We Are Not The Monsters - And Response (2)

  • Thursday, March 30, 2023

Before reading this, just try to place your reasoning as to why someone or something bothers you to the back burner for a bit. This has nothing to do with any politics, identifying group, religions, etc. Try to be open and think for yourself, without any preconceived or prejudicial thinking.

Here’s the thing: why can’t people just let other people live their lives? If someone is different from you, then let them be. They are not hurting you. They are not hurting others. They are not hurting themselves. If someone loves something or someone that brings them joy, happiness, affirmations, confidence, belonging, etc. then why do your best to destroy it and them? Leave others alone. Let them be themselves. It’s not detrimental to your life and existence. Nobody needs your approval or okay for them to be who they feel they are.

If someone identifies as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, especially drag artists, transgendered or non-binary individuals, since that seems to be the issue for most of these horrific laws and bigotry, let them be. Our existence is not bothering you. We honestly don’t care about your opinions. We do care about you trying to outlaw us out of existence. We’ve been here for millennia and we will continue to be here.

All we want is to exist and be safe. We just want to love who we love without interference. Maybe it’s the Gen X-er in me, but we honestly don’t care what anybody thinks about us when it comes down to it. We are survivors and we will rise above this. We are stronger than you realize.

Our LGBTQIA+ youth are all of our futures. They will make this country and this world better. We don’t need your permission to exist. We will take your support and love. Oh, and equal rights. Not special rights, just equal. Nobody loses their rights when others gain equality. Our kids need to quit killing themselves over hate and isolation. Words, even words you might say that you might think are helpful, can be hurtful. Acceptance is not hard. Love is not hard. It always baffles me how someone can disown a child or family member for being different. It’s a spectacular failure on you as a parent to do that to your child. I’ve seen it too many times to count. It’s love that should trump all other feelings and thoughts. Love for a child, sibling, parent, spouse, friend should supersede all other reactions and beliefs. Just because you may not understand a person’s struggle and identity doesn’t make it invalid and unworthy of love. It’s not that hard to not be a bigot, especially to someone you supposedly love.

We don’t honestly mind that your “beliefs” are your beliefs. You are welcome to have your own beliefs and opinions. We expect you to. What we will not tolerate is you trying to legislate and/or force your beliefs on us and others as to how you think we should live and exist. It feels like we’re taking way too big of a step back into the past. The laws passing are horrendous and truthfully, in the minority of good people’s beliefs. A small chunk of hateful folks are messing up everything for everyone. We can’t sit by and allow them to spew hatred and hurt others. You will ultimately fail. We will vote you out. All of us, standing together with all of our minority (LGBTQIA+, POC, BIPOC, etc.) brothers, sisters, and others, will prevail. POC, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+ people, specifically drag artists, and trans folks are not coming for your kids. We’re not out to hurt or abuse them.

Statistics have proven, time and time again, that the majority of abusers and frankly, mass-shooting perpetrators, do not identify as LGBTQIA+ or as People of Color. According to figures from the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 131 mass shootings this year, and there were 647 in 2022. In total, there have been 2,861 mass shootings in the U.S. since 2018. Some have had more than one perpetrator. On its website, Everytown Research & Policy cites 306 mass shootings in the U.S. since 2009. "Four shooters out of over 300 mass shooters since 2009 are transgender or non-binary. That's just 1.3 percent of all shooters," Anthony Zenkus, a lecturer in social work at Columbia University, wrote on Twitter. "You just proved our point: 99 percent of mass shooters in the United States are cis gendered." According to the Williams Institute research center, around 0.6 percent of Americans over the age of 13 identify as transgender.

We are not the monsters that a small minority of very public people and officials are claiming we are. We don’t care that they think they’re superior. That they think their way must be the only way is archaic and frankly, a major step back in time.

If you infer that my saying “you” and “they” means you in particular, then maybe, just maybe, you need to step back and think about why it’s triggering you to believe you are “you” or “they”. Your reasoning for hate and bigotry says a lot. However, that can be unlearned. You can change. I can change my thought processes and beliefs. You can too. You and I both can understand that others different from us and that they have no bearing on our lives.

It boils down to the simplest statement: Let people be and love one another!

Richard Smith

* * *

So very well said. When I once said if all my family got together in one place we would make a great advertisement for the United Nations, I was serious. You can add the LGBTQ+ community to that serious truth too.

My family is a mixture of everything, from South America's El Salvador to Asia's Vietnam, Native American, African, European to just about anywhere or everywhere on the planet. We also have a gay medical professional in the family, a lesbian aunt. Just a beautiful, worldly mono-chromatic rainbow of various shades, hues, colors and genders, dating back centuries. As I'm sure many in America do, whether they know it or not. Whether they're willing to admit it or not.

So who are we suppose to be hating on today? There's been the Muslims, Asians, Jews, Native Americans, Black folks, White folks, LGBTQ+. This religion, that religion, no religion. Religion within religions.

America is a nation of many people of all types. Why can't that be embraced rather than these constant attacks? It's as if America's diversity isn't used to unite the nation or the world, but to constantly keep people suspicious of one another and divided against one another.

No, you certainly aren't monsters. You're all gifts to the world. You are valued, appreciated and loved. We all deserve that, no matter who we are, our station or status in life. We either learn to respect one another's right to exist or we'll end up cancelling out one another, where we'll all be turned into little dust particles, floating through space and time. There's no distinguishing one dust particle from the next. They're all just dust particles.

The thing about those race riots of a bygone era is, people controlled by the powers of that time were misled to believe others weren't worthy of sharing the same space as they. In the end, those who didn't survive from both sides, ended up in mass graves being buried together after the fighting stopped and the smoke settled. All the while, the powers got to electric slide and tap dance back to their exclusive, isolated Eden and live happily ever after, where neither side was allowed.

Brenda Washington

* * * 

I’ve read two opinion pieces that describe very well the people that were banging on Noah’s ark as the water poured and drowned everything that had breath in their nostrils. 

Was Noah a hater? No he was not; he was a righteous man. In other words, he believed God. Nothing more nothing less. Man can come up with all the classifications regarding a human being but there are only two. 

Man or woman / righteous or unrighteousness, the latter is in Jesus Christ or not in Christ. 

As John cried out in the desert, “Repent and call on Jesus for your salvation.“

Christians aren’t called to be judges but instead obey God. 

Michael Burns

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