OPINIONS

When my partner was newly pregnant, we began interviewing midwives and took what has become for us a normal precaution: Before meeting with the one we liked best, we sent her an email introducing ourselves and our relationship. Still, one of the first things she said to us when we sat down was, “Just so you know, I’m very comfortable with lesbians.” The thing is: we’re not lesbians.

“I think Trump is very good on gay rights,” gay billionaire and major Trump supporter Peter Thiel told New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd back in January, at the start of the Trump presidency. “I don’t think he will reverse anything. I would obviously be concerned if I thought otherwise.”

So I’ve been thinking about the most common way to categorize LGBTQ identities at the moment – the idea that sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression are three separate things – and about its limits. Specifically, can gay men really be described as cisgender, and, if so, what does that say about the usefulness of this system of thought?

I was 19 years old when I effortlessly fell in love. Falling in love without fear is a privilege often reserved for youth. As we get older we yearn for that beautiful moment of purity before we learn the brutal truth that every love comes with no guarantees. This particular love patched the hole in my heart left by childhood torment over my sexuality. But a patch by nature is a temporary solution and can make a crash back to reality even more pronounced.

The Pride Wars are now a fixed feature of LGBT politics. Lefties attack the event for being too corporate and apolitical. Tories, not always made welcome by other marchers, complain it’s too political and not inclusive of ideological diversity. You could perform a few stonings beside the Queers for Palestine stall and still be more welcome than Jews waving Stars of David. Intolerance never went away, it just rebranded as intersectionality.

As a retired naval officer and former U.S. Navy hospital corpsman (enlisted), I want to share some thoughts about the recent “ban” on transgender individuals serving in the military. My opinion is that as long as someone can meet the qualifications to do the job, up to and including deployment, combat, high-stress work, etc., they should be allowed to serve their country.