With the recent banwave of critical LGBT subs, and the jubilation they inspired I took it upon myself to emerge from the sidelines of towing the line and keeping my opinions to myself in order not to offend or insult anyone or any particular group, to take a stand and criticize aspects of the modern LGBT movement.

Now, you don’t know me personally, but I pride myself on looking at any topic through the lens of pragmatism and common sense. I believe that any issue can be evaluated from both sides and that a general consensus can be reached if either party actually works towards achieving it.

But enough with the self-aggrandizement.

As you know, many critical LGBT subs have been banned from reddit, and there has been a significant outcry in LGB communities against the show of force to silence dissenting opinions against certain ideologies that do not align perfectly to the current far-left realm of thinking.

To be clear, I am personally center left. As far as I am concerned any form of extremism is dangerous and impedes the wheels of progress.

But I digress. The sub I was a part of, was LGBDropTheT. If you are unfamiliar with it, the basic tenet is that Sexuality based minority communities should separate from Gender Identity based minority communities, as our goals and priorities through the years have diverged, albeit with certain cases of overlap.

Now, many people joined this community for different reasons, but I won’t comment on others personal beliefs and feelings.

My reason for joining is simple, there has been a rise in a rather troubling -and frankly homophobic- ideology that is being perpetuated by Gender Identity based minorities, that LGB people who believe that their sex was observed at birth instead of assigned who wish to enter relationships exclusively with other people of the same sex who also believe that their sex was observed at birth is transphobic.

I first became aware of this ideology when I stumbled across an “…InAction” subreddit that was posting screen shots of transgender individuals posting such things like, “lesbians who refuse to date trans women should be forced to suck girlcock” and “TERF lesbians should be burned”. In other words promoting rape and violence against lesbian women because they do not want to enter relationships with trans women. For more, read this.

I have even personally been accused of harboring internalized homophobia because I stated that I exhibit stereotypical masculine qualities and I would exclusively prefer to have a relationship with another man who has stereotypical masculine qualities.

I believe the phrase, “disgusted by femboys” and “…not a true gay man” were thrown at me. Never mind the fact that if you had to look at masc-masc gay relationships through a heteronormative lens, it would be the gayest of relationships because there is no masculine-feminine dynamic.

I can’t be the only person that views this behavior as disgusting and homophobic and detrimental to the advancement of LGBT rights? Do we not have the right to determine the details of our own romantic lives according to our own inherent preferences.

But to be told that our “obsession with genitals” is transphobic, is frankly -and let me reiterate- homophobic. Not to mention that the suggestion to force men and women to have sex with a person who possesses genitals that are opposite to what they desire, borders on forced conversion therapy.

I take great offense to being told that the way that I live my my life as a gay man is wrong. That my choice of partner is wrong because it excludes certain people.

Side note: Does a group of people complaining that they get excluded from the dating pool and that targets of their sexual desire should be forced to enter relationships with them not sound like another reddit community that was banned? Incels?

The ban from r/lgbt is inconsequential to me. It’s a sub I rarely used as I find it tends to lack depth and substance beyond circular back-slapping.

But I also never believed that people that hold extremist ideologies would rise to positions of power within major LGBT subs and use their influence to force Reddit Admins to ban communities that actually promote LGBT rights issues important to those communities. Some of these communities even existed as the only available support groups for certain members and I fear banning them might be detrimental to the well being of its members.

I’m referring to r/detrans which while being reinstated might as well be living on tenterhooks as the extremist left continues its pursuit to have it removed.

I was troubled by these subreddit bans, so I took to r/lgbt to voice my criticisms knowing full well that I was walking a tightrope in a valley of fire.

I’m actually surprised it took as long as it did to ban me.

In the ban message they included this link

An excerpt

The paradox of tolerance states that if a society is tolerant without limit, its ability to be tolerant is eventually seized or destroyed by the intolerant… "In order to maintain a tolerant society, the society must be intolerant of intolerance.”

I mean, really. Be a little critical darlings, and see that the intolerance is building within your own ranks and destroying it from within. Criticism is not intolerance.

Criticism is fundamental to keeping the ship on course and headed to its true destination, and unfettered and ungoverned ideological shifts can pave the way to atrocity.