Many times I have engaged in debates with bigots, particularly Christian fundamentalists. Often, when cornered and outgunned by the weight of evidence and material presented to them - which they have of course denied - they resort to personal attacks and character assassination. Sometimes they will call efforts in defense of their victims "trashing other people's beliefs" - I find that rather ironic considering all the vicious things said about gay and trans people - and me - that have come out of their mouths, um - finger tips.
They call efforts to defend innocent people and to present facts which shoot down their arguments "trying to make others seem small and insignificant". I suppose I should point out that I don't need to make them feel small or insignificant - their own words of hatred in news media, newsletters, online forums and wherever bigotry and homophobia lurks have already done that.
They claim that it is because I am "so disappointed in my own life" that I feel the need to attack other people for "no apparent reason" and that my life has no meaning without God. Funny, I don't find any disappointment in my own life - just that it took me so long to find the courage to stand up to the hate in the world for people like me. My life does mean something - fighting hate and defending innocent people. And let me just point out that it isn't God I have rejected - but people who hate others whom he also loves - in his name. I reject false prophets.
The real world is a hard and cruel place - punctuated by the occasional trip-mines and pits of venom - and fortunately also with many more loving and caring people than there are bigots.
I wonder, would such a person think enough of himself to count as one of them?
They take pleasure in calling me by what they seem to think is my old male name, taunting me with cruel remarks thinking they may get through my armor and get even further annoyed when they figure out I am still laughing at them. Then they grasp at straws by trying to convince me that some mysterious trauma I received as a child caused my transgender nature - steadfastly refusing to accept the fact that gay and trans people are born, not made. My, my - such insight into my childhood and psychological state... such heart-warming concern for my mental well being. Should I start calling them 'Freud' and tell them about my mother?
Further, they also sometimes claim that I have male DNA and "will always be male no matter what I look like on the outside". Oh, have you nice folks checked my medical records to verify my DNA? How would you ever know whether I have male or female DNA? Does it matter? Did you know that there are males out there living happily as males and who have female DNA, and vice versa? Shows what you know. Oops.
They also like to play the innocent card claiming that they are not trying to force their will on anyone and just trying to "persuade" us to see things their way. And they claim they do not hate gay or transgender people, but are acting out of love for them.
Are they serious?
Do they call political campaigning to strip people of their equality and civil rights and to deny them equal protection under the law "not trying to force their will on anyone" or "persuasion"? How can acts which result in the destruction of people's lives, cause sorrow and misery and can only be called persecution and oppression, ever be mistaken for "acts of love"? To insist on this is to insult my intelligence!
The evidence showing that sexual orientation and gender identity are inborn traits, which I and others have presented to them on so many occasions in so many debates is solid, and yet they still deny it.
Books written by self proclaimed "experts" on homosexuality, used by the religious fundamentalist gay-hating right wing for decades have since been debunked and exposed for the frauds they are - and yet despite the "ex-gay" franchise missing several large parts of its foundations, they cling to their idiot notions that being gay or transgender is somehow a "sin" and gay people can be caught in an "ex-gay" vice and bent straight. And underneath it all, their ignorance, intolerance and slander show the world their underlying hatred of the "other".
And you have the arrogance to speak of "love"?
You clearly have no understanding of what it means to be gay or transgender - and clearly no wish to understand - and THAT is what makes you small.
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If you would like to know more about Christina Engela and her writing, please feel free to browse her website.
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All material copyright © Christina Engela, 2019.
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