Sex is a spectrum - even Bill Nye has explained that in the past. So a lot of people who are arguing against these things are arguing against the most modern science on sex, gender and sexuality.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQDBNJ3mPa0
Gender is even more a spectrum because that's how you identify, not your biology, but even you biological sex is as well.
Re homosexuality (I actually research LGBT history lol) people used to not label their sexuality - ie as gay, lesbian, bisexual - they would label it as what they *did* like a man who had sex with men, a woman who had sex with women even (though this was less common as for a long time people have believed that you need men to have sex LOL but no women have been having sex in history too) but that wasn't defined as a part of their identity. They could indeed still be bisexual, as we'd say now, but they just didn't see sexuality like that. They'd not speak of who they were but of what they did, or what others did.
This also hasn't been a taboo or a crime for all of history. For the last several centuries, it has been a crime, before being decriminalized in many places. And honestly, many of the places where it is a crime, that is because of colonialism. When European countries, often Britain, colonised other countries of the world, they'd also spread their values and beliefs, which included that homosexuality was a crime, and that has stuck around in many countries. Hawaii, for example, had 3 genders, as did Native Americans, and different cultures had different genders or sexualities which were just accepted by them, the gender in their culture was different to how it is in ours, but this was erased by colonialism and now they also have transphobia, where those who feel a third gender (or feel like two genders simultaneously, for Native Americans) deal with stigma for it, which actually they didn't used to.
And those are also a couple of examples that show that being 'transgender' (not in those terms of course) has been around in history for a long time as well, probably as long as homosexuality.
Though in that case they did have labels - Two Spirit (English translation there of course) for Native Americans, 'Māhū' for Hawaii and other terms which mean the same thing in other Polynesian islands and countries.
And then intersex as well used to be 'hermaphrodite' (but it's better to not call people that word any more and to use intersex).
Labels have been around, in different ways, then for as long as language as been around as well.
Though not the same words - asexual has been used as a sexuality for at least since the 1970s. There is certainly evidence of there being asexual people in history as well, who would not have had the words, but there are people who didn't have sexual relationships by choice, definitely, or didn't seem to feel sexual attraction. If they'd had the words to say that, we'd know now if they were, and they'd have known as well. Without the words, history has been confused about whether these people were actually gay maybe, or even paedophiles, so the label of asexual certainly would have helped then if they were asexual!
My views might be different to others in the LGBT+ community - some are very against accepting asexual people and see them as freaks, but in my opinion, that is certainly just another form of discrimination and LGBT+ people especially, who have and are facing discrimination for their sexuality, should know better.
Transgender people aren't accepted by some gay people, which is horrible, and they are certainly a minority of sometimes very hateful people.
I know asexual people as well but asexual does not mean aromantic. Aromantic actually is an identity - someone who isn't romantically attracted, isn't interested in romantic relationships. That isn't what asexual means. Some people can be both, not interested in romantic or sexual relationships. But asexual on itself just means not being sexually attracted to someone - you don't look at someone and find them hot, you don't get an erection from someone if you have a penis lol. So that she fell in love doesn't make her not asexual. It doesn't necessarily mean not having sex either but that's more complicated to get into. Demisexual also exists, where people don't feel sexual attraction, but then might end up feeling sexual attraction to someone they have fallen for. Or you can be on the asexual spectrum.
Indeed sexuality is fluid, for more people more than others. Sexuality can change. But if someone has labelled themselves a certain way, then that probably did help them or does help them. There's no reason asexual people can't say they are asexual if gay people can say they are gay. Because asexuality is less known, many people see the term asexual and are shocked that there is a word for how they feel and immediately realise that that is them - of course that brings enormous comfort, to have a word for it, as well as to know there are other people, that it is normal actually, and not just them, and that they can even find other people who feel the same way if they have the word for it.
If people don't need to label their sexuality, then they won't.
But labelling also doesn't mean your sexuality isn't fluid. If you are straight now doesn't mean you always will be. That doesn't mean you can't label yourself as that for now.
Most issues from labels only come from other people. It does no harm if you thought of yourself as one thing then realise you're another thing. There may be some confusion but if there wasn't any discrimination or judgement over this, it would hardly matter. The only issue with labels is that they come with so much baggage, but that isn't on the people who label themselves, it isn't on LGBT+ people to deal with that, it should be the discrimination against those labels that changes.
Homosexuality has only been a label in the last century - of course there are more labels because not all LGBT+ people are 'homosexual'. Like I said, people before would have sex with the opposite sex and same sex, but not all would exclusively be with the same sex. So of course there are bisexual people and always have been. It is only when heterosexuals labelled people homosexual that people needed a label like 'bisexual' to show they weren't just exclusively having sex with the same sex. The problem there was that was a label put on them.
Transsexual was similar, scientists and psychiatrists made this up and put it on trans people, not with them wanting that label. So by now LGBT+ people can actually decide on their own labels - that they are bi, or gay, or lesbians, not 'homosexual,' a scientific label, or trans or transgender not 'transsexual' and asexuality has been a sexuality probably just as long, so why not have a label for that? Non-binary is different to transgender, and other terms are as well.
Of course there are a lot of labels - like I said, there are even labels for genders and sexualities you may never have heard of in other cultures and those aren't new terms. Neither are labels people use now that people think are very modern and created on tumblr, they've actually been around for perhaps decades.
If people find that confusing, that's their own issue, and has nothing to do with people's labels. If you were straight and you met another straight person, and you're both cisgender (I don't know if this is the real case, it's just a hypothetical) well you'd both be 2 straight, cis people in a relationship. But if one of you actually realised you were transgender then you would have the exact same situation - one of you is actually trans, will identify as a different gender, and therefore will identify as a different sexuality as well, probably gay. Then your own sexuality might change too, rather than be straight, or you might not be attracted to them any more if you are straight. So if someone is a lesbian, that doesn't make it that much more complicated lol.
The only thing that makes it complicated is that people don't understand that there are more genders and sexualities and that these can change. That's their own business, to figure it out, or just mind their own business, because why do they need to be concerned with other people's labels anyway? People understand their own labels, and all they want is to live and be allowed to live, so if people are straight and cis, then they can just live as being straight and cis, and not be so concerned about others who have labels they don't have, just leave them to it, honestly.
For transgender people, it should be realised more (but like I said, you don't have to learn everything about LGBT+ people, you can just leave them to it lol) that not all trans people have operations. Many would like it and can't afford it, but others just don't decide to. There are also different kinds of surgeries so there is not one 'change'. They can be reversed so it's not that huge an issue - if you remove your breasts, you can have fake breasts, like anybody else who has removed their breasts, perhaps to minimise the risks of cancer (which should also be less judged as it is your own body so you can do that if you want to, for your own health). Others will have gone through a very painful surgery, after many many years of convincing people that they are transgender. It isn't something someone just does. You can't just go out and say you're trans and you'll get 'changed' as soon as an appointment is available lol. It's a very long process. The majority of people who go through with it will have had ample opportunity to change their mind, will have spoken about it with so many medical professionals, from doctors to psychiatrists.
You can't just pop to the doctor either, you have to go to a specialist gender clinic - in the UK many people have to travel to London to do that and make periodical appointments over YEARS, and of course travelling itself also costs money! But yes some people do 'detransition' but though a small minority might change their mind, a lot of the time this is the same as... Being gay but then denying it to people and being in the closet. Like if you realise you're gay, tell them, face homophobia, and then say, not actually I'm not gay, it was just a phase, or confusion. Trans people go through that too, especially with so much discrimination there is against them.
So many trans people HAVE 'detransitioned' - that doesn't mean undoing a surgery though, like I said. Transitioning can simply mean... changing your clothes and living as that gender. So 'detransitiong' then would mean, changing back to your previous clothes, living as your assigned gender. But often they are doing that out of confusion and to be 'normal' so they don't have to deal with the discrimination and the whole process of transitioning. But like I said, transitioning is not actually going through with a surgery - for many, they can just live with their gender, or they can have some surgery but not all (for trans men, they can remove their breasts for example, which is 'top surgery' only - this is also more complicated however because to get 'bottom surgery' in many cases you HAVE to get top surgery first.. so honestly that doesn't help because then you are forced by hospitals/doctors to have one surgery you might not need so that you can be allowed to get the surgery you do want! So things like that need to change...)
Otherwise, like I've said, it can just be taking hormones (not all do either) or if you're a teenager you might have hormones that just slow down your puberty until you know what gender you are and those aren't 'transitioning' fully, you can just stop taking them!
So yep there is a lot of fearmongering that makes being transgender out to be something it's not! When in reality, you should just be unbothered by people's genitals lol, unless they directly affect you. Perhaps people have changed their genitals, perhaps they will, perhaps they haven't - being transgender is just how they identify, like being gay. There is perhaps a pressure to have surgery to 'match' the gender they feel - what I do think would help is if people were less concerned about other people's genders and bodies! If there wasn't the expectation of trans people being a certain 'thing', those who physically change their gender through surgery, then people would feel less pressure to do that! So the best thing to do, for all LGBT+ people, is just allow them space to figure things out, to maybe use different labels, or use no labels, and in the end they will figure it out, and if there wasn't discrimination of too many expectations of who or what they should be, then it would be no harm done! :)
07.06.2019 07:09:56