I never upload anything to FA, and I forgot to put the essay itself in a format that doesn't need to be downloaded, so here it is:

To establish a background, I’m going to cement my stance on the subject of gender identity. Gender and sex are different and independent of each other. Biology does play a part in your identity as an individual, but it is not a direct instruction to your mind. If you are physically male, you may feel as if you identify as a female, or some kind of nonbinary gender. I myself am genderqueer, for lack of a better term; meaning that I feel as if gender simply is unimportant to me, and I refuse to let a simple label define who I am. “Genderqueer,” is merely the term I use to describe myself as closely as I can to those in the LGBT community who would actually understand what I’m talking about, and it is defined as a person who has characteristics of both male and female, but doesn’t fit into either category.
That being said, Roarey is NOT a bad person for feeling differently. Yes, his stance on gender being a binary comes from a place of insensitivity, lack of understanding of current human psychology, and even flat-out rejection of it given that he sees little value in the DSM-5 (which does greatly annoy me, but I digress), however it does NOT mean that anyone has a shred of evidence to say he does not deserve a platform. InkBunny is a place for art, free expression, and the sharing of ideas. Just because someone thinks differently about you does not mean you should shun their ideas or make assumptions about their personality.
I went into Roarey’s chatroom on Telegram thinking that he was going to be total asshole partly because I saw him as an insensitive bigot when I first saw his unicorn cartoon, but I did so with the intent of showing him that I was on his side FIRST. My goal was to see if he really was as much of a dickhead that everyone seemed to portray him as in the comments, so I played devil’s advocate. I introduced myself as an ally to him, to get to know him first before making final concrete judgements about him. In the weeks I’ve spent chatting with him both in a group setting and one-on-one, I have found that even though he rejects the gender spectrum, and rejects the DSM-5, and rejects a large portion of the psychology field straight-up, on literally every other account, he is a rational, level-headed, well-worded and well-thought-out individual. Everything about him, and the way he thinks makes sense. He has never insulted me, and even after weeks of playing his game, I’ve found that I don’t need to. Even though I have managed to argue and debate with him, I still have found reason to look past the differences we have, and still manage to communicate with him on a casual level. Why can’t anybody else?
I have a feeling it’s because of the fact that a lot of the people who have the most vocal of disconnects with his opinions are those who are directly impacted by his words. Being a nonbinary individual, I am part of this camp. We as LGBT people have, in a sense, seen this cartoon of his as a direct attack on us and our community, and whether that’s how it really was intended or not, it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that we try to see this from his perspective first before shutting him down. Why does Roarey feel this way? Because he is the kind of person who needs more evidence than simple text on a page, or speeches from those with a direct connection to the issue. Roarey has never felt a question of his gender, therefore he does not understand the way we feel. There is no point in trying to convince him that his ideas are wrong because frankly, we have nothing to offer other than our opinions, and the researched findings of scientists, psychologists, and others of that caliber.
Much like those who are hardened in their belief that the Earth is flat, they will not be convinced of the truth until they see it for themselves, and until it’s convenient enough for people like that to go into space high enough to see the earth from a far enough distance to see the curvature with their own eyes, they will only ever exist in their own world where everything is simple and makes sense.
Making sense of the world is what we as humans want to do; we are curious beings by nature, and we are constantly seeking to understand the world around us. For some, there are things that simply don’t make sense, and for Roarey, gender is one of those things.
Aside from his actual stances on gender, I feel that his use of the word “lies,” in his original post was exaggerated. Teaching children about gender identity is a very difficult thing to do. All of the information about these things are becoming available very quickly, and with the internet being so prominent, it is difficult to hide these things from the youth. What is the default mechanism when faced with new information? Teach it to the kids, especially when that new information could potentially change their lives. The challenge humanity faces is deciding WHEN it’s appropriate to teach this information. Teach it too young, and you’ll give children a complex that nothing about them is real, and they snowball into a psychotic killer, or something along those lines. Teach it too late, and you risk allowing them to be subject to countless questions of their identity, and potentially in the worst case scenario, end everything before they have the chance to realise it all for themselves because nobody opted to directly reach out and help them first.
Roarey’s position on it is that it is a lie, which is not true. It is a lie to say that children MUST fit the binary, but realistically, nobody in any first-world public education system feels the need to teach such things, and if they do, they aren’t permitted to do so in 2017. It makes little sense to call the gender spectrum a lie because everyone has their own opinions about themselves, and everyone has different understandings of gender. Throughout history, there has been a binary for a reason: procreation. Whether it was by direction of a higher power or mere random mutations coming into existence and happening to succeed over the course of many generations, I’m not going to say because that’s not the point of this essay.
I’d like to take a moment to paint a better picture of how I’ve come to understand all this. I grew up a jewish boy in suburban New Jersey with a lot of social and developmental challenges along the way. I had very few friends growing up because most of the time I was just doing my own thing, and much of the time that meant tap dancing and being an annoying little shit without giving a fuck who saw me. As a result, the friends I have were like me; socially awkward and prone to not being able to communicate with others that well. Us weirdos have to stick together, except we didn’t. Most of the people I would ever come to call a friend would lose interest and never talk to me again after a couple months. On top of that, when middle school came around for me, I was subject to a lot of bullying, typically being called a faggot, so I decided to investigate myself, and found out I actually WAS a faggot. But wait, big shocker, I was wrong and found out that not only am I interested in men, but I’m actually trans. But wait, ANOTHER big shocker, I was wrong and it turns out I’m interested in all sexes and genders, and I don’t fit into ANY gender category. I realised it all myself, and it didn’t affect me negatively at all because I gave no fucks about anything.
As a result of this, I’m a poor judge of whether
The point I want to make with this essay is that even though Roarey is firm with his position on gender, he is still willing to listen to you without shutting you down. He is still willing to be a friend and an ally to you because he is a very genuine, kind person who recognizes that differing opinions aren’t necessarily cause for rivalry.
Would everyone please stop arguing with each other and just fucking move on from this?

all transphobes should die

About that...

Human rights are protected in Canada bigots suck