On Bigotry

A couple of years ago, I took to Facebook to write my observations concerning bigotry against homosexuals and trans* people.

There is a very curious trend among those who happen to take transphobic and homophobic stances. They start out with an emotional response and then rationalize their purely irrational stance with their so-called evidence, which happens to be mostly circumstantial or pithy in substance. It is similar for those who exist on the opposite side of the issue. They look for evidence to support a lack of “fear” for these groups, because they, sometimes by default, just accept people as they are.

You can find this line of reasoning for the believer and non-believer, such as the debate for circumcision, those who are vehemently against, and those with no opinion at all.

The most dubious aspect of this behaviour would be that people require more evidence for an opposing viewpoint than what they demand for their own views. Case in point, when arguing with someone who refuses to accept trans* people, they usually make specious arguments regarding human biology and reduce a trans* person’s identity to a mere “feeling.” Moreover, they also devalue themselves and others in the process by reducing all of human experience and endeavor to a person’s junk and sex chromosomes.

For those of you who may not know, human males and females are more similar to each other genetically than most species in the animal kingdom. To say it another way, human men and women are basically identical genetically except for the Y chromosome, and most of the genes on the Y do not do much of anything. It is the SRY gene which helps in differentiating the sexes. If there is a mutation on the X chromosome to inhibit androgen sensitivity or the SRY gene is damaged or absent, then in all likelihood the fetus will develop as female.

I do not know about you, but I am sure most would object to the very idea that their lives are just the sum of mere whimsy and feelings or their genitalia. After all, did we not have a sexual revolution to end such discrimination against women and homosexuality? To say one has no conviction, to say all the pain trans* lives or just everyone in general endure is the result of weak, emotional vacillation is beyond rude; it is dehumanizing. And to think, all the hours of introspection, the sleepless nights, the unending physical and psychological pain, the moral loneliness, the pain of going through puberty a second time could be reduced to just mere “feelings” of being different, which is quite ostensibly less than what most people go through for their “feelings.”

People get rather incensed over much less than a denial of their existence and autonomy. The laughable reaction plenty of cis people have towards being referred to as cis is one such example. People just do not appreciate labels being applied to them by other groups without their consent. Well, bully! There are many trans people who do not enjoy the label trans or any other label. It is merely a formality to start communication and gain access to the help they need.

Most never ever question or think about what it is they do everyday. They hardly ever question who they are or stay up late at night drenched in tears wondering if they might be less than the genuine article. Yet deny them their own identity and experiences and watch the umbrage form across their vacant faces.

Cheers everyone.

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