The times they are a changing

"It's so different than when I was growing up."

I remember those words coming from my parents and grandparents mouths. Now they're coming from mine. Before I explain my view let me first say that I support any community that strengthens peoples confidence and encourages them to be who they are and to safely explore the different sides of themselves without judgment.

The gay/stragiht alliances were beginning to form when I was in highschool, people were either straight, gay or bi-sexual. While I don't understand all the different categories and sub-categories I'll call you whatever name you want to be called. I would have trouble calling an individual "them" however, not to be disrespectful simply because I'm used to calling a person "he" or "she". I don't care if you identify as one or the other or both or neither and hope that no one takes offense to being called "he" or "she" or just by their name.

When I was growing up the main catchphrase was "don't label me" now it seems the label can't be specific enough. It's hard for me to understand why someone would want to build such a small box to squeeze into. To me it seems constricting and needlessly complicated.

It makes me worry that people are finding a sort of false comfort in these specific labels. As humans we spend a lot of time trying to fit in while trying to find out who we are. Sometimes it feels like people are holding up these labels to the world like a Walgreens receipts, shouting, "Look, I found it, this one, it's me, this is who I am!" But what they don't understand in that moment is that, that is where the journey begins, not where it ends. You grow, you change and that's a HUGE part of the beauty of life.

When I was in my late teens/early twenties my parents were warning me about the permanency of tattoos. Now parents are warning about the permanency of using hormones and gender re-assignment surgeries. Children as young as kindergarten are being labeled as "transgender". Why are we expecting children to label themselves as anything but children? To me that is going too far. Not because I am against transgender but because I am against labeling a child. The whole point of freedom is to decide for yourself who and what you are. And there's certainly plenty of time to do it.