7-17-23
I’m bisexual+ and genderfluid, and as such, I’ve learned from first hand experience how much intolerance, prejudice, and lack of understanding there is against individuals who are bisexual+, genderfluid, genderqueer, nonbinary, transgender, asexual, intersex, and so on (BTNIA for short) from both inside and outside the LGBTQ community. Unfortunately, experiencing intolerance from cisgender, straight people is not a big surprise despite the fact it’s the 21st century. Just look at what’s happening in states around the country these days. Republicans are pushing all sorts of anti-LGBTQ policies and legislation on top of their worsening anti-Queer rhetoric. This in turn emboldens people who were already prejudiced against the LGBTQ community to become more open, vocal, and vicious with regards to their bigotry aimed at those who are Queer. The current state of affairs is scary, hurtful, and dangerous for all LGBTQ people. In many places, LGBTQ rights are being threatened and actively taken away. So when members of the LGBTQ community have to deal with intolerance from fellow members of the LGBTQ community, it makes things even more painful since we wanted to believe that we’d at least find acceptance from other LGBTQs. But acceptance even here is not always the case. And let me tell you, it really hurts and can adversely affect innocent people’s lives to a serious degree.
Why is there still so much intolerance against BTNIA individuals? Lack of understanding is a big factor I would say. People often fear, are intolerant towards, and shun what they see as too different and don’t understand. They are more likely to listen to unfair stereotypes and jump to premature conclusions that they then base future behavior on. This is compounded by the problem of how so many individuals seek out people, groups, information sites, and so on that only agree with them and shun or ignore those that don’t. This sort of behavior reinforces close-mindedness and ends up seriously hurting innocent people (in this case, BTNIA individuals) who are frequently seen as too different.
The result is many of us who are BTNIA feel isolated and alone without a sense of community, and trust me when I say that this can be brutally hard. Human beings are social creatures as a species, so feeling like we don’t belong anywhere usually goes against our nature. A great number of BTNIA people suffer in the closet as a consequence, afraid of what might happen if their secret is discovered. Others who are out often find things like dating extremely difficult (sometimes near impossible) so that it’s common to find BTNIA individuals grappling with the very strong likelihood that we’ll never find someone special and will always be alone. Establishing close, genuine friendships can be terribly difficult as well since we are often seen as a bit too different by so many people.
So it’s way past time for people to open their minds and educate themselves. To push outside their comfort zones and learn about other people who are different from themselves. They should seek out information from a variety of different sources, not just from those that always agree with them. And they need to stop automatically believing stereotypes that are frequently unfair and not true for many BTNIA individuals.
If more people would open their minds, it would help BTNIA individuals live happier, more fulfilling lives, and it would also help those individuals who are opening their minds to live better lives as well.
Views and Observations 