Internet Hate Machine
10:05 a.m. -- 2009-02-24
Once in a while, when I�m using Google as part of my background reading in preparation for posting something here, my searches turns up something from an internet hate crusader. Transvestites are a soft target, since many are insecure or have poor self-image, while those who are out and about in the world at large are understandably skittish, lest they find themselves being beaten up by a thug who is equally insecure, and desperate to prove that he doesn�t fancy the transvestite... by hospitalising him.
You don�t have to worry about football hooligans or neo-nazis on the Internet, of course. Reading (and expressing thoughts in written form) is a bit too taxing for them, and they tend to avoid it, preferring random acts of property damage and assault.
Perhaps the scariest hate group that has made it onto the Internet is the Christian fundamentalists. Putting the �mental� in �fundamental� if you ask me. The rant that follows is taken from the archives of a forum called Christianpoets.com ... you�d maybe excuse it if it had been written in the early eighties, but this is from May 2008, by a person called John Christopher. He considers himself to be Christian... as do I, incidentally.
�...In recent years, the 'legitimacy' of homo and bisexual intimacy and transvestitism [sic] has managed to slither its self-indulgent presence into the fabric of our society and the acquiescent, hungry-for-ratings, secular media with more and more, matter-of-fact regularity than ever before. At the same time, gay power activists have mushroomed up all over the place, establishing themselves, not only in political and self-help circles, neighborhood associations, the television and film industries, but in close knit,
members-only cliques and 'churches' as well.�
One might pause to ask why gays, bisexuals and transvestites are lumped together... but being lumped together sounds vaguely suggestive of a gang bang. John Christopher would probably get over-excited at that notion. I�ll rephrase...
What characteristics do transvestites and gays share, that means they should be covered by a single, sweeping statement from the bigot, John Christopher? Apart from the fact that their presence makes John Christopher feel insecure, the principal similarities that the two groups have in common is probably that they have both suffered at the hands of hate-mongers, and all the ones I�ve known have adopted a policy that can best be summed up as �people who live in glass houses shouldn�t throw stones�.
John Christopher seems to have forgotten the Sermon on the Mount; it�s his declared enemies who are turning the other cheek.
Go on John... let�s hear some more of your �philosophy�:
�As a consequence, many of our young people and uninformed adults have grown up with the idea that male/male, female/female sexual activity and interchangeable dress codes are as socially acceptable as girl/boy restrooms and unisex hairdos and clothing. These unscriptural notions and lifestyles continue to flourish in many ways and circumstances nowadays, and enjoy an unhealthy respectability in most areas of the entertainment industry.�
Predictably enough, Mr. Christopher trots out Deuteronomy, 22:5 (Oh no! Not Deuteronomy, 22:5 !?!? I�m mmmeeellltttiinnnggg. I�m mmmmeeeellllltttiiiinnnnnggggg!!!!)
"A woman must not wear men's clothes nor a man put on woman's dress; anyone who does this is detestable to Yahweh your God."
- Moses
We trannies have no answer to that, really. Or certainly no official position from Tranny High Command, anyway. Personally - and I believe one should take personal responsibility for understanding one�s faith, and relating it to one�s life - I�d like to point out that Moses was a really old geezer by the time he said that. Bear in mind that he grew old enough to kill an Egyptian slavemaster with his bare hands, ran away to Midian and got a job working as a Shepherd for forty years, then returned to Egypt to rescue his people and they spent another forty years wandering in the wilderness together.
So I reckon he�s at least a hundred by the time he gave the three sermons that set out the laws by which the Children of Israel were meant to live in the Promised Land. And you know how you get more right-wing as you get older. Perhaps Moses was the original grumpy old man.
Anyway... �No frocks, please, we�re the Chosen People.�
This from a bloke who probably thought that the Earth was flat, who wandered aimlessly in a desert for four decades, eating locusts, and who almost certainly smelled of goat. Yet he had the foresight to predict that one day, trousers would be invented... and that when that happy day arrived, menfolk had better damned well appreciate their significance.
Anyway, let�s get back to John Christopher, who out of the kindness of his heart is prepared to explain what God wants, because the rest of us are clearly too stupid or too decadent to see it. (Maybe John should do what Moses did, and take two tablets?)
Christopher:
�What do the clean and the unclean have in common? It is for this reason that many sexually active gays hide in the proverbial closets of their own, guilt-ridden indecision, living and socializing in exclusive-to-underground corners of society in order to avoid detection and alienation from those who find their private, sexual behavior repulsive. Their social agendas are largely self-satisfying/serving/indulgent, so until they focus their awareness on and believe in the spiritual truth of God's Word, they can no more be a part of His family than Satan himself.�
One might enquire how John Christopher presumes to know about the thought processes of a gay. That �guilt-ridden indecision� seems a little close to home. What are you doing in a gay man�s head, John? Hmm... I might also ask where the transvestite hate has gone. It seems to have been forgotten. Oh well, never mind.
You see, I can understand why there was (or is) a taboo about sodomy. In the days before the condom (and lubricant!) it will have been a practice that was fraught with risk. Religions each have their code of laws, and each is appropriate to the place where it originally came from. Pork is a no-no for most of the people inhabiting the Middle East, for example... and it�s also the meat that goes off most spectacularly in a hot climate. A code of laws has to embody rules that keep your tribe healthy and numerous... or your tribe will die out. (Consider the Shaker movement, who believed in strict celibacy... where are they now? Virtually extinct. There are exactly four of them left in the USA today.)
John Christopher is clearly a man with issues. He denounces �this unholy permissiveness� just a little too thoroughly, leaving one wondering if this �self-indulgent presence� is haunting the man from within.
In the same hate-rant, he describes an incident from his childhood...
�1951
The early days of my elementary education were spent in an all-boys, parochial institution that traditionally mounted a musical stage review at the end of each school year. Since there was no one to play female rolls [sic], a few of us were chosen to wear dresses and behave like young ladies. Since I had no knowledge of the Law against such things, at first, the no-choice masquerade didn't bother me at all. However, when the last performance ended, I not only had no desire whatsoever to wear female attire again, but the mere thought of doing so generated within me a severe distaste for what I had been selected to do.
But since the school was lorded over by the priests and nuns of a Roman Catholic Church, which was presumably 'infallible' where the maintaining and policing of God's standards and practices were concerned, I regarded this inner scorn as a strictly personal preference, rather than a Holy Spirit inspired, Christian response. Add to this experience my concurrent exposure to a once-a-week comedy program that starred Milton Berle, who frequently and outlandishly dressed like a woman in his sketches and opening remarks, and NBC's acceptability of the practice soon overrode any suspicions I might have had as to its illegitimacy.�
So... the mere thought of wearing female attire generated within him a severe distaste. Sorry, but that�s not normal. The normal response to wearing theatrical costume would be to laugh it off. Possibly to dislike it because it was uncomfortable... but it wouldn�t haunt you afterwards. You�d maybe be the butt of a few jokes for a week or two, but that would be it. A playground scrap and it�d all be forgotten. Unless... something happened? Something that the great moral crusader isn�t prepared to share with his readership.
A mid-20th century Catholic boys� school probably offered a great deal of potential for homosexual advances, whether desired or not. Is this the source of all the hate? That John Christopher was propositioned by another boy? As a result of looking girly in the stage review? An unwanted homosexual advance can be an embarrassing thing to deal with; not least when it comes from a classmate, and it must be added to the mix of feelings, along with the desire to be popular and so on.
Well, maybe. Or maybe the young John simply had an early �magic moment�, excited by the novelty of his clothing. (And he appears to have felt guilty about it, afterwards.) We�ll probably never know... but there�s a reason behind all this hate, and the hate is all the more intensive because it�s not just directed outward. I think that as much as he hates the gays, bisexuals and cross-dressers, John Christopher hates the young John Christopher for something that happened in 1951.
A lot of religionists will always be pissed off with transvestites. They haven�t forgiven us for that time when a cross-dresser went to church, and saw the priest walk down the centre aisle, swinging an incense burner. The cross-dresser whispered to the priest: "Honey, I love the dress... but did you know your handbag is on fire?"
(Rimshot.)
The code of laws that is Christianity might help a person to choose between right and wrong, but I believe that there are a lot of people out there - from all faiths, or none - who are better human beings than this twisted hate-monger. People who do the right thing not because an ingrained list of rules told them to, but because their morality, their sense of empathy, their conscience allowed them to make an informed decision. I would have thought that the right decision would involve dialogue, respect, and peace. I�ll go further: I think a person who has the wisdom and personal fortitude to face this challenge with calm decency is a better person than the scripture-spouting fundamentalist.
(And if you were working as a bouncer at the Pearly Gates, which kind of person would you admit?)
If, ultimately, you find that (like John Christopher) you simply can�t worship in �a network of 'churches' that not only support and encourage their wicked behavior, but have interpreted scripture in a way that justifies their sin by playing the legalist card when arguing their point of view�, you may have to find some minor sect for like-minded people... and go your merry (or in fact not very merry) way.
But let�s give John the last word. No doubt he�d like that:
�If one develops a physical or mental illness, one usually seeks a cure through the medical or psychiatric community. Until this world recognizes homo and bisexual tendencies as an abnormality, more and more people with those deliberately way-out-of-the-closet propensities will find ways to further justify their anti-biblical behavior.�
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