Increasingly Intolerant Behaviour .....
What is going on with people in the UK? We seem to be suffering from an outbreak of ..... I don’t really know what the right word is, but it’s not good. I’m an open, tolerant and accepting person. I see the benefits to each and every type of person we have living on this land mass that we call the UK and will stick up for anyone. In short, I have found that ‘treat as you wish to be treated’ is a great way to live. For many years we have had policies that allowed people to migrate into the country and settle, take work, bring up their kids and to become British citizens if they so choose. More recently, we have also evolved laws and freedoms to allow anyone to live their life any way they like, supposedly without fear of abuse, mistreatment or from being marginalised by other parts of society. As a child born in the 70’s and growing up in the 80’s, I thought that the revolution in acceptance and the growth of diversity and equality for all was monumental and that in the future, i.e. now, it would be so embedded that no one in a minority group should fear anyone else or what they may think. For anyone who doesn’t know me or hasn’t read some of my previous blogs, it’s a confusing time for a young child feeling that there is something different about them, and not being able to talk to anyone through fear of reprisals or ridicule. I didn’t wake up one day and think, I think I will be a girl today. From my earliest memories, I didn’t identify completely as a boy, but to the same extent not completely as a girl either. I went through periods of total confusion, and some of clarity - it is only in the last 30 years or so that I really understood who I was and the last 8 years that I have been able to openly express and share my female side with others. Gender fluidity is not easy to live with because for reasons I cannot explain I transition through the male/female binaries at different times. I have covered more of this in previous blogs so if you want to read or learn more, then I would love you to track back through my posts and if you want, leave feedback or ask questions. So back to intolerance, please don’t get me wrong, there will always be individuals that you or I may not like, that’s just a marmite thing, some like and some don’t and its down to not clicking and nothing else. At no point would I feel I needed to persecute someone I don’t like just because we didn’t click. But when people start to react adversely to entire sectors of society in this way, I feel that that kind of behaviour towards others is fundamentally wrong, and I mean things like: racist, sexist, homophobic and trans-phobic behaviour. These things should have never existed in the first place, but they did, and by now they should be dead and buried somewhere in our history. Unfortunately, they are not. They are all alive and kicking and doing well, some under legitimised names for some people, for example Brexit, seems to be a great excuse for racist behaviour, and also to use against human rights laws that came in under Europe but some people think we should drop as we are leaving. There are some great names out there for people to hide behind, like Britain First, I could really start to rant on this subject but will avoid it here. Sexism is also alive and well along with homophobic behaviour, these both hide well behind the legitimised banners of religious belief and the far right of politics, and more often the issues stem from not all but some of the over 50’s age groups these days, and the excuse, “I’m too old to change” is regularly used but the knock on is that some of these attitudes are continuing to rub off on younger generations. Finally the one that really bothers me, because it impacts me, is the trans phobic behaviour, in the last couple of years reported cases have increased by almost 150%, not that that means there are necessarily more cases of it but just that more are reported. And this is a tough area as well because this one hides well behind the feminists banner, I have even been told on one occasion that I am just milking the privileges of being a man, but also want all the benefits of being a woman that have been fought for over the years, whatever that means?! I have no idea why they would think this, but I wish these people could live in my shoes and see what it’s like, maybe they would change their tune a bit then. The last 10 years or so have really seen some amazing advances and changes to laws and some real forward moves towards not singling out trans people as being some sub category of humankind, but that we are just the same as everyone else. However, in line with this as I stated above there now seems to be some resurgence in anti-trans behaviour. Now there will always be those in the minority who will use their religious and political beliefs to justify cruel, hateful and abusive behaviours that they harbour towards others, and then there are the elitist and extremist groups who claim they are patriotic or righteous, and use that as an excuse to justify their victimisation of others. Recently though there is a new wave of objectors to some parts of the LGBTQ+ community, and its happening from within. I have not personally experienced this but it is becoming more noticeable across social media. The new target is the non-binary or gender fluid group and they are being hit from both sides - the anti-trans groups who are more than happy to include them and more shockingly by some elements within the trans community who are seemingly going full circle and starting to behave like those opposed to transgenderism in the first place, despite their own trans status. All this adds up to the simple fact that it doesn’t seem to matter how far we progress with equal/human rights for all, there is no escaping that there will always be those who will enjoy the freedoms that those rights bring to them but don’t necessarily believe that everyone should enjoy them. Obviously, these are my own views based on my experiences and observations, and not everyone will see this or agree with it. All I hope for is that we can continue to move forward and progress for the benefit of my children and I hope at some point my grandchildren. I for one will be bringing my kids up with open eyes and open hearts and hope that they will promote the same ideals that have brought the progress we have seen so far. Finally, I just want to thank you for taking the time to read my blog and hope you enjoy this and the other posts I have written and will follow me into the future. Please feel free to leave a comment and you can also find and follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Bloglovin, just follow the links below. Love and hugs, Sophie xx Facebook www.facebook.com/beingsophie Twitter www.twitter.com/sophietgirl Bloglovin www.bloglovin.com/blogs/being-sophie-17676297
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AuthorHi, I'm Sophie. I hope you enjoy reading my blog. Please leave some comments on what you think of my blog x Archives
March 2022
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