“LGB, Not LGBTQ+” is the eleventh of fifteen teen articles received in spring 2024 from Piute High School students. Three of them were published in The Byway‘s most recent May paper. The rest will be featured online.
Today’s generation pressures kids into the LGBTQ+ world, normalizing it to the point that they are no longer normal unless they are a part of it. The term LGBTQ+ keeps growing and letters keep being added to it, but the only normal letters that should be accepted and normalized are LGB (lesbian, gay, and bisexual). Today’s world is corrupt and uncertain, the future generation has many flaws due to not being taught or being taught incorrectly.
Kids should be taught that they do not have to be a part of or be forced into celebrating pride, but that it is normal if they choose to be a part of or celebrate it. Teens, children, and even adults are pressured into celebrating pride more than anything else. No sexuality should be celebrated or normalized over another. Pride is so celebrated that it is “bad” to be straight and if someone makes any comment about being straight, they get called homophobic. Pride should be normalized and celebrated but so should being straight.
It is LGB not LGBTQ+. Kids should be taught to accept LGB and that it is normal but not be taught that things like transgender, furries, 2 spirited, nonbinary, more than 2 genders are also normal, because they are not.
Transgender is an illness called gender dysphoria. “Gender dysphoria is the feeling of discomfort or distress that might occur in people whose gender identity differs from their sex assigned at birth or sex-related physical characteristics” from “Gender dysphoria – Symptoms and causes” by Mayo Clinic. It is ok for someone to feel like they aren’t a boy or they aren’t a girl. People can be a feminine boy or a masculine girl or vice versa, but that does not mean that they need to change their gender. The ability to change one’s gender medically should not be an option for anyone of any age, but not as a child, teen, or young adult. “Sex ‘reassignment’ doesn’t work. It’s impossible to ‘reassign’ someone’s sex physically, and attempting to do so doesn’t produce good outcomes psychosocially,” states Ryan T. Anderson in “Sex Reassignment Doesn’t Work. Here Is the Evidence.” Transgender men do not become women, nor do transgender women become men. They just become feminized men or masculinized women. Medically changing someone’s gender just causes more issues than it solves and most trans people regret changing also from “Sex Reassignment Doesn’t Work. Here Is the Evidence.”
Furries are not real. Furrism is considered a form of cosplay, which is fine if it is kept behind doors, and not out in the public, disrupting peace and brainwashing children. A furry is defined as, “people who have an interest in anthropomorphism, which specifically refers to giving human characteristics to animals,” stated Sharon Roberts in “What are ‘furries?” Every child goes through phases of acting like an animal and that is normal. It is when it is encouraged and becomes normalized that it becomes a problem. Children and adults should not be encouraged to act like an animal, people are meant to be civilized.
There are only two sexes/genders. That is not an opinion, but a fact. People may make up all these other genders saying they are non-binary or he/she/they/them, or whatever they make up, but scientifically there are only two types of gametes (sperm and egg cells) and two types of sex steroids, (androgens and estrogens). There is no such thing as non-binary. What happened to just being a tomboy or a feminine boy? Why does somebody not being the ‘normal’ girl or boy mean they are a different gender? People should be allowed to be as masculine or feminine as they like no matter their sex, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t their birth-assigned gender and need to identify as something else.
This generation has not been taught correctly. Parents and other adults pressure kids into the LGBTQ+ world whether by accident or on purpose. Children should not be pressured or feel pressured by anyone. Kids should learn to accept LGB and that it is normal, but also know that things like transgender, furries, 2-spirited, non-binary, more than 2 genders are not normal nor correct. It is LGB not LGBTQ+.
– by Gracelyn Barnson (10th) Junction
Feature image courtesy of Abbie Call, The Byway.
Read more from Piute teens in What Is Communication? by Hadley Morgan.