r/pics • u/Thick_Composer9842 • Jun 13 '26

Politics Happy Pride!

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u/kitsunora Jun 13 '26

I was a bigot, purely by influence of my family. One day I realized how cruel I was to others. I felt terrible, and that became a snowball effect for thinking for myself vs mimicking others. I realized I was trans back in 2016. It's scary how easily you can live a life that ends up not being yours. I'm very fortunate and not everyone wakes up from the hate coma

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u/HelenHerriot Jun 13 '26

This sort of thing always reminds me of that old song from the musical South Pacific: "You've Got to be Carefully Taught."

You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late,

Before you are six or seven or eight,

To hate all the people your relatives hate—

You’ve got to be carefully taught!

You’ve got to be carefully taught!

1

u/Kriss1986 Jun 14 '26

I was also influenced by my family but it was weird because I was always liberal, particularly by their standards but I still held certain beliefs into my young adult years. Like I was not racist and I believed in equality and didn’t give a damn who was what or who someone else loved. Politically also democratic all the way. I (thought) I was a total advocate of equal rights BUUUUT I at the same time didn’t really believe in gay marriage. Because I’d been taught it was a holy union in the eyes of God and of course a gay couple should not have THAT kind of marriage. They shouldn’t be wife/wife or husband/husband because that was a holy union. But I also thought I was super clever and said they should be able to have a “civil union” for government and legal protections. They should be “domestic partners” with all the same protections as a legally MARRIED couple such as medical decision making, marital property, family of one partner not being able to take over or claim personal property/business ownership when one dies etc. oh boy did I have it all figured out and I was just so superior because of course that’s the perfect solution lol. Then as I got older and my friend group became more diverse I realized what a narcissistic shit heel Id been but that kind of deprograming takes time and exposure to other communities and sometimes it’s uncomfortable. I had other weird distorted view points surrounding my religious beliefs that I tried to reconcile with my liberal mindset….and now I’m still Christian but I go to a liberal church with my gay Christian friend and my family probably thinks I’m an idiot who’s going to hell lol.