to the Editor,
I agree with the Mount Airy School Board’s decision to censure one of its male members whose Facebook page included an image that suggested violent opposition toward the LBGTQ+ community. As a current member of the School Board, his public-facing views should conform to the ideals espoused by that Board – and those ideals would certainly preclude the promotion of aggression against any individual or group of individuals. [See “City school board censures one of its own” in the July 15th issue of The Mount Airy News.]
Interestingly, the image reprinted in the paper is not the first time I’ve seen it – as it’s been posted and reposted on Twitter many times during the entire month of June, the designated “Pride Month” for the LBGTQ+ community. After seeing it about a half-dozen times, I started to notice that the comments that accompanied the image were usually directed at the extreme radical attitudes and behaviors of Trans Activists – who seem to have morphed into an overly aggressive and robustly disrespectful fringe subset of the greater LBGTQ+ family. Indeed, in my opinion, Trans Activists have done considerable harm to the significant and positive strides that have been made in the past 20-plus years by the gay and lesbian community.
Without apology, I do not care who one chooses to sleep with as long as all participants are consenting adults. Having worked in big-city universities my entire professional life, I have encountered scores of gays and lesbians – most of whom were some of the smartest and wittiest folks I’ve known … and some of whom became my friends and/or employees. About 15 years ago, one such friend – a middle-aged man who was a husband and father – felt compelled to share with his family and friends that he was about to begin his own gender-transitioning journey … and he wanted us to know his reasons for doing so, as well as his new name. Shortly thereafter, he began wearing women’s clothes and, to the best of my recollection, everyone simply began referring to him by his newly-adopted identity and name… and that was that. No fanfare, no mandates; just caring and consideration for another person’s well-being.
Fast forward to today, and the “shock and awe” approach of Trans Activists – who demand to be “respected” — is on a collision course with traditional values and behaviors, as well as scientific fact and reality. And, unfortunately, anyone who disagrees with the ideas or in-your-face activities of the Trans Activist fringe sect is immediately labeled “transphobic.”
Well, call me what you will, but I do not and will not agree that there is an unlimited number of genders; I do not and will not agree with the use of lesson plans, group discussions, books, or patently pornographic “educational” materials in schools that have bypassed parental review/approval and which are designed specifically to have children question their gender identity or teach them how to perform a wide variety of sexual acts (heterosexual, homosexual or other); I do not and will not support so-called “gender-affirming care” for anyone under the age of 18; and I do not and will not support trans-women participating in women’s sports – because trans-women are biological males and, as such, have a distinct physical advantage over biological females in any sporting competition.
Bottom-line: children are off-limits in the gender-related controversies erupting in our society these days!
I admire and respect the efforts of Gays Against Groomers, a nonprofit group that, according to their Facebook page, campaigns against the “sexualization, indoctrination, and medicalization of children.”
As we move forward in the somewhat murky world of gender identity and expression, I hope we adults can find some common ground without the need for further governmental dictates (such as Department of Labor policies/guidelines related to gender identity and expression) or proposed laws that would make ‘misgendering’ a crime. Any forced coercion of a citizen’s freedom of speech (or thought) will serve only to further divide us.
Rebecca Harmon
Mount Airy
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com
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