Who ‘protects’ the gay and trans kids?

There is so much talk at the moment about ‘Wokism’ and the need to ‘protect’ children and kids from ‘dangerous gender ideologies’ - and it feels like a horrible rerun of the homophobia of the 1980’s only rewritten for the Alt. Right. But in all this talk about ‘protecting the kids’, who’s protecting the kids who are trans, or gay, or simply just ‘questioning’?

This kid was born in 1967 - when everyone *knew* that homosexuals were mentally ill, criminally deviant child molesters and perverts.

This kid grew up in a deeply loving, devotedly religious and socially conservative family; This kid grew up *knowing* it was ‘wrong’ that he was a ‘softie’ for wanting to learn ballet, and sewing, and art: because everybody *knew* that boys are ‘tough’ and did ‘hard things’ like sports and engineering, but girls are ‘soft’ and only did ‘gentle’ stuff like handicrafts and ‘domestic science’.

This kid went to a good Catholic school during #clause28 - being taught what everyone *knew*: that gay = AIDS, and that ‘gay relationships’ were ‘prentend’ and only families with 1 Daddy and 1 Mommy were ‘normal’ or ‘right’.

This kid ‘confessed’ his sexual questioning to his Parish Priest at 16 years old - and was told he was ‘disgusting’, was prayed over and exorcised, and told that he should mortify his ‘sinful flesh’ to rid it of the ‘demons’ that were tempting him to sin against God’s rightful plan.

This kid was bullied and verbally abused through most of his childhood, gay-bashed as an adult, and was once almost drowned in a know unprovoked homophobic attack. This kid grew up *knowing* he was ‘broken’, and would have to live a celibate and lonely life, hiding his secret guilt from family, friends, colleagues and employers - hating himself every minute of every day - for over a decade.

This kid grew up with internalised homophobia, and a sense of shame and guilt so bad it led to three mental breakdowns, two suicide attempts, and a Major Depressive Disorder diagnosis so severe he was medically retired at 55.

So tell me: who was ‘protecting’ THIS kid from ‘damaging gender ideologies’ for all those years…? Who was ‘protecting’ this kid or thinking what their ‘common sense’ told him about how *wrong* he was for just being who he was?

How much damage is your intolerance and ‘common sense’ prejudice against gay and trans ‘ideologies’ doing to those kids who *are* gay or trans? 

In all this politicising of ‘gender politics’ Who is protecting the LGBTQ kids?!?

Visit @protectthiskid & @glaad to add YOUR story.

@protectthiskid @stonewalluk #cassreport #lgbtqpride #transrightsarehumanrights