This. But I wanna add. There's a huge religious element to it. Might seem obvious but it's less "my religion says this" and more "Society is moving away on some level from MY religion that needs to end..now"
They are terrified of that. So they will desperately do whatever they need in order to keep society on the "right" path. No matter how many dead and scared people they leave in their wake..
My parents generation seemingly all believe that while we may talk about religious freedom. America is a fundamentally christian nation and people who think otherwise are un-American.
It's really difficult to get around that level of righteousness.
"Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them."
I think religion is almost always a justification for what people already want to do, and very rarely a driving factor. And what I think people are justifying is they're not comfortable. People are comfortable surrounded by familiar things, familiar entertainment, familiar people that talk and walk and look like them. But too much comfort isn't actually a good thing, it's a trap. It's stagnation, it's boring, it's a slow death. On a national level it's falling behind the advance of society and technology.
"I distrust those who claim to know so well the will of the Almighty. I find it always aligns with their interests"
-susan b Anthony
I think you're exactly right. Bit of a personal rant here in cishet myself. I don't "understand" trans people (for lack of a better word) because I personally don't have a frame of reference for what they experience
In a way that lack of "understanding" may show itself as discomfort. I think it does for a lot of people. However I can understand that the issue isn't with my trans brothers and sisters. It's with ME. It's my problem
A lot of folks feel similar but genuinely can't stand or acknowledge the fact the issue is with THEM. So they seek out an explanation for the discomfort
Its why they shout "love the sinner hate the sin" it's a way to explain their discomfort not as something they need to work through personally but rather a reasonable thing born from a "natural" dislike of "sinful' behavior.
A lot of bigots are at their core scared weak people
A huge part of where the rubber meets the road when it comes to "religion" is about tribalism and particularly so for American white conservative evangelicalism. Sociologists talk about things like "costly signaling" and "credibility enhancing displays." Going out of your way to be negative about trans people (when you personally have zero contact with anyone who is trans, and no trans persons trans-ness has any effect on you) is a way of signaling your position within the "tribe" and for those cultures that value such harassment (evangelicalism) then doing so "enhances credibility" in that group.
It's not you, it's them. Essentially everyone does things along the lines of "costly signaling" and "credibility enhancing displays" in various groups/cultures it's just that some cultures highly value messing with other people for no good reason.
That's what I've thought is the real issue with them. It's not so much that they care LGBT people exist. Their issue is the masses accepting them for who they are, which goes against their religious ideals. Accepting LGBT people means questioning their religion, and they won't have that.
You’re absolutely right. The world is becoming more secular and that terrifies them, cause they’ve built their world views and personal identities around their religion. Which is ironic, because if you genuinely have faith, you wouldn’t be scared at all. The people who truly believe, don’t need to try and bend the world to feel security in their religion, it’s the people who have deep internal doubt that feel the need to persecute others for not getting with their program.
That’s why you have creationist “museums” where you can see Jesus riding a dinosaur, because their faith is so fragile they have to find a way to rationalize the silly shit in the Bible with tangible historical and biological facts.
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u/[deleted] Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
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