Remember you are dust and unto dust you shall return

A member of the Akron trans community was murdered this week, though it remains to be seen whether she was killed because of that, or because of some other hatred. It has me thinking of all my trans friends who are made to be afraid to leave their homes, almost as afraid as they are of dying having never lived as the person they know in their hearts they were meant to be. 

And it leaves me to ponder why, why in the hell some people are so fixated on the supposed sin of homosexuality, when there are so many more dire evils in the world, like the murder of people who died only as their real lives began.

Only I think I figured it out. Actually, I think I figured it out when I was four - when I informed my mother in all seriousness that I'd be giving up vegetables for Lent. See, giving up the things we like is hard, so we scream and yell about the sins of people who do stuff we have no desire to ever do.

90% of people have no idea what it is to be in love with someone of our own gender, to be considered a monster based on something they couldn't change if we wanted to. It is so easy, when we have no desire to do something, to jump up and down and scream that it's a sin.

The Bible condemns avarice dozens of times, but we don't want to give up our SUVs and our cable TVs, no, so we yell and scream about the half dozen times the Bible mentions homosexuality in hopes God and the world won't notice our hypocrisy (a trait the Bible also condemns dozens of times over). 

So we make others' lives a living hell, or we foment a hatred so vitriolic that it leads horrifyingly often to murder. We point and shriek until gay people begin to feel their lives aren't worth living - the Suicide Prevention Resource Center estimates 30-40% of gay youth have attempted suicide.

I'll say that again - at least a third of gay youth have tried to end their own lives. The Bible condemns wrath and cruelty but by god we can't possibly be expected to give that up so let's just go ahead and beat and bully and condemn and hate and hate and hate so loud that we think we can bury our own sins far from God's sight.