77- Special Edition 3- LGBTQ+ Awareness month (1)

June is international awareness month for two topics: Posttraumatic stress, and the one I'm going to talk about here : LGBTQ+. 

First, what do these acronyms stand for ? 
LGBT means Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender. The Q usually stands as Queer, others see it as Questioning, and the + for etc, as in any non hetero, not cisgendered identity. 

Here's a quick breakdown of the spectrum :

Yes, I'm going to talk about this topic, it is just as important as mental heath ones, and will actually tie it together to the main subject of my blog (well, the one that was the main until now.... it's meant to be expanded). 



I'll start... at the beginning, I think that's very logical, isn't? In the beginning, there was... Me. I was raised by a very conservative and crazy father, one who created a cult (even though he never called it as such : he sees himself as humanity's savior and a whole other things I'm not going to discuss here but in other entries. 

What I want you to retain, however, is that he raised me in the belief that sexuality in general was a sin, and the act had to have only one goal : procreating children to offer to god and believe in HIM (this self proclaimed messiah) as the sole and truest incarnation. 

Anything else was sin, and homosexuality was deemed the worst of the worst kind of sexuality because it was ''depraved, amoral, against god, and not producing offspring dedicated to god''. Well, something to that effect - I don't recall the exact wording anymore since that was some decades ago and my memory isn't so sharp anymore.

Lesbians were badly seen by him as well, there was no possible childbearing...

Bisexuality was in the same sin-spectrum but maybe a bit worse as he viewed them as people who were like animals who couldn't control their urges..

And maybe further worse, transgender people sinned against god because they refused his gift : the body he gave them wasn't enough and they mutilated it...

His upbringing made me a bigot, a homophobe, and if it hadn't been for a friend who happened to be very open minded and who enlightened me about these issues, I probably would've remained prejudiced.

She taught me about accepting sexuality in general (something that is very difficult for me, but that'll be another post), and to accept the people even if you may not agree with their sexuality, at least accept that they have the right as long as they don't hurt anyone. 

She taught me, eventually, to accept and embrace the causes of the LGBT community and thus helped preparing me to meet my wife a short time later. 

My wife, in turn, continued this process, as she is bisexual herself and l met her cousin who's transgender and through these continuous interactions I have taken the LGBT stance, and realized my non binary/gender queer identity, (which is in the Q part of the acronym) and consider myself an ally.

I'm a moderate activist, in the sense that I don't go to protests to raise awareness, because of my social phobias, but I try my best to raise it online and talk to my friends about these issues - and now with a new series of blog entries.

I'm not sure yet on how many I'll be able to post, nor the frequency. I do have a few ideas and I want to contact a several people to discuss certain aspects for my entries - and possibly even some joint projects.

In the meantime, never forget that sexuality is a person's right, and even if you don't agree with that, you MUST accept this person just like any other individual and never ever call them by names or berate them : they are human beings who deserve your respect and your understanding.