The Wall Street Journal writes today about Joe Biden's difficulties among union workers, but it's pretty much the same story as it's been since Reagan Democrats started defecting 40 years ago. Lots of working class voters are more concerned about immigration, trade deals, and culture war issues than they are about support for unions. For example:
Ford employee James Benson Jr., a UAW member, bought a house in Canton, Mich.,—roughly 20 miles west of Detroit—in 2017 because he planned to send his daughter to its highly-rated public schools.
In late 2020, however, the Plymouth-Canton school board, which is nonpartisan, overhauled its policies to protect transgender students from discrimination. Among other changes, the new policy prohibits school staff from disclosing that a student is transgender—including to the parents or legal guardian—unless required by law or authorized by the student.
“So obviously our kid goes to a private school now just to avoid that,” Benson said. He said the decision, which he made because of his Christian faith, is a hit to his family’s finances on top of sharply higher prices. “It’s like, what planet are you from?”
Put aside for a moment the wisdom of schools concealing transgender inclinations from parents. It's easy to argue either side of that. What I wonder is what Benson is afraid of. Is it:
Fear that his own kid will become transgender and he won't be told?
Fear that the school is encouraging students to become transgender, and he doesn't want his kid exposed to that kind of environment (bathrooms etc.)?
No real fear, just objection at an abstract level—and he's willing to pay $10,000 a year to register his protest?
Regardless of my own beliefs, it's not hard to understand that lots of working class folks have a traditional view that boys are boys and girls are girls. But what precisely bothers them the most? Merely being around trans kids? Sharing bathrooms, locker rooms, and so forth? $10,000 is a lot of money over a new school board policy.
Parents are being told that if "transgender" happens, their daughters will be raped in the girls restroom.
Just like TEH GAY.
And before that, the blacks. Etc.
"They're sending rapists..."
We are, it seems, simply incapable of not being tribal, and needing to hate / fear others.
I don't think you can logic it out. His kid could be secretly trans, or have friends with trans family members, and there is no school that can completely stop that. It's about wanting a sense of control, and he's definitely willing to spend $10,000 to have that.
Parents often struggle with the fact that their kids are separate individuals with their own minds, desires, and relationships. When it isn't about politics, it manifests as parents who get upset about other people giving their kid a nickname or refusing to allow sleepovers or unsupervised activities. Some obsess about how much recess a school has or never allow their kids to eat processed foods. Parents pay a ton of money (or forgo lots of income) to control their kid's education, diet, physical activities, friend group, etc. Throw in conservative politics and you get this version of parental obsession with control.
this, so much this
I was going to say something along these lines, but you said it first and ever so much more better.
my aunt & uncle in michigan made my cousin turn down a full ride to ann arbor in the mid/late 90s because they thought he'd be unduly influenced by the big city classmates he'd meet there.
They didn't think he'd influence them?
I think there's a piece in there about "right to raise my children to align with my values" or something along those lines. A lot of parents expect their children to be little carbon copies of themselves that they get to influence and "raise them right".
Sometimes it turns out that way but just as often kids have a wholly different idea of who they want to be and it usually doesn't line up with the parents. You see this today with the large number of estranged families over Trump, adult children who are convinced their parents/grandparents are deranged. My husband's kids recently went to visit their grandparents in Arizona and came back horrified at who those sweet old people they remember from childhood really were. When Grandma started talking about shooting stray cats, they beat it the hell out of town as fast as they could -- and won't be back.
"A lot of parents expect their children to be little carbon copies of themselves..."
In my experience, it's a bit subtler than this. A lot of right wing parents want their children precisely not to be carbon copies of their younger selves--reckless, rebellious, promiscuous, heedless of manners, contemptuous of parental authority, etc. In the case of fathers of daughters, in particular, they also often want their daughters not to be victims of boys like they once were.
Biographically speaking, a good deal of right wing politics can explained as reaction formation.
the brett kavanaugh piece.
Hey, what are you doing being rational?? 🙂
Seriously, as everyone else has said, this is very well put.
It's about wanting a sense of control,
That's exactly right, because there's so much in life that you don't control. Being in union gives them at least some say, maybe not a lot but some, in their workplace. So it's logical wanting that sense of control would manifest itself in his child's education dontcha' think?
Exxxxactly.
You know, good for them. I don’t like republicans so don’t want them as neighbors, coworkers or… even alive on this planet. I get it.
The guy who supported murder supports bigotry and murder. Gosh.
The local school board policy is just that -- local school board policy. It's not something that the Federal government can or should influence. Someone needs to help voters to become a little more educated on things like that.
Biden is on the same team as the "wokies". 'Nuf said.
Wait, there are private schools that cost $10,000?
Yes. In 2021 the average cost of private schools for K-12 education in the US was over $12,000. https://www.usnews.com/education/k12/articles/how-much-does-private-school-cost#:~:text=The%20average%20annual%20tuition%20among,%2C%20according%20to%20EducationData.org.
Where have you been?
I was surprised the amount was so low and I guessed that’s what Steve V was saying. The article doesn’t mention an amount. Also it doesn’t mention the child’s age.
In LA it's more like $50,000
He’s shocked at the low price… I think.
Whatever it is, I think of it as an idiot tax and am happy that his unnecessary hostility to Trans folks is costing him in the pocketbook. There is justice here.
"Woe to you, teachers of the law, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are." Matthew 23:15.
Translation: Ford employee James Benson Jr. needs a better spiritual adviser. I'm not suggesting he ask me, I don't identify as a Christian. But I can tell a real Christian from a CHRINO. Real Christians don't follow the teachings of experts in the law that conflict with the commandments of the person they claim to worship and follow.
There are precisely two Christian principles. The first principle is that an individual's relationship with God is direct and not imposed by a so-called expert in God's law, and the second is that we are all children of God, and we are to treat one another accordingly, including when "the other" is not like "us" (see the parable of the Good Samaritan).
Go ahead and channel your best Story Daniels by asking me to show you the words. They are in Matthew 7:12 & 22:34-40, Mark 12:28-31, Luke 6:31 & 10:27, John 14:12 & 15:12.
If you're not building a religious practice on the religion's principles, you're building's foundation is sand.
"The first principle is that an individual's relationship with God is direct and not imposed by a so-called expert in God's law"
I'm not sure of that. I agree that it's a core principle with many of the protestant sects, especially in the early days. It's not at all true about the Catholics. Modern protestants - like my brother - are content to be lead around by the pastor the megachurch they attend. Very little praying and bible reading outside of church.
Jesus was emphatically not a "Catholic". Even Paul, determined bureaucrat that he was, was not a "Catholic". "Catholic" came about with Constantine's conversion and his determination to have a Spiritual Leader Anointed by God and with temporal power to make you wish you had listened to the rules more closely.
There were bishops directing congregations under their authority in the Church long before Constantine.
"Love thy neighbor as thyself. Unless they're weird, or something."
- Republican Jesus
"Love thy neighbor as thyself, but without the excuses."
Do we want transgender as an issue this election year? Will it get more votes or fewer votes *in crucial battleground states*?
Democrats need a non-divisive centrist platform in order to win. That's the reality. Send AOC and other members of the Squad on a six month fact-finding tour of Antarctica. Have Schumer and Durbin DO SOMETHING to signal strength of character and moderation in policy (right now they are MIA on just about everything).
I am willing to throw anybody under the bus if that means Trump is defeated. Consistency, compassion, and ethics be damned. Once Trump's gone, go full whatever-it-is-you-want.
I’d happily throw all the transgender under the bus for the next 4 months. Small price to pay. Plus, many of them are insufferable jackasses.
I'd happily throw Justin under the bus. Small price to pay. Plus, he's an insufferable jackass.
I’ll sacrifice myself for you! But not the trannies. ????
And as such an insufferable jackass, I fit right in as a spy in MAGA land.
They guy who supported murder is okay with bigotry? Wonders never cease.
Everybody who's with him on this one raise their hand. I'll be the first.
I'll back the bus up to be sure.
What's the difference? Why bother throwing transgender people under the bus to placate blockheads who believe that Obama was born in Kenya, that Uranium One, chemtrails, black helicopters and FEMA camps are real, that there are litter boxes in school classrooms, that Clinton did Ruby Ridge, that Biden favors post-birth abortion, that CRT is being taught in elementary schools, and that the greatest conceivable crime is deploying an off-books email server?
If Democrats weren't standing up for trans kids, the right would just make up some shit about caravans and Democrats calling for abortion through age 10, and Trump's base would eat it up.
You want them de-motivated.
The less inspired they feel, the more they stay home.
That's entirely the rationale behind the Biden stories.
You forgot abortion after birth. Which the GOP candidate in the last debate says happens.
Worked for Labour.
the united kingdom is now not just knife crime island but gender critical archipelago.
of course labour hating he-shes worked.
Dude, if you're willing to throw anyone under the bus, you're willing to throw everyone under the bus.
It's super disgusting and how you destroy coalitions.
yup.
we need to be done with sistah souljah moments.
the fact joebiden didn't use the anheuserbusch instagram cosign from dylan mulvaney to score points with the last remaining george wallace democrats & lester maddox republicans is to his credit.
How fortunate for you that you are not a member of a vulnerable threatened class of people. The number one threat of Trump for me and my family is exactly the fears about how it will affect our (adult) daughter, who is trans.
At the same time, I don't feel I need Biden to make this a centerpiece. But I'm not going to shut up about it.
Also, I think it's worth describing the reality of a trans person, which is so, so, SO different than how people imagine it.
In fact, once someone is a ways along in their transition, the whole thing becomes a boring non-issue. Nobody notices, nobody cares. Except for panty sniffers.
You are letting fear divide us. Please stop that.
Thanks for your voice, Jay.
I guess his Christian faith will force Mr. Benson to vote for Il Duce because he is also such a devout Christian. Just ask Stormy.
As a “Christian” he is a Trump supporter. We are supposed to take that as a given.
Right or wrong, I assume at this point that anyone waving the "Christian" flag is a Trump supporter and Christian Nationalist.
Not to be confused with decent people who think Jesus Christ had some really great ideas that maybe we could follow and all get along.
"Don't tell me you're a Christian, show me."
+1 appeal to heaven
In related news… this is how you handle the enemy.
The Vatican said on Friday that it had excommunicated Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the church’s former ambassador to the United States, after finding him guilty of schism for refusing to recognize the authority of Pope Francis and the liberal reforms enacted after the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.
Archbishop Viganò has emerged as one of the most unbridled conservative critics of Francis, calling him in public statements a “false prophet” and a “servant of Satan,” while embracing right-wing conspiracy theories and lauding former President Donald J. Trump.
In 2018, he wrote a 7,000-word letter calling for the pope to resign, accusing Francis and Vatican officials before him of covering up sexual abuse by an American cardinal. The bombshell accusations, which were published when Francis was on a mission to Ireland issuing wrenching apologies for clerical sexual abuse scandals, amounted to an extraordinary public declaration of war against Francis’ papacy.
Who wants Biden to resign? ????
The Vatican needs to deal with similar arrogance among the US bishops who also castigate Pooe Francis & President Biden - but cited William Barr's many "Chrislike qualities" when giving him an award.
Barr, trump's unscrupulous AG, who criticized trump after J6, but who now says he'll vote fir trump's again.
barr also had randy weaver's wife & michael reinohl killed without trial.
Michigan is one of those Betsy DeVos states that allows parents to send their kid anywhere (public or private) and the dollars the local school would’ve gotten to educate the kid follow the kid to the new school.
So this guy is probably not paying $10,000 for his kid’s education. He’s just probably making his local school lose $10,000 in funding so he can find a unicorn school that only teaches what he wants taught and nothing more. Of course, when his kid happens to turn out to be trans or gay or a atheist or whatever, he’ll probably be all like “why is there so much intolerance for my child?” as all good Republicans do when the Problem They Thought Was All Bullshit Suddenly Affects Them Personally.
Public schools have to serve everybody equally so they end up displeasing the class of people who want to be served first and to the exclusion of others. Equality feels like oppression to the formerly privileged.
the rob portman piece.
because he planned to send his daughter to its highly-rated public schools.
Yeah, sure he was.
But now somebody asked him so now he can say fuck you to somebody and God will have his back.
The pomposity is worth the $10,000.
It's a lot like stuffing dollars into a slot machine, except he's got his kid out there doing it for him.
One thing that hasn’t yet been mentioned: People who believe there is a God-given natural order of things can easily talk themselves into believing that a society which contravenes this natural order is a society doomed to collapse. In the eyes of such a person, for society to recognize trans rights is for society to seed its own destruction.
Yes, that’s superstitious and irrational, but (alas) that seems to be many people’s view.
(I don’t discount hatred of difference being an underlying motive too. But I think some people sincerely—and, to repeat, irrationally—buy into the idea of “contravene nature, court disaster.”)
oddly enough, they never seem to insist on bible-approved polygamous marriages to 14 year old girls
Well, they do, they just don't want it to look gross.
warren jeffs did nothing wrong.
Trump is so obviously a makeup wearing cross dresser this makes me laugh.
he's one of two presidents i am sure to have known men carnally -- james juchanan & donald trump, Sr.
closest otherwise are warren g & john f. kennedy, sr., who likely touched tips with other men while at a gangbang.
$10,000 a year?? I want that private school. The ones around me are $35,000 and up.
Of course, they also allow trans kids to exist safely, so....
"What I wonder is what Benson is afraid of. Is it: ..."
How about fear that a school board which does one nutty thing is probably doing lots of other nutty things. Like banning teaching algebra.
I was wondering when some anti-trans bigots would show up in this thread to turn the discussion.
What nutty thing is 'allowing a kid to have the gender expression they desire'?
"What nutty thing is 'allowing a kid to have the gender expression they desire'?"
That's a different nutty thing. This is prohibiting teachers from disclosing information to the parents about their child that the parents would want to know. Like if the child had stopped going to school.
if it's probable a parent would physically or psychologically harm their trans child, or even kill the kid, the teacher has a duty to protect.
"if it's probable a parent would physically or psychologically harm their trans child, or even kill the kid, the teacher has a duty to protect."
This was a blanket prohibition.
Yes, because the only one to really know the true risk of abuse is the child.
What are you asking for?
No, it isn’t. Read the OP again: “unless required by law or authorized by the student.”
Schools have an obligation to educate. If the student’s conduct does not interfere with that mission, there is no reason for the school to report on it to the parents.
So you're saying you want teachers to enable abuse of kids?
Like, what are you asking for, here?
It's the same shit they were afraid of when they turned out in droves to vote against same sex marriage in 2004. Probably the same shit that motivated people to resist integration, too, though I wasn't alive for that and so I don't have first-person memory of that period. Some kind of inchoate fear that some sort of rubicon has been crossed that distorts the natural order of things somehow, thus inviting disintegration and ruin. It was bullshit then, and it's bullshit now, and it's pretty much all the same people (or at least the same psychological tendencies in people), so I don't take it particularly seriously and I don't waste much time trying to discern what *exactly* people are afraid of. The specific fears are just code/cover for a much more vague and general fear of some kind of threat. And the only way to get people past it is, essentially, involuntary exposure therapy - which, by the way, eventually worked wonderfully with public acceptance of same-sex relationships.
You know.. Biden, Pelosi, and lots of other democrats are insufferable Catholic assholes. They can’t possibly represent my interests. Or the interests of any LGBT etc. Why should anyone support them?
This from the guy who supported the Texas murderer, so...
While there is much we don't yet understand about transgender identity, a neuroscience mega-analysis (review of a larger than typical amount of data across studies using mri data ) suggests that transgender persons (who are NOT on hormone treatments), compared to cisgendered individuals, present unique brain phenotypes. That is, this suggests that transgendered individuals' brains may be unique in important ways compared to the brains of cisgendered individuals, potentially impacting gender identity, and this may already be in place early on in fetal development. Wouldn't this be problematic for some Christians?
will be funny when it turns out transgender is rooted in the same place as the spike in the 'tism: older men (50+) with decaying batch impregnating their twenty years yunger wives.
It's not specifically a fear of trans; rather, it's a fear of people who are different, which turns to hate and sometimes violence.
Even within the Black community there is a lingering fear of gay and trans people still expressed in violent rhetoric in rap and outwardly expressed in violence.
That's fast changing. There's even gay rappers now. See: Little Nas X.
I didn't say it wasn't changing. Read the backlash Lil Nas X got -- that's what I'm talking 'bout.
what about the odd future death wolf kill them all?
There were some recent studies that put the number of trans athletes in high schools at like 4 or 5 out of 80K athletes for a smaller state. The number of actual (medically) transitioning students is very small, and it probably is a non-issue in many smaller districts. That's different from pronoun choices. What these policies really mean is that the teacher is not going to discuss this with parents because they do not want to be dragged into the middle of this if a parent disapproves of a child's pronoun choice.
"...What these policies really mean is that the teacher is not going to discuss this with parents because they do not want to be dragged into the middle of this if a parent disapproves of a child's pronoun choice."
If teachers weren't going to do it anyway why the need to prohibit it.
Are they going to prohibit discussing bad grades with the parents also?
Keep flailing those straw men, soldier.
Are you saying teachers should enable abusive parents?
"Are you saying teachers should enable abusive parents?"
I think in general teachers shouldn't conceal information from the parents about their child that the parents would want to know.
So you think it's okay for teachers to enable abusive parents.
This is what happens with your policy of outing kids happens.
https://www.aclu.org/news/lgbtq-rights/trans-students-should-be-treated-with-dignity-not-outed-by-their-schools
Why? I mean, I'm sure you believe it, but what has that got to do with anything; people in general believe in a lot of nutty things. If you truly think rather than believe, you should have reasons. Tell us those reasons.
"...Tell us those reasons."
If I had a kid in public school I wouldn't want the school hiding information from me and I think it is reasonable for other parents not to want that either.
“What planet are you from?”
The union member is obviously from the Bizarro World, while the rest of us are from earth.
Interesting that the new leader of Britain is an open atheist, while in the U.S. people support TFG because he is “christian”, whatever the hell that means.
In hi particular case, it means nothing at all.
It does no good to sneer. If you don't make an effort to understand, you're no different from Trump.
I do struggle to understand, just as I struggle to understand why Germans let Hitler rise to power. And I continue to sneer, it’s my first amendment right, at least until the Christian Nationalists ship me off to the camps.
From all I've read, Hitler`s rise to power was built on nationalism and making Germany great again after they had gotten the economic crap beaten out of them partly due to impacts of the Great Depression and declining living standards (starting to sound familiar, yet? History doesn't repeat but it does rhyme.)
Why not? That parent was sneering at us 'woke' types. What is it with this one-way ratchet of privilege?
it's worse than that for maga: starmer is an atheist, & letting his kids be raised as rootless cosmopolitans by his ( ( ( wife ) ) ).
The medical evidence from Europe (from the Cass report, to the inventors of the Dutch protocol, to such social conservative bastions as Scandinavian countries) suggests that we have moved somewhat beyond evidence based medicine on transgenderism. I definitely think we should be extra cautious regarding children while we work to understand this better.
Everyone ought to be pointing the bloody middle finger at Big Food, which is poisoning the kids with estrogen-like fats and additives. Their bodies are on tilt, so it's no wonder that they question what's happening. It sure doesn't look like the path described in those "Coming Into Puberty" books from the 1960's.
That's completely noxious. There is no evidence that trans people are caused by environmental factors, or more common today than in pre-industrial societies.
It's far more than just foods. The decay products of many plastics include estrogen-like mimics.
Notes, you made several references straight out of the bigots' book. Which in your gish-gallop would you like to be denied?
Cass review is biased bullshit; it throws away most of the studies, threw away people with knowledge of the subject, and included actual biased individuals in its board.
https://ruthpearce.net/2024/04/16/whats-wrong-with-the-cass-review-a-round-up-of-commentary-and-evidence/
Your other references are too vague to even target; because actual evidence would show you to be wrong.
An anti-trans political appointee changed the translations of the Swedish policies - the problem though is that they pretended the standards of care were not what they were: they've always been talk therapy first.
We've always been extra cautious, but bigots like to pretend we haven't been, even while they can find no evidence of it.
This is unfortunately not true. The Cass Review was sound, and the criticisms of it - including this one - are misinterpretations, or simply false smears.
I don't support villainizing trans-people or denying them rights they and our coalition have fought for. But we don't do anyone any favors by lying to ourselves that all our critics are bigots and their criticisms biased.
I think you might have emphasized the wrong section mr. Drum. Try this one ….
“… overhauled its policies to protect transgender students from discrimination.“
In situations like this, the thing that conservatives/“christians”/idiots object to is not being allowed to discriminate against a certain group. Being told that group should be treated like people is more than they are able to give.
They pissed they aren't allowed to openly hate people.
JC said “as you do it undo the least of these my brethren, you do under me”. Just what does James Benson Jr not understand about Christ’s very clear statement?
I can't tell if you're serious, making a joke, or using the world's worst dictation software.
Typing on a cell phone late at night -sorry.
Look. You missed the obvious option. I grew up in this community. The correct answer is:
Ew.
"Anything that isn't like me is wrong" + "We are not the same tribe."
This whole community is built around identifying the community of the elect and separating it from those condemned to hell.
It's like growing up in the 13th century except the Pope is the Antichrist.
the dutch reformed piece.
I don’t think Kevin’s prompt here makes sense:
“Put aside for a moment the wisdom of schools concealing transgender inclinations from parents.”
No.
That would be the whole issue for me. If a school decides that the promotion of a preferred ideology (whatever that ideology may be) is more important than transparency with parents, that school is then behaving at best irresponsibly and at worst like an extremist.
Secular public schools are not there to promote their own vision of social justice. And if the Left were ever to succeed in establishing such an extremely unwise precedent, it would inevitably turn against them when other public schools start pushing agendas that Leftists don’t agree with.
So you think schools should promote abuse of kids?
'Cause that's what you just said. The 'ideology' You're upset with is 'let kids express themselves'.
Schools and teachers should not out L, G, B or T students to their parents, because some of those parents are a usive, and they don't know which ones except from what the kids say.
Leo's probably fine with child abuse.
never hurt him nothing.
just look at him today.
Keeping a child’s secret, which hurts no one, makes a school extremist. ……. Huh…….
OK, I assume mr benson would like a general announcement to everyone if a child says he/she thinks he/she might be gay. Cause you know how well the other children would handle such a situation.
Since this is a (phony) “religious “ objection, How about a general announcement that a child
Is Muslim? Or a child is Jewish? Even if a child
Is Presbyterian.
And don’t bring up the part about notifying a child’s parents. Mr benson is not objecting to parents being told that their child might be trans or whatever. He feels that *he* should be told all
the details of the other children’s personal lives that have nothing to do with school.
Saying that this particular WSJ vignette is about “union members” is like saying Trump’s stormy trial was about him being a film aficionado.
benson just wants to know the joy of loving his dead gay son.
Judith Butler's new Who's Afraid of Gender? attempts to answer that question. Their view is that a lot of fears are condensed and displaced into gender issues (including trans). So, imagine you're afraid because of all the economic problems, because of climate change, etc., but you aren't willing to acknowledge those fears, and they burst out on a completely unrelated issue that isn't objectively frightening. I don't know whether they're right, but I don't see a better explanation.
I am going to describe a thought process below that I think might be in play here. Please bear in mind that I do not endorse this. I'm merely trying to understand people and what goes on in their heads.
For many people, maybe most, their understanding of trans people is "they are up to something". That is, they are trying to get one over on people, to fool them. They are trying to get an advantage in sports, for instance. Or to exercise a sexual kink. Or maybe just make someone feel bad for having sexual feelings toward the "wrong" person.
And so they are furious when they find out that someone endorses the idea that it's real. They see these third parties as enabling the exploitative behavior.
There are oceans and oceans of cultural material that support the narrative of "that trans person is up to something". I mean, even a story like "Tootsie" or Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night", can be seen as "that cross-dresser (which is seen as exactly the same as a trans person, even though it isn't) is up to something." Which, in the narrative, they are.
(By the way, Twelfth Night has some very interesting trans consciousness to it.)
So, people that endorse and enable trans people are enabling mischief and fraud. I think that's what the fears are about.
I'm not saying Judith Butler is wrong. They are very smart, especially about gender. I could easily see that people experience others "getting one over" on them all the time, in a way that makes them feel powerless.
I have participated in a whole bunch of social events where people were asked to introduce themselves with name and pronouns. I have never even ONCE seen someone use pronouns different from what I'd expect.
Trans people mostly either would be androgynous in person or act like others of their gender.
I pretty mich only get misgendered when I'm wearing full moto gear... and only by non-motorcyclists.
In middle school, my younger brother brought a black friend home from school. The following year my parents sent him to a private (all-white) boarding school. It was around 1970. My parents were simply racist.
I think the father in this story is simply transphobic and homophobic.
Benson is afraid of his own sexuality. Having suppressed a sexual role he subconsciously identifies with creates this reflexive response by his conditioned heterosexual consciousness to oppose open expressions of desire by others.