Is it really a good thing to be “concerned” that one is gay? Is it good for a community or country to publicly propose opinions on a subject that you are threatened by because “you don’t understand it?” The gay lifestyle and/or transgenderism IS completely acceptable, good, honorable, healthy and especially satisfying, but only when you live in a community that accepts you for who you truly are and SUPPORTS you in that regard. This leads me into my next point, which is to address the audacious “facts” that were presented in the “Gay Pride- A Second Opinion” Letter to the Editor that inspired me to write this. First, the notion that living an LGBTQ+ lifestyle isn’t physically healthy has origins that are fueled by homophobic and sexist media surrounding the 1980s AIDS outbreak. While a large portion of the people who were so tragically affected by AIDS in the 1980s were homosexual men, that has less to do with their sexual orientation, and more to do with the fact that the government’s response to this problem was to tell them to “stop being gay” instead of educating the gay community about safe sex practices. This is also why the epidemic continued in this community for so long. Not only that, but health campaigns and news stories often played with metaphors that were not only deeply sexist and homophobic, but also inspired by the language of warfare. They mostly chose to endorse celibacy or monogamy rather than educate people about risk-management and safer sex. The opinion that living an LGBTQ+ lifestyle is not mentally and emotionally healthy is almost laughable in this circumstance, considering it’s Letters To The Editor like “Gay Pride – A second opinion” that cause the tumultuous mental health relationship members of the gay community have with themselves in the first place. Maybe Lawrence S. Mayer and Paul R. McHugh (both doctors at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the department of Psychiatry) should revisit their findings that were published in the New Atlantis Fall 2016 report on sexuality and gender, and include a study about what would happen to the suicide rates of sex-reassigned individuals, had they not been scrutinized for being “crazy” for thinking they were in the wrong body, and ignored or committed to an institution when they tried to reach out to their parents, teachers, or PASTORS, for guidance on their identity. If only a minority of children who experience cross-gender identification will continue to do so into adolescence or adulthood, then what are you so worried about letting a young human being express who they feel they are at that point in their lives?
The blatant reality is that attempting to discourage a “homophobic lifestyle” is antiquated and harmful to the development of future generations.
Until recent years, LGBTQ+ lifestyles WERE never encouraged and were even against the law in our country. And THAT is why we celebrate the rights we, as a human race, have been granted through the LGBTQ+ movement. Our Founding Fathers used the words in a book that don’t represent the way of thinking in our country anymore to base the laws in which we are expected to adhere to. In fact, some entities that rely on this same book have chosen to re-evaluate their interpretation of the words to better accommodate the people it serves and make them feel safe and included, even in a Christian setting. Maybe it’s time other Evangelists consider doing the same. This isn’t going away.
We have become so proud as a country that we are willing to openly defy acts and decrees that no longer represent us as a society. Acts and decrees that are, frankly, inhumane to members of the LGBTQ+ community and their supporters. That IS a good path to take.
Submitted By Abbey Dorshorst
Alliance