"I met a ten-year-old who told me she was nonbinary and pansexual..."
I cannot comprehend kids, at such a young age, being obsessed with their sexuality. Pick-up ball games at the neighborhood park, riding bicycles, playing tag, swimming with friends all seems to be from a distant past. Maybe replacing traditional social activities for kids with cell phones and Ritalin wasn't the smartest move.
Acceptance is dropping because it just kept going. Pride week became pride month. Corporations slapped rainbow flags on everything. People who weren't demonstrative flag wavers got canceled. It's become a religious movement with ideological capture happening across the Western world. Of course there's a backlash. I don't give a shit who people sleep with and I don't need sexual identity shoved in my face. I don't want to hear about it from straight people either.
I actually think this is an important article here. To hear a voice from inside the alphabet soup telling us it doesn't really make sense to him either. That this movement isn't what it was. That the initial mission of equal rights has gone off the rails and entered Wonderland.
Even from the perspective of a gay man who's been marching in pride events for 25 years this all feels disconnected from reality. It used to be born this way. And now it's, what flavor of Skittles am I today?
It's refreshing to hear that someone living in that soup isn't buying this claptrap either.
The author buries the lead - GLSEN. That's where it starts and why 10 year olds are focused on who they're "sexually attracted to" vs. playing with dolls or jumping dirt bikes or fishing for crawdads or any of the many other things ten year olds used to do before the woke infested the schools and parents let their kids sit on social media all day. There's a certain delicious irony that you couldn't talk about ivermectin on social media but "influencers" could school kids on hormones in a doom loop on SM.
Buried further in this piece is the "tribe" aspect. That's key. It IS a tribe and I've heard more than one of my gay friends describe the gay community that way over the decades. But now it's a tribe AND an identity AND a religion/sect/cult and that combo is potent. Some of that is innate but a large part of it is a choice. Further, for a certain subset of mother it's a new identity too - a Munchausen by proxy level community of trans that gives her attention and other (usually) women who create a potent and destructive feedback loop. Unfortunately, they're enabled by a "system" of doctors, psychologists, teachers, and officials who normally would check that level of destruction but not in this case. They're grifters and it's an industry and there's too much money to make.
The trans/queer/woke IS coming for the "Gs" and "Ls" (and "Ss"). Because it's a RELIGION. And we're witnessing a social phenomenon that's rare (thankfully) but typically destructive (unfortunately).
I was heartened to see the polling pullback on support for gay marriage not because I don't support gay marriage (I do) but because I think it might FINALLY act as a siren call to the "Gs" and the "Ls" and give them the kick in the pants they've clearly needed since at least 2020. They're in a unique position to shut the extremism at their fringe down or, at least, join the moms and the dads and the Christians and the Muslims in their "domestic terrorism" DOJ/SPLC-labeled corner to fight for some sanity.
The rub, of course, as with race, is that we'd gotten to a place where sexual preference and race just weren't "important" anymore to people. The "movements" had worked. MLKs dream was pretty much there. Ditto Milk and those who worked diligently for marriage for all. People were just people and we were generally just making it work. But, alas, the grifters have to grift. And in a country where people don't "like" religion, well, they need something to believe in and so, a new religion is born even though they don't like to call it that. Yet.
Surely one of the most frustrating aspects of the LQBITEDKJD3.14 movement is its insistence that your fluid gender and sexual attraction is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING EVER NOTHING ELSE MATTERS OMG!!!
I happen to be attracted to women. I've had friends who are gay, that's great. It's not really a big deal though.
What have you created, what do you like to do, what is your character like, are you fun to be around? That's the type of stuff that matters but the cultural tyrants would have us believe that nothing is more important than who you want to sleep with. Yawn, boring.
Ten and eleven year-olds think they know anything about sexuality? Theirs or anyone else's? Seriously?
The whole current gender idiocy is little more than attention seeking in an internet-driven youth culture in which nothing could be more cool. Severe gender dysphoria is, of course, entirely real, but until just a very few years ago was vanishingly rare and largely confined to adult men who had felt female since childhood. Today every other adolescent white girl claims to be trans. Not a boy, mind you, but trans, because that's what's cool; after all, who in their right mind would willingly identify as that most hated of all pond scum, a white male?
This would all just be another silly and passing teenage fad were it not for an army of shrieking activists, mostly men in dresses, which has bullied the medical profession into embracing it, while also making a tidy profit, thank you very much. And what greater badge of virtue could good progressive parents proudly wear than encouraging their confused children to mutilate themselves hormonally and surgically? The lobotomy bandwagon of the 1950's pales by comparison to the hundreds of thousands of young lives irreversibly damaged by this destructive craze.
Yes, it's all performance. It's the TikTokification of Pride.
Gay people did not want any of this. We want far away from the TQ's.
I forgive the kids who are creating these fake 'identities' because they're kids; they'll look back someday and cringe (hopefully). But the adults encouraging and participating in this are either idiots or monsters.
The drop in support has come because the alphabet movement has gone from simply wanting equal rights to the TQ+++ people who are not content with mere tolerance or acceptance, but who demand that we celebrate them and give them special privileges. They demand we change our language (cis, birthing person, chest-feeding, etc.) and share our preferred pronouns with everyone. Trans-women are stomping all over the rights and safety of actual women and want those women to apologize for feeling uncomfortable or angry. But, worst of all, they’ve come for our children, pushing for gender and sex education in elementary school and teaching kids to lie to their parents about their experimenting and confusion. In addition to encouraging ten-year-olds to declare themselves “non-binary” or trans, they’re pushing for irreversible and disastrous pharmacological and surgical interventions in these confused children.
So, as a long-time ally for gays and lesbians—I have beloved family members who are gay—I’m fed up with the trans-plus zealots. The decrease in general support is no surprise.
I think that this essay, along with Andrew Sullivan’s recent articles regarding the fanaticism and medical malpractice of transgenderism, indicate a watershed moment in the gay movement, and that’s a good and healthy sign. The success of gay rights was not due to drag queens’ histrionics.
Rather, the common sense fairness of gay rights won over middle America because we, like Sen Rob Portman in Ohio, have sons, daughters, loved ones, and next door neighbors who were same-sex attracted and just wanted to live the normal, good, everyday life that heterosexuals took for granted.
Gender dysphoria has become the new cool kids competition, much like kids collecting Pokémon cards. It’s absolutely ludicrous, and must be treated as such. Thank you for this helpful essay.
I actually was happy to see that this guy was just as confused as the rest of us. But he lost me with the “I still enjoy the womanly feeling I get when I put on a dress; I am as able as the next homo to tap into my femininity.”
This still irks me on so many levels. You can’t know what it it fella like to be a woman. You are not one. In a bajillion years I will never know what it feels like to be a man. I’m not one.
I’m with Remesh...there is something more sinister going on here and it’s the industrial complex/ big pharma who have now gotten our kids. It was a smart move on their part, but seriously it’s like a pack of dogs coming for our kids, who want to tear them apart. Who among us will stand up to save them? 🙋🏻♀️
I think people have alphabetical sex fatigue and are developing an attitude of get out of my face and space with your poor is me, I am special crap. None of this is special and I really don’t care what your pronouns or sexual choices are. Do your life and don’t expect me to care or cheer you on.
We have gay friends but because they don’t push this and they talk and do normal things. Many are truly whatever but my guess is a large percentage has joined or jumped in because they have issues of mental illness and are desperate to belong to anything. That includes the desperate for attention parents who actively promote their whatever child at a young age. Just leave us alone and get a life and stop demanding everyone change just for you. Not going to happen sunshine.
I am 77. When I was a little girl, I kept saying I wish I were a boy. The reason was that I wanted a paper route (remember those?) There was no way for a young girl to earn money. I shudder to think what might have happened to me today.
It's crazy to me how the gay rights movement has allowed itself to be hijacked by the gender identity religion. Recognizing that gay people no more 'choose to be gay' than straight people choose to be straight, and thus were entitled to be treated equally, was an important thing to push for and an important milestone for our society.
Now we've got people pushing this weird Cartesian dualism in which my 'spirit' may be different from my biology. It's non-sensical. You're not a 'spirit' with a body. You don't 'have' a body. You 'are' a body. Your gay brothers and sisters didn't choose to be gay. They didn't wake up one day and say, "Body, I want you to be attracted to the same sex as me."
In the same way, you can't choose what sex your body is. You can cos-play all you want, but your body is what it is.
"I met a gay eleven-year-old boy..."
"I met a ten-year-old who told me she was nonbinary and pansexual..."
I cannot comprehend kids, at such a young age, being obsessed with their sexuality. Pick-up ball games at the neighborhood park, riding bicycles, playing tag, swimming with friends all seems to be from a distant past. Maybe replacing traditional social activities for kids with cell phones and Ritalin wasn't the smartest move.
Acceptance is dropping because it just kept going. Pride week became pride month. Corporations slapped rainbow flags on everything. People who weren't demonstrative flag wavers got canceled. It's become a religious movement with ideological capture happening across the Western world. Of course there's a backlash. I don't give a shit who people sleep with and I don't need sexual identity shoved in my face. I don't want to hear about it from straight people either.
I actually think this is an important article here. To hear a voice from inside the alphabet soup telling us it doesn't really make sense to him either. That this movement isn't what it was. That the initial mission of equal rights has gone off the rails and entered Wonderland.
Even from the perspective of a gay man who's been marching in pride events for 25 years this all feels disconnected from reality. It used to be born this way. And now it's, what flavor of Skittles am I today?
It's refreshing to hear that someone living in that soup isn't buying this claptrap either.
The author buries the lead - GLSEN. That's where it starts and why 10 year olds are focused on who they're "sexually attracted to" vs. playing with dolls or jumping dirt bikes or fishing for crawdads or any of the many other things ten year olds used to do before the woke infested the schools and parents let their kids sit on social media all day. There's a certain delicious irony that you couldn't talk about ivermectin on social media but "influencers" could school kids on hormones in a doom loop on SM.
Buried further in this piece is the "tribe" aspect. That's key. It IS a tribe and I've heard more than one of my gay friends describe the gay community that way over the decades. But now it's a tribe AND an identity AND a religion/sect/cult and that combo is potent. Some of that is innate but a large part of it is a choice. Further, for a certain subset of mother it's a new identity too - a Munchausen by proxy level community of trans that gives her attention and other (usually) women who create a potent and destructive feedback loop. Unfortunately, they're enabled by a "system" of doctors, psychologists, teachers, and officials who normally would check that level of destruction but not in this case. They're grifters and it's an industry and there's too much money to make.
The trans/queer/woke IS coming for the "Gs" and "Ls" (and "Ss"). Because it's a RELIGION. And we're witnessing a social phenomenon that's rare (thankfully) but typically destructive (unfortunately).
I was heartened to see the polling pullback on support for gay marriage not because I don't support gay marriage (I do) but because I think it might FINALLY act as a siren call to the "Gs" and the "Ls" and give them the kick in the pants they've clearly needed since at least 2020. They're in a unique position to shut the extremism at their fringe down or, at least, join the moms and the dads and the Christians and the Muslims in their "domestic terrorism" DOJ/SPLC-labeled corner to fight for some sanity.
The rub, of course, as with race, is that we'd gotten to a place where sexual preference and race just weren't "important" anymore to people. The "movements" had worked. MLKs dream was pretty much there. Ditto Milk and those who worked diligently for marriage for all. People were just people and we were generally just making it work. But, alas, the grifters have to grift. And in a country where people don't "like" religion, well, they need something to believe in and so, a new religion is born even though they don't like to call it that. Yet.
Surely one of the most frustrating aspects of the LQBITEDKJD3.14 movement is its insistence that your fluid gender and sexual attraction is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING EVER NOTHING ELSE MATTERS OMG!!!
I happen to be attracted to women. I've had friends who are gay, that's great. It's not really a big deal though.
What have you created, what do you like to do, what is your character like, are you fun to be around? That's the type of stuff that matters but the cultural tyrants would have us believe that nothing is more important than who you want to sleep with. Yawn, boring.
Ten and eleven year-olds think they know anything about sexuality? Theirs or anyone else's? Seriously?
The whole current gender idiocy is little more than attention seeking in an internet-driven youth culture in which nothing could be more cool. Severe gender dysphoria is, of course, entirely real, but until just a very few years ago was vanishingly rare and largely confined to adult men who had felt female since childhood. Today every other adolescent white girl claims to be trans. Not a boy, mind you, but trans, because that's what's cool; after all, who in their right mind would willingly identify as that most hated of all pond scum, a white male?
This would all just be another silly and passing teenage fad were it not for an army of shrieking activists, mostly men in dresses, which has bullied the medical profession into embracing it, while also making a tidy profit, thank you very much. And what greater badge of virtue could good progressive parents proudly wear than encouraging their confused children to mutilate themselves hormonally and surgically? The lobotomy bandwagon of the 1950's pales by comparison to the hundreds of thousands of young lives irreversibly damaged by this destructive craze.
Yes, it's all performance. It's the TikTokification of Pride.
Gay people did not want any of this. We want far away from the TQ's.
I forgive the kids who are creating these fake 'identities' because they're kids; they'll look back someday and cringe (hopefully). But the adults encouraging and participating in this are either idiots or monsters.
The drop in support has come because the alphabet movement has gone from simply wanting equal rights to the TQ+++ people who are not content with mere tolerance or acceptance, but who demand that we celebrate them and give them special privileges. They demand we change our language (cis, birthing person, chest-feeding, etc.) and share our preferred pronouns with everyone. Trans-women are stomping all over the rights and safety of actual women and want those women to apologize for feeling uncomfortable or angry. But, worst of all, they’ve come for our children, pushing for gender and sex education in elementary school and teaching kids to lie to their parents about their experimenting and confusion. In addition to encouraging ten-year-olds to declare themselves “non-binary” or trans, they’re pushing for irreversible and disastrous pharmacological and surgical interventions in these confused children.
So, as a long-time ally for gays and lesbians—I have beloved family members who are gay—I’m fed up with the trans-plus zealots. The decrease in general support is no surprise.
I think that this essay, along with Andrew Sullivan’s recent articles regarding the fanaticism and medical malpractice of transgenderism, indicate a watershed moment in the gay movement, and that’s a good and healthy sign. The success of gay rights was not due to drag queens’ histrionics.
Rather, the common sense fairness of gay rights won over middle America because we, like Sen Rob Portman in Ohio, have sons, daughters, loved ones, and next door neighbors who were same-sex attracted and just wanted to live the normal, good, everyday life that heterosexuals took for granted.
Gender dysphoria has become the new cool kids competition, much like kids collecting Pokémon cards. It’s absolutely ludicrous, and must be treated as such. Thank you for this helpful essay.
Firmly convinced the “T” in the soup is determined to eliminate the “L” and “G”. Exactly what would have happened to this author if he were 15 today.
I actually was happy to see that this guy was just as confused as the rest of us. But he lost me with the “I still enjoy the womanly feeling I get when I put on a dress; I am as able as the next homo to tap into my femininity.”
This still irks me on so many levels. You can’t know what it it fella like to be a woman. You are not one. In a bajillion years I will never know what it feels like to be a man. I’m not one.
I’m with Remesh...there is something more sinister going on here and it’s the industrial complex/ big pharma who have now gotten our kids. It was a smart move on their part, but seriously it’s like a pack of dogs coming for our kids, who want to tear them apart. Who among us will stand up to save them? 🙋🏻♀️
As my close gay friend says, “I just want to be able to check married filing jointly on my tax return. The rest is BS.”
I think people have alphabetical sex fatigue and are developing an attitude of get out of my face and space with your poor is me, I am special crap. None of this is special and I really don’t care what your pronouns or sexual choices are. Do your life and don’t expect me to care or cheer you on.
We have gay friends but because they don’t push this and they talk and do normal things. Many are truly whatever but my guess is a large percentage has joined or jumped in because they have issues of mental illness and are desperate to belong to anything. That includes the desperate for attention parents who actively promote their whatever child at a young age. Just leave us alone and get a life and stop demanding everyone change just for you. Not going to happen sunshine.
I am 77. When I was a little girl, I kept saying I wish I were a boy. The reason was that I wanted a paper route (remember those?) There was no way for a young girl to earn money. I shudder to think what might have happened to me today.
I think a lot of people, a lot of normal, mentally healthy, people find that a LOT of this is just performative, it is about attention seeking.
It's crazy to me how the gay rights movement has allowed itself to be hijacked by the gender identity religion. Recognizing that gay people no more 'choose to be gay' than straight people choose to be straight, and thus were entitled to be treated equally, was an important thing to push for and an important milestone for our society.
Now we've got people pushing this weird Cartesian dualism in which my 'spirit' may be different from my biology. It's non-sensical. You're not a 'spirit' with a body. You don't 'have' a body. You 'are' a body. Your gay brothers and sisters didn't choose to be gay. They didn't wake up one day and say, "Body, I want you to be attracted to the same sex as me."
In the same way, you can't choose what sex your body is. You can cos-play all you want, but your body is what it is.