LGBTQI+ community and gender ideology

THE EDITOR: Recently, while enjoying my morning ritual of newspaper and coffee, I saw the news of the Coalition Advocating for Inclusion of Sexual Orientation (CAISO)’s concern for the transgender, non-binary, gender-nonconforming and intersex people of the LGBTQI+ community in TT.

Being what many can rightly call an “old bat,” I must confess that I never before knew or heard of the CAISO organisation. Nonetheless, from what I recently read in the newspaper, CAISO generally seems to be painting a very positive image of the LGBTQI+ community and, regarding this, I do have some qualms.

While I may be somewhat out of touch with modernity, gayness was not always something I previously had what can be called a traditional stance on. When I was a youngster of the 80s, gays were already becoming increasingly normal on the international level. In the 80s it was not odd to hear that people like Elton John were gay.

The gender-bending fashion styles of the 80s (that came from movies and songs) were also relatively common to me in my 20s and 30s. It is only understandable then that as product of the 80s I have always had a passive and sometimes even positive approach to what we today call the LGBTQI+ community. That being said, my position has since changed for two reasons.

If CAISO and TT at large are going to accept the LGBTQI+ community, two things must be transparently addressed and openly stated.

Firstly, the LGBTQI+ community believes (and wants all of TT to believe) that gender is fluid. This means that the community believes that whatever someone mentally identifies as or believes themselves to be, in fact is what they are. People can entirely change who and what they are by the whim of their own will and this is wrong and unnatural.

For example, I have been a woman and will always be a woman until I die. If tomorrow I go mentally ill and unstable, like many of my older friends already have, my mental picture of the world will not align with the truth. Does this mean that the entire world is wrong and I am right in my madness? Surely not.

I would only hope that if I do go mental and believe, for example, that I am a man or a tree, my family and friends would explain to me that I have gone bonkers and that what I am feeling or believing is not true.

Secondly, the LGBTQI+ community positively asserts that sexual intercourse with anyone is good as long as both parties consent and mutually enjoy the act. This is dangerous because it neglects the scientific truth and purpose of sexual intercourse.

It is not possible for people of the same gender to reproduce. Reproduction is what sex is for, whether you believe that God designed it or that it is so by an evolutionary process, it is what it is. And since sex is for reproduction, it always often involves children. Despite that our society neglects it, children do deserve a mom and a dad. Children of single-gender homes are more likely to be depressed, fail school, commit crimes and even kill themselves. Such things are well researched and documented.

Therefore, if we are going to accept this new gender ideology in TT, we must be cautious of where it might lead considering that the ideology believes you can become whatever you believe and that they really are no limitations to sexual acts and misconducts.

DAYANA WILSON

via e-mail