My views on the LGBTQ+ community.

Everyone here knows that I have a problem with Iddoo's perception that members of the LGBTQ+ community are bad to society and will lead to the downfall of mankind (apparently).

What is the LGBTQ+ Community?

The LGBTQ+ Community, commonly shortened as ‘LGBT Community’, is a very wide community encompassing people with all sorts of different identities. People of the LGBT community diverge from what is commonly thought of as socially acceptable non-exhaustively in terms of romantic attraction, sexual orientation, gender identity or lack of all of the above.

A quick rundown of the most common identities

• Gay - Gay people seek a partner in people of the same gender as them. This isn’t necessarily sexual attraction, but can be simply romantic.

• Bisexual - Bisexual people are attracted to people of all genders

• Transgender - Transgender People have been assigned a certain gender by their parents or society at birth, but have rejected it, identifying with another gender.

• Asexual - Asexual people generally do not experience sexual attraction and have no sexual desire. People can also exist on a spectrum between asexual and allosexual, i.e: feeling sexual attraction

• Agender - Agender people do not identify with any gender

There are many more identities which fit under the LGBTQ+ label

So, I believe that the view that these people are detrimental to humans and society is barbaric and prehistoric. They are humans, and are just as normal as anyone else in this classroom. So, here are my reasons why I vividly defend the LGBTQ+ community.

At first, I will explain why LGBTQ+ is normal. Afterwards, I will explain why people should stop this discrimination and criminalisation of LGBTQ+ people, due to the harm which it causes.

1. People don’t decide who they’re attracted to, and the barbaric means of "treatment" used in the past to rectify what was then called a "disorder", such as therapy, treatment or persuasion are absolutely ineffective at curing this "disorder".

So, you also can’t “turn” a person gay. For example, exposing a boy to toys traditionally made for girls, such as dolls, won’t cause him to be gay or any other kind of LGBTQ+ orientation.

This point confirms that LGBTQ+ people's sexual orientation is not determined by their exposure in life. It is caused by certain biological factors BEFORE birth. These factors are SUGGESTED by genetics, NOT DETERMINED, as in, set in stone.

So, you cannot stop it. It is as innate to you as your eye colour. You cannot change your eye colour. You cannot change your sexual orientation.

2. Okay, I'll be honest. That first point is not entirely true. There are some people who are "fluid" and not born gay or something. It is believed that those people's brains develop in a certain way that their sexual orientation is only made obvious later in life. It is no less natural and it is still not a choice.

3. It is not as though the whole LGBTQ+ thing was invented in the past (two) decades.

Alan Turing, a famous mathematician, computer scientist was prosecuted in 1952 for homosexual acts.

Oscar Wilde, homosexual, arrested for "immorality".

Elagabalus, Roman Emperor, 204-222, transexual, presented as a lady instead of a lord.

Alright, so this already shows that people have not suddenly become LGBTQ+. It is something innate for as far back as human history. So, don't come and tell me that we caused it. Also, there are definitely more people like that, but the list here covers at least 14 trans people only. There are 4+ more categories to explore (but I won't). The list only contains the LGBTQ+ people who were considerably famous, politically or for their views on the subject. So, you won't find your average gay Tom Dick or Harry in that list although that doesn't make their existence any more negligible.

4. Everyone should be able to feel proud of who they are and who they love. We all have the right to express ourselves freely. Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (which set out for the first time the rights we’re all entitled to) protects everyone’s right to express themselves freely. And, would you not agree that all LGBTQ+ people are doing is trying to be themselves, to properly express themselves for who they are?

5. By embracing LGBTQ+ people and who they are, we can get rid of all the rubbish stereotypes which define and restrict people across all genders. Like, look at women. Are you going to tell me that they should not have the same rights as men? That they should not be able to get a job? To be scientists, engineers? Alright, so you agree with me that it is a good thing that women are getting the same rights, privileges as men. So then, why can it not be the same for LGBTQ+??

6. Following a decision in 1990 by the World Health Organisation, it is, since then, no longer wrongly believed that LGBTQ+ people are subjected to a mental or behavioural disorder. However, that is just the decision of a worldwide team of experts right? Not like that should have any impact.

7. [redacted]

And, now, I will talk about the inhumane crimes against LGBTQ+ people and how, by continuing to discriminate against them, by continuing to treat them as inhuman, by continuing to perceive them as contradicting God's will and by not acknowledging that they are just like every single one of us, the discriminators are responsible for what can only be considered a crime against humanity.

8. Did you know, nine countries punish homosexuality with death: Afghanistan, Brunei, Iran, Iraq, Mauritania, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen. Iddoo may agree with these countries but I, of course, do not. You are literally considering LGBTQ+ people as being just as bad as rapists, murderers, torturers and people responsible for genocide. LGBTQ+ people are being criminalised to THAT extent. How can someone defend these views? How can someone justify people to be executed for something which is natural?

9. Sometimes, hostility directed at LGBTQ+ people is stoked by the very governments that should be protecting them. A state-sponsored campaign in Chechnya led to the targeting of gay men, some of whom have been abducted, tortured and even killed. In Bangladesh, LGBTQ+ activists have been hacked to death by machete-wielding armed groups, with the police and government taking little interest in delivering justice to the families of victims. In many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, LGBTQ+ people continue to live in fear of being found out, and attacked or even murdered.

10. You remember what I said about the inhumane "treatment" which LGBTQ+ people were forced to undergo? Well, I read an article a few years ago on the BBC, where they interviewed a gay man who had been forced into treatment. Listen to what happened there. He was strapped to a chair and shown sexual images of other men, well, he was gay. If he showed any sexual interest in those images, he was electrocuted. And the amount of current kept on being increased. This is basically a negative feedback "treatment". You are punished for a wrong answer to supposedly "gear" your mind to think differently. It is a technique used to train Artificial Intelligence. You cannot tell me that this is just a bit barbaric, right?

11. Bringing an end to homophobia and transphobia, as well as other related phobias will save lives. Anti-LGBTQ+ harassment puts LGBTQ+ identifying people at a heightened risk of physical and psychological harm, under the form of bullying or basically social discrimination. Everyone has the right to life, freedom and safety. Does a God not teach his followers to love all other humans?? So, sure, go ahead, love every human on Earth but discriminate against LGBTQ+ people in the most violent ways you can. Your perception of God is biased and frankly evil.

12. LGBTQ+ people also suffer from social and economic exclusion whereby they lack the rights to health, education, housing and employment facilities. IS THAT FAIR? To deny someone health facilities because he does not conform to your binary and archaic perspective?? You let him DIE because your God decides that LGBTQ+ is a "mOrTaL sIn" ?? So, you have the facilities to cure people, the medicine, the trained medical personnel. EVERYTHING. And yet, you decide that RAPISTS, MURDERERS and the very scum of this Earth are more deserving of medical rights that someone who is gay??

Well, if your God says that any of this is fair, F God. The class can very well hate on me. But, if your God has no respect for people who differ from the social norms, then, I have no respect for your God.

Now, go on Iddoo, I want to hear what you have to say.

• The LGBTQ+ community differs very little from other people

-> They are human beings like them too, and being part of that community does not make them monsters

• Currently, and since pretty much all time, the LGBTQ+ community faces persecution on a grand scale.

-> Homophobia, transphobia and all other kinds of bigotry have worsened the lives of those people by so much

-> People of the LGBTQ+ community have to deal with severe social alienation

• Because of social norms, they often have a hard time finding others like them to relate to

• They are not allowed to talk about their identities for fear of hate

• Many struggle with depression because of this social alienation

-> Some are so hated by those around them that they are brought to suicide

-> Killed outright in many places

-> Often have to face violent attacks by bigots

-> Face bullying in social environments which are not supportive

• We can save lives by accepting them

-> Prevent violence

• Many LGBTQ+ people have to hide their identities

-> Have to play a role in society

-> Pretend to be happy with that role when they’re not

• LGBTQ+ people will truly be happy when they are allowed to be themselves

-> religious book(s) say that homosexuality is wrong

Two possible answers:

1. Not all religious books say that homosexuality is wrong. Furthermore, historians largely agree that most religious books are products of their culture and time. Customs and social norms of those times are thus imposed in the religion. We should not base our morality on antiquated products of those times and instead advance by founding our own morality

2. So what? There are many more strange things that are decried as wrong in religious texts, but which we do not condemn now. Arguing this is simply asserting that the religion cited is better than others which do not condemn homosexuality, which is intolerant.

->They influence others to be like them

LGBTQ+ people do not influence others’ identities directly. I did say earlier that this stuff isn’t some “contagious disease”. All they can do is give others the confidence to explore their identities and find out who they really are. People who are more friendly to LGBTQ+ people tend to be more open to new ideas, allowing them to discover their true selves more easily. Essentially, LGBTQ+ people act as catalysts; they cannot ‘turn anyone else gay’, they can only be brave, inspiring others to do so too. If anything, it is a good thing that LGBTQ+ people ‘influence’ others; it saves them a lot of time and makes them feel not so alone.

->Everyone being gay would lead to less births, dooming society

Relationships do not entail procreation, and procreation does not entail a relationship. As such, new babies can be born even if there are no heterosexual people on Earth. Artificial insemination and In Vitro Fertilisation are more common than ever. More damning, gay people in a relationship can still procreate if one of them is transgender and hasn’t gone through bottom surgery.

Can I just say, it’s not like the whole human population will be gay within the foreseeable future. Currently, 90-95 % of all humans form part of the LGBTQ+ community. So, it’s not like we are going to run out of humans to reproduce with each other. And, I did mention that the act of being gay, or trans or whatnot is not contagious either.

->Slippery slope argument

Pedophiles, zoophiles and what have you have very little to do with the LGBTQ+ community. There is extremely little overlap between those groups and the latter, same as with everyone else. Acceptance of LGBTQ+ people does not at all lead to acceptance of those immoral acts. LGBTQ+ people repeatedly condemn pedophilia and the likes, and there is simply no evidence that the LGBTQ+ community has any sympathy for pedophiles.

So, you would be just as likely to hear of a paedophile gay guy as a “not-gay” paedophile. That’s how statistics work.

Also, people really tend to exaggerate circumstances in their favour and to generalise a group of people based on the actions of one or two members of that group.

For example, people really tend to talk about gun crime in the US but do not talk about how US troops in the Middle East are committing equal horrors to the civilians there.