**Paragraphs 6-9 are a Christian religion’s point of view**
Robert Eads was an American transgender that transitioned from being female to being male. He transitioned late in life and acquired ovarian cancer. He had gotten top surgery, but was denied bottom surgery because of his age and ovarian cancer. He was discriminated against and few doctor’s agreed to treat him. By the time he found a reliable doctor the cancer had spread to everything except for his lungs, which is ironic because he was an avid smoker! He is well known for hosting the film “Southern Comfort” and a huge player at the Southern Comfort conference, held in Atlanta, Georgia annually. The purpose of this film was to educate and spread awareness that trans people were being socially and medically discriminated against! The only people that truly accepted these people were also trans. I believe that this film had a bit of satire in it and was trying to show that trans people are people too!
This film harps on the fact that a person’s family doesn’t have to be biological. Families are supposed to be a person’s support system, no matter their race or gender. Some transgenders get disowned by their families, so they usually create a non-biological family with people that face the same issues that they have faced and are facing. That is why the conference was founded, to reach out to people that are hurting in this specific area of their life. This conference gives the participants hope and a sense of belonging and acceptance- something that everybody should have the right to experience. Although some people do not agree with being transgender due to religious reasons- God made you how you are and you shouldn’t have the authority to change that. This sort of mentality is what drives this prejudice and discrimination against anybody who is not cisgender.
Honestly I do not agree with being anything other than cisgender, BUT just because I don’t agree with doesn’t mean that I will judge or discriminate others that do not hold the same religious morals and values that I do. Somebody once told me that “you will never look into the eyes of someone that God does not love and to always be kind to everyone that I meet”. Just because these people chose to identify as the opposite sex that they were born with, doesn’t mean that they should be “pitchforked out of the village”. Everyone deserves to be loved and judging is not within the human authority either- judgement should come from the Lord not from people! It makes me sad that these people were treated so badly and even denied medical care for CANCER!!!
This film harps on gender identity, most of the people that attend the Southern Comfort conference have identified as transgender- or identifying by the opposite gender that they were born with. Some people get top and bottom surgery, but some don’t get either surgeries. For example, before transitioning Robert was married to a man and had two children. Robert’s sexual orientation was that he wanted a male partner, but he himself also wanted to identify as a male. He divorced his husband and transitioned and then began to date Lola.
There are many stereotypes associated with people that are transgender. One includes that transgender make up a third gender; transgender and third gender are completely different! Another stereotype is that transgender people are confused and tricking others. Honestly my family believes this stereotype, and it is hard for me to reject this idea due to my Christian beliefs. To elaborate a little more, I know that there is a God and that there is a devil. The devil wants nothing more but to kill, steal, and destroy EVERYONE on this earth because every human being was made in the image of God. The devil is jealous and will do anything to confuse God’s people into sinning so that they can get a one-way ticket to Hell! Don’t get me wrong, everyone sins but it is a matter of having your sins forgiven by God that establishes a persons eternal fate!
People think that the devil is stupid, but that is what he wants you so desperately to think! He’s not just gonna give away his evil tactics! Everybody knows or has a sense that horror movies are evil, but the devil is a master of disguise and inserts his evil into what society believes are “pure” or “good” things. He disguises himself and his demons as well; he is not just going to come out and expose himself! We are in the End Times; the Bible warns us of what will happen! Even if you are not a Christian, scientist even say that the end of the world is near. Think about it, if you were trying to deceive someone would you expose your intentions? We believe that the LGBTQ Community is a tactic of the devil to demonize Christians and blame our nations problems on us! After we are demonized, we will be subjected to “bow down” to the LGBTQ community by accepting views that don’t line up with our beliefs and if we don’t we will be thrown in camps- literally! (Also, the economy will crash in 2019 and it will be far worse than 1929- prophetic insight. When you see these events on the news, I hope that you will come back and re-read what I am telling you!)
After the world “ends”, we believe that the devil will not have any more influence on God’s people because an Angel will lock him into Hell! Then God will give all humans a second chance to turn to him over an 1,000 year period. After this grace period there will be judgement! “And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss……he seized the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and bound him for a thousand years…..he threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to KEEP HIM FROM DECIEVING the nations anymore” (The Bible, Revelation 20:1-3). I said all that to make my point that the devil is deceiving people by assigning demons at birth that cause these hormone imbalances and malformed genitalia. I believe that it is a trick of the enemy. Although I will never agree with the LGBTQ community, I still won’t judge those who are being tormented. Love, Jesus, and God is what keeps the world going round! “Judge not, or you will be judged”- Jesus!
The thing about the devil is that he will trick you into sinning, and then let that sin destroy you. An example would include how transgender people have absolutely HORRIBLE health care and are subjected to horrific violence! It is not fair that a woman that wants to get her boobs and butt done, which have no functional purpose get treated far better than people that are transitioning and have functional issues that MUST be fixed! There are many accounts of how transgender people have been discriminated against. There was an instance where a transgender veteran was denied medication while staying in a Long Island jail for burglary. Jessica was needing estrogen so badly because her anger was overloading her mental capacity to function (Leland 2019). A 32- year old trans man arrived in the emergency room because of an ectopic pregnancy. Unfortunately his case was misdiagnosed by the nurse as stable and he ended up delivering a stone cold, dead baby! The death of the baby probably couldn’t of been prevented, but if the doctor wouldn’t have sent him for an emergency C-section he could of died himself (Stroumsa 2019).
According the American College of Pediatrics, some physicians have come to the conclusion that child gender dysphoria, or allowing children to pick their own gender is child abuse (APIS 2017). Depending on your beliefs, one could completely agree with this statement or one could declare it as callous and cruel. Opponents of this statement probably believe that it would actually be cruel to force a child to identify with a gender that they did not feel themselves as. Proponents would believe that it would be abuse because children learn from their environment and confusion can cause people to think or make decisions that they truly don’t want. Its always mind over matter, your mind is very powerful and can actually trick you into thinking things that just aren’t true (the devil)! If a person opposes this statement then they probably feel extremely offended, isolated, and hurt by how pediatrics are treating this issue.
There have been several attempts to advocate to transgender rights and help with medical care and psychological care! According the Politico, the Trump Administration is trying to cut back on ObamaCare and deplete health care for trans individuals (Diamond 2019). I believe that Trump is doing this due to religious beliefs, which I can fully support! At the same time it is grieving to see how badly these people are being treated, but God says that he will turn people over to their own devices so that they can see just how miserable they are and turn back to him! It seems that things are getting worse for the health and mental well being for trans people in this country. I presume that the next President will be an advocate for trans health and will give them more benefits. It is very sad to see the little amount of respect that these people are getting, but for me it is kind of hard to understand why someone would choose this lifestyle. I am not being critical, but I honestly just cant imagine what is going through their heads. I can understand medical conditions such as gland or hormonal disorders, but not the fact that some people switch with no medical evidence!
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