Tag Archives: LGBTQ

Love Your Neighbor and Your Enemy

The Guardian covered the recent horrific, hate-filled meeting of conservatives that focused a lot of its attention on transgender people, with one speaker calling for the eradication of transgenderism. He claims it is the “ideology” he wants to get rid of, not the people themselves but me thinks he doth protest too much. It is very clear that pushing transgender people out of the public space is the main goal, and these conservatives plan to do so with all the panache of a schoolyard bully using jokes and name calling. Picturing the hall of grownups giggling over silly memes while their rhetoric is getting people killed makes me sick to my stomach.

I agree with Geoff Wetrosky, part of the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group who is quoted in the article, that these people are on the wrong side of history. Unfortunately, at the moment, they have large majorities in state legislatures where the culture wars end up playing out via new and more draconian laws. And, because the Supreme Court is now a bastion of conservatives with politics in their pockets, the laws banning health care even for transgender adults will probably be upheld.

I am afraid for us all in a way I haven’t been before, but mostly for those who have only begun to be able to explore their identities and express themselves publicly in the way most of us take for granted. My own state is only being saved from savagery by a few votes in the Senate. And, while I know he disagrees with me, I have made my beliefs clear to my own legislator. Do not discriminate in my name. Focus your work on solving real problems such as the poverty that keeps many in *your* community from accessing health care, good food and quality education. And, since you like to parade your religion as some badge of honor, try loving your neighbors and your enemies as yourself for a little while to see what it really feels like.