Unplumbed Homophobia

The Anti-Gay Motive Lurking Beneath Liberals' Push For 'Trans Kids'

I came out as gay in the early 1990’s, while I was attending college and working in sales at downtown department store Filene’s (R.I.P.) in Boston. I worked alongside many straight women, a few straight men, and several gay men. I was fresh-faced and new to the ‘big city’, hesitantly coming to terms with my sexuality as a shy, introverted nineteen-year-old. My older gay coworkers had been around the block and let you know it. They were effeminate and openly, proudly flamboyant, and this rubbed the straight coworkers the wrong way. It wasn’t just the way they walked, talked, stood, and dressed; it was the comfort with which they did so.

One day, a few of my straight coworkers took me aside to give me their seal of approval: “We like how you don’t constantly rub it in our faces that you’re gay,” or words to that effect. I took the left-handed compliment for what it was (“Thank you?”), and didn’t feel great about it.

Another time, a manager made a remark to me about the ‘atrocious’ gay guy in visual merchandising, who had just glided by with his smirk and mop of gorgeous red hair. The manager was unaware that I had recently started dating said atrocious guy. (Awkward!) Again, it was clear that I was to be commended for not acting like that.

It wasn’t as if I was going out of my way to make a statement or hide my gayness—I was just doing my job, complying with dress codes and store policies, and trying to be professional. Like all of us who have gone through this, I was new to the ‘gay world’ and finding my way. I have a strong sense of self—I’ve never been one to follow groupthink or mimic behavior, as is sometimes the case with people coming out. And while I could appreciate a Paul Lynde or Charles Nelson Reilly type¹, that just wasn’t me. Don’t get me wrong—I do have my ‘clutch my pearls’ moments, and I can certainly deliver a sasstastic zinger when the moment calls for one. But essentially I’m that most boring of gay men: just an average guy who happens to like other guys.

And for the most part, that’s what people want. That’s just how it is with a lot of straight people who are ‘accepting’ of us gays—they accept us as long as we don’t push it too far. As long as we ‘act’ straight. As long as we behave in a way that doesn’t make them uncomfortable. As long as gay men don’t show any signs of femininity. As long as lesbians are the fetishized lipstick variety, not the butchy-dykey kind. As long as men act like stereotypical men and women act like stereotypical women.

This phenomena needs a name, so I’m calling it ‘unplumbed homophobia’: We thought we had ameliorated the hate, fear, and discomfort with homosexuality and gained allies, only to discover more homophobia still lurking beneath the surface. We thought we had won ‘acceptance’, but didn’t realize it came with a *.

It’s one of the reasons why trans has become so swiftly and easily accepted by liberal straight people. It makes them comfortable in a way that gay people never did. Gay people subverted sexual stereotypes, while trans reinforces them. Because that’s all that ‘trans’ is: the performance of sexual stereotypes.

This came to mind during this past month, when both Jon Stewart and John Oliver released episodes of their shows in support of ‘gender-affirming care’ in ‘trans kids’. It’s part of the wave of Liberals diving in to show their love for all things trans—logic and reason be damned. [Not all liberals, although it does seem like the majority of them…and it is assuredly in the platform of the Democratic Party.]

The male hosts framed this as being ‘progressive’—another medal for them to pin on their ‘LGBTQ+ Ally’ sash. But it’s not about helping kids feel better about being their ‘authentic selves’; it’s about people like Jon Stewart and John Oliver feeling more comfortable when everyone follows sexual stereotypes. And the truth is, they would feel more comfortable if gay people didn’t ‘act so gay’. They would feel more comfortable if gay people changed sex and magically became heterosexual.

Increasingly, the ‘LGBTQ+ allies’ conveniently forget about the first couple of letters in the acronym. In neither show did I hear any concern that effeminate boys may grow up to be gay men or that masculine girls may grow up to be lesbians. Children do not feel romantic or sexual attraction, so they cannot express what might be in their future. In both programs, ‘gender-affirming care’ was championed as a means to let children choose and change their gender, with no regard to their sexuality later in life.

They would prefer that those little pansy boys were converted to little girls—because that’s how they act, right?! So why not push them in that direction? An effeminate gay man poses a threat, but turn him into a castrated man wearing a dress and he is no longer a concern.

They would feel more at ease if we persuaded those little tomboy girls to act more like Chase Strangio—cut off her breasts and grow a(n attempt at a) mustache. Yes, listen to the doctors! A girl can be made into a ‘man’ that Jon Stewart can feel comfortable having a conversation with.

Rather than having four pre-arranged accommodating guests who parrot approved talking points, I’d like to see Stewart face off against a panel of four butch lesbians who have no use for a man.

If it sounds outlandish to you that people would feel so uncomfortable with homosexuals that they would go so far as to encourage them into being the other sex—giving them drugs and surgeries to do so—let me assure you that it is not. In Iran, they will throw you off a building to your death if you are gay, but the government will help pay for you to get a ‘sex change’. Does that horrify you? It should. And it should scare you even more that the United States of America is inching closer and closer to that horror every day. Just days ago, President Biden reiterated his approval for ‘gender-affirming care’, a euphemism for, among other things, transing the gay away in kids. Because people like Biden, Stewart, and Oliver won't have to deal with the discomfort of being around gay people if we nip the problem in the bud.

Liar.

1. Google if you’re too young to know these references—or better yet, spend some streaming time reveling in the joy of 1970’s game shows.