Blazinggiants, you asked a question of hoojacks, crandc and me, but I'm just checking in now, so here's what I think. I'm fine with the stance you presented. I would prefer being around people who are fully accepting of others being able to choose their gender or sexual preference, but just being nice is really all I ask. The issue I had was, not as much in this thread as in the last transgender thread, I felt people were taking their personal beliefs and yelling it, trying to offend others. The way El Pres for example worded some of his posts was meant (in my opinion) to be as vulgar and rude as possible to those who care about this subject.
And although we don't know of any transgendered people reading these boards, it's very possible there are. There is a comedian named Todd Glass, he's 48 years old, and he just came out as gay about a year ago. I was listening to a podcast where he was being interviewed and he said something that struck me. He said he came out mainly because he kept reading about gay youth committing suicide because they felt so ostracized by society. One of his examples was to go on any website or video game with open chat and FA£ was being hurled at everyone! and he remembered how he felt s a boy when his brothers and friends would call him that, ostracized. So, part of defending transgendered people on this board for me is I wonder, what if there is a trans teen who loves the Blazers too. I want the post they read from me to let them know there are communities who will love and respect them.
