Today’s astonishment comes from someone who insists strict, traditional gender roles are “normal” and anything outside of that is not only disordered, but is a plot by Willie Lynch to destroy the African-American family. There are so many shades of wrong in that thinking, I don’t have any desire to unravel it. The most frightening part is this person believes their education and work experience back up their claims. Everything I wrote about people needing the freedom to be their natural selves and gender expression being fluid for some folks went in one eye and out the other.
My anger at their stubbornness is tempered by the fact that they can’t keep people from being who they are. This racial conspiracy theorist can believe non-conforming gender expression is “abnormal” all they want to, but people will continue to freely express their gender in whatever way feels right to them, and people like me will continue to support and respect others’ right to be who they are. We will see them as beautiful expressions of the diversity in the human experience. And we may even feel sad for people like the aforementioned conspiracy theorist, whose willfully monochromatic vision makes them miss out on beauty and joy. I just hope anyone who is gender non-conforming who finds themselves under this person’s influence is able to rapidly remove themselves from said influence before they internalize this person’s toxicity.
I did well to remain reasonable in the face of their virulent stubbornness, replying twice with no consideration of my viewpoint on their part. Since I am allergic to wasting my time, my focus now is on deciding whether to remain a part of an online community whose leader insists on holding such disrespectful views of his sisters and brothers.