INTRO!

In this article I will attempt to explain my understanding of transgenderism ( I’m not to sure that’s a word but I am going to go with it ), and gay relationship’s in regard’s to the church. Normally I would use picture’s and name’s but in the transgender section I am not going to do that. I am aware sometime’s these people can be targeted with the worst sort of abuse, I don’t want this article to encourage that.

I feel like I am really sticking my neck out on this one, so remember, this is the uneducated point of view, so, it is what it is. HERE GOES!

TRANSGENDER ISSUE’S!  ( mine or their’s? ).

I noticed recently there has been a lot of coverage on TV in one way or another, on the transgender issue, whether it be a documentary, something on the new’s, a character in a drama or soap and even a co-presenter on a programme I like, which if I’m honest is half the reason I’m writing this blog.

I will try and explain my feeling’s while watching this programme the best i can.

The programme hadn’t been on for a few year’s ( which is an important point ), it has one main presenter and two co-presenter’s, two bloke’s one woman. So I was watching this programme like I would normally, but something was bugging me, something was different, then I realised the woman used to be a man. Now once I got over the initial shock, surprise and unfortunately, childish amusement, a type of mild transgenderphobic ( not a word? still going with it ) behaviour, and if I’m honest not the first time I have reacted this way on the couple of occasion’s I have seen people of a transgender disposition. I am obviously aware that sort of behaviour fall’s well below the boundaries of acceptability, and I am not trying to make excuses for it, “but” it was a natural and honest reaction based on something I don’t usually see and I suppose something considered to be a taboo subject. Anyway, I carried on watching the programme plus the next couple of episodes and the transgender issue didn’t register again, I just enjoyed the programme for what it was.

When I was younger ( my age is forty seven at the moment ), I might have said that was wrong, this was wrong, this should be like that blah, blah, blah, so basically, has my behaviour evolved, and if it has, is it because of brave people like this presenter have had the confidence to come out into the firing line or is it that I have just got older and my tolerance level’s have become higher. I think age come’s into it a bit, but I really feel that the wider media coverage this subject is getting can only be a positive thing for these individual’s.

Unfortunately as we all know, with positive’s there are alway’s some negative’s, take this story for instance, I recently saw a person on the new’s who had changed their gender and said that she had gone back to work with apprehensive feeling’s but as it turned out all her colleague’s were very understanding and supportive. Unfortunately social media was a different story, she had been bullied and even recieved death threat’s, I find it hard to believe that people like this still exist, backward inbred mutant’s who probably confuse these people with sexual preditor’s of one type or another, who don’t even register on the human scale, and of course there’s the small percentage of people who don’t need a reason, they are naturally horrible.

This story obviously has a positive and a negative (score 1-1), so, i think the fact that this woman was brave enough to go on national TV and tell people how she had been treated, basically using the backward f@#%wit’s behaviour against them turn’s it into a victory ( I call it 3-1). Now that I have translated my attempted understanding of transgender issue’s into football terminology, I will finish off with my understanding of the deep, complex emotional problem’s that effect transsexual’s, NOT A HOPE!, bloody hell! just writing that down made the cog’s driving my brain grind together, joking aside, it must be extremely tough.

Basically, ( this is the main point I was trying to make ) even as an insensitive beer drinking slob, my thought process has gone through a sympathetic evolutionary change, ( a bit like a monkey turning into a man ) maybe that show’s overall progress. And the other point I suppose is people of a transgender disposition (and the people who support you ) not being oversensitive and realising what a real problem is and what is not.

SAME SEX MARRIAGE & THE CHURCH.

Pretty much like the transgender issue , I have never been that bothered by same sex relationship’s, or the gay thing, I would say when I was younger I might have had a slightly more negative point of view but didn’t really give a crap one way or the other. Also, like the transgender thing, I think it is publicised more, which has definitely helped their continuing journey into the main stream, but one thing that really puzzle’s me, is gay people who are religious ( come to think of it the same for transexual’s ) and want to be accepted by an organisation that doesn’t want them, and is also responsible, as far as I’m concerned, for the deeply ingrained negative attitude’s they recieve. Let me explain this opinion a bit further.

Most of us are taught from an early age, religious or not, that men and women should be together in marriage, I was personally told as a youngster “if you don’t get married people will think you are strange, “NOT NORMAL”, blah, blah, blah, I could go on but I will cut to the chase, those opinion’s and many other’s stem from religion, even though they may come from someone who is not religious. As for the word “NORMAL”, it is one of the worst word’s ever created, especially when used in conjunction with human behaviour and appearance, like the abominable snowman and the Loch Ness monster, in my opinion, it just doesn’t exist.

Now I am sure that most Christian’s are aware that early Christianity was like an underground movement ( a bit like the rave scene in the late eighties ) due to the pagan belief’s and persecution of the roman’s, up until the Emperor Constantine ( bronze statue of bloke in picture at the top of this section, wearing a dress ), who realised that Christianity was becoming so popular that he would have to encorporate it into the roman empire. As far as I understand he also mixed in some pagan celebration’s to make the transition smoother. Now baring in mind that the origin’s mainstream Christianity ( as far as I’m aware ) is sort of a hybrid religion, and has gone through many change’s and has gained many different faction’s over a two millennia period, so I don’t understand why gay people start their own version of Christianity, not just for gay people, but inviting everyone who is interested in that faith. Admittedly it might seem like I’m simplifying a complicated matter, ( remember this is the uneducated point of view ) but is it really that complicated, when Constantine was caught on the hop with the emergence of Christianity, he had to think on his feet and come up with a practical solution, maybe somebody who is gay and happens to be a member of the clergy should do the same.

AND FINALLY! 

I would like to point out that Christianity is not the only religion that has a problem with the subject matter written about in this article.

I suppose it is fairly obvious by now that I’m not religious, that’s all I’m going to say for the time being on that, as I’m going to write an article on religion in the near future, positive’s and negative’s, from my point of view anyway. As far as gay and transgender people go, I would say to anyone with a real problem with these people, take a look what’s going on in the world, while I was writing this article twenty two people, including children were killed by a suicide bomber in Manchester, this and other atrocities are being carried out on a daily basis all over the world, so is it really that much of a big deal.

Let’s say you hate someone for being gay, and then you hate them again and then you hate them a bit more and when you have hated as much as you can, what have you changed, NOTHING! Because some people are gay. It is beyond anyone’s control, another biological idiosyncracy within the human species, so, it is what it is, and this has all come from someone who generally doesn’t give a crap about anything.

You can sympathise with someone, have an opinion about something or someone, watch a film or documentary about various subject’s, but you can’t live somebody else’s life, even when you empathise, they are your feeling’s not there’s, so I will never understand what it is like to be gay or someone of a transgender disposition but I do know what it is like to receive negative attention over a long period of time. I have had a couple of mental breakdown’s ( admittedly self inflicted ), the first when I was seventeen the second one I am just recovering from now after roughly eleven year’s, I will not write to much now because I will be dedicating a blog to this. Finally, if anybody has an opinion on what I have written, positive, negative, indifferent please feel free to get in touch.

THE PIG.