The sad news of Nex Benedict, a trans kid who got beat up in a bathroom and died the next day, is “old” by now. America, however, still doesn’t seem to have a policy that takes care of everybody’s need to (1) be/express themselves per Constitutional freedoms and (2) access common spaces in a reasonable amount of peace.

Consider if you will recent news reports featuring people claiming to be threatened by images of watermelons. Isn’t America the land of reasonable-self-expression for all? Seems to me that SCOTUS should indicate to Congress how America can have its cake and eat it too, ways that ALLOW EVERYBODY to express themselves in little ways that OTHERS CAN EASILY AVOID.

I don’t have $0.02 to offer on the subject of sexual orientation because I don’t understand it. I personally accept the Catholic Church’s authority on this while AT THE SAME TIME acknowledging that America was NOT created as a Catholic or any kind of religious institution. After all, freedom of worship was a major motivator to cross the Atlantic to begin with, and AFAIK, Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, et al did NOT inject a you-must-choose-A-religion into the founding documents. Soooo, it seems to me that AMERICA is at a FORK in the road, and IMO the country has two options it can choose from: (1) Throw out the country, and form a new one, which suggests a referendum on the issue or authoritarian overthrow OR (2) face the real struggle of coexisting with people who might disgust you while citizens accept the responsibility of shielding their kids from things they don’t like INSTEAD OF EXPECTING THE GOVERNMENT TO DO IT FOR THEM.

Despite all of our ignorance regarding gender issues and the plethora of different opinions and attitudes on the subject, I think ONE truth stands out that can be scientifically and objectively verified:

The hurt and pain in headlines surrounding trans people almost always comes primarily from people who hate them. I totally understand being uncomfortable around trans people; however, does MURDER or beating someone up truly protect America’s youth? Does it un-gay people? Does it “teach them a lesson”? Somebody once said, “You can’t beat good into somebody.” I will not try to explain where gays and transgenders come from. Whether it’s a nature vs. nurture is something I’ll leave to authorities. I’m just saying that if your answer to gays and transgenders is violence, you seem like a bigger problem.