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Embarking on an expiration into the intricate
tapestry of religious trauma. This article delves

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into the struggles faced by the LGBTQ
community. Beyond statistics, it unveils a

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personal narrative, shedding light on the
intersection of religious and political challenges. Despite

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impacting over seven percent of the US
population, LGBTQ issues in the context of

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religious trauma remain understudied. These stories
navigate the complex landscape of personal and political

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battles unfolding against a backdrop of legislative
changes and societal ships. Join us in

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unraveling the complexities of this deeply woven
narrative into how hate and intolerance in the

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name of religion brings suffer into so
many. This story is from NBC News

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by Spencer McNaughton on January twenty eighth, twenty twenty four. It's good to

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see that this is even being recognized
as an issue, because if you go

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through and read some of the things
that these people talk about and the experiences

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of you know, you talk about
in the worst manifications, it's basically mind

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rate just being this religious trauma syndrome
when you try to hide who you are

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and conceal your identity, you know, you hide other things. And I

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remember one in particular said that I
would pray for hours NonStop nothing worked.

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It was terrifying. And when you
think about it, you know that there's

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been in recent years even more so, a drive to isolate, to put

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people in a worse situation and without
support. Now, one thing the article

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said that meant brought up that I
just found absolutely amazingly terrible. It's a

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guy you guys might have heard of, called Mike Johnson. He called same

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sex marriage a dark harbinger of chaos
and suggested it could bring lead to people

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marrying their pets. Now, this
is the same guy who has a quote

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covenant marriage. Yes, and his
son. He and his son are the

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ones that are each other's watch out
to make sure they're not watching porn on

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the internet. Ye. Yes.
And what's really concerned me when I heard

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this part about marrying their pets.
It's such a disconnect that I couldn't help

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but think I'm a little concerned about
his pets. And I'm glad I'm not

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one of them, because I mean, seriously, it takes a very huge

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leap to make that kind of jump
there's such a disconnect from reality. But

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it does perfectly typify a lot of
the things that this article is talking about

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about the adversarial nature in which so
many people deal with. I remember I

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one of them talked about how one
of the worst things was realizing that people

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chose their ancient myths over their own
flesh and blood. But one thing I

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did find that one of the people
the therapists made, instead of outsourcing all

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that care to God, I teach
him how to be self reflective and how

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to regulate their feelings from their own
perspective rather than from the Bibles. And

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then one of the people said,
what you to be my life is a

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trial and then I die and go
to hell. Can change to my life

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as an adventure and a journey,
And you know, that's That's really what

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I'm hopeful that over time, as
acceptance does change and is an acceptance of

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the LGBTQ community has changed and is
beginning to change in most areas of Christianity,

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I'm really hoping that we see people
like Mike Johnson who are fixated on

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people and pets, and people who
care about people and helping them, not

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condemning them and making them another and
that's it. Hey, I don't get

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how they how they do these how
do they get to that slope, slippery

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slope of marrying pets. You know, there was a cartoon and adult swim

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and I want to I shouldn't have
said that, but there was a car

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a cartoon. It was that years
ago, and one of the main characters

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married a can of paint, you
know, just a there's a mockery of

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this slippery soap idea. You know, I always thought that was ridiculous.

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It just reminds me what you're saying
there of that kind of cartoonish parody where

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the man thinks the end of the
world is covering so marys himself. It's

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really ridiculous, it really is.
It's hard for me to empathize or to

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understand this problem. I didn't have, you know, I'm as cis,

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white male, so I'm missing out
on that end of it. I didn't

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have any religious trauma, so it's
again I'm drawing a blank. So it's

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really hard for me to empathize fully
and to understand where everybody's coming from.

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Believe me, I fully want to
understand. I totally champion these people as

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much as I can. And the
one thing that I can truly be thankful

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of in this article, this is
from NBC News. This is like major

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mainstream news talking about this issue,
and that's freaking amazing. This is something

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we wouldn't have seen ten years ago, and I think that's a really good

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sign about how far that we have
come as a society that we can start

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talking about these things in the ma
stream media. So I don't know why

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it took so long. I know
it rubs people my age the wrong way.

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It makes me wonder if, like
I know, a lot of news

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programs have aging demographics, and are
they just staying away from the topic because

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they're going to hurt their ratings.
I don't know, but I think it's

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wonderful and amazing that NBC News brought
this up to show what these people,

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what this community has that sounded really
bad, what this community is going through,

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and the pain and the suffering that
these bad politics and this bad religious

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thought has caused them. Phoebe,
I don't know how I feel about this

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article because, on the one hand, it talks about very disturbing pranktic and

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that is turning around to somebody and
saying who you are is wrong. Who

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you are must chain. But then
it goes on to talk about what has

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been disparagingly labeled the Insurance Line Item
Reference Manual, the DSM. I understand

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why it goes and talks about the
DSM, But the DSM has its own

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issues. DSM used to pathologize sexual
orientation, for example, it used to

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pathologize being trans in a negative way. DSM used to have recommendations for trans

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people as electroconvulsive therapy. So the
DSM has a way to go to actually

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improve itself, and the way change
the DSM is bonkers. You have to

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submit proposally, has to go to
a committee, that there has to go

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to a subcommittee, that there has
to go to an expert advice to go

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back to the subcommittee. And then
it takes decades to change the DSM,

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and the DSM gets fatter and fatter
and fatter. And I don't just want

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this issue to be another insurance billable
item. I want it not to exist.

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It is something in the third millennium
since we've been counting in the third

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decade, in the fifth year of
that decade, that should not exist.

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We should be eradicating this from existence. It's like measles. We can eradicate

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it. There is no need in
this day and age for anybody to not

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be comfortable in their own skin for
things that they have no control over because

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of frankly, mythology and make believe. I'm not usually that disparaging of religion

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on here, but in this case
it's make believe, and it is bigotry

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that uses make believe to further bigotry. It talks about a scripture being quoted

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here. If you can't point to
the scripture that backs up what they say,

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because it doesn't exist. The scripture
doesn't turn around and say that trans

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people should be excised of their transmits. It just does not say that anywhere.

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It does not say anywhere the sexual
orientation in it of itself is a

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sin. And any quotes that are
made up are just that made up.

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They're synthesized, and they are thrown
down the throats of people who lack the

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critical thinking of the person standing in
a pulpit, standing at the end of

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a mosque, standing in a synagogue, or whatever religious building it needs.

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Because this is not just confined to
Christianity here. I am somebody who used

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to work as a social work,
and I am aware through my work as

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a social worker that there was an
Islamic exorcism that took place on a teenager

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to excise him of the demon that
had possessed his sexual orientation because he refused

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to participate in an arranged marriage.
This is the level of nonsense that we

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are dealing with here in this day
and age, we still have exorcisms going

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on where people believe that you can
exorcise the gayaway, exorcise the trends away,

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exorcise the bisexuality away, and so
kind of a world have we evolved

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into. Just like smallpox, this
can be eradicated and it's one thing that

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we all need to do show a
bit of humanity towards other people. I

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mean, I'm going to teckt this
from the angle of them talking about just

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the religious trauma. So a lot
of people think about religious trauma that it

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only comes from like Catholic priests or
deconversion camps. So you think about it,

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you think about growing up in an
ultra religious home where you're showing like

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shun for your identity, stuff like
that. In reality, religious trauma doesn't

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need an outside force once you've already
been indoctrinated. Like just just like the

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guy in this article says, imagine
praying every day to not be yourself.

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A lot of trauma from religion is
self inflicted, and we don't talk enough

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about that at all. But like
when I look at the LGBTQ community,

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I see a lot of unfortunate parallels
with the black community. One glaring example

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is how religious indoctrination gives us a
lifetime of suffering because we're trying to adhere

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to a doctrine that is antithetical to
us. I think it's oxymoronic for either

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community to believe in the deity or
religion that opposes their very existence, even

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if not directly right. So if
the doctrine can be misinterpreted and utilized to

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justify the mistreatment of you, you
should not take that as the perfect word

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of an all loving God. That
doesn't make sense, that doesn't compute.

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So I mean, like, just
looking at this year, like the last

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few years, it's original sin.
Yeah, I mean, but like especially

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within the last decade, I'll say
it's been probably extremely triggering for the lg

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LGBTQ community, but more terrifying because
we continue to see these dishonest actors in

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the government demonize this community for political
points. Literally, that's the only reason.

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And they're not just using rhetoric anymore. Now they're weaponizing the government,

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which I keep hearing, especially this
year, weaponizing the government. No,

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this is actually weaponizing the government,
and they're using collective punishment with legislation.

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Legislation, I can never say that
word. They're in acting collective punishment on

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people that did nothing more than exists. Again, as a black man,

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I can see the parallels, and
I can I can't even imagine, like

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what the last decade must have stirred
up, like every negative emotion possible for

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the one in five Americans according to
this article that are suffering from religious trauma.

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Those emotions they have to be even
more intense now if they were already

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there, because you're already a doctrinated
you're trying to fight this demon and now

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you're being having it thrown in your
face every time you turn on the TV.

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And all I can say is,
really stay strong, and if you

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need to talk to somebody, please
do so. Don't worry about to DSM

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five. There are different forms of
therapy. There are people that you can

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talk to please reach out to somebody
if you are not taking this last decade

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well, so I know a lot
of people aren't. One thing that blatant

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you mentioned was religious trauma in a
general sense, and that is a very

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real thing, because the first step
is that indoctrination that a person is useless,

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that you are utter trash without your
God. You deserve whatever you get,

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however bad it is because you're a
sinner. You're a bad person for

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that. And that indoctrination, piled
upon years of reinforcement, is something that

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I'm glad that people are at least
starting to recognize is an actual thing,

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because I know that on the other
side they dismiss this as just a bunch

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of people who want to whine and
cry, and well they win when they

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just need to find God. Well, you know what I thought, I

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found him. What I have to
say I shouldn't say here, so I'll

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just leave it at that. But
the truth is is that that God is

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in between the ears of each and
every one of us who ever believed in

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a God. And that's where that
eternalized thing that you brought up, Because

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we are our own worst enemy time
and time again with this and when we

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talk about religious trauma. It is
a monstrous thing. And go ahead,

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go ahead, go ahead, Yes, yeah, I was an abrupt I'm

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so sorry man. I no,
no, I get it to Yes,

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it is. It is a difficult
topic. And one of the most horrible

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things that I think that this brings
up is that and many of you have

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mentioned it, in the last decade, it's gotten worse, and it's gotten

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worse because of the political agenda that's
been going on. That's like targeting this

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minority group of people that are just
being used for political purposes. And and

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it's and they it's not like they're
going and attacking somebody that has the ability

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to fight back on an equal level, because they're not. They're just being

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bullies and bigots and using these people
in a way that is harming them.

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It is literally harming them. Also
they can get more votes at the bottom

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at the in the ballot box.
To me, it's it's really disgusting.

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And that's that's what I think is
one of the worst things that I see

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happening here here, is that this
poor group of people is being used in

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such a way that's causing such long
term harm. It's really really bad.

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Phoebe. I know you're Icee over
there fuming. So I think that this

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article does and I understand why it
does it, but the article gives an

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overarching impression the LGBT community is a
victim, to always be a victim,

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to always be that punching back,
to always be attacked. Fuck that,

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absolutely fuck that. I am here
as a member of multiple minorities. I'm

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an immigrant, I'm Jewish, I'm
bisexual or pan sexual, wherever you wish

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to differentiate between those. And I'm
a trans woman and I have a disability.

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And fuck am I gonna sit around
with some heteronormative twacked dictating to me

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that I'm worthless because his fucked up
vision of the world means that I'm lesser

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than he is, and he can
go and shove it right up his ass.

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I am no victim of anybody.
I dictator of my life, and

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my life is a success yesterday,
today, and tomorrow, and every single

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LGBT person on this planet has the
ability to be a success yesterday, today,

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tomorrow and forever. And fuck anybody
who says that you cannot be simply

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because you are LGBT, go shove
fat up your pulpit. Yeah, a

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little dog still has a bite.
All I'm going to say is hell yeah,

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I got nothing to it. Hell
you, That's all I got.

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Yeah. I don't think there is
much to add to that'll happen too hard.

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You know, we want to hear
what you have to think about this.

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Email us at nonprofits at atheisttypeoncommunity dot
org. Karen, thank you for the tie