We're normal, you aren't

"Intolerance has been the curse of every age and state." - Samuel Davies

Every. Single. Community. does this. I mean it. EVERY one. If there is someone less accepted than you- someone in your community will kick them in the genitals. Even if it's just a small (but loud) minority- someone in every single community will do this. And it will always annoy the crap out of me.

I'm sure you know that homosexuality used to be considered a mental illness- it was only removed from the DSM in the 1970s. Less than 40 years later, a gay man told his asexual boyfriend that asexuality is just a mental illness. Yes, he used the exact same argument that people used against homosexuality against asexuality- and completely straight-faced. (and, yes, asexuals have done the same damn thing)

I think that's the most infuriating thing. It's not just "I think that's insane", it's "I'm using the exact same words that I hate them using against me". But at least with the homo/a-sexuality thing there was a 50 year difference. They probably hadn't even been born when homosexuality was a mental illness. The transgendered community? It's still getting kicked in the you-know-whats and somehow still manages to kick other people the same way.

A trans man, while fighting for the right to be seen as who he is, told me that I should pretend not to be a neutrois because it'll give him a harder time to be taken seriously. And not so nicely, either, there was a whole lot of "you're wrong about your gender identity" and "neutrois doesn't exist" and "you're making us look like freaks". Somehow he failed to see how his saying 'you can't be a neutrois and don't deserve to be treated as one' is the same as when someone tells him 'you can't be a man and don't deserve to be treated as one'. It's illogical.

Playing a game of "kick the minority" isn't a rite of passage. You don't get to the cool kids table by making fun of the geeks. The cool kids will think you're just as stupid as they thought you were before, only now the geeks have no sympathy for you and a few other groups think you're jerks. That's not a good thing.

So, please, can we all just stop doing it?