heterosexual relationships with their wives apon their return.

In our present society, the pressure to *be* entirely hetero is great.

Many men, and apparently some women, too, are so self-loathing, and ashamed of their own homo-erotic desires, that they’re “triggered” by anything that reminds them of, causes them to even almost think of their own “shameful” desires, raises in them an existential TERROR of confronting their own shame, a fear that they had tucked neatly away, in the recesses of their minds.

These people, with great anger, shout, “Why do you have to shove it in our faces!?” They react violently, internally, and sometimes externally, to being shocked, suddenly confronted with the specter of their most shameful, top secret, desires, the very desires that they struggle to repress. Forcing a person to confront something within themselves that they had, up until that moment, succeeded in completely repressing, remaining in complete denial of, can light the fuse on a powder-keg, a very short fuse.

Any animal, including us, is hard-wired to react to fear with a fight-or-flight reaction. The “fight” response, in this case, is a violent, (internal and/or external), instant action. The “flight” response, a hysterical denial of the offensive desires within them.

Anyone who has a lot of experience with violent situations will tell you that the person to be the most wary of is the one who is the most frightened.

No one, in the history of the human race, has ever been angry, without that anger being a direct response to fear. The two things are always directly proportional, anger always a reaction to fear, without exception.

The hatred expressed by the opponents of LGBTQ rights, is fueled by fear, often hysterical fear.

Overcoming, assuaging that fear, cannot be done by arguing, fighting back, or forcing the issue in any way.

Violence begets more violence.

When LGBTQ people angrily fight back, they are reacting to fear in the same way that their,(perceived), enemy is. The violence will only feed on itself, leading to catastrophe.

I live in Greenville North Carolina, a small town. I have not won the friendship and respect of my friends and neighbors by angrily “educating” them. I’ve not won their good wishes by angrily protesting.

I have come to a mutually loving and respectful relationship with them by first being kind and respectful of them, and upholding and maintaining my dignity with no angry outbursts, no protests or displays of outrage.

I have, from the start, behaved in a kind and respectful manner, a normal person, a friend and neighbor, no different than any other good friend and neighbor.

I’ll admit that it’s taken a few years, but by being consistent and steadfast, if you gave me any trouble these days, some former “rednecks” and “TERFs” would absolutely ruin your day. (No one gives me any trouble, ever, that’s just a way of illustrating my point).

It may seem trite, but it’s an absolute fact,

Peace Love Kindness Respect- the more you give the more you get 😍

😍😘😇. (consistently, resiliently)