I hear you raggytash, and the other who have advised me to keep my head down, and appreciate it. BUT...

You see most of my life I have had to put up with such attitudes: the bullying, bigotry, hatred, wrong diagnoses, rejection. If I am to be hated then I shall be hated for something I am rather than loved for something I am not.

Most people are decent folk. I have come to KNOW that. Most everyone in my life accept me for what and who I am. Acceptance is way way better than tolerance but I'll take tolerance any day over hate.

It is not lost on me that I would not have the rights I have to live my life were it not for those brave folk, straight, gay and cis, who have stuck their necks out in the past and took a stand to help get me the rights I now have and enjoy. Thus, I have right to remain too silent and stay in the shadows when such opportunities present to be out and educate on the subject. Had others done that I would still be living in abject conformity and fear I dare say. I am stood on the shoulders of giants.

So I speak up on sexuality and gender issues when I feel the need. I do not wear my sexuality on my sleeve. Neither do I throw my gender in people's faces BUT I will not stay stealthy because I let those who follow down if I do. I choose my battlegrounds for sure but I cannot stay silent when others are standing alongside. I am grateful to everyone who every stood up for me to get rights. I now need to give something back so that those who follow have it easier (and that includes the children. ESPECIALLY the children and their parents who support them).

Too many live have been lost and taken on these battle fields of gender and sexuality. It has to stop. The knuckle-draggers need to know their days are numbered. No-one is trying to take away their rights to be who they are nor silenced. They are being given an opportunity to change their thinking, educate themselves, and get on with their lives unmolested in a free society where hate speech and incitement is not allowed. We have a ways to go.

So I am not an activist. I am not a gender extremeist. I simply stand and be counted alongside those who are kind and brave enough to allow me air to breathe with no resentment. And I am grateful for that, I assure you all, so that neither sexuality or gender stains my being. I have a very normal life (whatever normal is) and I now do all things I ever wished to to, freely, without begging for a chance to just be myself.

The likelihood is, had this topic not come up, I would not have mentioned it. It's no secret, as I 'outed myself' quite some time back on another thread where gender was a topic, and my stance on freedom to be whatever sexuality you are has never been hidden.

Heated though many a BS topic gets, most folk on Mudcat are decent folk, just as in 'real life' and the mix here reflects that of society generally I suppose :)