So this is going to be political, but like, to be LGBTQ is inherently political, especially right now, so no one get too upset with me XD Also I’m not calling out anyone specifically and if you (general you) as a person feel called out by anything I say, I would encourage you to self reflect and think about why you’re feeling that way.
Its about control, right? There are people in power, at any given time in history, that want to maintain that control, or access to money, or fame, or property, or power… whatever. You get the point. People that fit the mold of what is Expected and Right are the ideal and everyone that doesn’t fit that mold is Other. Now this changes from country to country, and time period to time period, but as I’m a person that lives in the USA, mostly what I see is a culture that is very eurocentric, patriarchal, christian, capitalist, and white society. Of course that doesn’t encompass the entire population, but that is who holds power, and there are some people extremely intent on keeping it that way. (bear with me, I’m going somewhere with this)
And so they a couple things. To them there is an in group, and an out group, and you want to be in the in group, but you don’t want to be in the out group. The outgroup is strung up on a pillory and blamed for the all the evils of the world, both for the in group to point to someone to feel better than and to give leadership a way to control their flock through fear of the outsiders, the scary, the unknown.During the early industrial era in the US it was Irish & Italian immigrants, in the holocaust it was Jews and Roma and LGBTQ, 60s it was hippies & the black panthers, in the 80s it was satanic panic, in the 90s it was the AIDs crisis and the the LGBTQ movement, and now its anti-trans bigotry with a heavy dose of racism directed at immigrants (there are also other marginalized groups that have been, and continue to be vilified in this country, I’m not trying to leave anyone out but I mean, entire books have been written on this sort of thing.) Oh and anti-CRT shit, because of course they hate actual education.
Not a single one of these groups is deserving of the hate they received and continue to receive, but that’s not the point. The point is control, and the easiest way to control people is make them afraid.
And notice how I put Irish & Italian in there - they aren’t considered in the outgroup anymore, they’ve been accepted in the general acceptable european umbrella, but you better believe that I think about how I grew up around my relatives that did have to deal with that bigotry. My great grandma was born in Sicily in the 1800s and lived to be 101 and I regret that I was too young when she passed to ask her more about what she experienced in her life.
Like, I’ve seen this shift fucking happen. I remember sitting in high school actively ARGUING with people that gay marriage should be legalized and other kids legitimately saying that ‘well, they shouldn’t do that because its a slippery slope to pedophilia and bestiality’ when like… no it never was, and my brain clocked that shit for the garbage strawman argument it was before I even really knew what a logically fallacious argument was.
And bathrooms? No one gave a rats ass fifteen years ago what bathroom you used. I’d use the dude’s bathroom all the time after band practice or theater, because there were way more girls than dudes and look, sometimes you don’t want to wait in that line when there’s only two stalls. But that’s the new talking point, and now everyone is terrified that the SCARY TRANS ARE GONNA GETCHA even though like… no. no they’re not. They’re just people that want to use a toilet.
But now, anti trans bills are being passed in droves, and not only are they being used to heavily discriminate against the LGBTQ community, but its also being used to continue to marginalize women and police their bodies and identities if they don’t fulfill the perfect expectation of a good christian woman.
These people don’t care about hurting others, they just care about control and holding on to power, and they’ll hurt anyone if it means they attain those goals.
(This was rambly. I apologize, I swear, I could have gone on further)
But it’s gotten off-track of late, and as the staff member who oversees the Forum it’s my fault for not keeping things hewing close to the original purpose of this thread. I apologize for that.