u/ceddya

Summary: Amid a flu outbreak which has sickened nearly 300 at Lackland Air Force Base, the Pentagon is reversing Hegseth's decision to make the flu shot optional.

My own take: Experts already warned this would happen. Lack of sleep, high physical exertion and close contact are prime conditions for a flu outbreak. But refusing to listen to experts and failing to exhibit basic common sense seem to be a continuing theme for members of this administration.

Sorry to disappoint though. Like the vast majority of us in the LGBT community who have heard it ad nauseum, I'm still gay. But here's what seems to never get brought up in these discussion - the immense harms done from constantly hearing how who you are is contrary to scripture.

For starters, it causes most of us to go deep into the closet, even actively forcing themselves to act and speak differently to avoid getting outed. It causes one to internalize shame about who they are and results in long-term issues with self-esteem. It causes trust issues, in which one becomes to guarded about opening up to anyone lest they get attacked or abandoned because you never know if the other person is accepting or homophobic. These things take an immense toll on one's mental health, contributing to severe psychiatric co-morbidities like depression and society anxiety.

I know, because it all happened to me. I was 14 when I had to be warded because it just got so bad. Don't worry, the ward was actually really nice and a great reprieve. Well, at least until my parents decided to get a religious counsellor involved to come down and engage in talk therapy. Then I got to hear the usual spiel you'd expect from Christians who say my gay relationships are contrary to scripture. I'll give you the flip side which happens more often: that didn't make me stop being gay. It made me sad to realize that some people are forever going to view who I was as innately wrong and immoral. It made me angry - that my parents would inflict this one me at my very lowest. It made me feel ashamed - not only with my identity, but also with the fact that I was berating myself for being so weak and not standing up for myself. This is something hard to explain unless you actually have to experience it yourself, but these memories and the negative feelings they evoke stick with you for years and are experienced as trauma. But hey, I'm sure some Christians will tell me it's just speech and talk therapy is perfectly fine.

That was also the incident which drove me to leaving the religion for many years, which I guess certain Christians will say it's my fault for choosing to leave. But how could I stay? I couldn't avoid the visceral mix of anger, sadness and trauma towards organized Christianity. That took years of effort to overcome and get myself into a healthier place. But life was so much more difficult. It's why I can't help but laugh at anyone who thinks being gay is a choice. Who would ever choose that?

But more than that, what still sticks with me is the intense sadness and regret I feel when I'm around my family who are deep in the Evangelical hole. It makes me sad that I can never be myself around them. There is such deep sadness to see my sister get married and be able to share her love with the family and then realizing that is a normal aspect of life for so many that I will never be able to experience. It makes me regretful that I can never share who I really am with my parents. It makes me conflicted about moving abroad where I can be myself or returning back home to look after my mom who has stage 4 cancer. I'm Asian, so filial piety is a big thing, so I think the choice of the latter has long been made for me. But that does mean returning back to a double life. Sucks, but it is what it has to be. But it's not just me. Speaking to many friends who are LGBT and have also moved, these difficult life choices are so much more common compared to their heterosexual counterparts.

I have long wanted to post this because there very real harms done to your fellow humans. I'm doing so now because of the other post. By all means, good for the OP for choosing their own path. But cheering the OP on and being quiet about the very those harms done to the vast majority is telling. If you're doing that, there is no love there. You simply do not view us as equal humans. You just want a prop you can use to prove your narrative.

So thanks, I'm glad you get to shove your unrelentless need to express just how deeply you think being gay is wrong in our faces. Please stop when it's not asked for, you're hurting far more than you're helping.