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Illusion of choice: the tyrant's best friend. Stating his victims chose, the tyrant soothes his guilty conscience. A gun to the head is no choice, except to the gunman. He alone may pull the trigger, yet we blame the victim, and say they can chose death. To this I reply, "You first." The illusion doesn't stop there, the extorted price need not be as expensive as death. Severe bodily harm, unwanted sex, taking property, etc, is also extortion. Each example is unfairly taking someone's right for a ransom. Be it murder, battery, rape, or robbery, none are right; none are chosen.
We just gloss over the offender who created and could easily cease the situation and blame the victim. It's easier. Immorality often is.
I'm trans; it shouldn't matter. It does. I'm in danger of having all my rights destroyed, and have had many already destroyed. Honesty may lead to death, beatings, etc. What's the worst to take, is the absolute lie, "Be yourself; be an individual." That is, unless anyone doesn't like you, which is inevitable. Being excluded from our interdependent society is intolerable, because we can't all be self sustaining hunters in the wilderness. Practically, it's a slow death sentence from poverty, and isolation.
As for intolerance, push it and it pushes back hard. Ideally, the idea of my wearing a dress and receiving medical treatment, shouldn't exile me from society. This is the real, not the ideal. I am denied both and granted misery. All the while, groups of individuals have asserted ownership over public spaces and excluded me from them. Transgender access to anything, driver's licenses, housing, jobs, medical care, even bathrooms is seen as us infringing upon others. Our rights are ignored. There's no civilized discussion, and attempts at that have gone badly. God forbid you don't fit in....
I'm actually quite scared to even speak or type of it. It's gotten a little better with some people, but we're still in a world where I could say and do all the right things at exactly the right time, for all the right reasons, for all the right results, and it means nothing and we all know why. I'm foolish enough to post about this topic again, even after such a long time, even in a thread dedicated to it.
At some point I was emotionally destroyed, and am rebuilding myself, painfully slowly. I've learned to speak little. Even that isn't safety.
I find it tragic that what I am is disliked so much by some people (who I've never hurt) that they think I'm what's destroying the country or whatever. A decent enough place in society would be nice. Failing that, meh. I'm just tired.
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